Growing Up Montana


Book Description

Growing Up Montana is a combined story of both endearing and staggering revelation. It is the true story of two very different people in one common place. In these unfolding accounts which took place in the Montana of the 1970's and 80's, the two young kids about which this memoir is written, found their way in a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" era where both stereotypes and childhood adventures ran wild. Before the internet and social media ruled the hearts and minds of youth, and during the continuing and fearful saga of Montana's only serial killer, both Shelly and Russ grew in the face of challenge, witnessing change in their unique rural landscape and the hearts of those around them. Growing Up Montana will guide the reader through generational differences in the handling of traumatic events, and how our mindsets can mold and shape us as individuals. Blank vividly displays how much our sense of "place," and tradition can transform us, and ultimately how significant our big questions of faith and relationship serve as navigational grounding. The book offers an intentional set of study questions at the conclusion to guide readers in thought, as well as relational and personal growth.




How It Looks Going Back


Book Description

In 1949, taking a break from San Diego’s post–World War II bustle, the Knowles family went camping in Canada. Heading home through northwest Montana’s Yaak River country, they found a two-bedroom, story-and-half log cabin on a small lake. There was neither electricity nor plumbing. Access was via dirt road, slow at best and iffy during the long, hard winters. Darwin Knowles saw a peaceful life, and adventurous wife Marilyn agreed. Third-grader daughter, Dee (for Doris), could attend the one-room school, and three-year-old Bob (Barbara) have a safe place to play. Enthusiastic but ignorant of wilderness living, the family moved in that fall—working together to cook and heat with wood, hunt and fish for food, haul water, and wash clothes by hand. They stayed for six years, during which son Stevie was born. Dee’s reminiscence of her childhood in “the Yaak” presents quirky neighbors, growing girls’ adventures, wildlife huge and tiny, and especially one loving family. As she writes, “It was a cozy, scary, painful, hilarious, dangerous, interesting, and grand time, and the most fun I ever had.”




Montana Misadventures


Book Description

Enjoy the amusing adventures, and sometimes misadventures, of young boys growing up along the shores of the mighty Missouri River. This book provides a nostalgic slice of history seen through the eyes of adventurous youths in mid-twentieth-century Montana. Growing up in Great Falls, Montana, in the mid-twentieth century was a unique and challenging experience. My brother and I, along with our companions, took full advantage of the hunting and fishing venues near Great Falls in our quest for adventure. When we werenat hunting and fishing, we played baseball on scrubby grass fields in Gibson Park and hockey on the parkas frozen pond, and in barn-like arenas in the prairie towns of southern Alberta. Our family endured the Depression and dealt with the struggles imposed by World War II, so we had an enduring need for earning our own spending money by working on a variety of jobs.




The Kemptons


Book Description

In its day, the Kempton Ranch of eastern Montana was one of the largest horse and cattle operation in the West, selling mounts to armies and polo-playing royalty alike. Trudy Kempton Dana mines her family's lore for salt-of-the-earth true stories to reveal a family of rare vision, grit, and integrity as they live our American history and embody the spirit of the West. Meet Joseph Kempton, a whaling ship captain and early Colorado pioneer; JB Kempton, the first to ship cattle on the Northern Pacific rails; and his son Berney, a trick roper with Doc Carver's Wild West Show, a hotelier, and a friend to British earls and U.S. presidents.




Twisted Tales Growing Up and Old in the Mountains of Montana


Book Description

"Knocking the gun away, running into the bank, leaving a trail of blood behind, not realizing he had been shot. "Heading into the Bob [Bob Marshall Wilderness] with a packhorse in tow. "With my rope stretched tight across the swollen creek, me on one side, the calf on the other." "Cross hairs at the top of his back, the buckskin butt patch fills my scope." "Prying eyes might find us a la naturale, refreshing ourselves in the cool waters of a high mountain lake." A collection of true-life adventures, tall tales, with a few out and out lies thrown in just for fun. Oh, what a grand adventure it all has been, growing up and old, running the mountains along the continental divide just outside the smoky little village of Lincoln Montana.




Growing Up in Montana


Book Description

I always felt privileged to have been raised in the Bitterroot Valley. Yes, we had tragedy when we lost our dad and our ranch, but with the help of the Good Lord, we prevailed. These are our experiences of ranching, hunting, logging, and even fighting forest fires. The valley was at its best, And its beauty must be told. Hearing it again and again, Its memories shall never grow old.




The Storybook Adventures of Mary Miller


Book Description

It is May 1928 in Renton, Washington, when Mary Janette Miller enters the world. Three years later, she is surrounded by friends and her siblings while building magical sandcastle villages and pretending she is a pirate sailing the seas. Unfortunately, because Mary frequently gets distracted and into trouble, she must often escape to her favorite hiding place, underneath her bed, to avoid her mother’s crutches. A short time later after her parents decide to leave Renton for Butte, Montana, Mary embarks on a wild roller coaster ride through childhood as she attempts to navigate through the challenges prompted by the actions of her irresponsible, often absent, father. While growing up and maturing into womanhood amid the building of a famous city in the United States, the Great Depression, and the Second World War, Mary must overcome a variety of obstacles as she learns that having love in her heart leads to true happiness and joy, even through adversity and life’s greatest trials. The Storybook Adventures of Mary Miller is the fictionalized biography of an American girl who sets out on a unique coming-of-age journey in Butte, Montana, during the early twentieth century.




The Center of Everything


Book Description

Set against the wild beauty of Montana as a woman attempts to heal from a devastating accident, this generational saga from the award-winning author of The Widow Nash is a heartfelt examination of how the deep bonds of family echo throughout our lives. For Polly, the small town of Livingston, Montana, is a land charmed by raw, natural beauty and a close network of family that extends back generations. But the summer of 2002 finds Polly at a crossroads: a recent head injury has scattered her perception of the present, bringing to the surface long-forgotten events. As Polly's many relatives arrive for a family reunion during the Fourth of July holiday, a beloved friend goes missing on the Yellowstone River. Search parties comb the river as carefully as Polly combs her mind, and over the course of one fateful week, Polly arrives at a deeper understanding of herself and her larger-than-life relatives. Weaving together the past and the present, from the shores of Long Island Sound to the landscape of Montana, The Center of Everything examines with profound insight the memories and touchstones that make up a life and what we must endure along the way.




Summer of the Black Chevy


Book Description

Paul Morrison launches his first teenage summer at a school dance, longing for girls and the smack of baseballs. His innocence ends quickly that night when a roaring black Chevy chases him into the dark, but it's the mysterious stranger driving it who scares him more. It's 1965 in Deer Lodge, Montana, far from the busy faraway world that Paul and his girlfriend Marcy read about in books...