Montana Oil and Mining Journal (Great Falls, Mont.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
823 issues from 1931 to 1946, published in Billings, Montana, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Montana Oil Journal published its first issue in April 1921. The Great Falls, Montana paper proposed to be “a log of the oil fields,” providing news of the state’s fledgling oil industry to its subscribers twice a month. Early issues averaged 26 pages of news and advertisements in four columns, and covers proudly displayed photographs of local oil rigs. Contents in the 1920s included news of strikes, refinery operations, and the arrival of industry giants such as Standard Oil. Some small sections were dedicated to specific oil fields such as Cat Creek.
The Great Depression did not wipe out the paper or the Montana oil industry. It did, however, force the paper to shrink to four pages from 1933 to 1934. Nevertheless, content in the 1930s was relatively expansive. The Journal reported on operations in Montana and Alberta, ran a humor column (“The Sunburst Badger Says”), and had a complete list of drilling wells in Montana. In 1931 the Journal offered subscribers a “keyed map of the State of Montana, showing every recognized oil and gas structure in the state, printed in red on a blue base map.”
The Montana Oil Journal changed its name to the Montana Oil and Mining Journal in 1931 when it began printing a dedicated mining section. Expanding coverage of the western oil industry led to another title change in 1953. With the expanded title, the paper became the Montana Oil Journal: With News of Oil in the Williston Basin, Montana, Dakotas and Greater Rockies. In 1991, the…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Billings, Montana, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress