When architect A.J. Gibson arrived in Missoula in 1889, it was a bustling hub.  Miners and timber workers crowded the wooden sidewalks and gathered in rustic log cabins and saloons along the muddy streets.  But during the next 20 years, Gibson would transform Montana’s Garden City brick-by-brick.  He would design and build hospitals, mansions and modest homes, rowhouses, office buildings and towering academic palaces.  Gibson called himself the Original Man, and his designs created a new and original visual identity for Western Montana.  But it was a courthouse for Missoula County that would pose his greatest architectural challenge, and lead to his retirement.  It was a retirement that allowed Gibson to explore his second passion for automobiles.  Gibson and his wife, Maud, traveled extensively, setting records for trips to Canada, New York, California and Mexico.  And Maud captured all their adventures in photos that she organized in dozens of scrapbooks. Come along for the ride and explore these remarkable lives and the impact they had on the Treasure State in The Original Man: A.J. Gibson.

Based on the book The Original Man: The Life and Work of A.J. Gibson by H.Rafael Chacon

Produced and Written by Ray Fanning

Directed and edited by Aj Williams

Executive Producer Ray Ekness

Videography Aj Williams, Ray Fanning

Drone Photography Breanna McCabe

Graphics Tylor Larson

Narrated by Jenna Pinchbeck

Funding Provided By: Greater Montana Foundation