This collection includes interviews with residents of the Swan Valley, Montana, detailing the agricultural, ranching, forest service, logging and outfitting activities in the area. The interviews were conducted from 1998 to 2009 by Suzanne M. Vernon, Samantha Epstein, Jeanell Innerarity, Kit Johnston, and Adam Lieberg. The interviewees discuss specific locations such as Lindbergh Lake, Salmon Prairie, and Gordon Ranch as well as broader subjects including Swan Valley community, recreation, schools, churches and wildlife. The original interviews are held as Oral History collection OH 422 at Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula.
This collection includes 64 interviews.
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Roberta Stroden Interview, August 16, 1999
Roberta Stroden
Roberta Stroden describes her garden in the Swan Valley. She talks about how she became interested in gardening and her gardening philosophy of growing only what can handle the climate. Stroden talks about the different plants—vegetables and flowers—that grow well in her part of the ... Read More
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Roberta Stroden Interview, October 22, 2005
Roberta Stroden
Roberta Stroden describes her gardening experiences in Swan Valley, Montana. She shares her gardening philosophy, which consists of a largely hands-off method of letting vegetables go to seed and grow where they will, ignoring pests, and avoiding chemicals. She notes that gardening, for her, is ... Read More
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Robert "Bob" Martin Interview, August 19, 1999
Robert Martin
Robert “Bob” Martin discusses leading pack trips and hunting parties in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. He recalls packing water in as part of a trail crew that worked on a 1934 fire in Montana’s Mission Mountains. Martin talks about being a gunner in the U.S. ... Read More
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Rod Ash and June Ash Interview, October 20, 2006
Rod Ash and June Ash
Rod Ash and June Ash discuss their strong ties Swan Valley, Montana despite having lived for years in Redding, California. They recall camping numerous times in the area during the 1960s, before purchasing property in 1969, and moving to Swan Valley full-time in 1984. They ... Read More
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Rod Ash and June Ash Interview, October 21, 2005
Rod Ash and June Ash
Rod and June Ash describe their gardening experiences in Swan Valley, Montana, a practice they have maintained since the early 1970s. They discuss some of the difficulties they have encountered, such as deer and other pests. The Ashes offer tips on where to buy seeds ... Read More
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Rod Ash and June Ash Interview, September 14, 1999
Rod Ash and June Ash
Rod and June Ash recall how they came to live in the Upper Swan Valley, after spending most of the 1950s and 1960s living and working in California. They reminisce about their family vacations to the valley during the 1950s and 1960s, eventually purchasing a ... Read More
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Rodney “Rod” Fox Interview, October 10, 2000
Rodney Fox
Rodney “Rod” Fox tells how his family homesteaded in the Swan Valley of Montana around 1932. He describes his father’s business as a commercial packer in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Fox talks about helping his father with packing expeditions, and going on fishing and hunting ... Read More
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Sharon MacQuarrie Interview, August 10, 1999
Sharon MacQuarrie
Sharon MacQuarrie talks about moving to Swan Valley, Montana, when she was six years old, while her father was working in Missoula, Montana. She recalls how her family, with the help of their friend Tyne Laird, settled and worked on a dude ranch in the ... Read More
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Stan Nicholson and Colleen Nicholson Interview, October 19, 2006
Stan Nicholson and Colleen Nicholson
Stan Nicholson recalls looking for property, building a cabin, and moving with his wife, Colleen, to their home on the Double Arrow Ranch at Seeley Lake, Montana, in 1990. He describes the sense of “rootedness” that he feels to the area, due in part to ... Read More
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Vern Guyer and Joanne Guyer Interview, December 7, 2001
Vern Guyer and Joanne Guyer
Vern Guyer and Joanne Guyer discuss life in Swan Valley, Montana. Vern talks about working for the U.S. Forest Service as soon as he finished high school in Fargo, North Dakota. He recalls enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1946 and attending the University of ... Read More
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Warner Lundberg and Frank Lundberg Interview, June 11, 1999
Warner Lundberg and Frank Lundberg
Warner Lundberg and his younger brother, Frank, describe homesteading in the Swan Valley in Montana as the children of Swedish immigrants who came to Montana in the early 20th century. The brothers offer insight into the struggles of establishing and growing up on a homestead. ... Read More
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Warner Lundberg and Margaret Lundberg Interview, June 25, 1998
Warner Lundberg and Margaret Lundberg
Warner Lundberg describes growing up in the west Condon area of the Swan Valley, Montana during the 1920s and 1930s. He discusses a large fire that burned some of his family’s homestead in 1929 and how Forest Service fire fighters were deployed the area to ... Read More
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Wayne "Butch" Harmon Interview, January 18, 2000
Wayne Harmon
Wayne "Butch" Harmon tells how his grandfather came to the Swan Valley of Montana in 1917 as a logger with the Great Northern Railroad and homesteaded at Salmon Prairie. Harmon relates stories from his grandfather about homesteading, life in the valley, and former trails. He ... Read More
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William R. "Bud" Moore Interview, September 1, 1999
William R. Moore
William “Bud” Moore begins the interview by telling the history of his hundred-year-old sourdough starter which he has given to many Swan Valley, Montana families over the years. He then discusses fur trappers in the Valley and mentions how he documented old trap lines of ... Read More