Montana Historic Places on the National Register: From Banks and Barns to Bridges and Battlefields by Michael Ober

Author: Michael Ober

More than one thousand locations in Montana are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, from venerable mansions and hotels to less traditional sites of battlefields and buffalo jumps. This sampler of fifty carefully selected sites highlights the broad geographic and topical range of Montana's historic places, from iconic to unconventional. These fifty amazing sites also encapsulate Montana's history, from Native American encounters with early explorers to gold rush towns, mines, and jails and from log cabin homesteads, railroad depots, and schoolhouses to fire lookouts, bridges, and ranch bunkhouses. Beautiful color photographs of each historic place in its modern setting accompany the site narrative. Residents and tourists alike will learn about Montana's colorful history as they tour the backroads to many little-known but historically significant sites.

Michael J. Ober is four generations deep into Montana's history and lore. Born in Havre, Montana, he graduated from the University of Montana with a bachelor's degree in American history and English and, later, earned a master's degree in history at the university studying under the late K. Ross Toole. He also holds a master's of library and information science from the University of Denver. He has served as director of library services at Flathead Valley Community College for forty years, where he also taught Montana history. Seasonally, he worked as a wildland firefighter and backcountry ranger and law enforcement ranger in Glacier National Park for forty-four years. He is the author of Glacier Album, a showcase of vintage photographs of Glacier National Park, and numerous articles about Montana's culture and history in state and regional periodicals.