1800s American history

One chill January night in 1867, a Virginia City prostitute was strangled to death in her bed.

The murderer was caught and hanged in front of a crowd of thousands, and the citizens of the Comstock considered the matter closed. More than 150 years later, the murder of Julia Bulette has become a local legend.

The man accused, John Millain, was suspected of killing before, but there would be no justice for those victims. Reduced to vague mentions in newspaper articles, little was left to tie their unsolved murders to that of Julia’s. Did John Millain leave a trail of tragedy that stretched from San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood to Julia’s untimely end in Virginia City?

Author and award-winning journalist Robin Flinchum searches for the truth behind a string of murders in two of the richest cities in the early American West.

Taming a Tumultuous Territory

Hollywood westerns of the twentieth century brought a history of raucous frontier justice to life, but 1800s Colorado was anything but fiction. Bandits held up the Denver and Rio Grande train at Unaweep Switch, while another gang stole $50,000 from the express car at Cotopaxi. “The Bloody Espinosas,” who left mutilated bodies along lonely mountain trails, terrorized southern Colorado. The Reynolds Gang held up South Park stagecoaches, while Tom McCarty and Matt Warner robbed banks. These unruly times demanded a society where the law prevailed. Dave Cook started the Rocky Mountain Detective Association and improved crime fighting methods. Tom Tobin tracked down two serial killers using his wilderness skills. Doc Shores, who always got his man, earned his nickname, “the Bloodhound.” Author Nancy K. Williams hunts down the good, the bad and the ugly characters who color Colorado’s past.

Gone but not Forgotten in the Electric City

The unrelenting passage of time inevitably brings dramatic physical change. Thus, many of Great Falls’ iconic figures and landmarks persist only in memory. Internationally famous “cowboy artist” Charles M. Russell favored socializing at the Mint and Silver Dollar Saloons. The Ozark Club broke down racial barriers, where African American businessman Leo LaMar presented the hottest jazz acts touring the West. Mark Twain and other luminaries graced the Grand Opera. City-sanctioned brothels littered the infamous 10th Alley South. The Big Stack, once the world’s tallest structure, stood as a testament of industry and progress. Award-winning historian Ken Robison turns back the clock for a nostalgic tour of the city’s lost architectural, social and cultural heritage.

The Making of a Copper King!

Born in 1841 to tenant farmers, Marcus Daly came from rural Ireland to New York as a boy. Having learned the big city’s harsh lessons, he traveled west to the gold and silver mining camps of California, Nevada, Utah and Montana. Then, a spectacular discovery in the Anaconda mine made him one of Montana’s famed Copper Kings. Yet, his early life remained shrouded in myth. Famed for his machinations in state politics and shaping Butte into the “Richest Hill on Earth,” his path from farm boy to mining king has been overlooked. For the first time, author Brenda Wahler brings his secretive and formative early years to life.

From Scantily Clad Women to Impassioned Suffragist Speeches

Virginia City boomed in the nineteenth century, with thousands coming to try their luck in the mines. The entertainment industry boomed with it. Piper’s Opera House became one of the most well-known theaters in America, attracting actors from the East and West Coasts for lauded performances. The Alhambra Theater took a different approach, advertising acts with women in scanty clothing to bored, restless miners. The vibrant scene drew in big names like renowned actors John McCullough and Lawrence Barrett, William Cody (better known as Buffalo Bill) and even Mark Twain.

Author Carolyn Grattan Eichin takes a deep dive into Virginia City’s theatrical history and its importance for the stars of the day.

Stories from an Icon of the Oregon Trail

In 1852, Ezra Meeker, his wife, and baby traveled along the Oregon Trail by ox-cart from Iowa to Oregon. In 1906, he reversed his steps and went back to Iowa, and spent most of his ninety-eight years on earth traversing the route, promoting the Oregon Trail and founding the Oregon Trail Association. Published in 1822, his memoir Ox-Team Days remains a captivating account of his days along the trail and the harrowing adventures of a life devoted to its preservation. 

Uncovering Uniquely Montanan Stories

More than steamboats and famous explorers, Great Falls’s history is colored with compelling episodes nearly lost to the ages. Glacial Lake Great Falls changed the course of the Missouri River while carving fascinating geological features like Lost Lake, the Big Sag, and Lewis and Clark’s Slaughter River. Copper from Butte mines, Anaconda smelters, and Great Falls refineries wired the world and helped win the World Wars. Landless Indigenous peoples sought refuge on a hill called 57. A local crusading editor became “Montana’s Conscience” and authored the revered Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome. A Civil War monument was raised to honor both the Blue and the Gray—the first in the nation to do so. Pathbreaking preservationists Charley and Sue Bovey saved acclaimed gold rush–era Virginia City before historic preservation was cool.

Award-winning historian Ken Robison brings to life little-known accounts from a storied past.