Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Kontinental Klan, No. 30 (Butte, Mont.)

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan swept the United States in the 1920s, and the Pacific Northwest was no exception. Thousands of local men and women joined the Klan during this period, drawn by the moral platform ostensibly supported by the Klan. The announced enemies were vice and corruption and anti-patriotism, but their targets were Blacks, Catholics, Jews, and the foreign-born. Qualifications for membership included being "native born, white, Protestant, Gentile, and an American citizen."

The Kontinental Klan was organized in Butte, Montana, in 1923. It was one of forty-some Klans or chapters in Montana. Butte was considered "the worst place in the State of Montana, so far as alienism and Catholicism are concerned," according to Montana Grand Dragon Lewis Terwilliger. The entire Butte membership appears to have been transferred to another Klan in September and October, 1929.