It is our hope that these books, selected for relevance to Montana and Montana real estate, will enhance your enjoyment of Montana and offer reliable guides for experiencing both the well-known and the lesser-known attractions of the Treasure State.

Featuring the photography of David R. Stoecklein, The Montana Cowboy tells the story of those mixed-luck, big-hearted people who have been galloping along the range, pushing the cattle in Montana for more than a century. The history and differences in geography of the state are told by Montana native, Pat Dawson. His reflections of the oldtimers' spirits are complemented by the beautiful illustrations of the famed artist, Buckeye Blake. David R. Stoecklein (photographer), Patrick Dawson (illustrator), Dave Powell (illustrator)

Excerpt from an Illinois reader's review: Stoecklein's use of shading and shadow in his photography in this book really capture the Montana spirit. My wife, a born-and-bred Montana gal, really loved this book. She was really moved by some of the pictures. This is really a great book for the die-hard Montana resident (and you know who you are...) and anyone who likes the spirit of the northwest.

Excerpt from a Pennsylvania reader's review:The photographs make this book. I have never visited a ranch, but I now feel like I have. "The Montana Cowboy" shows the real working life of the American cowboy, not the fluffy romantic stuff that comes out of Hollywood. This book offered me the chance to experience the realities of ranching first-hand. It holds a prominent place on my bookshelf, and it is well worth the buy."

A biography of Meriwether Lewis by Stephen Ambrose that relies heavily on the journals of both Lewis and Clark, this book is also backed up by the author's personal travels along Lewis and Clark's route to the Pacific. Ambrose is not content to simply chronicle the events of the "Corps of Discovery" as the explorers called their ventures. He often pauses to assess the military leadership of Lewis and Clark, how they negotiated with various native peoples and what they reported to Jefferson. Though the expedition failed to find Jefferson's hoped for water route to the Pacific, it fired interest among fur traders and other Americans, changing the face of the West forever.

Ambrose has written prolifically about men who were larger than life: Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Colonel Custer. Here he takes on half of the two-headed hero of American exploration: Meriwether Lewis. Ambrose, his wife, and five children have followed the footsteps of the Lewis and Clark expedition for 20 summers, in the course of which the explorer has become a friend of the Ambrose family; the author's affection shines through this narrative. (#1 New York Times Best Seller)

The cowboy as hero, David McCumber reminds us, is one of America's abiding myths. John Wayne, Clint Eastwood - even the ubiquitous Marlboro man - endure as symbols, perhaps because of our need to believe (in a technology-savvy, urbanized culture) that "cleaner country. . .something rougher, less despoiled, harder to win" still exists. At midlife, McCumber abandoned "corporate striving" in California and spent a year learning what it means to be a real cowboy at one of Montana's largest ranches. His unsentimental, gritty, yet evocative account defies and confirms our preconceptions. Cowboying, he quickly learns, has always meant backbreaking, isolating work: mending endless stretches of fence, weeks spent digging ditches, rousting livestock in subzero weather. But ranch life has not been immune to the times: today's cowboys choose four-wheel drive vehicles over horses, regularly deliver calves by cesarean section, and might as easily hold a degree in English as in agriculture.

Ultimately, McCumber reveals that the cowboy is alive and kicking in the West, his ethic defined by a firm belief in the value of hard work and an unshakable respect for the weather and the land. "Cowboys are heroes," he tells us, "but not of the Hollywood variety. Their heroism comes in small portions. John Wayne may have saved the stampeding herd in Red River, but in real life, the herd is saved one calf at a time." --Svenja Soldovieri

Quote from Reader: "Yellowstone...Colter's Hell...geysers...Indians.... I found this book a total pleasure to read. Couldn't put it down! Although it is true that Colter's life was somewhat obscure by a lack of more historical documentation, Harris does an exemplary piece of work with what there is to work with. Citing such references as William Clark, Thomas James, Brackenridge, Bradbury, and others, Harris does make a justifiable attempt to back up his story. Required reading for those into this time period of the early American West when mountain men roamed the wide open spaces, high mountain valleys and peaks. It must have been a tough, but very rewarding way of life...if you survived the perils and hardships of that day." (by Burton Harris, David Sievert Lavender (designer)

Quote from a reader from Omaha, Nebraska: As did most people who develop a fascination with Johnson, I 'caught the bug' from the Robert Redford movie. It was not until some time later, however, when I inadvertantly vacationed in areas in which many of the events actually occurred, that I sought out the information on the 'real' Jeremiah Johnson and found the book. I have read it cover-to-cover more times than I can count."

It depicts a coarse, violent life in terms uniquely appropriate to the stories it relates, and does a remarkable job at documenting what little can be documented of a life lived far beyond the bounds of places where such documentation even existed- much less, mattered. The starkness with which the author relates his information does much more to convey what the real Johnson's life was like than a more esthetically pleasing and smoothly literary version ever could.

Finishing the book leaves one wishing there was more - wondering, for example, what could make a man such as Johnson seek out such a life, and wishing it were possible to read all of the actual research to which Thorp so frequently refers. (by Raymond W. Thorp, Robert Manson Bunker, Richard Mercer Dorson, designer)

Quote from Reviewer from Paso Robles, California: The saga of Jedediah Smith began at age 23, and ended ten years later, in 1831, when, on the Santa Fe trail, he was killed by indians when he stopped for a drink from a stream. He was one of the first true mountain men and trappers whose life story, during those ten years, introduces the reader to others whose names are more familiar now than his own. He died before the western movement began that relied so heavily upon the knowledge of such persons. Yet it is doubtful that any, except perhaps Kit Carson, came close to exploring so much country, much of it alone, or nearly so.

The book is a scholarly presentation of his incredible feats each, for the most part, intended to discover the elusive beaver. Jedediah's territory covered the then unknown expanse ranging from the confluence of the Yellowstone and the Missouri Rivers, current site of Fort Union where I purchased my book, to Oregon, California as far south as LA, east along the Old Spanish Trial and the Gila River as well as into NM and everywhere in between. His knowledge of so vast a country was invaluable and, in spite of his untimely death, contributed mightily to what eventually would become known as Manifest Destiny. Some are destined to contribute whether intended or not. The book deserves a place in the library of every serious student of the west. As a CA resident, I have the advantage of having traveled by car, and know well, the land this man walked. It is amazing. Highly recommended. (by Dale Lowell Morgan)

Quote from Reviewer: "Stanley Vestal did an admirably good job in recreating an accurate history of the early 1800's in the American West. This historical biography delves into the little known life of the great American explorer, trapper, and scout, Jim Bridger. He starts with his youth and factually chronicles almost every known aspect of his life until his death at the old age 76. (which you will find was quite characteristic of many a mountain man.)

Jim Bridger was the discoverer of the Great Salt Lake and most points of interest in the Rocky Mountain Range. His verbal descriptions of the unknown west are given in Vestal's book and vividly show why Bridger was one of the main reasons the early settlers heading west to Oregon survived. Vestal writes this book in the language used by the early "mountain men." He explains the "special" vocabulary used by these early men of courage. Vestal tells of actual evnts involving the American aboriginal peoples known as "Indians." He tells of the good things and the bad things that happen to these people, and why; and yet doesn't present the episodes in the usual "cry baby" attitude used by many of today's writers describing our aboriginal Americans In this book, Vestal gives the reader glimpes of the real lives of Hugh Glass, Kit Carson, William Sublette, and other explorers of the time.

Jim Bridger, although not usually recognized for this, was nearly single-handedly responsible for the opening of the Great American West. Jim Bridger was a friend to the aboriginal Americans. He understood them. Vestal brings this to life, as well as explaining thr REAL reason the settlers and aboriginal Americans developed conflicts. Stanley Vestal did a marvelous job in this book. I highly recommend it as a textbook for any student of American history. It is told in real terms, without appologies. This book would be a great book to precede James Michener's Centennial, and Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage (a history of Lewis and Clark)." (by Stanley Vestal)

Based on a true incident of heroism in the history of the American West, this debut by a Washington, D.C., international trade attorney and former bureaucrat in the Clinton administration is an almost painfully gripping drama. A Philadelphia-born adventurer, frontiersman, Hugh Glass, goes to sea at age 16 and enjoys a charmed life, including several years under the flag of the pirate Jean Lafitte and almost a year as a prisoner of the Loup Pawnee Indians on the plains between the Platte and the Arkansas rivers. In 1822, at age 36, Glass escapes, finds his way to St. Louis, and enters the employ of Capt. Andrew Henry, trapping along tributaries of the Missouri River.

After surviving months of hardship and Indian attack, he falls victim to a grizzly bear. His throat nearly ripped out, scalp hanging loose and deep slashing wounds to his back, shoulder and thigh, Glass appears to be mortally wounded. Initially, Captain Henry refuses to abandon him and has him carried along the Grand River. Unfortunately, the terrain soon makes transporting Glass impossible. Even though his death seems certain, Henry details two men, a fugitive mercenary, John Fitzgerald, and young Jim Bridger (who lived to become a frontier hero) to stand watch and bury him. After several days, Fitzgerald sights hostile Indians. Taking Glass's rifle and tossing Bridger his knife, Fitzgerald flees with Bridget, leaving Glass. Enraged at being left alone and defenseless, Glass survives against all odds and embarks on a 3,000-mile-long vengeful pursuit of his ignominious betrayers. Told in simple expository language, this is a spellbinding tale of heroism and obsessive retribution." (by Michael Punke)