Distinctly Montana Magazine

49 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m W HAT'S THE FIRST THING MONTANANS think upon hear- ing mention of Missoula? Usually hippies. The city wasn't always Montana's countercultural capital, though. In the 1960s, Missoula's first hippies faced significant resistance. The hip community's integration in town entailed noteworthy strug- gles. The haven status was earned, not granted. Journalist Michael Fallon coined the term "hippie," as we know it, in a 1965 article characterizing coffeehouse regulars in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury area. This new style of beatnik sought a socio-political revolution and the end of the Vietnam War. They rejected the hallmarks of American prosperity. They were idealists—romantics talking in their own lingo: "This fox, ever since she dropped out, man, she's been on this raw food trip, dig?" They dressed wild, experimented with drugs, free love, and communal living, and listened to psychedelic rock n' roll. Haight-Ashbury could contain the craze only so long before it burst across the globe. In the mid-1960s, hippie trends took seed in Missoula. The city's first (documented) Vietnam protest came on March 18, 1965. Marchers staged a walkout from the University of Mon- tana campus to the post office for a demonstration and speech- es. The event proved peaceful. That same year, a columnist for the college's newspaper, the Montana Kaimin, described more and more students "Puffing the Magic Drag-on." In 1966, Charlie Artman, an LSD guru with an avant-garde folk album out, came from Berkeley, California, to speak on the UM campus. He drew an enormous crowd. As part of his visit, he sat on a drug discussion panel with the University Congrega- tional Church's pastor and a local pharmacist. Students listened enrapt, as Artman advocated the legalization of LSD and peyote, claimed hallucinogens boosted his I.Q., and said, "Marijuana is my think medicine." Missoula's rock bands like The Gross National Product, Wayne Silversonic and the Cranustones, and The Chosen Few, were also growing more psychedelic—more San Fran- cisco—in sound. During 1967's Summer of Love, The Chosen Few changed their name to The Initial Shock and moved to San Francisco. There, they met the Fillmore Auditorium's concert promoter, Bill Graham. He booked them to play alongside The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Iron Butterfly, and many others. Ac- cording to Missoula lore, Initial Shock could have been a house- hold name had they not, hoping for a better deal, turned down a contract from Atlantic Records. By 1967, Missoula's premiere psychedelic rock venue, Monk's Cave, had opened too. The Cave's mystical indoor mural art was inspired by Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, a source of Beatles lyr- ics and '60s counterculture favorite. The establishment booked bands from across the country. Monk's supplied stroboscopic and liquid light shows. They hired go-go dancers. The turned-on college crowd grooved to acts like The Cobblestones from Chi- cago, with "hit singles" that included "Sunshine" and "Flower People," The Real Mother Goose, and "Detroit's Heavy Rock by ROSS PETERSON PICTURES USED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE MISSOULIAN (LEE ENTERPRISES) AND THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA ARCHIVES.

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