The Extreme History Project: The Dirt on the Past

Join us as we talk with Museum Educator Ashley Hall about her career as a museum educator at the Museum of the Rockies, her research on Sauropod feet and her books including Fossils for Kids: A Junior Scientist’s Guide to Dinosaur Bones and Ancient Animals, and Prehistoric Life on Earth and Prehistoric Worlds: Stomp Into the Epic Lands Ruled by Dinosaurs (due out at the end of March 2024).  

Ashley is a dynamic paleontologist, naturalist, and museum educator. Originally from South Bend, Indiana, she grew up loving dinosaurs from an early age and was inspired by holiday trips to Chicago’s Field Museum to pursue a career in natural history.

Ashley earned her Bachelor of Arts in anthropology (focus: Zooarchaeology) and animal behavior from Indiana University, Bloomington. After graduation, she spent nearly a decade working as a science educator for various educational institutions in southern California, including the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and the La Brea Tar Pits. During this time, Ashley also served as the assistant curator of paleontology at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, California. While with the “Alf,” she managed the fossil collection and participated in fieldwork including Late Cretaceous dinosaur excavations in the Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah and Miocene mammal reconnaissance paleontology in the Mojave Desert’s Rainbow Basin.

Ashley relocated to Ohio where she worked as a naturalist for the Cleveland Metroparks reservation system before taking a position with the Cleveland Museum of Natural as the adult programs coordinator. 

When Ashley is not educating the public in person, she is an active science communicator on social media. Ashley has presented several invited workshops on communicating science through social media at professional, scientific meetings, including the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and the Association for Materials and Methods in Paleontology annual conferences. Her scientific research has focused on sauropod claw morphology and function and the evolution of birds from deposits at the La Brea Tar Pits.

We talked with Historian Sarah Keyes about her new book, "American Burial Ground: A New History of the Overland Trail." We delve into the history of the Overland Trail, discussing the 6,600 migrants who perished along the treacherous journey westward, their final resting places often marking the landscape of Indigenous land. Keyes' explains how the graves of these migrants emerge not just as tragic markers of a treacherous journey but as pivotal sites that shaped the course of U.S. expansion into the West. With death at the forefront, the Overland Trail transforms from a tale of triumph to one of profound struggle, where Indigenous resilience and resistance intersect with white settlers' ambitions. Keyes' reimagining of this historic touchstone challenges conventional narratives, revealing a complex history of migration, dispossession, and the indelible imprint of death on the American landscape. We highlight two artifacts from the Museum of the Rockies collection including a spur, that possible belonged to trailblazer, John Bozeman and a Log Cabin design quilt made before the Civil War and transported west to Montana Territory by the Lucy Nave Tinsley family. Join us for this important conversation.

 

 

To purchase a copy of American Burial Ground, follow this link. https://www.pennpress.org/9781512824513/american-burial-ground/.

 

Join us as we talk with the author of True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America, Betsy Gaines Quammen. We discuss her book and what she learned about America as she spent time in small towns and big cities throughout the West, talking with people about their beliefs on land, politics, liberty, and self-determination. Betsy tells us about some of her conversations, and what she learned about the West’s enduring myths and complex history from militia members, Montana ranchers, and grassroots organizers.  

Dr. Betsy Gaines Quammen is a historian and writer. She received a PhD in environmental history from Montana State University where she studied religion, history and the philosophy of science. Her dissertation focused on Mormon history and the roots of armed public land conflicts occurring in the United States. She is fascinated with and examines the intersections of extremism, public lands, wildlife, and western communities. She is the author of American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God, and Public Lands in the West and True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America. Betsy lives in Montana with her husband, writer David Quammen. 

 

Join us as we discuss the Hagen Site, a National Historic Landmark located on a bluff above the Yellowstone River north of Glendive, Montana. This archaeological site is significant because it documents the establishment of a permanent village by a people in transition from the Eastern Woodlands to a Plains bison culture. We dive into the Museum of the Rockies collections to view artifacts from the Hagen Site including pottery, lithic material, bone tools and fish bones.

Join us as we talk with Michael Fox, the curator of history at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT about John Bozeman. Bozeman is the namesake for the town of Bozeman, Montana and instrumental in creating the Bozeman Trail, an overland route in the Western United States, connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming from roughly 1863 to 1868. Crystal, Nancy and Michael discuss John Bozeman's life and death and view artifacts related to John Bozeman from the Museum of the Rockies collection including his revolver, powder horn, letters, and his gold pocket watch. To watch this on YouTube, follow this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwg1awH-Z6c. 

Here's more resources to learn more about John Bozeman:

The Bloody Bozeman by Dorothy Johnson

John M. Bozeman, Montana Trailmaker by Merrill Burlingame

Join us for a discussion on historic red-light districts in Butte and Bozeman, MT with guest Chelsea Hogan. Chelsea is the Museum of the Rockies Director of Education and Programming and she is the co-producer of the Museum's Haunted Mountain Theatre. We discuss how Haunted Mountain Theatre is incorporating a story about a Butte Madam into their show this year. We also discuss historic red-light districts in general, specifically those in Butte and Bozeman, MT. This is the first episode of our The Dirt on the Past Podcast: Museum Edition where we will also feature artifacts from the Museum of the Rockies collections. If you would also like to watch this on your YouTube channel, follow this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N73xdwUV9s&t=612s. 

Join us this week as we talk with Kerri Maher about her new novel, All You Have to do is Call. This story honors the heroines of the Jane collective, a group of women who provided safe, clandestine health services in the pre-Roe v. Wade era. We discuss the book, but also dive into the history of this time and the real women of the Jane Collective in the early 1970s. Kerri Maher is the USA Today bestselling author of The Paris Bookseller, The Girl in White Gloves, The Kennedy Debutante, and, under the name Kerri Majors, This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for the Young Writer in the Real World. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and lives with her daughter and dog in a leafy suburb west of Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Join us for our conversation with historic preservation architect, Lesley Gilmore on the National Register of Historic Places process. We discuss what it takes to nominate a property for listing, the rigorous evaluation process, and the immense value that this recognition brings. We also highlight some misconceptions of the National Register process and listings. Have a listen and we hope this episode inspires you to get involved in preserving your local heritage. Thank you to the Montana State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for sponsoring this episode!  

Join us as we talk with Pete Brown about all things Montana SHPO! Pete Brown has been Montana’s State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) since 2019. His work at the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) began in 2002 when he served as the Historic Architecture Specialist. We talk with Pete about his job as SHPO and what that entails on a daily basis. We also talk more broadly about the National Historic Preservation Act, historic preservation in Montana, the Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO), and current initiatives and projects. Join us for this conversation and learn more about the importance of preserving our cultural heritage.  

 

Thank you to the Montana State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for sponsoring this episode of The Dirt on the Past. The Montana SHPO works together with all Montanans to promote the preservation of our state's historic and cultural places, from archaeological sites to homestead farms. The Montana SHPO is responsible for protecting Montana’s historic places and paleontological resources under the Montana Antiquity Act and assisting Federal Agencies when assessing the impact their actions will have on Historic places under the National Historic Preservation Act. We are grateful for all they do to protect and preserve our State's cultural heritage. To find out more about the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, check out their website at https://mhs.mt.gov/Shpo/. 

Join us as we discuss women who followed medieval mercenary armies with Dr. Danielle Mead Skjelver. During the late medieval period, it was not uncommon for women to travel with mercenary armies, either as wives or as camp followers. These women often provided essential support services to the soldiers, such as cooking, cleaning, and nursing. Some women also took on more active roles, such as selling goods or even participating in battles. Dr. Skjelver has found in her research that these women had more agency and autonomy while engaged with these military campaigns. Dr. Danielle Mead Skjelver is a Professor of History at the University of Maryland Global Campus, which was founded to serve the U.S. Military. Skjelver serves as lead editor of History of Applied Science and Technology. The first of its kind, this open access textbook is digital, living in nature, and global in approach and authorship. She has produced scholarship on the intersection of gender, language, and power in 16th-century Europe. Join us for this fascinating discussion and learn more about the lives of women in late medieval Europe!