Feb. 9 – On this day in Montana history 1915 Mrs. Watie Duff became the first woman justice of the peace in Montana. She served in the position for several years in Chinook Township.

   Feb. 8 – On this day in Montana history in 1921 the Montana Senate was engaged in a heated discussion over a bill to assess a poll tax of $3 on all male bachelors. The proceeds were to go into the Widow’s Pension Fund. In addition “unmarried males of a certain age and ability to assume marital relations, and who still shied away” were to have a $2 road tax levied on them. The Montana Supreme Court later invalidated both taxes. 

Feb. 7-- On this day in Montana history in 1890 law enforcement officers were on the lookout for eight Democratic state senators wanted  under arrest warrants issued ironically by the Senate itself. Lt. Gov Rickards, a Republican, issued the warrants after the senators boarded trains and went in different directions to keep the Senate from being able to officially organize. The bitter dispute badly divided the state, and centered on whom the Senate would elect to represent them in Congress. (And some people think political partisanship has gone too far today)

Feb. 6 – On this day in Montana history in 1920 State Stock Inspector Frank Lavigne reported that 182 arrests for felony charges of rustling had been made in the past year.  Poultry thieves were included in that number, and he reported that most charged had been sent to prison for stealing “all manner of stock which walks.”  He reported “several large organized bands of rustlers” had been broken up,” but he saw no decrease in rustling activity from recent past years. Horse and cattle rustlers tended to be “hard boiled,” he said. During the year, one horse rustler was shot resisting arrest but recovered, and  “two were killed outright.” 

Feb. 3 – On this day in history in 1887, the Miles City paper was reporting -10 degree temperatures at 3 p.m. and -24 at 1 a.m. This was one of the harshest winters in Montana history. It also brought the era of open range cattle ranching to an end. When Montana’s cowboy artist Charlie Russell was sent out to report on a herd of cattle in the Judith Gap area, he simply sent back a drawing of an emaciated steer with the caption “Last of 5,000.” That painting is hanging in the Montana Historical Society Museum in Helena. After this year, ranchers started raising and storing hay and feeding their cattle through the winter.

Feb. 2 – On this day in history in 1989 much of Montana was struggling to survive a dozen or more days when the temperature never got above zero during the day and went as low as – 40 degrees on several occasions. In Helena a train car smashed into a transformer during one of the coldest days and caused a blackout that lasted for several hours and put the lives of hundreds at risk in their frigid homes. The cold spell caused several deaths, froze pipes in homes, and had people paying high prices for gas generators to provide power for their homes.  

Feb. 1 – On this day in history in 1953, the state was mourning the death of Belle Anna Conway. She was the captain, and the last surviving member, of the Fort Shaw Indian School’s 1904 world champion girls basketball team that won the title in a tournament at the St. Louis World’s Fair. The championship team has been popularized in recent years in the book “Full Court Quest” by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith, as well in a public television documentary. It is believed that they were the only “world champion” sports team in Montana history.