Founded by Father Pierre De Smet in 1841 and set against the backdrop of the majestic Bitterroot Mountains, St. Mary’s Mission played a significant role in the early story of the Treasure State. Mission staff member Lyn Graves explore St. Mary’s history from its origins as “the place where Montana began” to its role as a historic site and museum today. Graves presents the trials and tribulations of preserving historic buildings—which date back to 1861—plus the challenges of creating new exhibits to tantalize return visitors.

In the companion track "St. Mary's Mission: Then," Susan Doverspike presents an overview of the mission’s history from its founding to its closure in 1954.

Before 1889, Montana exerted little oversight of those who claimed to be healers. Starting that year, however, the state required all medical practitioners to register with the newly formed State Board of Medical Examiners. Dr. Todd L. Savitt, historian of medicine at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, reveals a group demographic picture of the doctors who did (and did not) register and tells stories of some particularly interesting physicians in that group.

Polio crippled children for centuries before the cause was clearly identified and an extraordinary prevention strategy was developed. Todd Harwell, administrator for the State of Montana’s Public Health and Safety Division, reviews the history of polio and efforts to treat it before a vaccine was available, and follows Montana’s use of the vaccine to eradicate the disease during the 1950s and 1960s.

Looking backward from the vantage point of today’s substance use crisis, Montana State University graduate student Katie McLain surveys the changes over time in drug use, distribution, and enforcement in the American West, focusing on the role of asylums and public health interventions over the last one hundred years. (9/27/2019)

Extreme History Project director Crystal Alegria examines the political and social complexity of red-light districts and the women who were, for a time, able to navigate that complexity to prosper in these commercialized centers of vice. As the Progressive Era came to a close and reform movements peaked, however, once-tolerated houses of ill repute were moved out and closed-up, never to reopen. (9/27/2019)

Penn State University associate professor of history, emeritus, Dr. Rodger Henderson examines how the reports of Lieutenant William Barrett Pease—Blackfeet agent during the crisis of Major Eugene Baker’s massacre of Heavy Runner’s peaceful and friendly Piegans—contributed greatly to a nationwide debate about the “Indian Question” and laid the foundation for the Piegan perspective of the massacre, a counter-narrative to the military viewpoint. (9/27/2019)

Montana state senator and Blackfeet tribal member Susan Webber speaks about how the use of blood quantum—or degree of ancestry—as the sole qualifier for tribal enrollment has affected the Blackfeet Tribe and families over the last century. Webber also sheds light on what the continued use of blood quantum, rather than other criteria for membership, means for the future of the Blackfeet Nation. (9/27/2019)

Montana Historical Society editor Dr. Diana Di Stefano explores the disasters that befell the Utter-Van Ornum Party on the Oregon Trail in 1860. In particular, she focuses on the experience of one of the survivors, Emeline Fuller, who was forced to eat her siblings to survive. (9/27/2019)

The Sagas of Liver Eating Johnston and Boone Helm: Montana Department of Transportation historian Jon Axline examines some of the numerous stories of cannibalism on the American frontier. All involved somehow going to the extreme to survive, but a few reputed cannibals really seemed to enjoy their reputations as man-eaters—whether or not they actually were.

Montana Historical Society photograph archives manager Jeff Malcomson discusses the work of Les Jorud, whose name was synonymous with photography in Helena from the 1930s into the 1960s. Beginning in his adolescence, Jorud photographed his hometown, documenting its people through group portraiture of families, wedding parties, and a wide variety of community groups. His commercial photography business specialized in photographic work for commercial businesses, government agencies, lawyers, and insurance companies, but Jorud also captured downtown street scenes, special community events, and natural disasters. Jorud’s photography not only reflected the life of the capital city, but also helped shape its identity. (9/28/2019)