Kilns and Kin (No. 126)

First Aired November 01, 2006)

Since 1991, the Backroads crew has traveled across Montana visiting its unique people and places. The series airs regularly on MontanaPBS.

The Backroads crew travels along as family and friends gather near Lodge Grass to move animals onto summer range; we visit some abandoned beehive charcoal kilns west of Melrose -- all that's left of one of Montana's earliest and most productive gold smelters; we find the exact geographic center of the state near Lewistown; and visit with a woman who's maintaining her family's connection to the African-American history of the Miles City area. William Marcus hosts the program from a barber shop in Columbus.

Program Updates

Johnnie Thomas, the woman who researched her family's connection to the African-American history of the Miles City area, died from cancer on January 31, 2008. Barber Bob Harsha died in May, 2017.