Montana Time Line
  Events in Montana literary history

MONTANA TIME LINE
1700-1800:  Industrialization
1750 Horses have multiplied northward on the plains and the English Colonies are pushing tribes westward
1805 Lewis and Clark Expedition begins
1806 Smallpox has already swept westward by this date
1807 Lewis and Clark Expedition ends Manuel Lisa’s Missouri Fur Co. establishes 1st Fort
(1830-43) [setting of The Big Sky]
1832 The largest Rendezvous:  Pierre’s Hole
1840 Father DeSmet first meets the Flatheads in the Bitteroot
1841 St. Mary’s Mission construction begins in Stevensville
1850 Many of the streams are trapped out Jesuits leave the Flatheads
1853 Stevens (RR) survey party leaves Ft. Benton
1856 Francios “Benetsee” Finlay discovers gold at Gold Creek
1859 Mullan begins construction of his road to Walla Walla
1860 First steamboat reaches Ft. Benton
1862 Gold discovered at Bannack
1863 Mullan road completed
Gold discovered in Alder Gulch, Virginia City
1866 First bank established in Helena
1867 Height of Fort Benton’s steamer traffic
1868 [setting of FOOL’S CROW]

1870 First hunting season established (agricultural and mining frontiers comingling) Baker Massacre 1/23/’70 [FOOL’S CROW]
1872-83 Slaughter of the bison
(1874-90) [setting of the Virginian]
1875 Capitol moved from Virginia City to Helena
(1876-78) [Garcia’s TOUGH TRIP THROUGH PARADISE]
1877 June-October:  Nez Perce march for freedom
1878 Powell reports to Congress:  West will not carry settlers
1879 Cattle industry flourishes
U.S. adopts policy to subdue Indians and settle land.  Utah Northern RR reaches Montana Territory
1880 Butte becomes the biggest boom town in the state Utah Northern RR reaches Fort Benton
1881 Marcus Daly founds Anaconda Silver Mining Company
1883 Starvation winter drives Indians to reservations [setting of A BRIDE GOES WEST]
1884 Last bison dies near Miles City [A BRIDE GOES WEST] Frank Linderman travels west from Ohio
1885-6 664,00 head of cattle in Montana
1886 Jesuits return to the Flatheads
1881 Northern Pacific reaches eastern boarder
1883 NP and UN RR make junction at Garrison
1887 “The Hard Winter”: 1/2 cattle owners out of business.
Great Northern RR reaches Great Falls
1888 Last freight to arrive by boat unloaded at Ft. Benton
1889 Montana becomes a state of the Union.
Great Northern engineer (re)discovers Marias Pass
(1890 -1910) Popular Western novel sales skyrocket
1893 Ranges are fenced; cattle fed in small herds
1895 Conrad Kohrs drives major herd of cattle into state.
Dairy industry begins--Big Timber
1900 MT is number one wool grower in the U.S.: 6 mil. sheep.
Many species of game becoming extinct
1901 A.B. Gutherie born
(1900 -1955) Anaconda copper industry is a pervasive influence
1904 D’Arcy Mc Nickle b. (d. 1977)
1902 Huntly Project Dam
1905 Sugar processing begins in Billings
1909 Enlarged Homestead Act doubles homestead size to 320 acres.
Milwaukee RR reaches Garrison
(1910 -1922) Honyockers settle 40% of MT
1915 Oil discovered in Carbon County.
Commercial meat packing begins--Stevensville
1919 H.G. Marriam begins creative writing school at University of Montana--Missoula
(1919 -1922) 20,000 foreclosures due to drought
(1920 -30’s) Government policy to exterminate the wolf
1921 Merriam founds THE FRONTIER
1923 Richard Hugo born
1924 Strip mining begins at Colstrip
1929 Linderman begins PLENTY COUPS
Beginning of Native American Literature Renaissance 1950’s Conrad and Cut Bank oil fields open
1964 Richard Hugo arrives at U of M.
Bell Creek oil field discovered.
Tiger Ridge natural gas field discovered
(1970 -1980) RARE II study catalogs all remaining roadless areas
1972 State Constitutional Convention
1976 Major Facilities Siting Act Passed
1982 Richard Hugo dies
1986 Colstrip unit 4 goes on-line
1988 Timber supplies depleted; sawmills close
1992 Proposed Baucus/Burns Wilderness Bill opens 5/6 remaining roadless acres to multiple use
1995 John Trochman and others form the ultra right wing Militia of Montana (MOM)
1995 300 snow geese die in the toxic waters of the Berkeley Pit in Butte, America’s largest Superfund site
1996 Unibomber Ted Kazinski arrested in Lincoln
2000 First woman governor elected: Judy Martz
2000 Montana Power sells its electrical generation facilities to PPL
2001 Montana ranked 45th in the nation in per-capita income: $24,033
2002 West Nile virus spreads half way across the state
2002 Montana Dept. of Justice busts 122 meth labs at a taxpayer cost of over 1 million dollars
2003 James Welch dies August 6 at age 62 of lung cancer
2004 March: Manufacturing jobs drop by 900 as Stimpson Lumber shuts down