Description: "Distinguished by statesmen and magnates, Helena's history is colored with many other characters and episodes nearly lost to time. Before achieving eminence in Deadwood, Sheriff Seth Bullock oversaw Montana Territory's first two legal hangings. The Seven Mile House was an oasis of vice for the parched, weary travelers entering the valley on the Benton Road, despite a tumultuous succession of ownership. The heritage of the Sieban Ranch and the saga of "King Kong" Clayton, "the Joe Louis of the Mat," faded from public memory. From unraveling the myths of Chinatown to detailing the lives of red-light businesswomen and the Canyon Ferry flying saucer hoax, local historians Ellen Baumler and Jon Axline team up to preserve a compendium of Helena's yesteryear"--Publisher
Brief description: Interpretive historian at the Montana Historical Society from 1992 to 2019, Ellen Baumler is a longtime member of the Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau, a 2011 recipient of the Governor's Award for the Humanities and an award-winning author. As author of five books on Montana history, contributor to Montana: The Magazine of Western History and Montana magazine and editor of Montana's historical highway markers, Jon Axline has been the historian at the Montana Department of Transportation since 1990.