Montana Place Names from Alzada to Zortman
A Montana Historical Society Guide

by Montana Historical Society Research Center Staff

published by Montana Historical Society Press

  • Montana Place Names are as varied as its terrain. Some are predictable, no-nonsense monikers commemorating the person or family who settled there. Others are combinations, such as Wilsall for Will and Sally Jordan, Skalkaho from the Salish words skalkalen (beaver) and kalalko (green wood). Great Northern Railway officials, faced with hundreds of stations and communities to name, gave new meaning to "globe-trotting," picking blindfolded from the globe. Hence Zurich, Dunkirk, and Malta. Other names are whimsical. Or puzzling. Native inhabitants gave names to Cut Bank Creek, Missoula, and Red Lodge. Some Montana places have had two, three, sometimes four different labels.

    Flip through these pages and find yourself exploring Montana. The maps and three-way cross-references make it a cinch to find any place. This book is designed to be dog-eared and marked up, stashed in a handy place until yet another name provokes your curiosity. Consult it often while the panorama of Montana unfolds in your windshield or a friendly debate erupts at the dinner table. Each entry is a guaranteed conversation starter and a little eye-opener about Montana's rich history.



384 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 137 b/w photos, 13 map(s), index, 20 softcovers per case

softcover
ISBN 10: 0-9759196-1-X
ISBN 13: 9780975919613
$26.95

RELEASE DATE
July 2009

 

 

 

 


Montana Place Names from Alzada to Zortman
A Montana Historical Society Guide

Montana Place Names from Alzada to Zortman align=



For more than two years, five staff members from the Montana Historical Society Research Center in Helena researched Montana’s varied place names. Using a Montana state highway map as their guide, they set out to find the history behind the naming of more than 1,000 Montana places. Collectively, the authors represent decades of archival and historical research experience.


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