Montana Medicine Show's Genuine Montana History

One-page descriptions of historic Montana people and events, with photos of each.

This book is a collection of episodes from the popular radio program, Montana Medicine Show by Derek Strahn, that originates at KGLT studios on the campus of Montana State University-Bozeman. Though the program strives to inform, its main objective is to entertain—to relate some interesting or quirky anecdote and provide an enjoyable or thought-provoking glimpse of Montana’s past.



Given the fleeting nature of radio and the need to make a quick impression, the 117 stories are packed with colorful quotations and vivid first-hand accounts. The lively style is fun to read, and the book adds interesting illustrations to every story.



Floods, fires, earthquakes, and blizzards frequently take the stage. But at the center of it all are the people. Montana’s medicine show is filled with a raucous cast of hucksters, risk-takers, reformers, warriors, and reprobates. Here one will find manly men and feisty women, tradition-clinging conservatives and reckless radicals.



As the uncompromising journalist Joseph Kinsey Howard said, “Montana has lived the life of America, on a reduced scale and at breakneck speed. Its history has been bewilderingly condensed, a kaleidoscopic newsreel, unplotted and unplanned...” Enjoy some of the state’s most extraordinary moments in The Montana Medicine Show’s Genuine Montana History.