Montana history and life part of John White speaker series

Learn about wildlife, fire lookouts, Blackfoot place mapping and the origins of ALERT as part of the Northwest Montana History Museum’s annual John White Series.  

For 24 years, the museum has organized the series. 

Talks kick off on Jan. 18 with Diane Boyd on “Wolves: Reality, Myths, and Madness.” 

Perhaps no one understands the emotional response connected with wolves than wolf biologist Diane Boyd, who has spent more than four decades studying the animals, reflecting on their role throughout history, and the stories that surround them. She moved to Montana from the Midwest to study gray wolf recovery in the Rocky Mountains, from the first natural colonizer to approximately 3,000 wolves today in the western U.S. 

For the inaugural talk in the 24th annual John White Series, Boyd shares her experience as a researcher and her wonder for the natural world.  

“Instead of just talking about wolf ecology,” she says. “I talk about perceptions, why I wrote the book.” 

Her memoir, “A Woman Among Wolves: My Journey Through Forty Years of Wolf Recovery,” released in 2024, made a splash and put her on a busy lecture circuit. 

From the moment Boyd started work up in the North Fork in 1979 with one collared wolf to study to an age when wolves not only have reintroduced themselves across the West but also in Europe, she has in her lifetime witnessed “the most remarkable endangered species recovery story ever, not due to our brilliance but more their resilience and cleverness.” 

On Feb. 1, Kira Powell provides a presentation on fire lookouts, sharing the history of local lookouts, what it takes to maintain them and the role lookouts play in firefighting efforts during “Fire Lookouts: A Peek into the Past of Structures for Fire Spotters.” 

Powell works in public relations in the natural resources field. She spends her free time outdoors and aspires to hike every trail in the Flathead National Forest. She also has a keen interest in the history of fire management, which makes fire lookouts a delightful blend of two passions. In 2022, Powell traded the Cabinet Mountains for the Swan Range and now calls the Flathead Valley home. 

On Feb. 15, Souta Calling Last gives a talk entitled “Blackfoot Place Map Plots a Free-ranging Culture.” Growing up in Heart Butte, she has made it a mission to map significant sites of traditional Blackfoot places of creation, animal management and prehistoric presence.  

From bison corrals to fasting shelters, and from buffalo jumps to rock art and effigies, she has spent more than 10 years mapping 1,000 sites (200 of them public) not only in Montana but in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. 

The mapping involves field visits as well as documentation via photographs, research, and writing. Calling Last will talk about how she makes her determinations, share local stories, and discuss Flathead Valley sites such as the Flathead Lake pictographs and the vortex near Columbia Falls. She will also detail a newly discovered rock-art site west of Whitefish that has drawn archaeologists from as far as Italy. 

Finally, on March 1, Marty Boehm will speak on “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About ALERT, and Then Some.” 

Boehm landed in the Flathead in 1975, before the ALERT program launched. He helped ALERT get off the ground and took part himself in more than 250 flights, from responding to remote scenes of accidents to transporting patients intercity for care not then available in Kalispell. 

Boehm will share the origins of ALERT, early missions, and the how-to behind building the first rural air ambulance service of its kind. He welcomes your curiosity and questions for this in-depth conversation on a unique grassroots effort credited with saving thousands of lives. 

The John White Series pays tribute to beloved former staff members John Whites Sr. and Jr. of Central School. The 1894 schoolhouse is Kalispell’s oldest public building and home to Northwest Montana's premier history museum, which draws more than 10,000 visitors annually for exhibits and events.
The John White Series is a fundraiser for the nonprofit Northwest Montana History Museum and its mission to preserve and present regional history.
Talks begin at 2 p.m. with social time in Hollensteiner-Stahl Hall afterward.
Tickets are $15 for members and $20 for nonmembers. The four-part series costs $50 for members and $75 for nonmembers. Reserve tickets online at flatheadtickets.com or visit the museum at 124 Second Ave. E., Kalispell.