• January 29, 1933 – Amelia Earhart piloted a Ford Trimotor around the Helena Valley.
• July 15, 1933 – Going-to-the-Sun highway was dedicated.
• March 2, 1933 – Montana Senator Thomas Walsh died on his way to Washington D.C. to take an appointment as the U.S Attorney General.
• October 1933 – Construction began on Fort Peck Dam.
• 1934 – A four-and-a-half month long peaceful strike by the International Mine, Mill and Smelter workers revived union activity in the state.
• 1935 – The Montana Highway Patrol was formed.
• May 6, 1935 – President Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration.
• October 1935 – A series of earthquakes killed four people and caused $4 million in damage to buildings, including Helena High School.
• December 15, 1935 – Bill Holt was named to replace Gov. Frank Cooney, who died in office.
• November 23, 1936 – Fort Peck Dam was the featured cover story of the first issue of LIFE magazine.
• Jan. 4, 1937 – Roy Ayers was sworn in as governor.
• June 12, 1937 – Two–and–one–half inches of rain and hail in one hour ruptured an irrigation canal and caused a major flood in downtown Billings. The Burlington railroad tracks washed out, and the Midland Empire fairgrounds suffered hail damage. The Billings Gazette called it “the greatest catastrophe in the city’s 54 year history.”
1938-1940
• January 10, 1938 – A Northwest Airlines flight crashed near Bozeman, killing 10.
• April 22, 1938 – The U.S. Government transferred Lewis and Clark Caverns to the state of Montana. The area would become the first state park in 1941.
• April 1938 – Kerr Dam near Polson became operational.
• June 19, 1938 – The Milwaukee Road “Olympian” derailed near Miles City, with 47 dead and 75 injured.
• Sept.22, 1938 – A major landslide at the Fort Peck Dam construction site killed 8 men.
• July 12, 1940 – Missoula smokejumpers Earl Cooley and Rufus Robinson made the first parachute jump on a fire.
• Sept. 11, 1940 – Fire destroyed the Northern Hotel and damaged 13 other Billings businesses.
• Sept. 16, 1940 – The National Guard was inducted into the Regular Army.
• Sept. 25, 1940 – Congress passed the first peacetime draft.
Learn more about Montana History Calender 1930s and the state’s history during the war years.
Montana Arts Council: State of the Arts newspaper