{"id":18141,"date":"2017-06-20T10:27:14","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T16:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=18141"},"modified":"2017-06-20T10:33:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T16:33:20","slug":"in-montana-nicknames-could-be-kind-but-often-disparaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/06\/in-montana-nicknames-could-be-kind-but-often-disparaging\/","title":{"rendered":"In Montana, nicknames could be kind, but often disparaging"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dam\"<\/a>

Welcome to Great Falls, \\”The Cataract City,\\” so named for the Great Falls of the Missouri, seen here when the Black Eagle Dam was relatively new.<\/p><\/div>\n

We humans like to name things, quite often for what they look like or sound like.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also useful for finding your way about.<\/p>\n

Natives referred to this region as the \u201cCountry of the Mountains\u201d or \u201cShining Mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joaquin Miller, who published his \u201cIllustrated History of Montana\u201d<\/a> in 1894, proposed calling the region\u2019s inhabitants \u201cMontanese.\u201d He much preferred that to \u201cMontanians.\u201d Neither took.<\/p>\n

Not satisfied with names alone, we also seem enamored with nicknames.<\/p>\n

\n

In Leeson\u2019s \u201cHistory of Montana 1739-1885,\u201d Montana nicknames included \u201cThe Magic City\u201d for Billings, \u201cThe Queen of the Mountains\u201d for Helena, \u201cThe Beautiful City\u201d for Bozeman, \u201cThe Silver City\u201d for Butte and \u201cThe West Butte City\u201d for Missoula.<\/p>\n

The trouble with nicknames is that they aren\u2019t always endearing terms\u2014they can be used to ridicule.<\/p>\n

Such is the case with a couple of nicknames in the late 1800s.<\/p>\n

Missoulians derisively referred to one of their neighbors as \u201cThe Baby County.\u201d Any guesses? We\u2019ll come back to that in a moment.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another. Helena was once referred to as \u201cThe Cracker City.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, if you look up the etymology of \u201ccracker,\u201d you\u2019ll find it was a derogatory term for poor white people in the rural South in the 1800s. It also referred to the crack of whip or a loud braggart.<\/p>\n

Hmmm. Loud braggarts. Helena. Politicians. Perhaps.<\/p>\n

Turns out, it began as a complimentary reference to Helena\u2019s economic growth, which was then turned sideways by opposing forces during the final campaign to choose a capital city for Montana.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 1891, representatives of the American Biscuit Manufacturing company (that\u2019s right\u2014a cracker company) visited \u201cThe Cataract City.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geez! Now I have to explain another moniker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cataract City\u201d is Great Falls\u2014so named, not as a reference to the malady of the eyes, but a reference to a giant cascading waterfall.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Anyway, the biscuit boys told a local Tribune reporter they hadn\u2019t made a final decision of where to locate their cracker plant\u2014both Great Falls and Helena had the cheap water power they needed.<\/p>\n

Then they headed over to \u201cThe Queen of the Mountains\u201d for a visit.<\/p>\n

In October 1891, they announced their choice\u2014Helena would be the site.<\/p>\n

The Great Falls Tribune immediately mocked the enterprise, pointing to Helena\u2019s long history of failed economic schemes. \u201cThere is one thing about Helena \u2026 she always aims high if she does shoot low,\u201d adding, \u201cShe should have it. It will add at least three men to her present payroll.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next year \u201cHelena for Capital\u201d badges appeared, bearing the image of a ginger snap (from the cracker factory) trimmed out with a ribbon. The Livingston Enterprise called it \u201ca novel idea, but not so handsome in design as several of the badges distributed by other contestants.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Anaconda Standard, tongue in cheek, suggested maybe they should add a small cracker to their Anaconda copper button. The Helena Independent newspaper responded: \u201cThe suggestion is good. The Helena cracker factory will be running day and night when the Anaconda copper works have passed into a reminiscence.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t quite work out that way.<\/p>\n

Over the next few years, the Missoulian newspaper (which strongly backed Helena for the state capital) routinely used the \u201cCracker City\u201d reference in news stories large and small.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Parsons took this morning\u2019s train on a short business visit to the Cracker City.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHerr Daniel Bandmann and wife returned last evening from the Cracker City, where they gave a very successful performance of Rip Van Winkle.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few months before the election, which pitted Anaconda against Helena for the site of the state capital, there was a brief labor dispute at the cracker factory\u2014a golden opportunity for the Anaconda Standard.<\/p>\n

In its story titled \u201cThe Climax,\u201d the newspaper wrote: \u201cIt is useless to deny that a fearful crash has come; that a totally unexpected crisis has been reached; that the industrial world has experienced a shock which tends to destroy the nature and relation of things that involve them all in hopeless confusion, chaos and collapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cFar be it from this newspaper to seek to magnify any evil, or appearance of evil \u2026 let us all be calm and brave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right.<\/p>\n

After a number of lengthy paragraphs, we\u2019re told \u201can amicable settlement has been reached and the strike declared off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Short term, Helena won the capital designation. Long term, the Anaconda Company far outlasted the biscuit factory. And the moniker \u201cCracker City\u201d soon enough faded from use.<\/p>\n

Now, did you guess which of Missoula\u2019s neighbors was called the \u201cBaby County?\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a short-lived reference (chiefly by the Missoulian newspaper) to Ravalli County after it split off from Missoula, in 1893.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoor little Ravalli county,\u201d wrote the paper, \u201cthe baby county of Montana, torn asunder from old Missoula county.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 100 years later, little Ravalli County is still around\u2014and increasingly popular for lifestyle and cost of living, borne out each day by the thousands of Bitterroot commuters heading to jobs in Missoula.<\/p>\n

And the naming and renaming continues. The \u201cMagic City\u201d of Billings is now referred to by many as \u201cB-Town\u201d (MSU-B, formerly \u201cEastern,\u201d the B-Town Grill, etc.). Bozeman is \u201cThe Bozone.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems we just can\u2019t help ourselves. Why not join in? Do you have some suggestions for new nicknames for Montana cities and towns? Send me a note at harmonshistories@gmail.com.<\/p>\n

Jim Harmon is a longtime Missoula broadcaster who writes a weekly history column for Missoula Current<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We humans like to name things, quite often for what they look like or sound like. It\u2019s also useful for finding your way about. Natives referred to this region as the \u201cCountry of the Mountains\u201d or \u201cShining Mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":18142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[5961,5960,5959],"class_list":["post-18141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","category-montana","tag-cracker-city","tag-magic-city","tag-nicknames","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18144,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18141\/revisions\/18144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}