Emily McLeod shares entertaining stories about the M&M and I uncover true tales about original owners

June Update of the book on the M&M I'm writing with Old Butte Publishing

I thought it was time to give an update into the progress of the book on the history of the M&M.

If you haven’t read my first post about this project, you can do so here. I don’t know if I’ll write an update every month, but I’d like to keep somewhat regular updates on here for people interested in what we’re doing.

Firstly, last weekend we spoke with Emily McLeod. Emily, as some of you might remember, spoke with us about the Cabbage Patch, where she grew up. She also worked in the M&M during the 1970s and 80s.

She had more fascinating and entertaining stories about her time at the M&M and I’m thrilled that we’ll get to share some of them. My favorites involve the time she got in Evel Knievel’s face about his attempt to order steaks for everyone in the bar, the time she was working when the FBI and local authorities raided the bar, and the time that a couple of streakers from Montana Tech ran through and one of them had an unfortunate accident.

Her stories were, in a word, amazing. We both left her house last weekend with smiles on our faces and amazed that we were able to talk to this wonderful woman again and tell some of her true tales.

Secondly, I’ve also been digging into the history of the bar and the many owners it has had. Today I found out more about the original owners, William “Billy” Mosby and Sam. D Martin. They both led fascinating lives for very different reasons. Mosby was a racehorse man while Martin was the gambler who had connections to all of the other high stakes dealers and gamblers/bar owners in the city. The two came together in what must’ve been, and this is just my speculation here, a somewhat nefarious money-making operation. Mosby had intimate knowledge about the horses, including the ones that he owned, and Martin would watch over the bets. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how they could’ve been taking advantage of people, although it’s tough to prove beyond what’s been reported.

But, what was more fascinating to me was the fact that Mosby had one of his horses “deliberately” injured in July 1893. According to a story in the Butte Daily Post, Mosby’s colt, the $23,000 horse named St. Brendan was run into by another horse named Bank Note. St. Brendan’s tendon was sliced and he never raced again.

Whether or not that act was done as a result of Mosby and Martin’s gambling operation is a mystery that may never be solved, but one can’t help but wonder if it all connected.

Then, finally, I’m also working on speaking here soon with Selina Pankovich, the current owner of the M&M. She said she’s very thankful that someone is doing a book on the bar and said she’d be more than happy to help out however she can. I’m excited to speak with her and to hear her perspective on the bar, its history, and the fire that brought it down last month.

That’s the latest on what we’ve got going. I’m set to speak with plenty more people with fascinating stories and memories about the M&M. I’ve also dug up some more history about the place and its many different incarnations. Thanks for reading!