Distinctly Montana Magazine

76 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 3 Last Best Books ONE HUNDRED GHOSTS: AN EXPOSITION OF RURAL GRAIN ELEVATORS BY BLAINE HADFIELD There is something achingly romantic about grain elevators, the silent giants that dot the rail lines of the American West. They stand as monuments to once monolithic industries, now faded into oddly beautiful decay. You can find them still standing, love- ly and melancholy, in Montana towns like Wilsall, Clyde Park, Wibaux, Brockway, Intake, Carlyle, Mildred, Ismay, and Plevna. To see all of the grain elevators in Blaine Hadfield's gorgeous- ly photographed and researched coffee table book, you'd have to travel thousands of miles. And even if you did see them with your own eyes, it probably wouldn't be as pretty as the photos Hadfield has included here. Make no mistake, this perfectly doubles as both an informa- tive history of the rail lines and grain elevator as well as an art book that should grace any Western coffee table. We couldn't possibly put it any better than Robert John Zenk does in his foreword to the book, so we'll let him sum it up: "Blaine takes us on these journeys with fresh insight, artful language and unique vision, without relying on visual or verbal cliche. Every photo contains the heart and soul of its subject, and every caption takes the reader into some specific slice of a distant place and time." MONTANA: A PAPER TRAIL BY THOMAS MINCKLER, WITH FOREWORD BY BRIAN W. DIPPIE For those of us who love Montana history and who appreciate new or rarely seen angles on the same, Minckler's Montana: A Pa- per Trail is the gift we've been praying to get for about 100 years. The breadth of materials presented therein, chosen from the author's exhaus- tive collection of books, photographs and paper ephemera, tell us new and vital stories about our state's history while providing new contexts for some of the better known events. Here are little seen Charlie Russell drawings, letters to Thom- as Meagher, the largest collection of Teddy Blue Abbott and Granville Stuart's correspondence in the country, and a thou- sand other treasures as well. The book represents the contents of the author's collection, as well as his considerable knowledge, laid bare. Montana: A Paper Trail presents a detailed provenance of our state, and perusing its many, many interesting avenues will pro- vide true pleasure to any Montanan (or otherwise) who appre- ciates Western history. If we had our way, there'd be a copy in every household in the state, and maybe every library west of the Mississippi, too. Presents ISLE OF BOOKS 511 W. MENDENHALL BOZEMAN 406.219.3581 ISLE OF BOOKS & BOOKS 43 E BROADWAY ST. BUTTE 406.782.9520 THESE AND OTHER BOOKS AVAILABLE AT EITHER LOCATION

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