Awards
2022
Spur Award Winner from Western Writers of America
Shane Dunning, “The Right Man to Do a Wrong Thing: Charlie Thex, the Bear Creek Sheep Raid, and the Primacy of Fear” (Summer 2021)
Spur Award Finalist from Western Writers of America
Rosalyn LaPier, “Ella Mad Plume Yellow Wolf: Photographs by a Native American Woman in the Early 1940s” (Winter 2021)
Spur Award for best Western Juvenile Book (nonfiction) from Western Writers of America
Steph Lehmann, Montana History for Kids in 50 Objects: With 50 Fun Activities! (published in cooperation with Farcountry Press)
Western Heritage Award (Wrangler) for short nonfiction from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
Tracey Hanshew, “‘Here she comes wearin’ them britches!’ Saddles, Riding Skirts, and Social Reform in the Turn-of-the-Century Rural West” (Winter 2020)
John M. Cleary Homestead Honoree from Western Writers of America
Montana The Magazine of Western History, for outstanding support to Western literature and the Western Writers of America
High Plains Book Awards Finalist
A History of Montana in 101 Objects: Artifacts and Essays from the Montana Historical Society (2021)
Army Historical Foundation Finalist
Elise Boxer, “Fort Peck’s Finest: The 163rd Infantry’s Assiniboine and Sioux Soldiers in World War II” (Spring 2021)
Paladin Award
Jennifer Helton, “‘The desire for that measure of justice’: Consciousness, Political Expediency, and the Rise of Women’s Suffrage in Montana and the West, 1869–1920” (Winter 2021)
2021
Western Heritage Award (Wrangler) for short nonfiction from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
Tempe Javitz, “Transitions in the Changing West: The Photographic Legacy of Jessamine Spear Johnson” (Winter 2019)
Forest History Society Theodore C. Blegen Award
Lee Whittlesey, “Abundance, Slaughter, and Resilience of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s Mammal Population” (Spring 2020)
Spur Award Finalist from Western Writers of America
Gretchen Minton, “Shakespeare in Frontier and Territorial Montana, 1820–1889” (Summer 2020)
Paladin Award
Kerri Keller Clement, “‘What is a country without horses?’ Robert Yellowtail and Horse Herd Restoration on the Crow Reservation, 1934–1944” (Autumn 2020)
2020
Western Writers of America Spur Award
Flannery Burke, “Worry U.S.A.: Dude Ranch Advertising Looks East, 1915–1945” (Summer 2019)
Western Heritage Award (Wrangler) for short nonfiction from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum;
Spur Award Finalist from Western Writers of America
David Beyreis, “If you had fought bravely I would have sung for you”: The Changing Roles of Cheyenne Women During Nineteenth-Century Plains Warfare (Spring 2019)
Paladin Award
Todd S. Harwell, MPH; Stacey L. Anderson, MPH; Greg S. Holzman, MD, MPH; and Steven D. Helgerson, MD, MPH, “‘The Biggest Public Health Experiment Ever’: The Polio Pioneers and Montana’s Contribution to the Elimination of Polio in the United States” (Autumn 2019)
2019
Western Writers of America Spur Award
Peter H. Hassrick, “Art, Agency, and Conservation: A Fresh Look at Albert Bierstadt’s Vision of the West” (Spring 2018)
Arrell M. Gibson Award;
Finalist, Western Writers of America Spur Award
Rodger C. Henderson, “The Pikuni and the U.S. Army’s Piegan Expedition: Competing Narratives of the 1870 Massacre on the Marias River” (Spring 2018)
Paladin Award
Richmond L. Clow, “Crossing the Divide from Citizen to Voter: Tribal Suffrage in Montana, 1880–2016” (Spring 2019)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Greg Gordon, “The Shopkeeper's Frontier: How the General Store Transformed Montana Territory, 1850–1885” (Winter 2019)
2018
Mountain-Plains Museums Association, Publication Design Competition, first place award in magazines, newsletters, quarterly or biannual publications category
Montana The Magazine of Western History
National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center Wrangler Award;
Finalist, Western Writers of America Spur Award
Gregory Nickerson, “All-American Indian Days and the Miss Indian America Pageant” (Summer 2017)
Finalist, Army History Society
Tom Rust, “An Undesirable Station: U.S. Army Soldiers at Fort Yellowstone and the Creation of the National Park Service Ranger Program” (Winter 2017)
American Alliance of Museums, Publications Design Competition, honorable mention, magazine/scholarly journal category (institutional budget of less than $1 million)
Montana The Magazine of Western History
Paladin Award
Leila Moneghan, “Cheyenne and Lakota Women at the Battle of the Little Bighorn” (Autumn 2017)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Vic Reiman, “‘Whoa, Blue, Whoa!’ Cowpuncher Teddy Blue Abbott, We Pointed Them North, and Montana’s Open-Range Era” (Summer 2018)
2017
Western History Association Arrell M. Gibson Prize for the best essay on Native American history
Brianna Theobald, “Nurse, Mother, Midwife Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail and the Struggle for Crow Women’s Reproductive Autonomy” (Autumn 2016)
Paladin Award;
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Linda Sargent Wood, “We Had to Start Treating Them as Human Beings” (Spring 2017)
2016
Western Writers of America Spur Award
Michael M. Miller, “Cowboys and Capitalists: The XIT Ranch in Texas and Montana, 1885–1912” (Winter 2015)
Paladin Award
Jeremy Zallen, “‘Dead Work,’ Electric Futures, and the Hidden History of the Gilded Age” (Summer 2016)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Ellen Baumler, “A Cross in the Wilderness: St. Mary’s Mission Celebrates 175 Years” (Spring 2016)
2015
Western Writers of America Spur Award
Richard W. Etulain, “Calamity Jane: A Life and Legends” (Summer 2014)
Paladin Award
Mary Murphy, “When Jeanette Said ‘No’: Montana Women’s Response to World War I” (Spring 2015)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Laurie Mercier, “Surviving Montana: Women’s Memories of Work and Family Life, 1900–1960” (Autumn 2015)
2014
Inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame
Montana The Magazine of Western History
Paladin Award
Michael Wise, “Killing Montana’s Wolves: Stockgrowers, Bounty Bills, and the Uncertain Distinction between Predators and Producers” (Winter 2013)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Ellen Baumler, Laura Ferguson, Jodie Foley, Annie Hanshew, Anya Jabour, Martha Kohl, Marcella Sherfy-Walter, “Women’s History Matters: The Montana Historical Society’s Suffrage Centennial Project” (Summer 2014)
2013
Paladin Award
Catharine Franklin, “Black Hills and Bloodshed: The U.S. Army Invasion of Lakota Land, 1868–1876” (Summer 2013)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Tom Ferris, “Luck and Details: Photographing the Work of Charles M. Russell” (Autumn 2013)
2012
Arrington-Prucha Prize from the Western History Association
Becky Mathews, “Changing Lives: Baptist Women, Benevolence, and Community on the Crow Reservation, 1904–1980” (Summer 2011)
Paladin Award
Brian Leech, “Protest, Power, and the Pit: Fighting Open-Pit Mining in Butte, Montana” (Summer 2012)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Martha Kohl, “And the Bride Wore . . . , Montana Weddings, 1900–1960: An Exhibit from the Montana Historical Society” (Winter 2012)
2011
Western Writers of America Spur Award
Lee I. Niedringhaus, “The N Bar N Ranch: A Legend of the Open-Range Cattle Industry, 1885–99” (Spring 2010)
Paladin Award
Andrew R. Graybill, “Helen P. Clarke in ‘the Age of Tribes’: Montana’s Changing Racial Landscape, 1870–1920” (Spring 2011)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Joseph M. Hartmann, “Our Snow Covered Trail: A Montana Freighter Recalls the Hard Winter of 1906-1907” (Winter 2011)
2010
Mountain-Plains Museums Association Publication Design Competition
Montana The Magazine of Western History
National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center Wrangler Award
John H. Monnett, “‘My heart now has become changed to softer feelings’: A Northern Cheyenne Woman and Her Family Remember the Long Journey Home” (Summer 2009)
Finalist, Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Short Nonfiction
Michael A. Amundson, “These Men Play Real Polo: An Elite Sport in the Cowboy State, 1890-1930” (Spring 2009)
Paladin Award (2 articles tied) Dawn Nickel, “Dying in the West, Part 1: Hospitals and Health Care in Montana and Alberta, 1880–1950”; “Dying in the West, Part 2: Caregiving in the Home and the Death of Daniel Slayton” (Autumn 2009 and Winter 2009)and
Andrew C. Harper, “Conceiving Nature: The Creation of Montana’s Glacier National Park” (Summer 2010)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Lincoln Bramwell, “When the Mountains Roared: The 1910 Northern Rockies Fires” (Autumn 2010)
2009
National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center Wrangler Award;
Western History Association Ray Allen Billington Award;
Finalist, Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Short Nonfiction
Dan Flores, “Bringing Home all the Pretty Horses: The Horse Trade and the Early American West, 1775–1825” (Summer 2008)
Westerners International Coke Wood Award for Monographs and Articles
John H. Monnett, “‘My heart now has become changed to softer feelings’: A Northern Cheyenne Woman and Her Family Remember the Long Journey Home” (Summer 2009)
Wyoming State Historical Society award for the promotion and preservation of Wyoming history in the field of publications, magazines, and newspapers
Michael A. Amundson, “These Men Play Real Polo: An Elite Sport in the Cowboy State, 1890-1930” (Spring 2009)
Wild West History Association award for Best Article published in a Western magazine
Tiffany Clay, “A Call to Order: Law, Violence, and the Development of Montana’s Early Stockmen’s Organizations” (Autumn 2008)
Finalist, Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Short Nonfiction;
Paladin Award
Clyde Ellis, “‘More Real Than the Indians Themselves’: The Early Years of the Indian Lore Movement in the United States” (Autumn 2008)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Ellen Baumler, “Montana Deaconess School to Intermountain: A Centennial of Restoring Hope for Children, 1909–2009” (Spring 2009)
2008
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Paladin Award
Dan Flores, “Bringing Home all the Pretty Horses: The Horse Trade and the Early American West, 1775–1825” (Summer 2008)
Paladin Award
Megan Benson, “The Fight for Crow Water, Part 1” (Spring 2008)
2007
Mormon History Association Best Article of the Year
Brian Cannon, “Mormonism in Montana” (Spring 2006)
Paladin Award
Kenneth N. Owens, “Frontiersman for the Tsar: Timofe, Tarakanov and the Expansion of Russian America” (Autumn 2006)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Fredric Quivik, “The Tragic Montana Career of Dr. D. E. Salmon” (Spring 2007)
2006
National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center Wrangler Award
Jeffrey V. Pearson, “Tragedy at Red Cloud Agency: The Surrender, Confinement, and Death of Crazy Horse” (Summer 2005)
Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Short Nonfiction
Paul Hedren, “The Contradictory Legacies of Buffalo Bill Cody’s First Scalp for Custer” (Spring 2005)
Paladin Award
Melody Graulich, “Monopolizing The Virginian (or, Railroading Wister)” (Spring 2006)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Seena B. Kohl, “Love, Valor, and Endurance: World War II War Brides Making a Home in Montana” (Autumn 2006)
2005
Western Writers of America Spur Award for Short Nonfiction Article
Judy Daubenmier, “Empty Saddles: Desertion From the Dashing U.S. Cavalry” (Autumn 2004)
Finalist, Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award
James E. Potter, “Hunting in the Frontier Army: ‘The Great Source of Amusement’” (Autumn 2005)
Paladin Award
Paul Hedren, “The Contradictory Legacies of Buffalo Bill Cody’s First Scalp for Custer” (Spring 2005)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Ellen Baumler, “The Masonic Apron of Meriwether Lewis and the Legacy of Masonry in Montana” (Winter 2005)
2004
Paladin Award
William E. Farr, “Going to Buffalo: Indian Hunting Migrations across the Rocky Mountains” (Spring 2004)
Montana Historical Society Friends’ Choice Award
Aaron Parrett, “Montana’s Worst Natural Disaster: The 1964 Flood on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation” (Summer 2004)
2003
Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Short Nonfiction
Kerry R. Oman, “Winter in the Rockies: Winter Quarters of the Mountain Men” (Spring 2002)
Finalist, Western Writers of America Spur Award
Paul Schullery and Lee Whittlesey, “Yellowstone’s Creation Myth: Can We Live with Our Own Legends?” (Spring 2003)
Forest History Society Theodore C. Blegen Award
Alice K. Wondrak, “Wrestling with Horace Albright: Edmund Rogers, Visitors, and Bears in Yellowstone National Park” (Autumn and Winter 2002)
Envirotech Award Finalist
Michael J. Yochim, “Snow Machines in the Gardens: The History of Snowmobiles in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks” (Autumn 2003)
Paladin Award
Christine K. Erickson, “‘Kluxer Blues’: The Klan Confronts Catholics in Butte, Montana, 1923” (Spring 2003)
2002
Western History Association Michael P. Malone Award for State History
Frederick Allen, “Montana Vigilantes and the Origins of 3-7-77” (Spring 2001)
Forest History Society Theodore C. Blegen Award
Sara E. Dant Ewert, “Evolution of an Environmentalist: Senator Frank Church and the Hells Canyon Controversy” (Spring 2001)
Paladin Award
Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith, “World Champions: The 1904 Girls’ Basketball Team from Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School” (Winter 2001)
2001
Paladin Award
Brian Dippie, “‘Flying Buffaloes’: Artists and the Buffalo Hunt” (Summer 2001)
2000
Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Short Nonfiction
Elliott West, “Golden Dreams: Colorado, California, and the Reimagining of America” (Autumn 1999)
Paladin Award
Liping Zhu, “No Need to Rush: The Chinese, Placer Mining, and the Western Environment” (Autumn 1999)
1999
Paladin Award
Ellen Baumler, “Devil’s Perch: Prostitution from Suite to Cellar in Butte, Montana” (Autumn 1998)
1998
Western History Association Arrell M. Gibson Award for Best Essay on Native American History
Elliott West, “Called Out People: The Cheyennes and the Central Plains” (Summer 1998)
Paladin Award
Michael C. Steiner, “Frontierland as Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Architectural Packing of the Mythic West” (Spring 1998)
1997
Paladin Award
Quintard Taylor, “From Esteban to Rodney King: Five Centuries of African American History in the West” (Winter 1996)
1996
Paladin Award
Liping Zhu, “‘A Chinaman’s Chance’ on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier” (Autumn/Winter 1995)
1995
National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center Wrangler Award
Paul Andrew Hutton, “Showdown at the Hollywood Corral: Wyatt Earp and the Movies” (Summer 1995)
Paladin Award
James P. Ronda, “A Moment in Time: The West—September 1806 (Autumn 1994)
1994
National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center Wrangler Award
Raphael Cristy, “Charlie’s Hidden Agenda: Realism and Nostalgia in C. M. Russell’s Stories About Indians” (Summer 1993)
Paladin Award
William E. Farr, “Troubled Bundles, Troubled Blackfeet: The Travail of Cultural and Religious Renewal” (Autumn 1993)
1993
National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center Wrangler Award
Peter H. Hassrick, “Western Art Museums: A Question of Style or Content” (Summer 1992)
Paladin Award
John Phillip Reid, “Certainty of Vengeance: The Hudson’s Bay Company and Retaliation in Kind against Indian Offenders in New Caledonia” (Winter 1993)
1992
Paladin Award
Brian W. Dippie, “Photographic Allegories and Indian Destinies” (Summer 1992)
1991
National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center Wrangler Award
Jerry Keenan, “Yellowstone Kelly: From New York to Paradise” (Summer 1990)
Montana Addy Design Award
Montana The Magazine of Western History
Paladin Award
Paul A. Hutton, “‘Correct in Every Detail’: General Custer in Hollywood” (Winter 1991)
1990
Paladin Award
Albert L. Hurtado, “Public History and the Native American” (Spring 1990)
1989
Western Writers of America Spur Award for Short Nonfiction
Valerie S. Mathes, “Helen Hunt Jackson and the Ponca Controversy” (Winter 1989)
