24. Blaine County

Blaine County, named for U.S. Secretary of State James G. Blaine, came into being in 1912 when the Montana Legislature took parts of Chouteau County (19) to form Blaine, Phillips (11) and Hill (12) Counties.  Blaine, formerly a Representative and then Senator from Maine, served as Secretary of State twice, first under Presidents Garfield and Arthur, and later under President Benjamin Harrison.  He was in that office when Montana entered the union as the 44th state.  Located just east of the Montana mid-point of U.S. Highway 2, Blaine County stretches from the Canadian border in the north to the Missouri River in the south, covering 4,239 square miles.  The 2010 U.S. Census counted 6,491 residents, a decrease of 7.4% from the 2000 Census count of 7,009, and a drop of almost 1/3 from the county's highest count, 9,566 recorded by the 1940 Census.  Racially, the county is 52.6% white, 45.4% Native American, with other races, or mixes making up the balance.

Blaine County is the home of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation which covers over 1,000 square miles mostly within Blaine County.  Fort Belknap is home to the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes, or the A'aninin and Nakoda to use their own tribal names. The A'aninin are historically part of the Blackfoot Confederacy, and the Nakoda split from the Yanktonai Sioux and moved west with their allies the Cree.  Neighboring tribes called the A'aninin the "water fall" people.  Gros Ventre is the name given them by the French traders who misunderstood the sign language for water fall, calling them big belly instead.  Fort Belknap Reservation was created by Act of Congress on May 1, 1888.  The current governmental organization came about through the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934, and the tribe's constitution and corporate charter date from 1935 and 1937 respectively.  The reservation is home to Aaniiih Nakoda College, one of the seven tribal community colleges in Montana.

The Blaine County Court House

Chinook, Montana

Chinook is the county seat, a town of 1,203 residents according to the 2010 Census.  The name of the town comes from the Assiniboine word Šiną́ga and is used to describe a warm wind that raises air temperature significantly.  In Montana, at least, the name is pronounced with a soft ch, or perhaps it would be better to say "sh,"  shuh-NOOK.  Unlike the county it serves, Chinook has a population that is 91% white.  Settled in the late 1800s,  Chinook grew as a trade center for a vast farming area.  In 1924, the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company moved in, and processed sugar beets into molasses and beet pulp until the early 1960s.  Today the company is remembered chiefly through the high school mascot, a fighting sugar beet.  According to the Chamber of Commerce's web site, Jay Leno ranked the mascot as number 2 in the nation's list of strange mascots.

Fifteen miles south of Chinook you'll find a section of the Nez Percé Historical Park, Bear Paw Battlefield.  I've written about the Nez Percé War in my post on Beaverhead County (18).  Bear Paw Battlefield is the site of the final battle between the U.S. Cavalry and the non-treaty Nez Percé led by Chief Joseph.  It was here, just forty miles south of the Canadian border, that Chief Joseph gave his famous "I will fight no more forever" speech on October 5, 1877.  I have cited the speech before, in another setting, but it remains one of the most powerful pieces of American oratory, and deserves to be quoted again.

I am tired of fighting.  Our chiefs are killed.  Looking Glass is dead.  Toohulhulsote is dead.  The old men are all dead.  It is the young men who say yes or no.  He who led the young men is dead.

It is cold and we have no blankets.  The little children are freezing to death.  My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food.  No one knows where they are--perhaps freezing to death.  I want to have time to look for my children and see how many I can find.  Maybe I shall find them among the dead.

 Hear me, my chiefs.  I am tired.  My heart is sick and sad.  From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.

Central Blaine County, looking toward the Bear's Paw Mountains

The Blaine County Museum in downtown Chinook serves as the interim visitor center for the Battlefield.  The Museum is open year round, with reduced hours during the winter months.  It charges no admission fee and has exhibits ranging from pre-historic (it is a stop on the Montana Dinosaur Trail), the homesteading era, and Assiniboine and Gros Ventre culture.  Its bookstore and gift store have hundreds of books and other items to enhance your knowledge and understanding of this part of Montana.

The Blaine County Wildlife Museum is a separate entity, open during the summer and offering tours by appointment.  Entrance fees are $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for students.  The Museum features dioramas of various Montana terrains, extending its purview beyond the boundaries of Blaine County.

Grain Elevators at Zurich, Montana

East of Chinook, along U.S. Highway 2 and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks, is the small hamlet of Zurich.  Named for the famous Swiss city, it is hard to imagine a place less like Switzerland.  The story goes that as the railroad expanded westward, railroad moguls would take a globe, spin it and stick a finger on the spinning globe to find a name for the next railstop along the route.  As a result, Blaine County has such community names as Zurich and Harlem, while neighboring counties are home to Malta and Kremlin.  

According to city-data.com, agriculture accounts for 32% of the county's industry, followed by construction in a distant second at 13%.  The average size of a Blaine County farm is 3,846 acres, and the average value of agricultural products sold per farm is $90,637.  Livestock, poultry and their products account for almost 55% of the total market value.  Seventy-three percent of all farming is done by families or individuals, and the average age of the principal farmer is fifty-five.  For white residents of the county, 19% report German ancestry and another 8% claim Norwegian heritage.  Only 4% report English ancestry, which may be why, in a statistic that is interesting to me personally but probably very few of my readers, there are more members of the Hutterian Brethern in Blaine County than there are Methodists.

A Blaine County Farm, Zurich Montana

The Blaine County website can be found at:  http://co.blaine.mt.gov/

Chinook's Chamber of Commerce has a great site at:  http://www.chinookmontana.com/index.html

Photo Information (All photos taken with a Nikon D80 DSLR and a Nikkor 16-85 mm wide angle/tele/zoom lens):

Blaine County Sign: Taken 4/22/2011 along Montana Highway 66 at the Blaine/Phillips County Line. Lens set at 85 mm. ISO 200, f /16.0, 1/200 second.

Blaine County Courthouse: Taken 10/8/2009 in Chinook, Montana. Lens set at 25 mm. ISO 250, f /6,7, 1/180 second.

Central Blaine County Landscape: Taken 4/223/2011 fromMontana Highway 66, Blaine County, Montana. Lens set at 58 mm. ISO 200, f /16.0, 1/125 second.

Grain Elevators: Taken 10/8/2009 from US Highway 2, Zurich, Montana. Lens set at 38 mm. ISO 250, f /9.5, 1/350 second.

Blaine County Farm: Taken 10/8/2009 from US Highway 2, Zurich, Montana. Lens set at 65 mm. ISO 50, f /5.6, 1/500 second.