Book Review: The Last Heir: The Triumphs and Tragedies of Two Montana Families by Bill Vaughn

Abstract

In The Last Heir: The Triumphs and Tragedies of Two Montana Families, writer Bill Vaughn paints an intriguing picture of the Burkes and the Herrins families’ intertwining histories in Montana’s upper Missouri River Valley from the late nineteenth century to today. By doing so, Vaughn highlights American, and portions of western, history through the eyes and experiences of two families, the professional Burkes and the ranching Herrins, whose family tree lines eventually meet, creating the author’s wife. Using a journalistic methodology of research and writing, the author employs existing documentation (e.g., newspaper articles and court judgments) and oral history stories— largely from two people (i.e., his spouse, Kitty Herrin, and her mother, Molly Catherine Burke Herrin)—as his main sources. It is not clear whether other current family descendants were consulted in the book’s writing. Vaughn’s attention-grabbing writing style will engage a public audience, nearly immediately drawing readers in with Paramount Global’s television series (2018–present) Yellowstone-like theatrics of shady Montana politics, nepotism, and “friends” favoritism. Here is a historical drama of go-getters: daring individuals and families whose actions and motivations—including but not limited to pride, ambition, aggression, fighting, violence, and court cases—often mirrored one another. Within the Burkes and Herrins, are substantial “kingdoms”—whether professional or agricultural—started generations back, slowly built up and quickly lost with boom and bust cycles, with an increasing family imperative of the importance, and burden, of maintaining and defending the kingdom. Depicted are “typical” rural “strong” families characterized by a hard-working ethos and inability to talk about and acknowledge mental health needs, seeing those with such “struggles” as “weak.” Readers will detect theme manifestations from popular culture standards: books like Sandoz’s Old Jules (Little, Brown, and Company 1935) and Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (Covici Friede 1937); books and film adaptations such as Maclean’s A River Runs Through It (University of Chicago Press 1976, Columbia Pictures 1992), Harrison’s Legends of the Fall (Delacorte Press 1979, TriStar Pictures 1994), and Paine’s Open Range (Walker & Co 1990, Touchstone Pictures 2003); and television series like Dallas (CBS Broadcasting Inc. 1978–1991) and Yellowstone. The book illuminates intersections of Burke and Herrin family history with local (e.g., Army Corps of Engineers and Missouri River damming projects), national (e.g., whitecapping, Social Security Act, Campfire Girls, World War II Homefront efforts), and international (e.g., western world baseball, World War I, Great Depression) history. Those versed in the historical geography of the Great Plains will see familiar themes of boom/bust cycles of economics and towns in the late 1800s and early 1900s; white Booster optimism; shady railroad advertisements enticing settlers Book Review