Shelby's Folly

In 1923, not long after oil had started gushing from northern Montana fields, declining real-estate sales in nearby Shelby were dimming the little town’s prospects of becoming the “Tulsa of the West.” Then the mayor’s son dreamed up a marketing ploy: offer to host heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey’s next fight. What began as a publicity stunt soon spiraled into a civic drama unlike any Montana had ever seen. Shelby’s Folly tells this story in full for the first time.