The Meagher County Book Festival Come join us -- July 31, August 1 & 2, 2009 White Sulphur Springs, MT

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OUR STORY FROM 2007

August 2

5:00 - 8:00  Poetry Reading and Reception - "The Castle"--Meagher County Historical Association Museum

Bonnie Buckley Maldonado will read selections from Montana, Too, A Book of Montana History in Story Poems and From the Marias River to the North Pole.

August 3

8:00 - 9:00 Registration and Coffee, White Sulphur Springs Elementary School

9:00 - 10:00   New Publications
Barbara Richard, Walking Wounded
Dennis Swibold, Copper Chorus

10:15 - 12:00  Works in Progress
Dr. Michael Johnson, Untitled: a biography of Taylor and Rose Gordon...

12:00 - 1:00  Lunch Chrysti: the Wordsmith, Verbivore's Feast

1:30 - 3:00
John Clayton, The Cowboy Girl: The life of Caroline Lockhart
Kim Scott, Yellowstone Denied - The Life of Gustavas Cheney Doone   

 

3:15 - 4: 30   Courtroom Drama

Paul Wylie, The Irish General: Thomas Francis Meagher

The mock trial tried to determine the exact cause of Meagher's death using the characters and information found in the author's research.  A 6-person coroner's jury, selected from the audience, decided the case.

6:00 - 9:00  Dinner--at the home of Jock and Jamie Doggett

Ellen Baumler, Ghost Tailings

August 4

Senior Citizen Community Center

8:00 - 8:30 Registration and Coffee

8:30 - 1:00 Memoir Writing Workshop

 Valerie Hemingway, Running with the Bulls

2:00 - 5:00  Bair House Family Museum

Tours are free to Book Festival participants

August 5

When asked the highlight of the book festival, one could expect to receive various answers--every event was great.

Richard Wheeler and Sam Phillips were unable to attend. ( Barb Richards filled in for Richard with a report on her book, Walking Wounded. ) We will expect Dick and Sam next year!

The inquest on the cause of General Thomas Francis Meagher's death was well attended and enjoyed.

 

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OUR STORY FROM 2006

In 2006 the story of General Francis Meagher and the history of Meagher County was our focus. It included the story of the women of the late 19th century and 20th century, and the women story tellers. This is how our festival unfolded:

Thursday, 5 p.m.; Reception for all participants, hosted by the Mountain Star Book Club of Harlowton and the White Sulphur Springs Book Club, at the home of Marga and Reidar Johnson. Lenore Puhek, dressed as Libby Meagher will read from her new novel The River's Edge, a romantic tale of Thomas Francis Meagher and Libby Townsend Meagher.

"The book was pure joy to write. As far as I know, this is the first extensive exposure of Libby. The research did not come easily. Libby was a very private person...I took the photograph on the jacket cover at approximately the same spot where the A.G. Thompson was tied to the dock on the Missouri River, Ft. Benton, Montana."

An added treat--the celebration of Thomas Meagher's birthday complete with birthday cake and visiting relatives.

Friday, Registration begins at 8 at the school (look for sign)

9 - 10:30

Paul Wylie, Rose Gordon, Jennie Corson 

Helen Hanson, E.M. Bower, Frances Parker

Lee Rostad, Grace Stone Coates, Her Life in Letters

10:45 - 12:00

Judy Blunt, Breaking Clean

Barbara Richard, Dancing on His Grave

Mary Clearman Blew, When Montana and I Were Young

12:00 - 1:00

Norma Ashby, Movie Stars and Rattlesnakes

1:30 - 4:30 We talk of food and words...

Molly Kruckenberg, A Taste of Montana: A History of Cooking

Kim Anderson and Caroline Patterson, Eat Our Words

Meredith Brokaw, Big Sky Cooking

Sue Hart, At Home on the Range: Food as Love in Literature of the Western Frontier

5:00 Barbecue at the Castle (the museum on the hill)

Poetry of Gwendolen Haste and Grace Stone Coates

Prose of Judy Blunt

August 5

8:00 Continental Breakfast at Meagher County Community Center

Sue Hart, Dorothy Johnson

Mary Clearman Blew, Balsam Root: a Memoir

Mary Murphy, Hope in Hard Times

Caroline Patterson, "a new anthology"

The Meagher County Historical Society will have a sale table for books which we will also use for signings--either after the author's session or during the barbecue.

 

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OUR STORY FROM 2005

In 2005, The Meagher County Book Festival started with a reception at the home of Marga and Reidar Johnson where their historic home, built by Dr. Parberry and later owned by the Ringling family, was shown and its history related. Joyce Celander read excerpts from her nephew, Ivan Doig's book Heart Earth.

Participants of the book fair were introduced and the crowd enjoyed an evening of conversation and history.

Corby Skinner of Billings moderated a panel discussion Friday morning at the Pepper Patch in White Sulphur Springs on General Francis Meagher. Paul "Nick" Wylie of Bozeman, Gary Forney of Ennis, Richard Wheeler of Livingston, Jon Axline of Helena and Lee Rostad of Martinsdale, spoke of various periods of Meagher's life. Lenore Puhek of Helena, in the role of Meagher's wife Elizabeth, spoke of Meagher. Her costume was a reproduction of one of Mrs. Meagher's ensembles, complete to the jewelry given to her by her husband.

Gary Forney is the author of Thomas Francis Meagher, Irish Rebel, American Yankee, Montana Pioneer, published this year.

Among the many books by author Richard Wheeler are The Exile about the life of Meagher, and Cashbox, a novel set in the Castle Mountains and the town of Castle.

Jon Axline's recent work on Meagher will appear in a book Thomas Francis Meagher, The Making of an Irish American, edited by John M. Hearne of Waterford Institute of Technology and Rory T. Cornish of Winthrop University, South Carolina. The book will be released this fall.

Lenore Puhek is working on a biography of Elizabeth Meagher.

Meagher County was presented in various periods.

Kelly Flynn spoke of early days in Diamond City, the first county seat of Meagher County. His book on Diamond City will be available early in 2006. Flynn is highly qualified to tell the story. His grandparents on both sides were from Diamond City and the family still owns land there.

Shirley Watson Fogland spoke of her family's early days in the county and of the books written by her father telling the story of the family and the area. Art Watson was the author of Devil Man With a Gun and Montana Trails and Tribulations. Both books are out of print but are available at the local library.

In another period of the county's history, Alicia Moe read from Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage by Carrie Strahorn telling of the hardships of travel in Meagher County around 1885.

Nancy Widdicombe of Harlowton told the story of Walt Coburn, a western author born in White Sulphur Springs who went on to write hundreds of stories of the west. Nancy read from his autobiography about his early life here in this city.

Mary Clearman Blew of Moscow, Idaho, read from her work about the life of the rancher. Mary's work includes All But the Waltz; Bone Deep in Landscapes: Writing, Reading and Place; Lambing Out and other Stories. She also edited When Montana and I Were Young, the story of Margaret Bell.

Friday's activities continued with more readings of stories and authors who contributed to Meagher County's literary history...

Jamie Doggett told of her grandmother, Jane Kiff, dancing with F. Scott Fitzgerald when he was here visiting with his close friends, Walter and Bobby Donahoe. Jamie read selections from the story that Fitzgerald wrote after his visit to Montana--a fanciful tale of a fanciful place--"The Diamond as Big as the Ritz."

A big part of the literary history of Meagher County is in Taylor Gordon's book, Born to Be. Paul Wylie talked of the book and the author.

A glimpse of Meagher County in the early days of the century are revealed in the work of Mary McCarthy, a writer from the Northwest. Mary visited "the Springs" with two sisters who were her classmates at school. Dale McAfee read from the very revealing account of the social life of the times and talked about the real identity of the family Mary visited.

Susan Buckingham Evans read from her mother's book The Old Party in the Feathered Shawl. Theresa Buckingham's book of "Cattlewomen Columns" tells a more modern day tale of life on ranches and the people who live on them.

Trish Browning read from Dorothy Mackay's book of memoirs about Dorothy's first year of teaching at Newlan Creek in 1935.

John Heminway read his impressions of the area written in his book, Yonder. John has written much on Africa as well, but Yonder is about his love of Montana.

Between 4:00 and 5:00 the authors congregated at the Bank of the Rockies for a book signing.

“Meanwhile, back at the ranch…”

Friday evening, guests and participants of the book fest gathered at the home of Jock and Jamie Doggett. Their home was once the home of Meagher County native Ivan Doig (who lived at this ranch when he was a young boy). Joyce Celander read from his books This House of Sky and Prairie Nocturne. David McCumber, now a resident of Seattle, read from his book The Cowboy Way which tells the tale of his time spent as a ranch hand at the neighboring Bill Galt Ranch.

Saturday morning, the book fest convened at the Senior Center and discussed the use of records to record history and literary work.

USING THE RECORDS

Jim Johnston started the session with an informative talk about using deeds, abstracts and court house records to learn of early-day holdings and other facts. Jean Ellison read from Mountains of Gold, Hills of Grass her account of school history and talked about how to use school records.

Ms. Nancy Widdicombe of Harlowton High School and Ms. Nancy Heggen of White Sulphur Springs High School presented their work with the Montana Heritage Program. Widdicombe is an English teacher at HHS and has been an active participant in Montana Committee for the Humanities programs and has worked a number of years with the Montana Heritage Project. She has led her students on several exciting discoveries in Central Montana including work at the Charles M. Bair Family Museum archives, the Duncan Colony Hutterites, Upper Musselshell ranch family histories and most recently on a project titled "The sites and sounds of the Musselshell." Heggen teaches in the WSS school system, teaching history and local government classes. She is an innovative, passionate young woman who inspires her students to learn, listen and ask questions. She and her students got involved with the Montana Heritage Project two years ago by researching the Court House records of the County Poor Farm. She has commented that there is a lot to learn within the County Court House and will tackle this type of project again.

The final session was presented by Sue Hart, professor of Western literature at MSU-Billings. Sue has studied the comparison of western literature to what ends up on the silver screen. Her talk was titled "Montana, High, Wide and Hollywoodized." She spoke about Montana-based writers and stories that ended up on film.

Festival sponsors and volunteers:
	Montana Committee for the Humanities Friends of the Bair Mountain Star Book Club Wine, Women and Words Meagher County Public Library Bank of the Rockies Meagher County Historical Society Meagher County Arts Council Writers Voice Charles Redd Center for Western Studies
Illustrations are from “The Meagher County Sketchbook” by Lavonne Rice and Lee Rostad