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Book chronicles Montana's disasters -- and the state's resiliency – Daily Montanan

['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- February']

Date: 2022-02-14 00:00:00

Glancing through Butch Larcombe’s new book, “Montana Disasters: True Stories of Treasure State Tragedies and Triumphs,” it’s a catalog of many of the ways a person could die in Montana – from fires to avalanches to mine disasters to floods to train wrecks.

But the book isn’t meant to be an encyclopedia of all the disasters or even the best or most famous tragedies, Larcombe said, instead it’s a look at the stories behind some of the notable events from the plane crash death of David O. Nutter in 1962 to the Eureka Hotel Fire of 1950.

Larcombe didn’t initially set out to to chronicle disasters in Montana. The former journalist and retired communications officer for NorthWestern Energy said the idea started when he wrote an article about the Hi-Line flood of 1964, an event he remembered from his own childhood. From there, one disaster story begat another.

He said the disasters featured in his book – there are 29 in all – are also a glimpse into how Montana communities reacted to these events in their own period.

“Some of these remind us what a different time or decade it was,” Larcombe said. “This is not meant to be a proclamation of the worst disasters in our state’s history, but stories that had human elements. I tried to find things that had a human impact. I’m not the ghoulish sort, but these events illustrate a time or period in Montana’s history.”

Montana’s expansive geography and varied topography make it a fascinating place – from the Mount Jumbo avalanche near Missoula to the Fort Peck landslide failure at the dam.

The weather also plays a key factor in Montana’s disasters because of its variety and volatility.

“The weather is so dynamic and it can change rapidly,” Larcombe said.

Today, forecasters are aided by more communication and much better weather modeling where scientists can better predict high danger. But, that hasn’t always been the case, leaving some residents to fend for themselves during disaster.

Larcombe said along the way writing the 272-page book, there were surprises, like the lesser known Eureka fire where a hotel burned and a few of the fatalities were high school basketball players.

About “Montana Disasters” Published: December 2021

Author: James E. “Butch” Larcombe

Format: Softcover, 272 pages

Price: $18.95

Publisher: Farcountry Press

Other types of disasters were so common that Larcombe had to be more selective.

“You could probably do several books just on the plane crashes of Montana,” Larcombe said.

Other events didn’t make it because their ties to Montana were not as strong, like two military air tankers which collided mid-air in northern Blaine County. Neither the pilots nor the planes were based in Montana, it just happened to be the site where the aircraft collided.

“It’s a tragedy and one that people remember, and I was certainly not trying to diminish it by leaving it out, but it didn’t impact the people in Montana like other events,” Larcombe said.

Other events, like the flood of 1938, affected multiple Montana communities when violent and intense rainstorms pounded the state for several days, flooding many areas.

Writing the book for Larcombe was an 18-month project as he worked five to six days a week in his retirement, continuing his love of history even in the midst of another disaster not documented in his book, the COVID pandemic.

“The hardest part is doing the book since 2020,” Larcombe said. “This pandemic period threw a wrinkle into the publishing business. First there was a shortage of ink then paper.”

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