Libraries & Research Collections | Upper Musselshell Museum

Student Research

Montana Heritage Project

“Life in the Upper Musselshell Valley”

Students at Harlowton High School produced seven book-length histories of the Upper Musselshell Valley as part of the Montana Heritage Project — a program that engaged students as genuine historical researchers, using oral history interviews and primary documents to document community life across generations.

The Harlowton volumes cover ranching, architecture, Hutterite colonies, the railroad era, Indigenous archaeology, and the people who shaped life along the river. Each represents real student fieldwork — interviews conducted, archives combed, families consulted — and together they form one of the most detailed records of the Upper Musselshell available anywhere.

Out of Print

Stories from the Upper Musselshell Valley — Montana Heritage Project

1 Images of the Upper Musselshell Valley: Three Ranches 100 Years Old in the Valley
2 The Bair Family: A Montana Legacy
3 The Hutterian Way: Hutterite Colonies in the Upper Musselshell Valley
4 Sites and Sounds of the Upper Musselshell Valley: Railroads and Railroaders, Archaeology and Businesses in the Valley
5 Life on the River: Stories from the Upper Musselshell Valley
6 People of the Valley and 1910 in the Upper Musselshell Valley
7 Bungalows and Barns, Banks and Buildings and People of the Valley, Part II

Milwaukee Road Book Collection at the Upper Musselshell Museum

Railroad Collection

Milwaukee Road Library

Over 200 volumes telling the story of the rise and fall of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad — one of the most ambitious and consequential railroads in American history, and the line that made Harlowton what it is.

The collection covers the railroad's operations, electrification, decline, and abandonment, and also contains historical documents, railroad magazines, and other publications drawn from several significant private donations.

Funded in part by grants from the Wind Energy Impact Grant and the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, the collection incorporates books from the Ida Belle and John Pedersen Railroad Collection, the Gerald H. Miller Railroad Collection, and the W.L. Rasmussen Railroad Collection.

Native American Collection

Native American Book Collection

Over 100 volumes focusing on the histories, cultures, and stories of the tribes residing in Montana — providing context and depth for the Harlan Lucas Collection of artifacts on display in the museum.

The collection originated through an Indian Education for All Grant from the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI), with the goal of making the histories of Montana's Indigenous peoples accessible to researchers, educators, and the public.

Biographies, photography, and oral history archives, Upper Musselshell Museum

Local History Archives

Biographies, Photography & Oral Histories

Area biographies and autobiographies document the lives of the people who settled and shaped the Upper Musselshell, alongside an extensive photography collection drawn from families and estates across the valley.

The oral history archive — compiled by Don Amundson of Harlowton between 2010 and 2011 — preserves first-hand interviews with contemporary area residents, capturing memories and stories that would otherwise go unrecorded.

Historical Press

Area Newspaper Archives

Eight newspaper titles spanning over a century of coverage in Wheatland County and the surrounding region - from 1901 through the present. Available for research at the Reading Room in the Marshall Building.

Judith Gap Journal

1901–1924

Hedges Herald

1909–1914

Ryegate Reporter

1911–1934

Montana Clarion

1935–1950

Harlowton Press

1915–1923

Harlowton Times

1924–1950

The Times Clarion

1950–Present

The Engineer Express

1979–1992

Milwaukee Road employee publication

A number of these titles are available on microfilm and can be read on our microfiche reader at the Marshall Building Reading Room.

Libraries & Archives