Monday, October 16: Missoula author, adventurer, and historian Doug Ammons joins us for a presentation about his new book, A Darkness Lit by Heroes. 7pm.

The book recreates the Granite Mountain-Speculator mining disaster of 1917, in Butte, MT, the worst hard rock mining disaster in history. Two years ago, Doug gained access to 600 pages of eye-witness testimony taken two weeks after the disaster from 70 miners who survived, a document that had been lost in Butte for 90 years. Together with more than 100 old proprietary mining maps, personal documents, correspondence, and consultation with Butte mining engineers, he recreated the actual story. Intricately detailed from the research, the story is written as a novel from inside the miners’ experience. 

Doug Ammons is a Missoula native, living in western Montana his entire life. For 35 years, he has been a world-class adventure athlete and recently has become a chronicler of Montana’s wild and tumultuous history. Doug is known for his extreme whitewater kayaking descents world-wide, and was listed by Outside Magazine in 2010 as “one of the top-ten game changers in adventure since 1900”, sharing that honor with such men as the polar explorer Roald Amundson and Himalayan climber Reinhold Messner. His story telling and philosophical orientation also led to one of his earlier books, Whitewater Philosophy, being listed by the Wall Street Journal as “one of the five best adventure books.”  He has made Emmy award-winning films for National Geographic, ESPN, and Outdoor Life Network.  He is married to Missoula Attorney Robin Ammons, and they have five children. A PhD in psychology and master story-teller, his multifaceted approach here focuses on intensely dramatic human stories from the rich history of Montana’s frontier.