Twisted Tour Guide: Western Montana

Avoid The Tourist Herds.

What could be more uninspiring than seeing the identical attractions that everyone else has for decades?

This Twisted Guides escorts you to the places locals don’t want to talk about anymore…the same places people once couldn’t stop talking about. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure historical sites remain hidden awaiting rediscovery.

Each visitation site in this guide is accompanied by a story. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. The profiled cast of characters feature saints and sinners (with emphasis towards the latter). Notorious crimes, murders, accidental deaths, suicides, kidnappings, vice and scandal are captivating human interest tales.

The photography from each profile showcases the precise location where each event occurred. The scenes can seem ordinary, weird and/or sometimes very revealing towards clarifying the background behind events.

If you’re seeking an alternative to conventional tourism, this Twisted Tour Guide is ideal. Each directory accommodates the restless traveler and even resident looking for something unique and different.

BOZEMAN
Founder John Bozeman, Lady Mary Blackmore, Vigilante mob hearings and hangings, Grave robbers, Last standing brothel, Justice and public lynchings, Idaho Pole Company superfund and Downtown gas line explosion

BUTTE
Dynamite Explosion of 1895, Galloping gallows, Dumas Brothel, Apparitions of Fire Station #1, Adventuress Eva Hart, Blue Range Building, Copper King William Clark, Venus Alley, Butte Tin Shop, Chinatown, Royal Parlor House, Silver Dollar Saloon, Metals Bank Building, Temperance Icon Carrie Nation, Local miner’s union unrest, Anaconda Road Massacre, Martial law, Granite Mountain Mine Memorial, Execution of Labor agitator Frank Little, 1918 Spanish Influenza, Berkeley Copper Mine disaster, Board of Trade Saloon, Journalist Howard Rushmore, Dimple Knees, Evel Knievel, M & M Saloon, Elementary school shooting of Jeremy Bullock and the fatal aircraft crash inside Holy Cross Cemetery.

HELENA
Guardian of the Gulch lookout tower, Lime Kilns graffiti, Doomed prisoner escape on the Governor’s mansion stairwell, Refuge for unwed mothers and reforming prostitutes, Doomed Victorian Madames and their brothels, Montana Club swastikas, Phantom of the Greenstreet Theatre, Thomas Cruse, Helena Cathedral, Confederate soldier memorial fountain, Canary Bird Moonshiner, Gangland retaliation murder, 1935 Earthquake, Tragic inspiration for A River Runs Through It and 1989 Train collision.

MISSOULA:
Mercantile Building, Oxford Café, Murder of Maurice Higgins, Madame Mary Gleim, House of piercing screams, Wilma Theatre, Florence Building, Missoula Mauler, Merry Prankster Edith Greenough, Cold Case arrest and suicide thirty years after, University of Montana paranormal spirits and sex scandal, Acid bath murders and Party motel killings.

SMALL TOWN STORIES
Unabomber’s Sanctuary, Shoebox Annie the serial killer, Erasing father existence in Alberton, America’s largest toxic railroad spill, A Belgrade amateur execution, Actor Patrick Duffy’s parents murder, Nyleen Kay Marshall abduction, Jesse James Montana Days, Prison Warden Frank Conley, Mass murder in a beauty salon, Sheila Jordan’s unsolved killing, Casino abduction and precious metals killings, Morrisite sect church, Thermal hot springs hotel becomes mental institution and the ill-fated marital reunion murder…plus more.