56 Counties

Russell Rowland · ypradio.org

Fifty-Six Counties is a radio program hosted by Russell Rowland, author of the book Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey. For the book, Rowland traveled to every county in Montana and interviewed the people there about what’s going on around the state, while also researching the history to find the parallels and patterns.The radio program is an extension of this conversation, with Rowland interviewing people from all over Montana to find out how Montana has shaped them, and what they’re doing to shape Montana.

20 episodes

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Episodes 20

56 Counties: Phil Aaberg
3mo ago · 29:03
Montana just lost Philip Aaberg, one of its most talented musicians, to cancer. After growing up in Chester, Phil attended Harvard and went on to become a highly sought after touring musician.
56 Counties: Tim Gordon
3mo ago · 29:00
Tim Gordon grew up in Missoula, where his father owned a construction business. But Tim was always fascinated with art and antiques and at a very early age, he started collecting and selling whatever valuable items he could get his hands on.
56 Counties: Mark Sulser
4mo ago · 28:18
Since 1929, Billings has relied on Daylis Stadium as the primary venue for most of the major outdoor sporting events in the city. But the west end of the stadium was condemned for safety reasons in 2024, which caused several community members to step up their efforts to push forward with a plan to refurbish the stadium. It is now scheduled to re-open in September as Sam McDonald Stadium at Daylis. I talked to School District Number 2 Sports and Activities Director Mark Sulser about how this project came to be.
56 Counties: Jeff Mangan
6mo ago · 28:51
Jeff Mangan is a former state representative and state senator, and he also served for six years as the Commissioner for Political Practices.
56 Counties: Megan Torgerson
6mo ago · 29:01
Megan Torgerson grew up on a ranch near Dagmar, Montana. After moving away when she finished high school, she found herself fascinated by stories from the place where she grew up.
56 Counties: Elouise Cobell
7mo ago · 29:00
In 2010, Elouise Cobell, the long-time treasurer for the Blackfeet Tribe, settled a lawsuit against the US government on behalf of over 500,000 members of several tribes who had been victimized by the US government for decades.
56 Counties: Melissa Lonebear and John Robinson
10mo ago · 28:56
For the past few months, there has been a great deal of turmoil amongst the tribal council for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. I had the opportunity to speak with Melissa Lonebear, one of the members of the tribal council who has been locked out of her office for the past few weeks, along with seven other members of the council. To help bring some perspective on what's going on, I also brought in John Robinson, former Chief Judge of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe.
56 Counties: Granville Stuart
12mo ago · 28:50
Granville Stuart was perhaps one of the most influential figures in the 'settlement' of Montana. He and his brother James were the first to record a major gold strike, he was a founding member of the Montana Historical Society, he served as president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, and he was the director of the Butte Public Library for ten years.
56 Counties: Heaven's Gate
1y ago · 29:00
In 1979, an army of people took over the Outlaw Inn in Kalispell, Montana, led by a man who had just won two Academy Awards for what would eventually become known as the pinnacle of his career: The Deer Hunter. Michael Cimino would spend the next eight months shooting a film that sent one of the most highly respected film studios into bankruptcy. Heaven's Gate is considered to this day one of the biggest financial disasters in the history of film, despite some of the most stunning scenery ever brought to the screen.
56 Counties: African Americans in the West
1y ago · 29:00
The West has a complicated history when it comes to its African American population, but it is estimated that at least 25 percent of the early cowboys in the West were Black.
56 Counties: Ken Robison
1y ago · 28:52
Once he retired from Naval Intelligence as a Captain after nearly thirty years, Ken Robison spent the last thirty-plus years establishing himself as one of Montana's preeminent historians. His new book, Lost Great Falls, explores many forgotten stories about one of the more fascinating towns in Montana.
56 Counties: Fort Missoula
1y ago · 29:00
Fort Missoula was built in 1877, in part because of fear among the settlers in that region of the Native American population. However, it was also built as an economic opportunity, creating jobs for locals.
56 Counties: The Montana Sedition Act of 1918
1y ago · 28:52
In February of 1918, the Montana Legislature was the first in the nation to pass The Sedition Act, a law that carried fines of up to $20,000 and a jail sentence of up to 20 years if someone were to “print, utter, or publish . . . any false, scandalous or malicious writing’” about the U.S. government or the war effort.
56 Counties: Be a Man: Raised in the Shadow of Cowboys
1y ago · 28:57
This month, Russell Rowland reads excerpts from his upcoming new memoir, BE A MAN: Raised in the Shadow of Cowboys. The book is a personal history of his family, but it also explores the complexity of what it means to grow up as a man in Montana.
56 Counties: Kevin Kicking Woman
1y ago · 29:00
Kevin Kicking Woman grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation as the youngest of fifteen children. After his mother left the family, he was shuttled around to various foster families, where he suffered horrific trauma.After a stint in the military and working hard to get his teaching degree in Missoula, Kevin moved back to the reservation about ten years ago for a teaching job, and last year he was the first Native American to be named Teacher of the Year in Montana.
56 Counties: Evelyn Cameron, Frontier Photographer
1y ago · 29:00
Evelyn Cameron left behind an aristocratic life in England to homestead in Montana in the late 19th Century. Despite being married to a man who had some of the worst business sense imaginable, she embraced life in eastern Montana, starting three cattle ranches and becoming one of the most beloved members in the community of Terry.
56 Counties: The Chinese in Montana
1y ago · 29:00
When the Central Pacific Railway got the contract to complete the western leg of the transcontinental railroad in 1862, they faced the challenge of finding enough men to complete the enormous task. The gold rush was well underway, and the pressure to finish the job quickly forced them to look across the ocean to China for affordable labor.
56 Counties: Manifest Destiny and the Indian Boarding Schools
1y ago · 29:00
In the fifteenth century, several popes issued a series of edicts, which came to be known as the Doctrine of Discovery. The basic tenet of this document was that it gave the church the moral authority to take over any land that was owned by people who were not Christian, or white.
56 Counties: The Saga of Chief Joseph, Part 2
2y ago · 28:59
Last month, 56 Counties told the story of how Chief Joseph's father, also named Joseph, instilled in his son the importance of never giving up the land where they had lived their entire lives. The government had other ideas, however, and when the Nez Perce Reservation was reduced by ninety percent, the Wallowa Valley, where Joseph tribe had settled decades before, was no longer part of the reservation. When Joseph was forced to leave, the results led to one of the most dramatic pursuits in American history.
56 Counties: The Saga of Chief Joseph, Part 1
2y ago · 28:58
Most people are familiar with Chief Joseph and his epic journey across much of the northwestern US to escape capture by the US government. But as with many Montana stories, what's even more fascinating are the events leading up to that moment in our history, as well as what happened to Joseph and his tribal members afterward.