Posse presentation focuses on historic photographer

The Northwest Montana Posse of Westerners history organization’s next meeting takes place Monday, Nov. 21, with the program titled “Herman Schnitzmeyer: Homestead Era Photographer” by Denny Kellogg of Bigfork.

Schnitzmeyer is a little known historic photographer from the lower Flathead Valley in the early 1900s. He is widely known for “proving up” a 160-acre home-stead claim on Wild Horse Island on Montana’s Flathead Lake around 1910 and later his work in commercial photography. He was born in 1880 in Hoyleton, Illinois, to German immigrant parents Charles "Carl" and Louise Schwier Koelling. He studied photography and opened a photographic studio in Illinois before moving to Montana in 1910 where he filed for a homestead on Wild Horse Island after Flathead Reservation was opened to homesteading. Not exactly cut out for the farming lifestyle, by 1912 he turned to photography to supplement his income and teamed up with Louis Desch selling photo postcards of the local area. His true love was landscape photography. He produced studio images and documented the growing communities and thriving agriculture of the Flathead and Mission Valleys. Today, he is known for documenting noteworthy events in the Flathead and Mission Valleys, including several scenes from the Flathead Lake steamboat era, Teah T. Maroney's first float plane flight from Flathead Lake, and Frank M. Kerr at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Kerr Dam. His artistic photographs captured the majesty of the scenery around Flathead Lake and the Mission Mountain Range. He spent many years traveling throughout the Northwest. Settling in Missoula in 1930, he lectured and exhibited at the University of Montana.

Denny Kellogg, as an educator and historian. His interest in history has been lifelong and has guided him to collect and archive art, photographs, and ephemera relevant to the Montana story. Sharing the knowledge gained from this pursuit is a primary priority. Kellogg’s photograph collection consists of close to 900 images, negatives and early reprints. He is a past member of the board of directors of the Charles Russell Museum in Great Falls, a graduate of Iowa State University, and has co-produced two documentary films: “A Timeless Legacy-Women Artists of Glacier National Park” and “Bigfork-A Montana Story.” Copies of the documentaries and other books will be available for purchase at the meeting.

The meeting will be held in the Northwest Montana History Museum, 124 Second Ave., Kalispell, starting at 6 p.m. with a Grab’n’ Greet session and book raffle and signings by local authors. There will be no dinner. The presentation is at 7 p.m., which is free for members and youths 16 and under. Non-members may attend at a cost of $5. No reservations are required but seating will be limited, so come early.

Posse members may participate in the program livestream via Zoom by contacting tim.chris@yahoo.com for registration and instructions. Call 406-309-0938 with any questions.

NMPW's mission is to encourage and promote interest in, research in, and archiving of the history of the American West in general and Northwest Montana in specific.