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 din