For the first time in its own grand history, the Montana Historical Society has embarked on a story as wide and sweeping as the state's fabled landscape.

The Historical Society's newest book, "Montana: Stories of the Land," represents the organization's most complete compilation of the state's past and the land Montanans call home.

Written by Krys Holmes and designed by Shirley Machonis, the book completes the vision of former Society historian Dave Walter, who managed the project before he passed away in 2006.

"If the land now called Montana could tell you the story of how it came to be, it would be a very dramatic tale," the book begins.

The next 490 pages, decorated with paintings and historic photos culled from the Society's archives, spans 12,000 years of human history, dating back to the hunters who used Clovis points to down mastodons and mammoths after the Ice Age.

"Dave Walter really wanted a writer to write the book, not a historian, because he wanted a lively, active voice," said Holmes. "He got to know me through other interpretive writing and the essays I had done."

Holmes admits that the project didn't come without bouts of frustration and a tower of challenges. Walter, who helped drum up support for the project, passed away halfway through the process.

The writing deadline was intense, Holmes added. The review process was also brutal. It involved teachers, tribal members, historians and editors, each wanting something different; an inclusion, a change of wording, an acknowledgement.

"I think the most challenging part of the project was trying to synthesize all this information from all these different resources, and put it all together in a way they thought would work," Holmes said. "It was like writing for 300 editors. I wrote the book three different times."

Richard Sims, director of the Montana Historical Society, said nearly every branch of the Historical Society was pressed into action to help complete the project, including publications, research, museum services, historical preservation, and outreach and education.

The Montana History Foundation helped fund the project, and Sims said the Society found internal funding to meet the expenses of printing and distribution.

Around 5,000 books will go to middle school classrooms across the state in time for the coming school year. A teacher's guide is in the works and should be completed in the coming months.

"Since my training is in anthropology, and the book is more or less chronological, I've spent most of my time in chapter three," said Sims. "It's just a wonderful narrative of that period of time before European settlement."

Chapter three, "From Dog Days to Horse Warriors," covers Montana's people from 1700 to 1820. The arrival of Europeans after 1492, the book explains, set off a series of consequences that "washed like a tidal wave across the entire continent."

Among them, new immigrants brought diseases deadly to the continent's indigenous people. As immigrants expanded their settlements, they pushed Indian people westward. The chapter also touches on intertribal battles, trade and the use of horses.

"I've been collecting Montana history books since I arrived here two years ago," Sims said. "If I were to buy one book on the state's history, this would be it."

The fur trade begins on page 81; the gold rush around page 100; and the 1972 Montana Constitution debuts on page 418.

The last chapter, beginning some 450 pages in, looks at modern Montana through 2007. And while history never ends and is always being written, Holmes is glad to have the project behind her -- glad to call it history.

"When we got done with each chapter, it was very satisfying," she said. "I'm really glad to have it finished.

"To me, it now represents this wonderful tapestry of willingness and generosity of all the people across the state."

Reporter Martin Kidston: 447-4086 or mkidson@ helenair.com