2006: Marking the Tenth Anniversary of Lawlessness and Insanity in Montana

By Kate Downen, 4-10-06

It’s been ten years since the 81-day showdown in Jordan, Montana, between the FBI and a renegade militia group that called itself the Freemen. The standoff was the longest federal siege in United States history.

In Jordan, the Freemen are remembered for their two-year reign of bullying and aggression, their anti-government rhetoric and the bounty offers for people who crossed them.

The AP reports: “The Freemen espoused an alternative reality of sorts, with their own laws, courts, and banking. But they went beyond a kooky weirdness when they attempted to pass their ‘notes’ and ‘liens’ in the legitimate system, taking thousands of dollars from people who accepted their gobbledygook legal papers. In the real world, it was called bank fraud. And when the Freemen waved their guns in response, the FBI came in.”

Jordan, a small town in Eastern Montana’s Garfield County, may have gained national notoriety for the 1996 Freemen standoff, but Jordan residents don’t want to be remembered that way. The AP (via the Daily InterLake) quotes Jordan sheriff Kelly Pierson: “[The Freemen Standoff] makes us look like hicks. I’d rather my hometown be remembered for something more prestigious.”

The Freemen, along with the discovery of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski in his Lincoln, MT cabin, made 1996 a banner year for Montana’s national image.

Image, thank god, isn’t everything. And Montana isn’t alone in the crazy race either. Here’s to life, liberty, happiness and your state's potential to fill our shoes...and straightjacket.
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