The Montana Historical Society welcomes community members back to its lecture series after the holiday break with presentations on powerhouse 20th-century politician Burton K. Wheeler and the archaeology of the first people to inhabit the land that is now Montana.
On Weds., January 8, at 1 p.m. at Touchmark, University of Montana Mansfield Fellow Marc Johnson will discuss his new book, Political Hell-Raiser: The Life and Times of Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana. A New Deal Democrat and lifelong opponent of concentrated power, Wheeler was one of the most powerful politicians Montana ever produced. He came of political age amid antiwar and labor unrest in Butte, Montana, during World War I, battling Montana’s powerful economic interests and championing farmers and miners as a crusading United States attorney. Wheeler went on to become one of the most influential, and controversial, members of the United States Senate during three of the most eventful decades in American history.
On Thurs., January 16, at 6:30 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark Library, Douglas H. MacDonald, professor of archaeology at the University of Montana, will delve into the deep history of Montana in his book talk on Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana’s First Peoples. How long have people lived in the place we now know as Montana? When did they arrive? Where did they come from? Archaeologists have spent the last century working with Montana’s Indigenous peoples to try to answer these questions. While researchers have learned a great deal about the origins of the first people to call this region home, questions remain about which route or routes they took and when they made this journey.
Thursday lectures held at the Lewis and Clark Library will be recorded and posted on the MTHS YouTube channel.
Free tours of the Original Governor’s Mansion are offered every Sat. at noon, 1, 2, and 3 p.m.
For further information about MTHS’s community events, visit https://mths.mt.gov/ or email [email protected].
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