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    <title>Distinctly Montana Stories</title>
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    <description><![CDATA[Someone threw a pitcher at Bob Weir and the Grateful Dead never came back to Missoula. Masked men forced a sheepherder to make them coffee before spending eight hours clubbing his flock to death. A 19-year-old named Cromwell Dixon became the first person to fly over the Continental Divide — and was dead a month later. An entrepreneur carted a 365-pound "petrified man" from Montana to New York City and failed spectacularly. Long George Francis, outlaw and poet, crashed his car on Christmas Eve with a broken leg and crawled through a blizzard toward an increasingly uncertain safety.

These are true stories, drawn from the literary journalism of Distinctly Montana magazine and adapted into produced audio by editor-in-chief Joe Shelton. The show takes Montana's mythology seriously enough to look at it honestly — and what it finds is both darker and more wonderful than the postcard version. Each episode pairs careful narration with sound design and music in service of the story.

Episodes run between twelve and twenty-two minutes and release monthly. Subscribe to Distinctly Montana magazine at www.distinctlymontana.com/subscribe.]]></description>
    <itunes:author>Joseph Shelton</itunes:author>
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      <title>I Didn't Die in Montana: Hank Williams Jr. on Ajax MT</title>
      <description><![CDATA[On August 8, 1975, Hank Williams Jr. set out to hunt mountain goats on Ajax Peak, on the Montana-Idaho border near Wisdom. He was 26, the son of a country music legend, and the heaviest of the three hikers crossing a late-summer snowfield near the summit. He stepped into his guide's footprint. Something under his right foot moved. What followed was a fall so catastrophic that the men who reached his body couldn't believe he was still alive.]]></description>
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      <title>Conquering the Divide</title>
      <description><![CDATA[In the early days of aviation, Montana's Continental Divide was the prize every flyboy wanted — and the mountain range that kept breaking their planes. A barnstormer crashed in a gulch. A racing legend couldn't catch a break in Butte. Then a nineteen-year-old kid who'd built his first flying machine at fourteen arrived in Helena with something to prove. He had one month left to live.
Distinctly Montana Stories brings literary journalism from the pages of Distinctly Montana magazine to life in audio.
Sound effects and music sourced from Epidemic Sound.]]></description>
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      <title>Frank Lloyd Wright's Montana Dreams</title>
      <description><![CDATA[In 1909, Frank Lloyd Wright was exhausted, trapped in a failing marriage, and desperate to run away with another man's wife. That same year, Chicago financiers hired him to design a utopian orchard town in the Bitterroot Valley—an ambitious vision that would never be built. What Wright left behind in Montana, and what was taken from it a century later, is a story of ambition, loss, and the strange persistence of dreams.
Written by Joseph Shelton. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound. Subscribe to the magazine at www.distinctlymontana.com/subscribe]]></description>
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      <title>Who the Hell Was Montana Frank?</title>
      <description><![CDATA[In this episode of Distinctly Montana Stories, join me, Joseph Shelton, as I delve into the enigmatic life of Montana Frank McCray, a figure who straddled the line between myth and reality in the American West. Known as the last of Buffalo Bill's scouts, Montana Frank claimed a storied past filled with adventure, including performances in Wild West shows and connections with iconic figures. However, as we explore archived articles and personal accounts, a more complex picture emerges. Was he a legendary frontiersman or a vaudeville performer spinning tales to captivate his audience? Tune in to uncover the truth behind Montana Frank and the allure of Western folklore.]]></description>
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      <title>The Last Ride of Long George Francis</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Long George Francis was many things: rodeo champion, poet, outlaw, and the self-proclaimed Robin Hood of the Hi-Line. He'd survived hotel fires, rodeo injuries, and sixteen months as a fugitive. He'd never killed anyone. And on Christmas Eve, 1920, a judge trusted him enough to grant him a few days of freedom before he reported to prison—just long enough to deliver candy and toys to the woman he loved.

He never made it.

The Last Ride of Long George Francis was written by Nick Mitchell for Distinctly Montana magazine. Narrated and produced by Joe Shelton. Music licensed from Epidemic Sound.

Distinctly Montana Stories brings literary journalism from the pages of Distinctly Montana magazine to life in audio. Subscribe to Distinctly Montana Magazines at www.distinctlymontana.com/subscribe]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:09:20 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>The Petrified Man of Livingston Goes East</title>
      <description><![CDATA[In 1899, a 365-pound mummified figure with a bullet hole in his forehead was pulled from the Missouri River and put on display across Montana for two bits a head. Doctors couldn't explain him. A drunken miner swore he was the ghost of a beloved territorial governor. Montana legend Liver Eatin' Johnson insisted he was an old friend named Antelope Charley.

The Petrified Man was going on tour.

Credits: Written by Nick Mitchell. Produced by Joe Shelton. Music from Epidemic Sound.

Distinctly Montana Stories brings literary journalism from the pages of Distinctly Montana magazine to life in audio. Subscribe to Distinctly Montana Magazines at www.distinctlymontana.com/subscribe
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      <title>Blood on the Wool</title>
      <description><![CDATA[In this gripping episode of Distinctly Montana Stories titled "Blood on the Wool," I delve into the harrowing world of early twentieth-century Montana sheepherders. Life on the range was often monotonous, but that all changed one fateful night when a sheepherder encountered a violent gang intent on wreaking havoc among his flock. This episode explores the dark chapter known as the Sheep Wars, where economic tensions between cattlemen and sheepherders erupted into brutal confrontations. Join me as I recount the chilling details of these attacks, the sheer brutality involved, and the lasting impact on the lives of those who endured it. Tune in to uncover a lesser-known but significant part of Montana's history.]]></description>
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