Radio RSS

It’s a birdwatcher’s paradise this time of year. The annual southern migration of the “Northern Snowbird” is underway to destinations like Palm Springs, California; Destin, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; and numerous locations in Mexico, Costa Rica and Hawaii. It's a longstanding phenomenon in these parts.

Blowing and drifting snow. Severe wind chills. What a week in western Montana. We have to go back in our own previous reporting from 2017, and way back in the record books and newspaper reports (1875, 1888, 1897 and 1899) to find anything comparable.

This year’s gift suggestions include fancy watches, cordless cork removers, skin-care products, beverage makers, beard trimmers, yoga mats, wine collections, rechargeable hand warmers, and self-heating beverage cups. It’s enough to make one look back fondly to simpler times and simpler gifts.

The Christmas message from Rev. F.D. Kelsey rang true in 1886, and also today: "Many a man whose exterior is rough and pointed and a caution to handle, will have on Christmas his heart opened, revealing to himself and others a much richer and more precious heart than the exterior seemed to promise."

Explosions rocked both Miles City and Baker in eastern Montana on March 23, 1944. The Miles City blast was planned; the Baker explosion was most certainly not.

What tunes topped the charts in the 1800s? Well, according to an advertisement in the New York Herald of October 6, 1843, the popular music of the day included waltzes, marches and quicksteps.

Manhattan is the most well-known of the five boroughs of New York, the heart of the city. Given that high profile, one can understand a traveler’s double-take when seeing a Montana road sign for an off-ramp to “Manhattan” in the middle of nowhere, or in this case, midway between Three Forks and Belgrade.

Frank Worden's descendants would love to donate one of Missoula's earliest pianos to an institution willing to display it, and are even willing to pay the expenses to ship it back to Missoula.

“An entire pack load of breakable stuff was completely wrecked by the stampeding of his pack train when the horses spied the camels coming down the trail toward them. A lot of whiskey destined for Missoula was scattered along the trail for a long distance on one occasion and the Missoula people, who then lived at Hell Gate, were compelled to drink water for a long time afterward.”

“We have, when a small boy, spent many hours in the early evening ... listening to thrilling ghost stories. There is scarcely a man or woman who does not honestly believe that he, or she, has seen and been chased by ghosts at some time in their lives.” So reported the Choteau Calumet on Halloween 1886.