An Uncommon Journey
The History of Old Dawson County, Montana Territory
The Biography of Stephen Norton Van Blaricom, A True Story of the First Settlers of the Last West
by H. Norman Hyatt
published by H. Norman Hyatt
produced by Sweetgrass Books
- Based on the memoir of Stephen Norton Van Blaricom, An Uncommon Journey details the origins of Dawson County, Montana, in the late 1800s.
The oldest of nine children, Van Blaricom left home at the age of thirteen and worked for many of northeastern Montana's earliest ranches. After working for the Northern Pacific Railroad, he married Maud Griselle, one of the first female telegraphers for the Northern Pacific.
More than a family history, An Uncommon Journey tells the personal stories of many of the first settlers of this last West: buffalo hunters, cattlemen, train drivers, early tradesmen, saloonkeepers, scallywags, and lawmen.
This is the story of many of the long-forgotten first settlers of old Dawson County and how they met the challenges of a country that was then primitive and remote at its best and deadly at its worst. For all of them it was, indeed, An Uncommon Journey.
512 pages, 6 x 9, 18 b/w photos, 7 illustrations, 7 map(s), index, appendix
softcover
ISBN 10: 1-59152-056-8
ISBN 13: 978-1-59152-056-6
$24.95
RELEASE DATE
2010
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The History of Old Dawson County, Montana Territory |
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H. NORMAN HYATT was born in Yakima, Washington, and raised on a cattle ranch in eastern Washington. A Stanford graduate (B.A., M.A.), he descends from early pioneers of Oregon, Idaho Territory, Washington Territory, and Montana Territory. An Uncommon Journey is his first book. He and his wife, Karen, reside in Washington. |
"With the same stick-to-it tenacity that enabled the settlers of old Dawson County to scratch a living from the harsh badlands of eastern Montana, Norman Hyatt has pieced together the fascinating stories of the life and adventures of these old-timers. The resulting book, An Uncommon Journey, offers a delightful and historically accurate view of this region. An Uncommon Journey has earned its place in the written history of Montana."
Molly Holz, editor of Montana: The Magazine of Western History
"This engaging new history of Dawson County effectively marries a first-person narrative with footnoted documentation of late nineteenth-century life in eastern Montana. This is so much more than a family history."
Brian Shovers, librarian, Montana Historical Society
"What began as a search for a long-lost grave evolved into a thoroughly researched, carefully documented history of old Dawson County, An Uncommon Journey. Readers will be introduced to the earliest ranchers and the coming of the railroad via vivid depiction of pioneer life full of fascinating tales."
Gladys Mullet Kaufman, author of As I Remember Stories of Eastern Montana's Pioneers, Vol. I and Vol. II
"Researching outward from one ancestor's life, Hyatt has created a substantial history of Glendive and Dawson County's earliest days in this volume. He leaves no source unexamined in seeking the story."
Barbara Fifer, author and editor