Explore the haunted history of Helena, Montana.

The Life of the Afterlife in the Big Sky State is a groundbreaking history of death in Montana. It offers a unique, reflective, and sensitive perspective on the evolution of customs and burial grounds. Beginning with Montana's first known burial site, Ellen Baumler considers the archaeological records of early interments in rock ledges, under cairns, in trees, and on open-air scaffolds. Contact with Europeans at trading posts and missions brought new burial practices. Later, crude "boot hills" and pioneer graveyards evolved into orderly cemeteries. Planned cemeteries became the hallmark of civilization and the measure of an educated community. Baumler explores this history, yet untold about Montana. She traces the pathway from primitive beginnings to park-like, architecturally planned burial grounds where people could recreate, educate their children, and honor the dead. The Life of the Afterlife in the Big Sky State is not a comprehensive listing of the many hundreds of cemeteries across Montana. Rather it discusses cultural identity evidenced through burial practices, changing methods of interments and why those came about, and the evolution of cemeteries as the "last great necessity" in organized communities. Through examples and anecdotes, the book examines how we remember those who have passed on.

128 pages, 5.5 x 7.5, 12 b/w photos, 28 illustrations, index

The penitentiary at Deer Lodge, established in 1870, was Montana Territory's first federal facility. In 1889 it became a state penal institution and served in that capacity until 1979. Under the direction of the long serving (1893-1921) and controversial warden Frank Conley, prison laborers built most of the buildings that visitors see today. These buildings bear the marks of a violent history: bazooka scars mar the tower where prisoners holed up during the infamous riot of 1959 and an inmate's delicate stenciling oddly adorns the room where the two riot masterminds died.

In a collaborative documentary of the legendary prison, historian Ellen Baumler tells the physical and human tale of the troubled institution whose idyllic setting contrasts so violently with the history it holds. J. M. Cooper's detailed photographs of the prison's interiors and exteriors combine with historic images to illustrate the stories of the people who lived--and sometimes died--within its walls.