Aug. 14 – On this day in Montana history in 1908 the railroad town of Taft on the far western edge of the state was consumed in a fire of near biblical proportions. News accounts described the town this way: “Women of the underworld, gamblers etc. flocked to the mushroom railroad town, and it was soon a place of about 1,000 inhabitants.” The town was rebuilt but once again was leveled by fire in 1910.

Aug. 13 – On this day in Montana history in 1920 eastern Montana was “a buzz” with talk of “aerial mail service.” The Broadus Independent said “as a direct result of the activity of the Chamber of Commerce” that Broadus had been designated a station on the branch aerial mail route from Cheyenne, Wyo., all the way to Miles City. Air mail was the e-mail of its day.

Aug. 12 – On this day in Montana history in 1919 Missoula police announced a “Vag Roundup” to clear the city of “undesirables.” It was a repeat of a similar campaign from the previous year. Police Chief Moore said: “Missoula gained a reputation through hobo circles, as a poor place for loafing.” Those arrested and convicted of vagrancy were put to work on the city’s “wood pile.”     

Aug. 11 – On this day in Montana history in 1926 Montana, the rest of the Northwest U.S, and Canada were mourning the death of Col. James T. Stanford who died of pneumonia in Conrad while on a trip. At the time he was head of the powerful Conrad Banking Company of Great Falls and a statewide financial leader. Born in Nova Scotia in 1856, Stanford became a Canadian Mountie and played a pioneering role in the early development of the Canadian and U.S. Northwest. While still a Mountie, He came to Helena in 1875 as part of the inquiry into the Cypress Hills Massacre in which five Montana citizens were accused of killing 200 Cree Indians. He eventually settled in Montana.

Aug. 8 – On this day in 1920 K. Ross Toole, the father of the modern Montana Historical Society, was born in Missoula. In 1951 after graduating from UCLA Toole became director of the newly reorganized Montana Historical Society and put it on the national history map with among other things the acquisition of the Mackay collection of Charlie Russell artwork and the construction of the current home of the Society and its museum across from the Capitol. He wrote “Uncommon Land” and went on to become a professor at the University of Montana and a preeminent leader in Montana history.

Aug. 7 – On this day in 1958 the Missoula Timberjacks celebrated a 14 to 5 come from behind win in baseball against the Havana Cuban Giants in a game played in Kalispell. This was a good will tour before the days of the Cuban trade and travel sanctions and the two teams played the next night in Libby. It was not reported whether the Americans celebrated by lighting up any Cuban cigars.

Aug. 6 – On this day in Montana history in 1929 internationally known author Mary MacLane, whose “The Story of Mary MacLane” created a sensational stir with its then shocking account of morality and everyday life in the mining city of Butte, died. The book was translated into more than 30 languages and made MacLane into an international celebrity.