Distinctly Montana Magazine

20 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 6 Last Best Books 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 WWW.ISLEOFBOOKSSHOP.COM THE COUNSEL OF THE YEARS BY THE BEFRIENDERS OF BOZEMAN In February of 1993, an 84-year- old woman named Sadie tapped on Pete Merrill's car window in a Bozeman grocery store parking lot. "Young man," she began— which got Pete's attention, as he was nearly 60 at the time. She offered him 35 cents for a ride home. Pete drove her, cleared the ice from her sidewalks, and was invited back for cookies and ginger ale. A retired invest- ment banker, Pete recognized something in that encounter be- yond a neighbor who needed a lift. He pulled 106 names from the Meals on Wheels recipient list and discovered a population of Bozeman seniors with few opportunities for social connec- tion. Together with partners at Montana State University and other community members, he founded Befrienders, a nonprofit that matches community volunteers with older adults for com- panionship, support, and advocacy. More than thirty years later, Befrienders continues its quiet, es- sential work, serving seniors across the Gallatin Valley and the Livingston area. Volunteers commit to just one hour a week, but the friendships that form—over walks at Bozeman Ponds, cups of coffee at the mall on cold days, or simply sitting and talking —often last far beyond the initial year. The Counsel of the Years collects portraits of some of these se- niors, and they are evocative and warm, capturing not just who these people are now but the lives they've carried with them. The title, drawn from Max Ehrmann's beloved Desiderata, suits the book and the organization perfectly. This is a volume about the dignity and richness of lives that deserve to be seen and known, and about a community that has found a way to make sure they are. We recommend it wholeheartedly, and we recommend the organization just as strongly. To learn more or to volunteer, visit befriendersbozeman.org. MARCUS DALY'S MONTANA EMPIRES: COPPER MINING, RACEHORSES, & POLITICS BY BRENDA WAHLER Distinctly Montana contributor and friend of the magazine Brenda Wahler returns with the second and concluding volume of her biogra- phy of Marcus Daly, and we couldn't be more pleased to recommend it. Marcus Daly's Montana Empires picks up where her first book, Mar- cus Daly's Road to Montana (which we reviewed with emphatic positivity in a past issue), left off, following Daly from 1882 through the height of his power as he built the Anaconda Copper Company into a colossus, construct- ed America's largest smelter in a town he named himself, estab- lished his beloved Bitterroot Valley horse ranch, and waged his legendary political war with rival copper king W.A. Clark. Together, the two volumes form the first comprehensive biogra- phy of Daly since 1956—a remarkable gap for one of Montana's most consequential figures. That gap exists in large part be- cause Daly wanted it to be that way. He was famously secretive. Before his death he ordered his papers destroyed, and his widow obliged, gathering up what remained and burning the lot. For most historians, that was the end of the trail. Not for Wahler. A fourth-generation Montanan, attorney, and lifelong horsewoman, she came to Daly through her earlier book on the history of Montana horse racing, in which Daly essential- ly hijacked two chapters with the sheer scale of his racing oper- ation. Her legal training proved indispensable: courthouse re- cords, probate filings, and other documents the family couldn't burn became the backbone of her research. The result is a por- trait of Daly that feels both authoritative and intimate—the gre- garious, generous public man and the sly manipulator beneath. If you have any interest in how Montana became Montana, these are essential books. We are proud to recommend them.

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