Today, according to the 2013 US Census estimate, 9,318 people call Stillwater County home. This is the highest population in the county's hundred year history. The 1920 Census counted 7,630 people and this number dropped every decade (with the exception of a 2% increase shown by the 1960 Census) until 1980, when the population showed a significant (20.9%) increase over the previous count, and each Census enumeration since has continued to climb. My best guess would be that the completion of Interstate 90 has allowed Stillwater County to grow as a bedroom community for its large neighbor to the east, Yellowstone County (3), Montana's most populous and busiest county. In-county growth was also helped by the establishment of the Stillwater Mine near Nye in the late 1970s.
The county covers 1,805 square miles (of which 10 square miles are water). The landscape is mostly rolling farm land that drops from the Beartooth Mountains in the south to the Yellowstone River Valley which divides the county in half as it flows toward the north-east across Montana. North of the Yellowstone, the county is mostly dry ranchland. Wikipedia lists 78 lakes and two reservoirs in the county, ranging in elevation from over 10,000 feet to just over 3,900 feet. Park City, near the Yellowstone County line is probably the lowest town in the county, lying just one foot below 3,400 feet.
The Stillwater County Courthouse
Columbus, Montana
At the time of county formation, the local folk chose Columbus as their seat. Today Columbus is the largest community in Stillwater County, with a 2012 estimated population of 1,942. It is also about as central a location as can be found in the county, thus making it an appropriate site for local government. The people of Stillwater County tried several times to get their own county established, first in 1907 when they proposed Roosevelt County to the state legislature. Due to the opposition from Yellowstone and Carbon Counties primarily, that proposal failed. As did a second attempt in 1909 and a third in 1911. (Note: Roosevelt County (17), eventually came into being, but in a completely different part of the state.) But the times were changing, and a new law was introduced allowing the residents of an area to request county-status. This was the turning point, and over the next ten years twenty-two counties were formed, including Stillwater. Still, it is amusing to read some of the charges brought up against dividing the existing counties. Many of these are recorded in They Gazed on the Beartooths in the section titled: Stillwater County--A Commonwealth in the Embryo.
Occident Flour Elevator, Reed Point, Montana
On the western edge of Stillwater County lies the town of Reed Point. The county line dividing Stillwater and Sweet Grass (40) counties is approximately two miles west of Reed Point. This town of less than 200 people (185 in the 2000 Census) made a name for itself during Montana's Centennial Year, 1989. As a response to the Montana Great Centennial Cattle Drive (see 23 Musselshell County), the people of Reed Point decided to host a fund raiser of their own, the Great Montana Sheep Drive. Originally dreamt up as a spoof, but with the goal of raising funds for the town's library, the Sheep Drive succeeded beyond anyone's wildest imagining. (I know, I was there.) So many people showed up to watch the "running of the sheep," that the Montana Highway Patrol gave up and allowed people to park alongside Interstate 90. There was simply no room in town to handle the cars. There was hardly enough room on the town's streets for the 10,000 visitors who showed up. This crazy joke has now been going on for twenty-five years, as each year Reed Point hosts one of Montana's largest Labor Day Weekend events.
Countryside south of Reed Point, showing the effects of the wildfires of 2004, 2006 and 2010
In southwestern Stillwater County lies the town of Nye. Nye is the home of the Stillwater Mining Company, the only US producer of palladium and platinum. Early day miners sought copper, nickel and chromium in the hills around Nye, but in the early 1970s, geologists working for the Johns-Manville Corporation discovered a band of palladium and platinum in what they named the J-M Reef. Working together with Chevron, USA, Manville opened up the first underground mine in 1986, and in 1992 the two companies formed Stillwater Mining, with each parent company owning 50% of the new venture. In addition to their mining operations at Nye and near Big Timber (Sweet Grass County, 40), Stillwater Mining operates a smelter at Columbus where they not only refine the ore mined upstream, but they recycle automotive catalytic converters. It is primarily because of Stillwater Mining that 25.6% of the men in Stillwater County are involved in the mining industry, more than any other sector. Agriculture, in contrast, comes in second with only 14.4%.
Stillwater County holds the distinction of being the home of the first white settlers of what was to become Yellowstone County then Stillwater County. Three men built their homes and established businesses at Stillwater, just east of present-day Columbus. One of these men, W.H. Norton, owned the General Store. In 1894, officials of the Northern Pacific Railroad requested that the name "Stillwater" be changed to Columbus, and the Post Office agreed to the change. In 1899, Norton built his home on 3rd Avenue. With the creation of Stillwater County, Norton sold his house and land to the county, and his house became the Stillwater County Sheriff's Office, Residence, and County Jail. In time the Stillwater County Courthouse was built right next door.
W.H. Norton House, Columbus, Montana
The Stillwater County Sheriff's Office and residence from 1913 to 1940.
Stillwater County's website is found at: http://www.stillwater.mt.gov/
The town of Columbus has its site at: http://www.townofcolumbus.com/
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