Dec. 7 – On this day in Montana history in 1941 Montana Representative Jeannette Rankin listened to fragmentary reports on the radio of the attack on Pearl Harbor as she packed her bag for a trip to Detroit to deliver a speech on international peace and nonintervention. Ironically, her lone vote against entering World War Two would force her from office.

Dec. 6 – On this day in Montana history in 1878 the first woman ever incarcerated in the Montana Penitentiary, Felicite Sanchez of Deer Lodge, was getting used to her new surroundings and starting a three-year sentence for manslaughter. As officers delivered her to the pen, Sanchez “put her feet on the stove and proceeded to roll a cigarette, which she fabricated with great skill and smoked with manifest enjoyment.” 

“Dec. 5 – On this day in Montana history in 1908 the Little Rockies Miner in Zortman, Choteau County, had a front page headline proclaiming “The Home of Divorce.” In a strangely competitive lead, the paper took issue with South Dakota claiming to be the national leader in divorce rates. “Statistics recently made public by the Department of Commerce and Labor show that, instead of South Dakota being the whole thing in the matter of divorces, Montana is holder of the belt and is in a class by herself.” South Dakota’s rate was 95 per 100,000 and Montana’s was 167 per 100,000. It’s more difficult to determine who was the real winner, socially speaking.

Dec. 4 – On this day in Montana history in 1931 the Circle Banner carried a story had been heard all the way from Butte: “Drys Plan Long Stay in Butte.” It reported that the Mining City’s bootleggers had been “startled” that federal prohibition agents were going to be quartered in the community for the winter. Agents were using crowbars to break locks and barricades set up in speakeasies.  Feds were quoted as saying they had never seen a town so wide open and licensed by a city as “soft drink parlors.” 

 Dec. 3 – On this day in history in 1932 the newly formed Irrigation Committee of Montana was saying that irrigation offered a “new frontier.” The committee said the state had 5 million acres that could be irrigated providing homes for up to 50.000 new farm families. Irrigation in Montana could create “an agricultural empire comparable to that in the central Mississippi valley.”“  

Dec. 2 – On this day in Montana history in 1941 The Billings Gazette was filled with Christmas advertisements even though Black Friday had not been invented yet. The Hart-Albin offered Satin Quilted Robes for $6.95, 3-strand pearls for $1.25, silk stockings $1 a pair and Christmas dolls from $1 to $7.95. Prices worth lining up for today.

Dec.1 – On this day in Montana history in 1921 the State Highway Commission was touting its efforts in constructing bridges across the state. Officials reported that 26 bridges of various types had been built in the preceding two years at a cost of $700,000. Officials said “Montana is particularly fortunate in having several bridge erection companies within the state who bid with a small margin of profit and do not slight the workmanship.” Infrastructure was not a word in vogue then, as it is today.