March 13 – On this day in Montana history in 1962 “The World Theater” dedicated to “showing unique films from all over the world” opened in Billings. One of the first features was “Tunes of Glory” an English film starring Alec Guiness, who would go on to achieve fame as Obi-wan Kenobi  in Star Wars. Billing itself as an “art theatre” there was a “coffee hour” before each movie, and the Billings Art Association maintained an art display in the lobby.

March 12 – On this day in history in 1854 Sir St. George Gore reached St. Louis and prepared for his journey into what would become Montana.  The 42-year old baronet had his valet, dog handler and a pack of 50 hunting hounds with him that he had brought from England. He hired legendary mountain man Jim Bridger as his guide. Before he left the country he had engaged in one of the grossest slaughters of wildlife in western history. In two months alone he killed 105 bear, more than 2.000 bison and 1,600 elk and deer in the Yellowstone Valley. Perhaps fittingly, Sioux Indians surrounded and took the supplies, horses and weapons of Gore’s hunting party on his return trip. It took the group nearly five weeks to struggle back to a friendly Hidatsa camp, and they were naked and nearly starving when they got there. This isn’t the origin of the word gore, but Gore certainly lived up to his name and reaped his reward

March 9 – On this day in Montana History in 1880 the first railroad was completed into Montana. The Summit of the Rocky Mountains Utah and Northern Railroad brought a special train filled with dignitaries to Monida Pass south of Butte on the Montana Utah border for the driving of the Silver Spike. Yes, silver spike, apparently the golden one used for completion of the Union Pacific was not available. Corrine, Utah, had been the terminus for getting equipment, supplies and people to the booming gold towns of Montana. The line eliminated most of the 500-mile stagecoach route that ran from Corrine to Virginia City, Montana.

March 8 – On this day in Montana History in 1917 State Commissioner of Labor and Industry W.J. Swindlehurst reported that “lumbering aside from smelting is the most important manufacturing industry in Montana.” He reported that $7.6 million was invested in sawmills in the state, $1.1 million in logging equipment and $1 million in planning mills. As an odd twist of history, in the same report he noted that there were 19 breweries in the state. Apparently, lumber workers took a little nip once in awhile.

March 7 – On this day in Montana History in 1962 the Billings Gazette reported that a series of explosions linked two separate drill holes together creating 850 feet of diversion tunnel and 1,235 feet of spillway tunnel to make one tunnel that included an 80-degree turn for the Yellowtail Dam project in eastern Montana. “Engineering was so accurate you could not see where the blast which linked the two holes occurred,” the paper reported. “It was quite an engineering feat.”

March 2 – On this day in Montana History in 1933 popular Democratic Senator Thomas Walsh died suddenly at age 73 on a train in North Carolina en-route to Washington, D.C., where he was set to be sworn in as U.S. Attorney General in the cabinet of then President Elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The lawyer from Helena had risen to what would have been the highest national executive branch post held by any Montanan during an illustrious 20 year career in the U.S. Senate.  He was nationally respected for his honesty and commitment to the rule of law, and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 1925. A national journalist said of him just before his death:  “no wise Democratic politician is likely to go to him in his new job looking for special favors. It would be like asking the statue of Civic Virtue for a chew of tobacco.” Historians said his tragic death weakened Roosevelt’s new administration.

March 1 – On this day in Montana History in 1932 14-year-old Janis Salisbury died in Sheridan County from complications due to appendicitis. But she is remembered in history for her funeral that was held a few days later. It was not held in a church, but rather in the local Farmer-Labor Temple. Socialism and communism had secured a strong foothold in the area stricken hard by the Great Depression. The local  Producers News headlined: “Bolshevik Funeral for Valiant Young Pioneer.” The event shocked many and bitterly divided the county and surrounding area. The funeral and the history of those troubled times are detailed in a book by the Montana Historical Society Press, “The Red Corner: The Rise and Fall of Communism in Northeastern Montana.”