The First Draft of History: Getting the Past into Print

It is said that newspaper reporters, in their hurried, inevitably flawed way, are writing the first draft of history. Veteran reporter Ed Kemmick talks about some of his favorite history-tinged newspaper stories, from the tale of the so-called Petrified Man discovered near Fort Benton to the exploits of Horace Bivins, buffalo soldier, top army marksman, and, in retirement in Billings, a master gardener. Kemmick has worked as a reporter and editor in Montana for more than thirty-five years and is the author of “The Big Sky, By and By.” He is retired as of July 2018, when he suspended publication of his four-and-a-half-year-old online newspaper, Last Best News.