Talk:Timeline of pre-statehood Montana history

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Expanding to become the Timeline of Montana History Suggestion[edit]

This is something I've thought about lately and I'm wondering what others think. We adjust the name and the lead and then start adding key events from 1889 to the present. It would be a work in progress for a time, but could quickly become a great resource. An alternative would be to put together a rough version of 1889-present events in a sandbox and make the "big change" at some point in the future. I prefer to do it on the live page myself, but what do others think?KingJeff1970 (talk) 16:42, 2 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@KingJeff1970: Although it sounds like a good idea, it really has the potential to run afoul of WP:Article Length if we begin adding another 125 years of history to the timeline. My recommendation would be to create another article Timeline of Montana history caveated in the lead to include only events after statehood. Both article could then be linked with hatnotes to each other. I adopted this approach with Bibliography of fly fishing when the original list got too large. Much more manageable. When an individual list starts getting too large, the tendency is to start removing items so new items can be added. That doesn't benefit anyone. --Mike Cline (talk) 17:06, 2 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I hadn't thought much about it becoming too large, but you may have a point. However, in perusing other state history timelines (see Category:Timelines of states of the United States) the practice seems to be keeping it all in one list. My reasoning was that the one-stop shopping benefit was attractive, and it was just less confusing and stream-lined to have only one list. Yet I do see the wisdom in breaking it up at some point to keep it more manageable. I suppose having the links doesn't make it too difficult to go from one to the other. In fact it might be nice to find another point in the 20th century to break off or end a second timeline, just to give it a clear beginning and ending. Maybe the end of World War II could be defensible from the secondary sources, or perhaps the 1972 new state constitution would work. I'll think more about this, and thanks for any other advice you can offer.KingJeff1970 (talk) 22:56, 2 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not worried about length... we aren't even close to the max. I say build it now, maybe focus on 1889-on, but I see no particular reason to fret about length either way so long as there are good section headings so the table of contents is navigable. (For a long list, hmmm... List of Supreme Court Justices?) This timeline actually needs some work on pre-Lewis and Clark history... I'm not the one with time to do so, but Montana history definitely doesn't start in 1805. Even white exploration predates that... Montanabw^(talk) 07:35, 4 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Added 1872 reference material as requested ...[edit]

Thanks ... Risk Engineer (talk) 12:09, 4 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! KingJeff1970 (talk) 16:34, 4 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]