Isle of Books Presents Last Best Books Fall 2024: "Catastrophe at Custer Creek," "Disturbing the sleeping Buffalo," and "Horse Thievery For Glory, Horse Thievery For Profit"

Catastrophe at Custer Creek

by Ian Campbell Wilson

On Father's Day in 1938, a Milwaukee Road passenger train called the Olympian No. 15, known for its opulent luxury, encountered a flooded creek bed and derailed into Custer Creek outside of Terry. It was the deadliest train accident in Montana's history, killing 49 people and injuring 75.

Historian and writer Ian Campbell Wilson has illuminated this underattended moment of Montana history. Amazingly, Wilson was able to track down and interview some living survivors of the accident, including George Lallas, who was seven at the time, and has, sadly, since passed away. He also talked to families, including a 104-year-old woman whose sister was riding the ill-fated train to attend her wedding. Sadly, she too has since passed away.

Wilson has pored through the archives of the Montana Historical Society, Dartmouth College's Rauner Special Collections Library, and the Miles City Public Library for morsels of detail and it shows. This rich, satisfying narrative sets up the historical context for the Milwaukee Road and the state of rail travel in Montana at the time, extends to the wreck itself, and even beyond as the fallout of the Olympian's derailment was felt by survivors, families of victims, and the companies and businesses involved.

Thank goodness that someone came along and wrote a book about this horrible Montana disaster, and thank goodness that someone was Ian Campbell Wilson, who has proven more than equal to the task of encapsulating a human tragedy in a way that is sobering, moving, and, most importantly to the reader, page-turning. Very highly recommended!

Horse Capture for Glory; Horse Thievery for Profit
Or, A Short History of Fleet Equines in the American West

by Michael Bugenstein

Beginning 65 million years ago and concluding yesterday, Horse Capture for Glory; Horse Thievery for Profit tells the entire story, not just of horse theft, an audacious enough project, but of the introduction of horses themselves to North America, and the many ways that they influenced the humans who lived with them, fought over them, and used them as tools, transportation, and weapons.

As you can tell from the somewhat baroque title, Michael Bugenstein, a former BNSF conductor and Glendive resident as well as a historian and writer, has brought some style and verve to a topic that is already of interest to most students of the West. The pages of this sprightly and elegantly written book are full of maps, illustrations, old newspapers and photographs.

In short, it's a treasure trove. Highly recommended.

Disturbing the Sleeping Buffalo: 23 Unexpected Stories That Awaken Montana's Past

by Sally Thompson

As an anthropologist with four decades of experience, Sally Thompson knows a little something about how the smallest evidence—things you find on the side of the trail, or buried a few inches deep, or even in plain sight—can help us to understand the sweeping, epic stories of the past. It's hard to imagine a better guide than Thompson.

From signs in tree bark, the names on the land, and other details Thompson weaves a portrait of Montana that is moving, surprising, and emotionally resonant.

Thompson does Montana a service by finding stories about an underattended Native chief, the burial of a child in Missoula, and more. Each is fascinating, and most are stories you haven't heard before.

Highly recommended for any students of Montana's history and anthropology!