High Lights, Low Lights, and Red Lights

A Glimpse of the "Evening Industry" in Hamilton, Montana's 1890's. (a great reveal of the prostitution in Montana's Bitterroot Valley during the mining boom).
A fascinating book by L. Allen Strate, of Hamilton, Montana, gives us a glimpse into the history of Hamilton's Heydays -- the decade of the 1890's when copper magnate Marcus Daly built the historic town for his industrious mining operations. The reality is that where you have a boom town, and industry, especially industries that employed up to 2000 or more young, single men...well, industries of all sorts are bound to prosper. In the dedication of his book, L. Allen Strate writes: "The Madams, The Ladies, and the Gentlemen of the row and the Historic Hamilton Red Light District are gone now, but as they endured in life, so will they endure in print. It is fitting that we write a tribute to those who listened to thousands of men, even though it has taken over 125 years to find one who would read of them and write their story. It's a wonderful historical account of the of the lively evening industry that flourished in Hamilton, Montana, and the culmination of three years of exhaustive research by the author. With interesting and notorious characters like Calamity Jane and Madam Mary Gleim, this book opens up Montana history that was largely unknown until now. Issued in 5.5 x 8.5-inch softcover format, 114 pages with some 20 photographs and incredible historic information. Cover illustration done by Donna Toavs of Stevensville, Montana. ISBN 978-1-938707-25-4 -- High Lights, Low Lights, and Red Lights -- $ 12.95