Name: "The Lost History of Montana" Tuesday January 20th at the Montana Agriculture Center, Fort Benton
Start: 2026-01-20T19:00:00-07:00
Location: The Montana Agriculture Center

Traveling Montana History show comes to Fort Benton, Tuesday January 20th at the Montana Agricultural Center
On Tuesday, January 20th at 7pm at the Montana Agricultural Center, the Rivers and Plains Society, Inc and The Chouteau County Library will present “Off the Beaten Path: The Lost History of Montana in original songs, poems and stories” with Philipsburg, Montana based musician Ben Larson.
Larson is a working musician who combines his love of folk music, cowboy poetry and obscure Montana history into a deep dive into overlooked and unconventional factoids of our incredible state. From explorations into remote corners of our mining history in “Soul of Silver” to riding along on the whirlwind of “Escape From Warm Springs,” the show criss-crosses the state from Plentywood to Lima, the Yaak Valley to Miles City and beyond.
Anecdotes from Larson’s day job restoring historic buildings find their way on the stage with poems like “The Murder at the Hasmark Saloon,” a true story of villainy from the hills of Granite County in 1888. His contribution to the Butte History Project, “Darlin’ I’m Growing Old” is included along with two dozen other western and folk songs. The show is accompanied by maestro percussionist and theremin player, Pfahl and interspersed with original cowboy poetry and classics from the Montana canon, including Wallace McRae, Wade Montgomery and more.
During an effort to find his wife’s long lost family homesteads in Chester, Whitetail, Lakeside and Ballantine, Ben began the project of performing in all 56 Counties of Montana. Stopping along the way in roadside museums and archives, this history presentation evolved as a way to share their fascinating discoveries with audiences across the state. Together, the Larson and Pfahl duo present a hilarious, sobering and all-together engrossing two-hour show that will leave audiences hungry for more. Currently, they have performed in 42 of the state’s 56 counties, and this unforgettable evening will be their debut in Chouteau County.