Distinctly Montana Stories

By Joseph Shelton

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Image by Joseph Shelton

Category: History

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Subscribers: 1
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Episodes: 13

Description

Someone threw a pitcher at Bob Weir and the Grateful Dead never came back to Missoula. Masked men forced a sheepherder to make them coffee before spending eight hours clubbing his flock to death. A 19-year-old named Cromwell Dixon became the first person to fly over the Continental Divide — and was dead a month later. An entrepreneur carted a 365-pound "petrified man" from Montana to New York City and failed spectacularly. Long George Francis, outlaw and poet, crashed his car on Christmas Eve with a broken leg and crawled through a blizzard toward an increasingly uncertain safety. These are true stories, drawn from the literary journalism of Distinctly Montana magazine and adapted into produced audio by editor-in-chief Joe Shelton. The show takes Montana's mythology seriously enough to look at it honestly — and what it finds is both darker and more wonderful than the postcard version. Each episode pairs careful narration with sound design and music in service of the story. Episodes run between twelve and twenty-two minutes and release monthly. Subscribe to Distinctly Montana magazine at www.distinctlymontana.com/subscribe.

Episode Date
One Handshake at a Time: JFK's Courtship of Montana
Sep 04, 2026
Fur Traders and Flying Saucers: James Lumley and the Cadotte Pass UFO
Aug 25, 2026
The Bison Hunters
Aug 17, 2026
How Bobby Became a Legend, or, The Ballad of Young Evel Knievel
Jul 03, 2026
The Life and Afterlife of Comanche
Jun 09, 2026
The Devil's Brigade in Helena
May 26, 2026
I Didn't Die in Montana: Hank Williams Jr. on Ajax MT
May 01, 2026
Conquering the Divide
Mar 30, 2026
Frank Lloyd Wright's Montana Dreams
Mar 11, 2026
Who the Hell Was Montana Frank?
Mar 02, 2026
The Last Ride of Long George Francis
Feb 19, 2026
The Petrified Man of Livingston Goes East
Feb 19, 2026
Blood on the Wool
Feb 18, 2026