Transcripts For CSPAN Cities Tour-Bozeman MT PAAHTV 20240714

At cspan. Org citiestour. Cspans cities tour is exploring the american story as we take book tv and American History tv on the road. Every first and third weekend of the month, we bring you the history and literary life of a different that he as we visit Historic Sites and talk to local authors. With support from our spectrum cable partners, this weekend we traveled to bozeman, montana. Situated in the southern part of the state, bozeman sits 90 miles from Yellowstone National park, drawing many tourists to the city. Over the next hour, we will learn about the history of the bozeman and the surrounding region. When i first moved to bozeman, there were so many story, story streets, story distributing, story hills, but there was not a lot written on him. There was a historian who once said to me you know, bozeman is misnamed. He said it ought to be story. Orstory bill storyville, story town. Personally, i think bozeman has a better ring to it than any of those other options. They remained bozeman. It remained bozeman. But i was curious about his story since his name was plastered all over. I wanted to find out more about him. There has not been a fulllength biography ever written about him. So over the years, i put it together. Nelson story was one of the more capitalistswestern in the history of the american west. If you take a step back and try and name others, you, up with Leland Stanford in california, and im sure that name rings a bell, you would have done creighton from ash John Creighton from nebraska, john e from northern colorado. All of those people were very good they started from the most part, in goldmining. After making some headway in goldmining, invested in railroads, mercantilism, et cetera, cattle ranches. Their wealth and their prominence and in their respective areas catapulted. It is the same thing with nelson story. You can name just about any industry that was important in the american west, cattle, ranching, real estate, flour milling, banking, and he had a hand in it. He was one of those who came to this territory and made a good chunk of money, roughly 30,000 in gold. It was typical, a lot of people who had no success in california who were coming back from california, they branched out through the rockies to try their luck. That is kind of what happened with them, gold was found. To the southeast, where Virginia City is, more gold was found. That was one of the predominant gold strengths. Story was one of those who heard about and viewed the valley and came to realize this was a very Fertile Valley for agriculture. A lot of people on their way to the gold fields who would come up to the Bozeman Trail, make it through on the Bozeman Trail, through the pass and into the valley, they may have originally intended to go to the goldfield, Virginia City, bannock, may last chance gulch, where helena is. But once they got a view of this valley and realize that the agricultural potential, they decided to file their claim for 160 acres and stay right here. Story realized that. He was not really a big farmer per se, but he had some ideas for a mercantile store and a cattle herd, and that was the main impetus. Virginia city, like most goldmining towns, pretty rough place to live. He and his wife, ellen, for starting a family. It really was not an ideal location to live in. They came over here to bozeman. And from there, the first thing he did was he went down to texas, used some of that money and bought a herd of longhorn. Texas cattle, the longhorns had , during theulated civil war because so many men from texas were serving the stars and bars and what they called the war of northern aggression. So you had all of this cattle in a headand you could get of longhorn from anywhere between five dollars and 10. The same head of long doll of longhorn, if you could get it to the western forts, could be worth 20 to 30 a head. If you got it to the chicago meat market, 40 a head. You can understand why there was such an interest, such a bevy of activity in that part of the country right after the civil war. Why you had all those cattle drives, so forth and so on. Nelsons story was determine to nelson story was determined to bring the cattle to montana. He brought them from fort worth, texas. Throughent up, cut up texas, through oklahoma, what was then the indian territory, faced a roadblock by kansas j hawkers in southeast kansas who were worried about longhorns spreading tick fever to their herds. But story was able to circumvent go aroundbout wichita, come up to fort leavenworth. From fort leavenworth, he headed on the oregon trail, to follow it up to fort laramie, and then from fort laramie, he would bring them up to the Bozeman Trail. At that time, this was during red clouds war, along the Bozeman Trail, which goes close to the bighorn basin in wyoming. Ioux and cheyenne were resisting. Any and all wagon trains, cattle trains, coming up to Bozeman Trail, nelson story, before he could proceed on the Bozeman Trail, he had to have at least 30 armed men in his group. Andad 1000 head of cattle, of wagons as well loaded with groceries because he also wanted to start a mercantile store. So he had enough men, they will they were armed with rifles, they headed up the Bozeman Trail, they had several scrapes with some soup warriors sioux warriors, and a couple of his men were killed. But he did make it all the way to the Yellowstone River right on the others of the bozeman pass. Nelson story made it to the Yellowstone River, established a cattle ranch over there, he arrived early december, 1866. That was his first step in building what you could certainly argue was an empire. He hashat cattle drive, a log cabin built on main street, and he begins partnering with another businessman here in town, a fellow by the name of leander black. They had a mercantile operation. Type operationrk of the american west, they sold just about everything in the store. He only had a couple hundred people in the area at the most. Really thing where they garnered a lot of success is on the others of the bozeman pass was land that the United States government had designated for the crow nation. And the reservation headquarters was established over by presentday livingston. That government would have to buy, to feed the crows, would have to buy flour, beef, and all other kinds of supplies. And they would buy it from local merchants. While, story had a corner on the market, given the fact that he had the cattle herd over there. Goods toan selling uncle sam, and that really helped him to pad his wealth. Unfortunately, and through the years, it was typical of many of those contractors who furnish goods to the reservations, they were cheating the government, they were cheating the Indian Tribes as well. Short shrift on some of the goods they were supposed to story on some occasions may have gotten away with getting paid for a full amount so many head of cattle when he did not deliver that many had. Head. He was also good he would sell them flour, and with the cooperation of the indian agent, he would get the flower back out of the warehouse and then sell it back over here. In effect, nelson story was getting paid twice for the same goods. He did the same thing with horses. He might sell horses to the government for, i dont know, five dollars, 10 a head, Something Like that, and then a year later, the government decided they did not need that many horses, he would buy them back for two dollars or three dollars a head and then sell them in town for 15 a head. So he took advantage of a system, the reservation system, which is one of the uglier chapters in the history of the american west. He took advantage of that just like so many others did. And that really helped him, as i say, to increase his wealth even more. The proximity to the crow reservation, at that time in the late 1860s, early 1870s, plus the growth of the Agricultural Community named bozeman, those two things, he was in the driver seat as far as accumulating wealth. Reporter describe what he was like . John very interesting character. When he was a young man, nelson story was from meigs county, ohio. Came west in the late 1850s. As a young man and his family, he lost his mother, father, a couple of brothers, sisters who died young. Reason heble for that was never really a serious churchgoer. But, he was also a very generous individual. He would help any friend who was down on their luck, he was willing to help them. He also had a streak he was well read. He understood economics very well. He did enjoy listening to talks from christian scholars. Theiked to study the poets, pope, and write down some of his verses on pieces of scrap paper. But the big drawback to nelson story was his temper. He had an awful, awful temper. On more than one occasion, he would, in a confrontation with somebody, he would lose his temper and it wouldve come out to a fistfight, or it would end up not necessarily a gunfight, but if you got on his bad side, chances are chances are you remained on his bad side. His temperature his temper spilled into his immediate family. Verbal abuse, physical abuse, it is a sad sidebar, a sad eyes but hisa sad aspect, wife even on occasion was physically abused. Day, his two one sons, to have his sons, nelson junior and thomas byron story, story told them to go out he had a ranch north of town where he would later build a flour mill. Story told them to go out to the ranch, there is a mueller want you to get, bring it back in town. But do not rope the mule. Just escort him into town. They went out, got the mule, they are coming back into town, nelson junior who was known as bud, thomas byron who was known as find a story, as they approached the big story home, bud decides for the heck of it, see if you can lasso the mule. Antidoes. Unfortunate and he does. He was going to ride up and get the lasso off the mule. Unfortunately he dropped the rope and the mule trotted into the family yard where nelson was. He looked at him and said, i thought i told you not to rope that mule. And bud started to say well, shut up. The first one of you that says another word, im going to knock you off your damn horse. Bind, he had a sassy streak to him. He looked at his dad and says well, we can rope that mule just as well as you can. Before he finished his sentence, his dad picked up a brick and threw it right at him, ubind ducked, he jumped off his horse and ran for downtown with his dad in close pursuit. His dad at that time was pushing 60, so he could not chase him that far. Reporter what are the contributions he has made to bozeman that folks outside of the bozeman might recognize or maybe it is just specific to bozeman itself . John in the 1880s, nelson story constructed and opened a town, wherenorth of eventually the Northern Pacific railroad would come through. Some of the buildings are still standing. And that was a major employer for people, especially for men in this town. Another aspect of nelson story is in the late 1880s, when montana became a state, the legislature decided to let people decide where the capital would be. The territorial capital was in helena. But they opened it up to any town and they were going to put it to a vote of the electorate to see where they wanted to have the capital. Bozeman got into the campaign with several other cities, helena, butte. Bozeman promoted itself with the prettiest valley, the most Beautiful Valley in the state. We had the finest picket fences of anywhere in the state. We had the prettiest girls and the healthiest babies of anywhere in the territory of montana. Those were some of the reasons they gave for bozeman being the state capital. Well, bozeman didnt get it. Helena, and it only made sense since they are the territorial capital, it only made sense helena would retain it. But the legislature was going to decide where to put the State College of agriculture. Nelson story donated some land, allowed his building to be used for classes, and put up some money to help make sure that bozeman got the state agricultural college, which is today Montana State university. Reporter what did you learn that surprised you . Learned inne thing i researching nelson story, that i , is the old of adage nice guys finish last. He was industrious, he was ambitious, he is worthy of acknowledgment, he is not worthy of adulation. A had a very kind decide, very Community Minded side, he would donate to help churches expand, to build city parks. But again, he had that mean streak to him. And did and in business dealings, he could be really, really tough, really, really rough. As i went through some of the things that i learned about him, like i say, it reinforced it helped me to understand better some of the capitalists of the american rest west during what was known as the gilded age. The gilded age really was not just confined to your rockefellers, carnegies, vanderbilts, or your jp morgans. It also came out west, although it did not get nearly the amount of publicity. I learned a lot about the reservation system, and the corruption that went with the reservation system. To a very, my eyes very sad chapter in American History, and that was the treatment of the native americans. Know, the quintessential cowboy, i guess you could call him, the quintessential westerner. Announcer up next, we take you to missouri headwaters state park to hear about lewis and clark and the corps of discovery as we pass through met through western montana. Southwest montana is defined by all of the rivers that flow that flow through the area. The tree folks area is an important area, has been an important area, historically, too many people even before european encroachment on the area. It was always an important crossroads for many ancient people to come to this area. It is rich in resources. The rivers of course had fish in them, there was a lot of game in this area. We think as many as 14 different tribes used this area. It is unique in the fact that no one tribe had a monopoly on this area. To welcome you to missouri headwaters state park. We are at the headwaters of missouri. And just west of where we are standing is where the madison and Jefferson Rivers come together to form the missouri. Right here on our right below us is the Gallatin River which flows into it. Some people refer to this as the three forks area because we have these three rivers that come together to form the missouri. This park has a lot of historical significance, especially with the lewis and Clark Expedition which came through here in 1805, searching for the headwaters of missouri. By the time they arrived in this area, they realized they probably were not going to find an all water route to the west. They had already been traveling for a year and a half on their journey. A previous winter in north dakota, and that is where a french trapper who was staying with the indians, and his wife, sacagawea, and hired them on the expedition. July twayed here in seven, when sacagawea arrived in 1805. When they approached the place, they had to make a decision, which river do we continue on up . Sacagawea who had been here before, in fact she had been kidnapped from the Jefferson River west of where we are standing, taken to north dakota and came back with them, told the expedition they had to go up the Jefferson River to find her people. Sacagawea, she played a very critical and Important Role on the expedition. As they traveled to a lot of this unexplored countries and met various tribes, but as soon as they saw this young woman with an infant going along, they knew that the expedition was not a war party. Approach many different tribes. They received a lot of help from various tribes along the way. It looked like a military , may not have been so welcomed into the strange lands they went through. Sacagawea played an Important Role. She was able to along the expedition when members would get sick she would find a local remedy they could use. Plants, found other stuff they could eat, in times when food was scarce. There were numerous times when she bailed them out of tight situations. She proved to be a critical member. The park was established in 1959. Prior to that there had been a group of local people who formed what they called the founders club. This goes back to the 1930s. Ofy started to acquire some the land and put up signs to make this a notable area. 475 acres ofhave the park. We have a lot of different habitats in this park. It is an thing, important burning area. Audobonn recognizes this area. Places to hike and experience montana. Place tot a beautiful be. Even in the middle of winter. A look at bozeman continues with a visit to the museum of the rockies where we see dinosaur fossil discoveries made in montana. Montana is a wonderful place for the discovery of dinosaur fossils not only because of the rocks we have in the state, but also because they are exposed. Almost the entire eastern portion of the state is exposed rock from the crustaceans cretaceous time. The most famous formation for dinosaurs is the hell creek formation. It preserved the last of the dinosaurs before they went extinct. We have a lot of formation in the state which is where we go trex. Triceratops and it goes back to the native american days. Andof the hillsides hilltops. The first documented case of fossils being discovered was around the turnofthecentury in the late 1800s during classic bone wars. Some of the first pushes and pulses of paleontology. A lot of those fossils went back to the east coast, to large institutions like the carnegie, smithsonian or yale. It was not until the late 1970s when we found a site thanks to landowners who were rock towns when ahern montana, family found these fragments of baby dinosaur bones, dinosaur egg shell as well. Phenomenal discoveries. Not just babies, but nestlings that had clearly been cared for. Prior to that Research Science thought the dinosaurs were like crocodiles and alligators, that their uld lay there eggs and then peace out. It really changed what we thought about dinosaur behavior and put museum of the rockies on the map. Is hollow horns and teeth, bokos focused on fossils from the hell creek formation. The last of the nonavian dinosaurs that went extinct. It is famous because of two types of dinosaurs i bet you have heard of. Ist is triceratops, which the horned dinosaur and the teeth come from trex. K formation has many to rent a source rex Tyrannosaurus Rex formations. Predator. Me the dinosaur behind me does have a name. It is called montanas trex. A couple other names. Its specimen number is mor980. Discoveredrex was on the fourth of july in the late 1990s. It is a very patriotic dinosaurs. They said why would you be working on the fourth of july . I said, why would you think it is work . Do. Hat we love to it was not the museum that found it though. Ranchers did and they contacted us. It is the skeleton of this trex , standing behind me, more than 60 real bone. That is the color difference you see. The darker colors represent the actual bone. The lighter bones are a replica s to makem other trex it complete. It is very rare to find a trex or any dinosaur that is 100 complete. I do not think any of us would be complete after 66 million years in the ground. To have it 60 real fossil bones in front of you really is a rare and spectacular opportunity for our visitors. Behind me as well you can see the horns of the triceratops we have mounted as well. Is a very wellknown dinosaur from the hell creek formation known for its iconic three horns, which is where it gets its name. And a smallereye one on the nose. Favoritekely to be a prey item of trex. We find quite a bit of triceratops material with bite teeth inembedded trex that dinosaur. It was an herbivore, a vegetarian dinosaur, trying to avoid trex as much as possible. Crazythat is where the horn ornamentation came from, to deal with large predators like the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Behind me is the triceratops growth series. These are different skulls from triceratops, which is a horned dinosaur. They are called triceratops because they have two horns above their eyes, one above their nose. Tri for three bones. One of the reasons is triceratops was an herbivore. When we look at food chains there are a lot more herbivores in the ecosystem than top predators like the trex. We find a lot more triceratops than trexur bones bones. The benefit of being such a commonly found dinosaur is we can talk a lot about how it grew and developed through its life. You can see one of the smallest skulls. Ops its goal is its skull is ittybitty. As we continue down the growth series we see a few things change. We see the horns above the eyes get bigger and they curve upwards toward the ceiling. On the back we call those triangles the occipitals occipitals. They fuse later. You can see a teenaged triceratops. Theirare more fused, bones are bigger and more curved. We continue on closer to adulthood. These triceratops would have been sexually mature, though not fully skeletal he mature skeletally mature. You can see a shift the horns have gone from pointing upwards to pointing down, instead. Some paleontologists believe this may have to do with species recognition and being able to tell the adults from the juveniles within a population. Our largest of the triceratops we see here have the biggest downward curved horns and what we see in the oldest growth stage of triceratops are these holes that develop. They would not they would have been covered with skin. Our paleontologist here who studies triceratops believes the bone may have been resort and deposited on these bigger horns on their facial region, exchanging the bone from there to the front of the face. How we know all of these things that this is an older triceratops and not say a different species is because of using histology as a Research Method to tell the age of individuals. Histology is when you slice up an animals bone, in this case of fossilized dinosaur bone. You slice it so thin you can put it on a slide and look at it under a microscope and look at the microscopic level of that bone and see things like growth rings and Cellular Development that give us an idea of the relative ages of these long extinct giants, like triceratops. Not only do we have a triceratops growth series on display at museum of the rockies, but we have the largest trex growth series in the world here as well. I call this area the trex fishbowl. You can see the smallest trex skull to ever be discovered. This is a 3d print out. The actual one is with the researcher being discovered, but it is from montana. We have another juvenile and younger trex. This one is also a replica. The actual fossil is in we have another juvenile and younger trexillinois. Those are your younger trexs that in the paleontological world there has been debate about whether that represents a different species or just a juvenile trex. Here are through morphological study and histology we are confident with our hypothesis that these represent juvenile hypothesis that these represent juvenile trexs. Here you can see this, brex, a subadult trex. A specimen with an incredible story due to the research of dr. Mary schweitzer, Research Associate at museum of the rockies. Her research on brex found the oldest traces of the soft tissue to ever be preserved in a fossil in the femur, the upper leg bones. Was an incredibly important scientific specimen that changes what we know about dinosaur soft tissue and dinosaur biology. As we round the corner we see larger and larger trex. Is the skull of the montana trex to see up close and personal. The next one, our second oldest in the trex growth sees series. This is the actual specimen of mor555. It is the subject of the smithsonians deep time exhibit for the next 50 years. We are excited actual fossil for this trex is on center stage in washington, d. C. Growthgest of our trex series is one of the largest trex skulls to be discovered ever. This is mor008. It is more than five feet in length and would have been huge in overall body size. You can see it is much larger than the skull of montanas trex. The rest of the skeleton would have been much larger than what you see here with the trex we have on display, montanas trex. Very few museums have an opportunity for you to see so many different actual trex specimens in one exhibit and that is one of the highlights of coming to museum of the rockies, is taking a look at these tyrant kings and extinct giant beasts. The bowman at viewing laboratory at museum of the rockies. It gives visitors an opportunity to see paleontologists and torsaratory preparar working on specimens. They explain how we find fossils in the field, how we get them out of the field, how we get them back and cleaned up so they can be on display. You can see a variety of different dinosaur bones being prepared in view for visitors to see. Ine is a triceratops femur the works. It is crumbly, needs to be consolidated. It is still in its field jacket made out of burlap. This is the upper leg bone of a triceratops dinosaur, a fairly good sized one. Next to it we have a triceratops vertebra. This is an individual backbone. Buts fairly well together, some will have to be glued together. Vertebra fromonal triceratops as well as other material from triceratops and duckbilled dinosaurs. We have one of our volunteers in here right now working on some very cool hadrosaur material. This is levi. How long have you been a volunteer here at museum of the rockies . Six years. And how many hours . Over 5000 hours levi has volunteered and donated to be preppinghe viewing lab fossils for display for research and to interact with visitors. Levi is working on a duck old duckbilled jaw. These are the teeth they grow. Nd a dental that are re it looks like it is in many pieces, but levi is very skilled at putting them all back together. It is a lot of work and we want to show how proud we are of our volunteer preparators and how proud we are to share paleontology with our visitors. I think it is extremely important to have small, Regional Museums such as museum of the rockies, which is fairly asge for a regional museum, opposed to large ones like the smithsonian. I think those institutions are extremely important, too. What it is extremely important to have these local museums such as museum of the rockies to give back to our communities. To the worldtana and the world to montana. The first and third weekend of each month as we take up tv and American History tv on the road. To watch videos from any city we visit visit cspan. Org citiest follow us on twitterour. cspancities. We visited Historic Sites and interviewed historians. Up next we hear about the citys namesake, john bozeman. Today we are in the museum of the rockies history one storage area. This is where we keep our large artifacts. Our collection contains everything from furniture to medical equipment to pioneer trunks to objects related to Yellowstone National park. Our proximity to yellowstone is a pretty important part of what we interpret here. We are 60 miles north of Yellowstone National park. We have a pretty good collection of cultural artifacts related to that area. Touring bus a 1937 that drove the streets and roads of Yellowstone Park for decades. We try to document the cultural history of all of the northern rockies. Idaho, part of wyoming, all of montana and up into alberta and british columbia. We will look at the life of john bozeman. He is the namesake of our town, where museum of the rockies is located. We will look at the very few artifacts directly related to him. There is no other place in the world that contains these items. John bozeman was a fascinating character. He came out to what was then 2. Aho territory in 186 he came out as a gold miner. He left his family behind in georgia. He was a georgian by birth. Interestingly his father had done the same thing during the California Gold rush, had abandoned his family, gone to california and never returned. Years old when his father left. When he was 25 he made his way out here to an area where there had been word of miner gold strikes. He came to an area in the Deer Lodge Valley 80 miles west of here. A very tiny Small Community of people who were basically prospectors. Within just a couple months of him arriving in the area, there was a major gold strike found in the town of bannock. It was in the town until they found gold there. Thousands of prospectors showed up for that. He participated in that gold rushand a subsequent gold in nearby Virginia City, montana. It did not take him long to realize the real money was to be made and what they call mining the miners. The idea that providing the supplies and food for these people in a really remote area of what became montana territory was really the way to make money. 63, the same year the Virginia City strike had taken place, bozeman and a couple partners came into the area, which is now bozeman, and set up a town corporation. The idea of incorporating an area, setting up laws for placeng and agricultural settings and claims. They organized this town making committee and bozeman was selected as the chairman of that committee. Pretty much from the very beginning the area was known as bozeman. 1863, heact same time, and others in the mining camps were looking for a way potential miners and settlers could get into the area much more easily than taking the oregon trail, which they would have to take almost all the way to salt lake city, then come up through mountainous areas across the rockies to get to the minds mines. Bozeman with another partner said he thought he had a way to do that. He had done a little scouting around and thought of bringing an alternate trail from the oregon trail in wyoming up through the powder river of wyoming into montana and following the Yellowstone River into what is bozeman, bozeman pass, also named for him. This became the Bozeman Trail. Milesoblem, about 250 went through territory that had been promised to the lakota and their allies the cheyennes and arapahos. It was promised to them in the fort laramie treaty of 1851. Adamantta were pretty about not allowing immigrants, travelers of any kind to go through this prime buffalo hunting territory. From the very beginning bozeman and the people he was trying to lead on this trail ran into major problems. The first year bozeman attempted to bring people through, the first wagon train was repelled by the sioux. They were going through the trail and then realized they were about there were about 400 warriors looking down on them. Most of the people on the wagon train said, forget it. Laramie in nearby fort said we will not provide you reduction. That is sioux land. The lakota and their allies have legal right to that and you do not have legal right to go through their land. The major era of the Bozeman Trail only lasted three years to 1 during that time8 the u. S. Government did recognize6 they did have to do something to protect6. These oberland travelers even though what they were doing was illegal. By 1866 they set up three forts along the trail, primarily in wyoming and eastern montana, where the lakota hunting grounds were. The last big activity going on on the Bozeman Trail in the mid was nelson story, a city founder of bozeman. Famously brought a herd of 3000 head of cattle from texas, but they did make it all the way up here. That is the famous story Larry Mcmurtry used as a basis for his Lonesome Dove story of the big cattle drive. Meanwhile bozeman is back in the new town of bozeman. He is promoting use of the trail, the town, and his own ranching. He starts his own cattle ranch here in the valley, gets his own cattle brand, which is triangle bee. It is going great for bozeman grain producers. By this time they had a flour mill and had cattle for sale. With the army coming into the area along the Bozeman Trail, they would be a great source of revenue as well. Sellcould self cell vegetables, beef cattle. It was seen as a big boon. Bozeman and the other settlers recognized the fact the lakota had been promised this large area as a hunting ground, but also recognized if they ignored that, broke the law and went into these areas, the u. S. Army would be obligated to, and protect them. By buildingved that a string of forts along the Bozeman Trail, which was technically illegal. Bozeman and the other settlers were constantly pushing the boundaries, knowing the army would be obligated to come in and save them if anything bad happened. Something bad happens. Bozeman and a partner, a guy one of theoover, original discoverers of the gold mining area in Virginia City, they started a partnership in bozeman and decided to ride their horses to fort cf smith, one of these forts on the Bozeman Trail about 200 miles east of bozeman. Trip to getf on a contracts for themselves and the other merchants in bozeman. They built a bridge across the Yellowstone River to make this possible. Line,ere along the ,robably 80 miles east of here where Mission Creek goes to the Yellowstone River, john bozeman died. He was shot to death. His partner,er, showed up in the area known as livingston, montana, the closest american settlement, he had a wild story, that they had been jumped by indians who he thought were blackfeet, but might have been crow. He did not know for sure. His story was that these natives andapproached their camp coover was very afraid of these people. He swore they were blackfeet who of justy deadly enemies about everybody they ran into in the area. Cover related coover related a story. One said these are crow guys. Nearby them to stay camp. Nearby they realized he was grabbing for his rifle and an American Indian shot bozeman, fell down dead. He was much closer to the native americans at the time. Cover,y took a shot at to 40 feet away. He had been going for his gun at the same time. Nativelly he said these people stole their horses and ran away. Cover had to walk all the way back to livingston, which was a good 30 miles or so. Good johnozeman bozemans good friends, mckenzie, was in the area. He said there seemed to be something unusual about the story. One was the wound that tom cover had. He said it was a glancing shoulder wound, but had a huge amount of powder burns over his chest. Csi,yone has watched that is a dead giveaway for the fact any gun that shot them could not have been more than 10 feet away. He had to be really close. 10 feet or less. He said this was a large powder burn. Immediately his friend mckenzie doubted the story saying he obviously shot himself. But the main story here was that both was that john bozeman was dead. Namesake of the town, the Bozeman Trail. There was a great outrage throughout the territory. Interestingly enough when a party went to go collect bozeman a large they found number of interesting items there. Some of those items are displayed on this table here. They found his silver pocket colt navy 1857 revolver in the holster, powderhorn, cash money still in his pockets. Basically all of their camp equipment was here. This was unheard of. If you were attacked by a native people, particularly if your partner is wounded and running away, the first thing they would do is grab valuables and horses and takeoff. Clearly that had not occurred. There were elements of the story that pointed to the idea that perhaps bozeman had gotten too friendly with covers wife and that was a rationale for shooting him, or that other husbands in the bozeman area put cover up to it. There are other ideas as well, that people like nelson story or other town fathers started to see bozeman coming becoming a britches, big for his namesake of the town in trail. They feared him in terms of economic competition, that he would become the rich guy. They wanted to save the potential wealth of bozeman for themselves and getting bozeman out of the way was a good way to do that. Despite inconsistencies in this story. When the Group Brought bozemans body for burial, they initially buried him near the spot, they brought these materials back to bozeman. About it was so savageo bozeman, a indian attack had occurred and they killed the namesake of a very wellliked, well respected person. Throughout the territory the call went up, where is the army, why is the army not protecting us . sthin two years of bozeman death, the army did build a major, much larger military post right here next to bozeman called fort ellis. In a way, for the people in bozeman who were looking to the army as a great place to sell their flour, vegetables and cattle, now they had a larger military fort right next to their town. In a way you can say bozemans death was a tremendous boon for the town he had founded. Bozemans time here in what is now man tent montana was relatively short five years, from the time he came out here until his death, but during that time he did a tremendous amount of pioneering of this new trail and promotion. Mostbly bozemans important contribution on a National Scale was as a promoter of our region as a place where you could easily start a new life in the west. Coming up we hear from a former Yellowstone National park historian about his career and the parks connection to bozeman. Largest and most beautiful is Yellowstone National park. There it is in northwestern wyoming. It touches montana and idaho. And it doesnt it touch your imagination a little, to think that the worlds biggest outdoor museum, the flowers and mountains, are reserved for you . By theblished in 1872 u. S. Congress, Yellowstone National park was the worlds first National Park, encompassing land from three states idaho, montana and wyoming. It is an economic driver for towns that surrounded. 75le in bozeman, montana, miles north of the park, we spoke with a former historian about his career and the impact the park had on the region. Tell us about your first yellowstone experience. Reaches the way back. For so Many Americans it was a vacation. I was four. My parents brought my brother and me to yellowstone from norman, oklahoma, and continued bringing us for many years. In not always interested just yellowstone, but the whole american west. That trap of never going east, just always going dad wantedse mostly to fish at yellowstone. We fell in love with the region, had relatives in montana, which added to it. Very early experience. And my brother 14, we vacationed here and we saw the employees. One of them invited us to a dance. That sort of did it. Young for the dance, but we got in and saw all the fun they were having. As soon as we turned 18 we applied and got jobs with a concessioner within yellowstone. That, that jobt did not come until later. Our father being a Government Employee knew the route to get into the National Park service, so we did not have to do did not have to do the concessionerer route until later. We were on the road crew and garbage truck in yellowstone very early. Did that for a couple years and decided the work is not what i want to be doing. I went to the concessioner with an eye towards the parties. Here i am 20 years old, interested in social life. Guidehired as a bus tour and thought it was the greatest job i ever had. If only there had been a winter season, which there was not. I left to the park for five years and did other things. Had a commercial broadcasting career for a good number of years, was a teacher for a while, was a travel agent for a while, and got called back to yellowstone one day with an old friend who picked up the phone and offered me a job training his tour guides with the bus operation. It was just a great, lucky break. Track tome on the knowing that i wanted to learn things about it. I had paid a lot of attention in history classes because a lot of it centered around history. I was the trainer. By that time they had added a winter operation which was snow coaching. I was in heaven. Wow. I get to train these guys to do the tours . After that i learned there was a position known as part historian, and i park historian and i aimed at that. It took 20 years, but i did. When did you begin writing about yellowstone . How many books have you written . Coming. Blished, three when did i begin writing . Early ind be pretty the 1970s. Into thismbled wonderful project which involved in the history of the yellowstone place names. I was amazed to see that no one had taken that project on. It, it became apparent why no one took that project on. 4 thousand place place names. 0 2000 of them obsolete. I am glad i did not know how many there were to begin with. I worked on that book for 15 years and it was published in 1988 by the Montana Historical society. It was my first book. Here are some of the topics you cover in your different writings. Guess onei cover, i people know about, probably the is all the people that negligently, in yellowstone. It is a book called death in yellowstone. It deals with a great number of cases of very sad deaths, including reaching way back to a few indian battles that occurred at the park. Divided into death by by nature. Death the Natural Causes are more interesting. Have of National Parks hidden dangers, like the grand canyon you can fall into a big hole. In itstone has that too canyon. A lot of parks you can drown or take a fall over a waterfall or other precipice. Yellowstone has all those, but beingtrange deaths like mauledn a hot spring or by a grizzly bear or gored by a bison. Predates the establishment of the park itself. Talk about the relationship between the park and city, bozeman or even livingston. It predates yellowstone, elliston being 1872. It was an Agricultural Community. For many of montanas ,ommunities which were mining near it to the west was Virginia City. Intanas history is bound up mining and those miners who jumped across from idaho to california in the 1850s jumped across into montana. Lookingners spread out, for the gulch is as they called as they called, them. They looked at yellowstone, but did not make a gold strike. That was fortunate for yellowstone. It probably saved the National Park, the fact there was no gold strike. Very early became an yellowstoneoint for and did Virginia City. That is the key connection. 1880 two towns as early as were in a kind of competition. Virginia city quickly lost that battle of being an outfitting point. They were just too far away. Bozeman only 75 miles from the that battle. E won yellowstone was already effectively the first attraction for tourists in the interior of the american west. That is pretty significant. That is a big deal. Part of that impetus occurred because they were teaching the existence of yellowstone in before in europe almost they were doing it on the east coast in this country. By the time the railroad arrived at the North Entrance in 1883, yellowstone was worldfamous already. Everybody wanted to come see it. Everybody wanted to be on that train coming here. There a sudden in 1883 were 5000 visitors, whereas before there had been 1000 in 1882. 500 a year. S about they had to come by horseback, mule, because there were no roads yet. If you came in the 1870s, you came on the trains continental orlroad to korean utah, somewhere where mormons were putting a few railroad things together to connect the transcontinental up with salt lake city. Journey. 400 mile you you got to bozeman, reoutfitted all on horse and muleback. It took a long time to get to areas around yellowstone. The park tour was more than a week in the 1870s because you were camping all the way. 5 1 4 days. You had time to smell the questions,k lots of stories, not only from stagecoach drivers, but from other park employees. Now, everyone was a tour guide. Everyone was ready to tell you all about the marvelous things you were going to see. 1880s,g in the yellowstone got a Stagecoach Company in the interior part. Park. There were already outfits to the west of the park. Up this big hotel we see behind us. That was built in 1883. People were in this country tired of camping out. They had lived that way through the 18th and 19th centuries. They wanted a little more comfort. Camping out would come back in vogueishs, become again, but not initially. Yellowstone had five hotels serving visitors from the 1880s until the end of the stagecoach era, 1916. Had autos pretty darn early. Riddenliest were chain in 1886. Had900, so many towns automobiles alongside horses and buggies and wagons. Not in yellowstone. This remained a primitive place that the army took care of for another 25 years after most towns had autos. Autos were90s when in most places, until 1916, yellowstone was a horse and buggy place. One question i get which i never can answer is what does the future hold for yellowstone . The surrounding gateway towns and the regional states which include montana, wyoming and idaho, they are all part of that scene. 2019 Everyone Wants to live here. We are suddenly on everybodys or worse, top 10 or top five, places to live. It is understandable because Yellowstone National park is the centerpiece. An international airport, university, plus the best hiking, hunting, fishing, worldclass skiing. All of those things. What it has done is really ramped up the cost of housing. So there is a sadness to yellowstones future. Will it just be a place for rich people . Democracy that the National Parks system has pushed so long since it was established and so arguably, well . Through the years making things affordable to the american public. How about visitation . It was easier when i started at yellowstone and there were 2. 2 million visitors. Million people just in the yellowstone. That is a lot of people. What is the solution . Nobody knows the answer. At bozeman continues as we visit the crystal we visit with crystal as she shares some of the history. We are here in the extreme history project offices which used to be a historic brothel. It is a nonprofit located here in bozeman. We bring history to the public in fund, relevant ways. We do historic walking tours during the summer, a lecture series in the winter, workshops and other events around history. We tried to get people to engage in history. What better way then add a . Istoric brought for brothel in the 1980s there was a push to uncover the social history. There is more to history than just wars and generals and all those things we have been studying as historians. We started looking at womens history, Minority Community history. We discovered there is so much more to tell within these narratives that we constructed. That is how the extreme history project was formed. And myself of mine started hearing about all the stories of the people in bozeman who did not found in this town, like lizzie williams, an africanamerican woman who came here and started a business on main street. We started looking at these histories and tried to plug those in because they were not here, they were left out. Bys house was built in 1891 one of our founding fathers, joseph lindley. He built this house as a brothel right in the middle of the red light district. There was much uproar from some of the bozeman citizens. They were not too happy with that, especially the ladies. He did it anyway. He built this building. It to a woman named liddy hayes. She was one of the long term madams. 1912. As here from 1900 to we call this the libby hayes house. She always stayed. Unfortunately she moved out in 1912 and died shortly thereafter at only 34 years old. She died of cancer of the uterus, probably from her line of work. Libby grew up in kentucky and came out west at an early age with her sisters, mattie and hattie. Her sisters worked in the same line of business. They lived just down the street and worked out of a house down the street. Ofby died at the young age 34. Her sisters also died young at the age of 20 something. Probably venereal disease or std, as a result of her work here in this district. Actually sister mattie lived to 90 something. 1964. Ed in she moved to casper, wyoming and finished out her life there in the entertainment business. The three sisters, we often tell the story of these three sisters. We now can tell the story of libby. About ellen story and other prominent women, ml wilson. We often do not have the stories behind these women who lived more transient lifestyles like prostitutes. It gives us an excuse to dig into the stories and flesh them out whereas we might have the not have the opportunity to do that. We have been excited to learn some ofut libby hayes, these women who lived and worked in this house and district. We find that their lives are fascinating and they had rich, full lives just like ellen story and emma wilson did. They contributed to the supported they church, the library. The Elementary School was located just down the street. You can see it from here. This district was integral to the town and community and these women were as well. We try to separate them, segregate them from this town, but they were part of this town and helped to build this town just like any other women who were living here. In this house there are usually on the census records about five girls who worked here altogether. It was not a house with a lot of working girls, but there were a few. In bozemans red light district at its height we had eight houses. Not as much as other towns. In the house there were usually five or six girls. Fortysomething girls working in the red light district at one time. Probably a lively place in its day, a lot of fun being had, a lot of drinking, music, dancing. It was a fun location. That, thereapose was a lot of violence that happened in this red light district as well. Between the women themselves and also between men and women. This as ao portray fun time had by all. It was not. These women worked very hard, did not make a lot of money. The madams did, but not the others. There was a lot of violence when people are drinking. Probably there was drug use happening here in these houses. A lot of women died of drug laudanum. Morphine, there was a lot of suicide in the district. There was fun, but also a lot of tragedy here as well. This house eventually becomes a center for history, a center for a place people can, learn about some of the history of bozeman that is not as wellknown, history of montana that is not wellknown. This community has its own history, so much Titan International history as well. Tied announcer our visit is an American Daily American History tv explosive. For years now, we traveled to u. S. Cities bringing the boxing to our viewers. You can watch more of our visits at cspan. Org cities tour. , journalistsxt discuss the relationship between President Trump band the news media. After that, the president talks to reporters on a range of topics including preparations for hurricane dorian. Announcer now, officials examine the relationship between the news media and the trump administration. This is one hour and 30 minutes