Highlands College/Montana Tech – Montana History Makers

From its beginning, Montana was dominated economically and politically by powerful interests. That was the price of out-of-state capital coming to Montana. Policy was determined in New York. Anaconda’s influence in political affairs was unmatched and for the first 75 years, Montana was a one-company state, unlike any other. But then, beginning in 1965, Montanans took back their state. Though this was only 50 years ago, it was not well documented. Using MHF funds, Highlands College and Montana Tech created, distributed and archived filmed oral history interviews with history makers from 1965 to 1980.

The 39 filmed interviews were almost an hour long each and have been uploaded to YouTube, stored in archives throughout the state and have been viewed on public access television in Montana. This project helped to preserve the histories of the individuals who played a role in the transformation of Montana.