Travel to missoula, montana. With a population of about 66,000, montanas second largest city sits on the western part of the state in the heart of the northern rocky mountains. Over the next hour, well learn about the history of missoula and the surrounding region. Missoula is located in the western part of montana. We probably claim it to be the largest city inside the rocky mountains. Because we have a branch to our east and a branch to the west. So were located in the heart of western montana. In a very ferre tile area. When captain christopher p. Higgins established missoula, actually established hellgate first, which is the immediate predecessor, it was because, it was the nexus, it was the hub in western montana. Because to the north youve got the mission and to the south youve got an increasing settlement in the Bitterroot Valley and in 1860 you have lieutenant john mullin completing the military road from fort benton in the east to walla walla in the west. So anything everybody who is going from one direction to the ther is coming through here. Before White Settlement was here, this was the native american land. This was their homeland. And as such, as far as we really are know, there was never any type of permanent settlement here in missoula. They settled elsewhere. Particularly up the bitterroot. But in here, they did a lot of hunting, there was a great deal of hunting and gathering. The bitterroot flowers, the roots of the bitterroots were cherished and a whole field of them existed pretty much where we are now. The hellgate village was established in 1860. Now, what had happened was captain christopher p. Higgins had been on the wagon master on lieutenant on Governor Stevens expedition. He was stevens was taking office as the first territorial governor of washington, which at that point included montana. So, he first saw this area coming through here in 1853, when stevens was negotiating with the indians. Eventually he moved out to walla walla and olympia with the governor, stayed there for a number of years, but realized his future was not in the military. And he remembered this valley. Isaacs ught out the old concern of the warden isaacs store in walla walla and he convinced his new partner, frank warden, and their clerk, frank woody, that they needed to relocate their entire operation from walla walla to western montana. And they set up shop about four miles from the current downtown. Tiny Little Village called hellgate. Named after the gates of hell or the [speaking foreign language] as the french call the prominent geographical feature here. And they established their Little Village, never more than 14 permanent inhabitants. Nine violent deaths by the way. Good odds not good odds. But they were immediately successful because they fit a need. They fit the need to supply the settlers, the indians and, increasingly, the miners. We have no mineable things here. But we knew how to supply others. Ut after four, five years, higgins and his partners decided to move their operations four miles up what was then called the missoula river. Now called the clark fork. And they first built a sawmill, then a grissmill. Relocated their store. They started building their homes there. And within three more years, hell gate village seized to exist. There is nothing there. There were some efforts to save the one remaining structure, which was st. Michaels church. Which has a great deal of historical significance. Plus, being one of the first structures built by white people out here. That has a storied history. It was saved there, restored, then it was moved downtown. It served as a boys boarding school, a girls school, a comsear, a store house for st. Patricks church. Then it was moved back there in hellgate village, but then the developments took over it and in the 1980s the friends of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula worked long and hard to obtain it, to bring it to the Historical Museum grounds where we can preserve it, tell those early stories about hellgate and make history come alive. Fort missoula was established in 1877. Now, for many years, the leading citizens of missoula lobbied the territorial government, the state government, and the federal government for a fort. You have to remember that during this time period, this is this is the worst of the indian wars. Youre pretty much in the midst of the sioux wars, which are devastating. In 1976 you have custers defeat at the little bighorn. Theres lots of fears about the indian menace. And we have, the flathead indians, largely peaceful. The nes pers who come through the area, peaceful. But theres the threat of the sioux, the cheyenne, the blackfoot from up north. So there was a fear for that. Plus, in my opinion, the Business Leaders of missoula understood that once you get the government in, you cant get them out. And they pay an ungodly amount of money to the community. So i think it was a very, very shrewd decision by the city founders to pursue having a fort. There is the noncommissioned officers quarters, the root cellar and the carriage house. Those are the only three structures that still remain. A one0, it was called milliondollar fort, because rather than close it, the center has got 1 million to invest in it. We have got a lot of those structures left on Historical Museum grounds, but the rest of it, which is still there and active, contains the old officers row, the barracks sections, supply firehouses, old cook houses. The parts that were during thealuable internment camp. I think it is increasingly important, as more and more in,le from outside come they need to be immersed in local history to understand exactly what we are as a community. It is wonderful, why is it there, and, wonderful . Thesewonderful because of men who have an important aspect in developing the fundamental aspect of what makes missoula missoula. Hard to overstate Mike Mansfields importance. He advocated on behalf of montana. He said he had no higher ambition dan to be a senator than to be a senator from and for the state of montana. Mike mansfield was born in new york city in 1903. He was the son of Irish Catholic immigrants. He had two younger sisters, catherine and helen. When Mike Mansfield was seven ands old, his father died sent him, as was the irish tradition, to live with relatives in montana, which is how he and his sisters ended up. At the age of 14, he went back to new york, tried to get his father to enlist in the military. His dad said no, so mansfield lied and enlisted in the army at the age of no sorry, the navy at the age of 14. Manserved his time as a sea and as soon he was done, he enlisted as a private in the army. When he was discharged from the army, he came back to great falls, worked a couple of jobs, didnt like it a whole lot, then enlisted in the marines. He ended up serving in all three branches. At that time, there were three branches of the service. Loved the marines. The marines sent him overseas and this was the first time he was getting to see the world and enjoy the opportunity to learn about and see other places, and experience other places. He would say that he had the most respect for the marines and thought it was the test brands because they had the good sense to promote him to private first class. In fact, he is buried at Arlington National cemetery, and his gravestone, he could have had anything on it at all. He was sent majority leader, ambassador to japan, it says Mike Mansfield, private, u. S. Marines. Man, butch a modest this was also a definitive part of his life. No story of Mike Mansfield would be complete without talking about his wife. At one point in time, he said that she was like a mother and a wife, because his mother had died when he was seven years old. And shey trusted her helped him come up in the world. After he got discharged from the marines, he went to dubuque montana and worked underground in the dust, in the dirt. Took some classes toward coming a mining engineer after he saw a friend of the his who he worked underground with dye and thought, this is going to be me if i dont get out of here. It was during this time that he met maureen hayes. She was a schoolteacher. They fell in love and he guided she guided him through the rest of his life. Under her guidance and with his came to theactually university of montana, started as a special student, because he only had an eight grade education. Once he finished his credits that he needed to be really enrolled, he got a degree here in history. If you look at his transcript, you will see his grades were not ideal, which goes to show that experience is important as well as coursework. She supported him by working as a social worker by cashing in her Life Insurance so that they could afford to live. She also got a degree. He wound up getting his masters degree in history from the university of montana. She got her masters degree in english in 1934. They had gotten married in 1932. She had moved missoula to join him. A daughter andad they continued to live here in missoula. He was on the faculty of the university of montana. He taught latin american and east asian history, worked on his phd at a distance and a couple of travels to california at ucla. He ultimately did not complete that degree, but it helped to inform his way of teaching and the way that he focused on east asian history again give him credibility when he got was elected to the u. S. House and was one of the reasons why he was appointed to the House Committee on foreign affairs. In 1940, Mike Mansfield decided to run for the u. S. House of representatives are presenting the western district. At that time, we had two representatives in the house. Mike mansfield ran as a democrat. Rankin, whoeanette was elected in 1940. She cast the only vote against our entry into world war ii and ultimately decided not to run for reelection in 1942. By 1942, Mike Mansfield had decided to run again and he was elected every time after that that he ran. He goes to the house of representatives in 1942. He gets recognized for his knowledge about foreign affairs. He is the person who has the in the house on the House Foreign Affairs committee about east asia. He gets sent by president roosevelt to china, which further solidifies his reputation as somebody with knowledge about east asia. Served in the house, was reelected every two years until he decided to run for senate in 1952. Mansfield entered the freshman class of 1952 of the senate alongside prescott bush, albert gore senior, barry goldwater, henry jackson, and john f. Kennedy, to name just a few. One of the things on the table here is a photograph that is really well known of mansfield serving as umpire to a game that kennedy is catching, it is a baseball game, and jackson is batting. It is fitting that in this photo, Mike Mansfield is playing umpire, because he does go on to serve essentially as an umpire for the senate. He sort of manages it. By johnson is picked to serve as majority whip, and then in 1961, when johnson becomes Vice President , mansfield is unanimously elected to become the Senate Majority leader and he serves in that position until 1977. In november 1963, by that time, he had been the majority leader for a couple of years and there were some rumblings on the floor that maybe he was not moving legislation as fast as it should be moving or he wasnt holding senators as accountable as they should be for being present or doing the work they should be doing and people were beginning to wonder if they had elected the right majority leader. To respond tor those criticisms on the floor of the senate in a speech that he was going to give about his leadership style in which he said, he was elected, he was there by their free will, they were free to remove him if they didnt feel he was working appropriately, if they didnt feel the senate was working appropriately, but that patience was a virtue and that moving legislation took time. On the day that he was going to read this statement on the floor, john f. Kennedy was assassinated, and mansfield ended up inserting the statement into the congressional record, never did read it. He instead wrote a eulogy for jfk and delivered that at his funeral on the 24th of november of 1963. My partye of colleagues believe that mine was not the style of leadership that suited them, they would be welcome to seek a change. I had selected a friday afternoon, when little else would be going on, to discuss the senate and its leadership. Friday, november 22, 1963. Events put ingic and to any such speechmaking. After johnson came into office as the president , he was committed to passing civil rights legislation, and the house passed a bill that they then sent over to the senate. Early 1964, mansfield and his team knew this bill was coming to them, and among the documents i have on the table are back channel behind the scenes primary source documents outlining the strategy that mansfield and his team were going to take to move the legislation through. They knew it was going to take a wild. They knew that there was going to be a filibuster. They knew that they needed 67 votes to stop the debate and actually vote on the bill. It took months. Of the of debate filibuster on the floor to get this through. One of the qualities that mansfield has exhibited in those years of serving as majority whip and majority leader was this patients, this willingness to build bridges across the aisle, this willingness to give responsibilities to junior centers, which Lyndon Johnson never did. The willingness to give responsibility to committing ders instead of requiring Committee Leaders instead of requiring that he approved everything that happened when people wanted action on their to thehey were referred Committee Leadership, not he did not get in the middle of those conversations. That was one of the reasons why he was respected was also that building of bridges and making of connections, including with the southern democrats who were opposed to civil rights legislation. It is what really helped ultimately move the civil rights bill and ultimately, they stopped debate. They had enough votes to do that and the civil rights bill was passed on july 4 of 1964, signed by president johnson on the same day. So, mansfield sent that same letter to all 99 senators, and he said, dear senator, we have come to the most trying time in the senate. In retrospect, the issues were such that they might have opened schisms that have been years in closing. That did not happen and i want you to know how grateful i am for the help, understanding, and cooperation you gave me in striving to prevent it. Striving for this will mean a great deal to the nation. It meant a great deal to me personally. With thereated me utmost kindness and consideration and i am deeply appreciative. Hubert humphrey writes back to him, and most senators did write back something to him. Hubert humphrey managed that bill on the floor. He took the lead on it and humphrey wrote back to him, your letter to me following the civil rights battle is a cherished possession. You are without a doubt the most unselfish, kind and considerate man ive ever known. It is a rare privilege to be associated with you and i am internally grateful for the opportunities you have given me to make some contribution to our country. From thead this one minority leader at that time. Dear mike, i dont know what we would have done about the civil rights struggle if it had not been for your humility, your understanding, your sale self effacement and your understanding of every problem when it arose. But all was said and done, you should have had the lions share of credit, because you are the leader and youd cooperated at every step of this torturous road. You will never know how deep my appreciation is and my admiration and respect for you. He wound up keeping the senate together in a time that could have been the most disruptive, may be the history of the senate. For that, he deserves the nations thanks and got the thanks of the nation and his colleagues for that. I would say that probably when most people think of Mike Mansfield today, what they think of is his opposition to our involvement in the vietnam war. He was involved in some different issues, the Nuclear Test Ban treaty, the civil rights act, the Voting Rights act, there were many issues, but most people are thinking about. Ow he was and early supporter some people have said that maybe we were involved in vietnam two involved in vietnam because Mike Mansfield was so influential in pushing support for dm. He felt that it was anticommunist and that is what the United States was looking for, someone who was anticommunist. The leader of south vietnam. When he was assassinated in talk mansfield began to more about his opposition to our havingment in actually boots on the ground in the area. Originally, this opposition was behind the scenes. He respected the rights of the executive to make Foreign Policy , and he did not for a long time speak out publicly against our. Nvolvement in vietnam as time went on, he became more and more public with his opposition. In mansfield papers, you see , kennedy,he president johnson, outlining his opposition to strategies, to having troops on the ground, outlining opposition to funding the war. To 60s, he isid talking about his opposition publicly. Articles, ing in speeches he is giving, even in letters to nonconstituents. One of the things about Mike Mansfield is that he saw every montana and who came to washington dc, he responded in person. He signed every letter. Every time one of his constituents wrote him a letter, he responded. Mail about of vietnam, pro and con. There is a letter that he received from a man who lived in himt falls who writes to about being drafted and what he should do, and what his plans are if he does get drafted. Mansfield writes back to him, whi