Archives West Finding Aid

Series 1 consists of audio recordings of two interviews conducted by Paugh in the development of her text. The interview with John C. Paugh is actually a narration of a written script by Minnie and John C. Paugh regarding his great uncle, John G. Vetter, a frontier businessman of Virginia City. A transcript/synopsis of this interview can be found in Series 2, Research materials. The second cassette is an interview conducted on July 29, 1975 with Winifred Chowning Jeffers, a longtime resident of the Ennis, Montana area, discussing her memories of the area. This interview has no transcription. Numbers in parentheses indicate the original accession numbers for these tapes.

Series 2 pertains to Paugh's research and development of her text. Some research materials are actually papers which were composed by Montana State University students enrolled in history classes taught by Merrill G. Burlingame and given to Paugh by him. The materials have been sorted in rough subject order bearing the same folder titles assigned by Paugh, but researchers are cautioned that many folders contain notes that do not necessarily conform to the titles. A single asterisk (*) denotes material relocated to the Photograph series. Numbers in parentheses indicate the original accession numbers for these materials.

Series 3 consists of Paugh's four different draft copies of her manuscript. The draft versions of the work provide evidence of the manuscript's evolution from initial composition, to its correction assisted by others, and to its final draft ready for publication submission. People whom Paugh asked to correct the manuscript include: Merrill G. Burlingame; Marjorie Brister; Winifred Chowning Jeffers; Catherine Armitage; Zora McKee Armstrong; Paul Love; Theodore, Ralph, John and Robert Paugh. Although all contributed to the corrections, it is not always possible to determine any particular individual's notations.

Images collected by Paugh in relation to her research and possible inclusion in a published version of her manuscript. This series has been divided up into two sections the first being the photographs collected by Paugh, the second containing the negatives of the assorted photographic images. Each photograph is numbered and if there is a corresponding negative, the negative has received the same number as the photograph. Not all photographs have a corresponding negative and four negatives do not have a corresponding print image. Numbers in parentheses indicate the original accession numbers for these materials.