By Pete Brown, Montana State Historic Preservation Officer
Brick construction is valued for its resilience, and historically, its presence indicated a sense of permanence and confidence in a community’s future. Consequently, nearly every sizeable city in Montana had nearby clay pits and brickworks to meet local demands.
Location of Blossburg clay pits in relation to Western Clay Manufacturing and the Placer Hotel in downtown Helena. (Google Maps)
In Helena, clay traveled fewer than 20 miles by rail from the Blossburg pits to Western Clay Manufacturing (now Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts), which delivered a finished product first by wagon then by trucks to local job sites, such as the Placer Hotel. Today’s brick is made and transported hundreds of miles from out of state.
While all brick buildings embody a significant investment of energy from clay extraction to kiln firing and transport, locally made historic brick represents a smaller carbon footprint than its imported counterpart of today. Demolition of viable historic brick buildings squanders that investment of energy and expands our carbon footprint. Preservation extends the embodied energy’s dividend and enables development within the smaller carbon footprint of a century ago.
“The greenest building is the one already built.” – Carl Elefante, former president of the American Institute of Architects.
The locally sourced bricks used to complete Helena’s Placer Hotel in 1913 were made from clay that traveled fewer than 20 miles by rail from the Blossburg clay pits to the Western Clay Manufacturing Company. Today’s brick is made and transported hundreds of miles from out of state.(Photo source: https://mtmemory.org/digital/collection/p267301coll3/id/6871/rec/1)Demolition of viable historic brick buildings squanders the investment of energy and expands our carbon footprint. Preservation extends the embodied energy’s dividend and enables development within the smaller carbon footprint of a century ago.The Western Clay Foundation was founded by Englishman C.C. Thurston, who established a brickyard in 1883 at the site that would become eventually become The Archie Bray Foundation. Archie Bray was the son of Thurston’s employee Charles Bray, and upon his father’s death in 1931, became company president. A ceramics engineer, Archie was a creative, talented man and a lover of fine art, who envisioned a pottery on the brickyard grounds. The dream came to fruition in 1951. Today the Archie Bray Foundation is an internationally acclaimed ceramic arts center, welcoming artists who come here to work, share ideas, and keep the dream alive.
Museums are generally recognized as good places to go to receive reliable answers about history and material culture. Oftentimes, however, we are the ones with questions.
Plains Indian Tipi on the Front Lawn at the Montana Historical Society (2021).
At the beginning of every summer, we set up a Plains Indian tipi on our front lawn to pay homage to Montana’s original inhabitants. This year is no exception. We recently posted photographs on Facebook of our friend Cary Youpee erecting the tipi (with a little help from MHS staff). Subsequent comments on the post questioning the tribal affiliation of the tipi made me curious, so I did some investigating; here’s what I found out.
The record documenting the provenance of this tipi is both sketchy and contradictory. It was donated to MHS in 2006, by Gundrun Erikson from Arendal, Norway. It had been in storage in Havre with Myrtle and Burton Bosch for several years before that. The tipi was originally owned by Rol Careleno of Havre, where it had been in his basement for quite some time and was in need of repair. Rol gave it to Gundrun, who had it repaired, probably in Havre at a shoe repair shop by the owner who did excellent work. We do not know when the tipi was made or how long it was in storage before it was given to Gundrun, or how long Gundren kept it before donating it to MHS.
The tipi came to the MHS education department in a storage container marked as “a 14 foot Crow tipi.” Presumably, the unnamed tipi maker was the one who identified it as being Crow. Consequently, we have always erected it in the Crow style, which is with a four-pole set-up. Most often, Crow tipis are solid white, however, and this one clearly is not. According to Dr. Shane Doyle—a tribal member and expert on Crow history— there are exceptions in instances where individuals have dreams or are gifted a design. Thus, though somewhat unusual, it is not out of the question that this tipi is Crow.
Digging deeper in response to the Facebook comments, I found correspondence that indicates that the tipi is “a Cree lodge … painted on the Rocky Boy reservation.” What? Now we are wondering, is it Crow? Is it Cree? Or is it a Crow-made tipi later painted by a Cree artist? Just what is the rest of the story?
We hope that someone out there has additional information that they are willing to share with us. We always want to be as accurate as we can and if we do find out that it is truly a Cree tipi, we will need to begin setting it up with a three-pole style. If anyone has the answer to this mystery, please contact me at dmitchell@mt.gov.
By Micah Chang, PhD. candidate, Montana State University
Many Montanans perceive the Hi-Line as “drive-through country,” destitute of people and places. However, one glance at Henry and Edgar Syverud’s photo collection challenges that modern cultural stereotype. The Syveruds’ photo collection tells the story of hope and hard times on the Montana Hi-Line through a series of four volumes of scrapbooks, encompassing some 1,500 photographic prints, that track the two brothers awash in the tides of local, regional, and national history.
Lot 045 v1p11.Stamp 1 and Lot 045 v1p11.Stamp 2, Portraits of Henry and Edgar Syverud in their mid-30s
Henry and Edgar Syverud were born in Osnabrock, North Dakota, in the mid-1880s to Knute and Anne Syverud. Both brothers’ lives show their strong connection to Norwegian and Scandinavian ancestry through their immediate communities and worldviews evident in their photo collection. The two brothers were nearly inseparable from the start, both attending the University of North Dakota and then proceeding to homestead in northeastern and eastern Montana.
Lot 045 v1p07.19, View of Henry Syverud (left) while at the University of North Dakota
Henry initially homesteaded in the early 20th century in the area between Coalridge and Dagmar, Montana, in what was then Valley County, though soon to become Sheridan County. While Edgar started farther south in Dawson County, opting to move north into Sheridan County with his brother around 1916. From 1916 until their deaths in 1965 and 1966, Henry and Edgar Syverud lived together on Henry’s homestead, farming and participating in all forms of community activities.
Lot 045 v1p17.1, View of Edgar Syverud with his bicycle and a camera in hand
Both Syverud brothers cataloged their life’s journey through photography and scrapbooks. Edgar was the primary photographer for years, seemingly bringing his camera to every social event in the area. Henry made the scrapbooks, selecting photos and writing the captions and narrative history sections. They were heavily involved with their neighbors in what started out as the East Coalridge Community Club but eventually morphed into the local chapter of the Farmers’ Union. They were also a part of the development of a local Lutheran congregation. Lastly, the brother’s interest in and fascination with petroglyph rocks, which they called “The Writing Rocks.” led to the creation of Writing Rock State Park, which still exists today.
Lot 045 v3p47.3-286, View of the Syveruds’ automobile at the Writing Rock State Park in Divide County, North Dakota. Writing Rock No. 1 is in the foreground
The brothers’ social and work lives, and those of their neighbors, is well documented in the photographs taken mostly from about 1910-1960.
The brothers’ story reflects the larger history of the region. By the time both brothers were in their late teenage years, the Montana Hi-Line flooded with hopefuls—often immigrants, single males, and younger people—searching for a future by proving up a quarter-section of unbroken land. After the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 both brothers ended up in eastern Montana trying their hand at farming. However, after several years of successive drought and financial hardship, the brothers often found themselves deeply engaged in community activities and eclectic hobbies and side jobs. Through their photographs and scrapbooks the Syveruds created a narrative that shows how people persevered through drought, natural disasters, and failure by relying on their families and friends.
[Lot 045 v1p29.2, View of Edgar Syverud with the East Coalridge Community Club at the Haaven Schoolhouse eating pie
Aside from local history, the Syverud’s unintentionally created a photo archive that sheds light on important facets of regional and national history. The scrapbooks’ heavy focus on agriculture reveals the multiplicity of crops that the Syveruds and other homesteaders in northeastern Montana had to grow in order to achieve any semblance of profit. For example, the use of flax—one of the shortest-lived agronomic crops in Montana—dominates many of Edgar’s early photos of planting, harvesting, and threshing.
Lot 045 v1p15.7, View of Henry Syverud standing in a field of flax in full bloom
Also, the Syverud collection elucidates the history of the United States northern border in a time when the drawing of the 49th parallel was a recent event. Henry and Edgar Syverud recorded the history of their lives; however, upon closer inspection, their photo archive tells the story of many immigrants, Montanans, and Americans.
Photos from the first and second scrapbook volumes. and most of the third, are now digitized and available to those interested in the Syveruds’ story, and the history of homesteading in Sheridan County, Montana. Photos can be browsed and searched on the Montana Memory Project, specifically the MHS Photo Archives’ “Photographs from the Montana Historical Society.” Hundreds more Syverud photos will be added over the next couple months thanks to the continuing financial support of the Sheridan County Historical Association and the Montana History Foundation, in partnership with MHS.
Montana Historical Society resources—from newspapers to diaries and letters to blogs—not only document the many milestones achieved by Montana’s women legislators, they also promote a deeper understanding of the inherent sexism faced by Montana’s pioneer female elected officials.
Maggie Smith Hathaway outlined her positions on Prohibition, Child Welfare, and a “Workable Farm Loan Law” in this 1916 campaign flier. Maggie Smith Hathaway Collection, Mss 224, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, University of Montana.
Montana Legislative Women (MLW) have been making history since rancher Maggie Hathaway and journalist Emma Ingalls walked into the House Chambers in 1917–Hathaway was a Stevensville Democrat; Ingalls was a Republican from Kalispell. Both women left important legacies. Ingalls chaired the House committee on Morals, Charities, and Reform while sponsoring HB 374, which created a separate vocational school for women. Hathaway introduced HB 63, which required local institutions to hire female attendants for female prisoners; HB 258, which detailed procedures for committing students to the School for the Deaf and Blind in Boulder as well as purchasing of a farm for the School; and HB 383, which required fire escapes for all multi-floored Montana schools. Hathaway’s Democratic colleagues elected her minority floor leader, the first woman in the country to hold such a distinction. She later acted as the Director of the Montana Bureau of Welfare. Both women participated in the ratification of Suffrage Amendment during the 1919 Extraordinary Session.
During the period between 1917-1939, twelve women joined the MLW. That number doubled from 1941-1971, when twenty-four women served in Montana’s Legislature. MLW members continued to make history. Elected in 1932, Wolf Point’s Dolly Cusker Akers was the first Native American to serve in the Montana House of Representatives. Mabel Cruickshank became the first women elected to the legislature from Gallatin County in 1936. An education advocate, she sponsored a bill creating adult education classes and schools throughout the state. Ellenore Bridenstine entered the state senate chamber in 1945, the first woman to serve in Montana’s upper chamber.
Participation in the Montana Women’s Caucus, the League of Women Voters, and the 1972 Constitutional Convention, prepared a new generation of women to tackle the male dominated state legislature. In 1973, nine women served. The 1975, 1977, and 1979 sessions each had fourteen women. Their names are familiar to many—Betty Babcock, Pat Regan, Dorothy Bradley, Ora Polly Holmes, and Aubyn Curtis, to name a few. Air Force wife Geraldine Travis from Great Falls was Montana’s first African American legislator. When asked about her priorities, she explained, “I believe in Black rights, women’s rights, children’s rights—human rights and dignity.”
Republican, journalist and suffragist Emma Ingalls sponsored the bill that created Mountain View Vocational School for Girls and introduced the national suffrage amendment when it came before the Montana House for ratification. MHS Photo Archives Legislative Collection, Montana House of Representatives, 15th Legislative Assembly, 1917
1970s MLW members played integral roles in bringing Montana laws in line with the new constitution. Victories included the addition of the clause “irreconcilable differences” as reason for a divorce, acts to prevent sexual discrimination in the work place, creation of laws preventing the discharge of a female employee due to pregnancy, and use of more inclusive language in lawmaking. Results of the latter included allowing women to be legal head of households, forbidding institutions to deny credit to a person based on gender, and redefining rape as assault on one person by another, rather than the narrow belief that rape was a man assaulting a woman.
MLW members discovered that as they battled discriminatory legislation, they also battled decades of poor behavior. For example, not until 1978 did Montana’s legislative women get a private restroom. From 1917 to 1979, MLW members watched their male counterparts take advantage of a private lavatory, often using the facility to avoid lobbyist. During this time, female legislators faced a gauntlet of lobbyists and press as they made their way to public restrooms. It was not until 1979 that they received a modicum of privacy with the installation of partitions; their bathroom situation further improved with the appropriation of monies for permanent facilities to accommodate their needs.
The Independent Record, 28 April 1985, pg. 1D
On the other hand, in 1985, Billing’s Senator Pat Regan took a humorous approach to bring attention to uncensored sexist remarks made by her fellow state senators. She kept a pink pig, labeled “MCP”—Male Chauvinist Pig—on her desk. When colleagues made sexist remarks, such as referring to staff as “gals” or “girls,” she had one of the pages deliver the MCP to their desk. One beneficiary earned the MCP by remarking that a woman murdered by her husband may have deserved it.
While the 2019 numbers did not break the record held by the 2015 legislature with forty-seven women, the percentage of Montana Legislative Women grows consistently. Each woman brings her own passions and style. They must be successful, because I have not heard the term “Male Chauvinist Pig” in quite some time.
By Kirby Lambert, Outreach and Interpretation Program Manager
K. D. Swan at work, ca. 1936
Photographer: H. T. Gisborne, Courtesy of Elizabeth Starks
As you head out to enjoy Montana’s national forests this summer, take a minute to thank photographer K. D. Swan (1887—1970) for the role he played in preserving this incredible legacy. At a critical time in Forest Service history, Swan documented the public value of these natural reserves and widely promoted their use and protection.
For more than three decades, Swan photographed the Northern Region of the U.S. Forest Service, an area that encompasses all of Montana as well as portions of Idaho and North and South Dakota. A native of Massachusetts and graduate of Harvard’s forestry school, Swan arrived in the Treasure State in 1911, six years after the Forest Service was formed. Initially, he surveyed homestead sites, planted trees, “cruised” timber to determine average tree sizes, volume, and quality, and worked as a topographic draftsman.
In the 1920s—recognizing the need for the agency to win further public support for its various programs and goals—the Forest Service established the Information and Education Branch. An accomplished photographer, Swan was soon transferred to the new division. As one chief later summarized Swan's charge: "There's a story there to be told, and pictures will be needed in the telling."
Hoodoo Lake Moose, #331160
Thereafter, Swan worked tirelessly, crafting exceptional photographs that dramatically illustrated the value that national forests held for the American people and vividly documented the myriad tasks involved in managing forest lands.
His images were used to illustrate numerous Forest Service publications—many of which he also authored—as well as non-agency publications ranging from National Geographic to the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor. In addition, Swan regularly toured the region, spreading the "gospel of forest conservation" through educational and entertaining programs that he illustrated with still and moving images that he had taken.
Swan retired from the Forest Service in 1947, but he continued writing and taking pictures of the forest, devoting his efforts to the cause he loved. In 1968 he published his memoir, Splendid Was the Trail. This highly readable narrative still offers a detailed look at life and work in a remote, sparsely populated region during the formative years of the forest service. Copies are available through your library or the MHS Museum Store.
Unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy of the USDA Forest Service, Region 1
USFS promotional pamphlet, MHS 634.9/SW34Big Salmon Lake, #300292Swan River near Salmon Prairie, #366216Eagle Creek, #365158Trail Riders Skirting the Chinese Wall, #346819
