Departing on August 30, 1979, a group of adventurers embarked on a five-day journey from Dewey Hart Ranch to meet the Milk River and travel along it to Malta as an annual re-creation to experience the wagon train as Montana pioneers once did. Joining this journey were two folklorists, Kay Young (photographer here) and Michael Crummet, who documented this year’s journey through 145 sound recordings, 10,500 photographs and 3 ½ linear feet of interview manuscripts with Montanans in various occupations. This photograph is part of the Montana Folklife Survey conducted in the summer of 1979 by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, in cooperation with the Montana Arts Council. The survey was a field research project to document traditional folklife in Montana.

From back plaque:
“Web Dolson (left) and Jack Smith (right) with the Milk River Wagon train near Malta, Montana. The wagon train is an annual re-creation of a pioneer activity. Local residents spend one or two weeks each summer retracing a trip made by pioneers of their grandfathers’ day. 

Negative MT9-86037/24
Montana Folklife Survey
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress”