The New West
The West Old & New Page 20
It is a free event, in one of Montana’ s most well known cities, Butte, Montana. Believe it or not this is the place where you will find an amazing combination of music such as: Western Swing, Chinese Jaw Harp, Blues, Traditional Tshimshian Dance, Cajun, Irish, Ethiopian Funk, Fado, Polka, Tibetan, Italian, Gospel, Bluegrass and Latin Dance, on the weekend of July 13th- 15th at the Montana Folk Festival. The Montana Folk Festival came about after the National Folk Festival that was presented in Butte from 2008 to 2010. Butte rallied up to create an event over the three year period that has made a name for itself. The first National Folk Festival was held in St. Louis in 1934, and it is the oldest, longest-running and most diverse festival of traditional arts in the nation. Championed in its early years by Eleanor Roosevelt, it was the first event of national stature to put the arts of many nations, races and languages into the same event on an equal footing. Montana had the honor of presenting the National during its 70th- 72nd presentations in Butte in partnership with the NCTA. Over the three years of the National ' s run in Montana, the festival infused $ 1.8 million into the trade area economy to pay for necessary products and services. Based on tourist surveys, the admission-free outdoor festival brought more than $ 20 million in new earnings for businesses in communities throughout the state in 2009. The economic impact in the third year was about $ 31 million, with an estimated 165,000 visitors to the event. Current estimates of the economic impact is approximately $ 25 million a year.
When the National Folk Festival moved on, Montana organizers decided to apply what they had learned to carry the traditions forward with a new event that offers much more for years to come-- the Montana Folk Festival. See more at: http:// montanafolkfestival. com / pages / festival-info / event-history. php # sthash. scfPeQij. dpuf
Coming to the August edition of the West Old & New
In 1961, Rulon Allred purchased a 640 acre ranch in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana for $ 42,500 dollars with the intent of locating a group of fundamentalist Mormons who had no affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because of their belief in polygamy, incorporating the city of Pinesdale, Montana, located near Hamilton.
Morris Y Jessop was interviewed by Lee Nelson in 1975. Nelson was publishing a pictorial magazine in the Bitterroot Valley at the time, and put two women and a man on the cover of his July issue and writing about polygamy in Montana.
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