
Chances are you’re the same, either because you just moved here and want to blend in with the locals, or because you just don’t know that much about the state you were born in…for whatever reason.
No problem, there are lots of great books out there that will help you, and I want to profile each of them here briefly. They’ll all have links to Amazon – much like my post on the Best Mountain Man Fur Trapping Books – and that means if you buy the book I’ll get a small commission, usually 6% of the sale.
So feel free to buy that new TV for $3,995 – I just hope you link to it from me. Until then, bone up on these great books about Montana today.
Montana Almanac: The First, Best Source for Information About Big Sky Country
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This book is just a great one to have in the bathroom, plain and simple. It’s got charts and graphs and pictures and the chapters are all short. You’ll learn about each of Montana’s 56 counties, in brief, over 21 pages. And by brief I mean a paragraph of their history. It’s really great.
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There are temperature readings, mountain ranges, notable people, lists of birds in Montana, famous people, information on taxes, and lots of other stuff.
Montana Almanac is a total of 375 pages and was written by a woman from Anaconda that served in the legislature from 1981 to 1985. This really is a great book to have on your shelf.
Dreams Across the Divide: Stories of the Montana Pioneers
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Montana's got more than 200 years of stories. If you want to learn about the individual people that came to Montana from the early 1800s into the mid-1900s, you’ll want to pick up Dreams Across the Divide.
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There are lots of great pictures thanks to the Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers – who is listed as writing the book – as well as the Montana Historical Society.
It’s a great read with thrilling stories, both heartwarming, humorous, and often heart-wrenching as well. They’re the story of the people from the state, and you should know them.
Twentieth-Century Montana: A State of Extremes
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K. Ross Toole is one of Montana’s greatest historians. He died in 1981 but taught at UM for many years and was the head of the Montana Historical Society before that, often getting into hot water for his political views.
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If you want a more detailed look at Montana from the 1890s up into the 1950s, this is the book for you. It’s got detailed accounts of the 1918 and 1921 university scandals, as well as a lot on Socialism in Butte.
You’ll get a lot on mining and politics, but also a lot on the homesteading and banking booms and bust that really hit the eastern part of the state hard. After that it kind of dries up and the 1930s into the 1970s take up just a chapter or so…a problem most histories of the state exhibit.
This is a great read and I’ve gone through it about 4 times myself over the past fifteen years. I really should just buy a copy instead of getting it from the library all the time!
More Montana Moments: History on the Go
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I’ve never read this book by one of the main historians at the Montana Historical Society, but I have a feeling it wouldn’t take long. The book has chapters that are just a page long, maybe 2 to 3 at most. But they’re fun little anecdotal stories that will give you a better idea of the state.
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Montana Place Names: From Alzada To Zortman
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This is another fun book put out with the Montana Historical Society’s help in 2009. It’s a bit expensive, coming in around $20 for a new copy, but it’s got 320 pages and you’ll learn every single little town in Montana, and many that don’t exist anymore.
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One reviewer on Amazon really gives you an idea why this book is such a good thing to have. “I keep this book in my glove box and pull it out on road trips,” she says. “It’s a lot of fun to know the story behind the landscape.”
That’s a really good point, and I can’t help but think your knowledge of the state’s geography will go up big-time when you pick up this book. As someone coming in from out of state, that’s one of the first things that will set you apart from locals – your glaring lack of geographic knowledge. Fix it with this book today!
Montana Trivia: Your Personal Compendium of the Most Incredible, Unbelievable, Weird, Arcane, Fun, Fascinating, and True Facts About Montana
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Janet Spencer wrote Montana Trivia in 2005 and I’m sure a lot of its questions have been used in pub quizzes around the state. I’m also sure many, many people have gotten hearty laughs from it, mainly because there are two follow-up books to it.
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Here’s one question from the book: “In a treaty with England in 1846, what parallel of latitude became Montana’s – and America’s northern boundary?”
The answer is the 49th, and that’s just one question of hundreds in the geography section. As one reviewer on Amazon says, “it’s much easier to open this book than to close it.” You’ll meet colorful characters and learn things you had no idea about. You’ll also get a lot, and I mean a lot, of useless facts.
It’s a fun way for new residents of Montana to learn about the state and a great way for those that’ve moved to feel a little bittersweet. It’s also a great book keep in the bathroom, I’m positive of that!