tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53546834823586223622024-03-14T00:01:49.564-07:00Glory of the WestBDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-9374689126997569822015-11-01T12:12:00.001-08:002015-11-01T12:13:32.736-08:0056. Lincoln County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Lincoln County, the northwestern corner of the state, is the leading contender to prove my assertion that county numbers have little (or nothing) to do with the population of the county in 1930. According to that Census, there were 7,089 residents in Lincoln County, a number which would have given the county number 27, had population been the sole criteria. Nor was Lincoln County the last county created in Montana. That distinction goes to Petroleum County (# 55). Lincoln County, taken from the western end of Flathead County (# 7), became a separate entity on March 9, 1909, with twenty-eight more counties yet to be formed. In fact, a measure was introduced in the 1999 state legislature to re-number the counties, using current population figures. This measure failed, but had it succeeded, the 2010 Census would put Lincoln County at number 10, the largest change of all fifty-six counties.<br />
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Most US school children could guess at the namesake for the county, even if they had never heard of this remote part of Montana. Yes, indeed, it was named for President Abraham Lincoln, the man who was President when Montana Territory was created in 1864. The county is quite mountainous, with the Purcell (or Percell) Mountains in the northwest, the Salish Mountains on the east, and the Cabinet Mountains to the south. The Kootenai River flows into the county from British Columbia and exits to Idaho where it turns north and returns to British Columbia. Other rivers include the Yaak and the Fisher, both of which are tributaries of the Kootenai. Just inside the county's southern line, the Thompson Lakes are the source for the Thompson River which flows south through Sanders County (# 35) to join the Clark Fork River near the town of Thompson Falls. The heights of the mountain peaks in both the Purcell and Cabinet ranges are such that the scenery is visual confusing. The lowest point in Montana, less than 2000 feet in elevation, is where the Kootenai River leaves the state just a few miles from the town of Troy.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Lincoln County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Libby, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken July 26th, 2009</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>(If you look at the photo full sized, you'll note that difference in brick where a rather plain new extension was added to a beautifully decorated existing building.)</b></span></div>
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At the time the county was created, the two main communities in the new county, Libby and Eureka, fought for the chance to be seat. Libby won, and today it is a charming town of almost 2,700 residents. It has a dark side though. Historically the two primary industries in Lincoln County have been timber and mining. Today the mines and lumber mills are closed, but their legacy lives on. In 1919, E.N. Alley bought some mining claims about seven miles outside of Libby, and set up the Zonolite Company to mine vermiculite which was used in several different building materials. In 1963, the W.R. Grace Company bought Alley's firm and continued mining vermiculite. By this time, many Libby residents had become ill with mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases as the vermiculite from the Libby mine was contaminated with that substance. One source estimates that while the mine was in operation (it closed in 1990), 80% of the world's supply of vermiculite came from the Libby mine. Today the mine and the towns of Libby and Troy are part of an EPA superfund cleanup attempt that by 2010 had removed 900,000 cubic yards of contaminated material. But the work is not done, and Libby residents continue to become ill. Reams of paper have gone into the various reports on this tragedy, and on the trial against W.R. Grace and Company, who, litigants claim, knew about the danger but kept the mine open for almost thirty years.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Yaak Falls </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Yaak River, northwestern Lincoln County</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken July 26th, 2009</b></span></div>
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Today, tourism and recreation are the main industries for Lincoln County. If Montana is The Last Best Place, as it has been called, then the Yaak is, perhaps, the Last Best Place to Hideout. <a href="http://www.theyaak.com/">The community's website</a> (seems like an oxymoron if you know Yaak), states that "The Yaak offers an excellent and definitely realistic get-away from the hustle and bustle of city environments. Cell phones don't work here, and internet access is either from satellite or dial-up." And yet, <i>Time Magazine</i> wrote about the Yaak in 1963. <i>New York Times</i> best selling author <a href="http://www.rickbass.net/biography.html">Rick Bass</a> lived in the Yaak for over twenty years, until he moved to Missoula in 2011. For a while there was even a local newsletter printed in the area under the name <i>The New Yaak Times</i>. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a reference to that publication on line. I can state that a drive up Secondary road 508, along the Yaak River, will take you through some of the most amazing scenery you can imagine, and I'd even recommend a stop at the <a href="http://yaakrivertavern.theyaak.com/">Yaak River Tavern and Mercantile</a> while you're at it. (It is the only place for a hundred miles or so to get a drink or a sandwich). <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Kootenai Falls at High Water</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Kootenai River, by U.S. Highway 2, west of Libby MT</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken April 13th, 2014</b></span></div>
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If you're not up for a long, leisurely drive through the woods, there is plenty to see in Lincoln County from the two U.S. highways that cross the county. US 2, the High Line, runs across the county from east to west, and roughly halfway between Libby and Troy you'll pass (or, I hope stop at) a large pullout above the Kootenai Falls. While you can see some spectacular water from the pullout, take the time and hike down the trail, past all the informative signage, cross the railroad tracks on the pedestrian bridge, and get right down up close and personal with the river itself. If you've got the courage to do so (I didn't), cross the river on the historic swinging bridge. Take along a picnic lunch and spend some time in this beautiful setting. Just don't get too close to the water. It moves quickly and there are a lot of rocks that you'll hit if you inadvertently find yourself floating downstream.<br />
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The other U.S. Highway that crosses the county is the north-south route U.S. 93, which runs from Wickenburg, Arizona to the Canadian border just north of Eureka, Montana, Lincoln County's other <span style="font-family: inherit;">incorporated city</span>. My original thought for a final picture, having written over 56,000 words and having posted nearly 350 photographs from around the state, was to put in a picture of the U.S. Customs Office at the Roosville border crossing, showing us now leaving the United States. That said, my last two visits to that particular border crossing (coming back into the U.S., I should add) have been a traveler's nightmare, and I don't care to revisit it. I will add that both times, the agent I dealt with was the same man--someone I hope never to see again. So I'll close, instead, with this view of the Whitefish Range, looking east from U.S. 93 south of Eureka. A final reminder that Montana means mountains. <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Whitefish Range</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Northeastern Lincoln County</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken July 26th, 2009</b></span></div>
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-40271374851644493322015-08-08T10:59:00.000-07:002015-08-08T10:59:19.009-07:0055. Petroleum County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Looking at things objectively, there is little reason today for Petroleum County to exist. Created on February 25, 1925 when the Montana State Legislature approved chopping off the eastern end of Fergus County (# 8), Petroleum County today has roughly 500 residents spread over 1,674 square miles of rolling plains. It is the smallest county by population in the state of Montana, and the seventh smallest nationally. When I stopped at the Court House in Winnett, the County Seat, I asked if there was any movement for the county to be reabsorbed into Fergus. I was told "Absolutely not." How five hundred people pay for a county government I have no idea. The woman I spoke with in the Court House told me that there are only four full-time employees, but even so. Now I have to say, I don't know which four she was counting as county employees, but <a href="http://www.petroleumcountymt.com/" target="_blank">the county's web page</a> lists ten people in addition to the three county commissioners. Of course, many of those ten could be part-time employees.<br />
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Petroleum County is so named for the oil fields that were discovered in the Cat Creek area in 1920. Bounded on the north by the Missouri River and on the east by the Musselshell River, the southern and western boundaries are those straight lines we associate with man made distinctions, the southern line being the continuation of the division between Fergus (# 8) and Musselshell (# 23) counties that preceded the creation of Petroleum County. <br />
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The <a href="http://www.midrivers.com/~pcclibrary/" target="_blank">Petroleum County Community Library</a> states that it is "Dedicated to the preservation of local history," and to that end the folks who serve as library staff and volunteers have collected and saved the local newspaper (<i>The Winnett Times</i>) back to 1921, and in 1979 began a project of collecting oral histories from the eldest residents of the county. In 1985 the project changed to one where questionnaires were used to collect information from county residents, which information was then condensed into a book <i><a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mtpcpl/" target="_blank">Pages of Time--History of Petroleum County</a></i>, from which I have gratefully taken much of the information in this post.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Petroleum County Court House</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Winnett, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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Located slightly south and west of the county's center, Winnett is both the largest community and the seat of the county. Walter John Winnett (WJ), a Canadian rancher, was captured by the Sioux and eventually adopted into the tribe. He started ranching in Montana Territory in 1879, and built his ranch home in 1900. In 1910, he built a store and petitioned the US government for a post office. That marks the "official" birth of the town of Winnett, although it wasn't until 1913 that the Milwaukee Land Company, an adjunct of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (The Milwaukee Road), secured land from rancher Winnett and platted a township which the company named for the rancher. The town grew rapidly, with many businesses located in the downtown area, and in 1917, WJ began construction of a two story sandstone building that became known as the Winnett Block. Originally housing a bank, a restaurant, the newspaper's printing shop, a lumber/hardware store with business offices on the second floor, by 1929 the building had become the county's Court House, as seen above. Today, Winnett counts 182 residents (2010 U.S. Census), down from an all time high of 408 in 1950. The three schools that make up the Public School system for the county have a total of 12 teachers (including one librarian) and 103 students in grades K-12. All three schools (elementary, junior high and high school) are on the same block in town. City-Data.com is usually good about listing all the churches in a county, but the site for Petroleum County says only that there is one Roman Catholic Church with 158 members in 2010 and the balance of county residents, 336 in number, being unchurched. I wonder how the members of the United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church and First Lutheran Church, all of which appear in the city-data.com page for Winnett feel about that.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Rural Petroleum County Landscape</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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<i>Pages of Time</i> divides its story into eleven chapters, based on historic post offices and the communities that they served. It shows 19 post offices that existed once upon a time, but of those, only three communities remain today. Cat Creek, where were located the oil fields that give the county its name, lies in the eastern part of the county, near the Musselshell River north of Highway 200. The wells were abandoned in 1975, although new exploration has focused on natural gas and several new wells have been drilled, introducing fracking to the area. The Cat Creek area has also been known as Frantz, Frantzville, and Shay. Curiously, for a place with such an important part in the county's history, it does not appear on my 1994 Montana Atlas and Gazetteer.<br />
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Flatwillow is an unincorporated community in southern Petroleum County, not far from the Musselshell County line. While it does appear on the maps, its post office, which opened in 1883, six years prior to Montana's statehood, has been closed since 1946. Teigen, on Highway 200 near the Fergus County line, is another unincorporated community whose Post Office closed in 1983. If you're so inclined, however, you can use a Zip Code, 59084, to address any mail you have for Teigen. I suppose such mail will be delivered out of Winnett, Zip Code 59087. Other communities that might have been include Petrolia, Hoyleville, Ashley, Blakeslee, and Dovetail, all little more than dreams of the people who homesteaded the area in the early days of statehood.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>An Abandoned Home or Business?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Winnett, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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Recreational opportunities include <a href="http://www.fws.gov/refuge/war_horse/" target="_blank">War Horse National Wildlife Refuge</a> in the northwestern part of the county. Part of the Charles M. Russell Complex, War Horse is comprised of three separate units that cover some 3,200 acres. Each of the three units has its own lake, with Wild Horse and War Horse Lakes being two of the largest bodies of water in the county. Petrolia Lake, a dammed reservoir southeast of Winnett, is featured in several fishing oriented websites. The site <a href="http://www.hookandbullet.com/fishing-petrolia-dam-roundup-mt/" target="_blank">Hook and Bullet </a>says this: Whether you're fly-fishing, spinning, or baitcasting your chances of getting a bite here are good. On the other hand, <a href="http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=50046.0">Iceshanty.com</a> has a lot of reports, all from 2007, about poor fishing conditions, presumably from ice fishing for perch. The northern extent of the county lies within the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge along the Missouri and Musselshell Rivers. <a href="http://centralmontana.com/listings/17944.htm">The Crooked Creek Campground</a>, 52 miles northeast of Winnett, has a boat ramp, which may or may not be usable due to fluctuating water levels in the Fort Peck Reservoir. It also has twenty campsites each with picnic table and fire pit, potable water, and a swimming area. CentralMontana.com says that the drive is a "beautiful scenic drive," and I'll take their word for it, as I personally have not been on that road. I'm saving that for my next trip to Petroleum County.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Tableland Southeast of Winnett</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Winnett, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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In closing, I post below the poem, written by Marjorie W. King, that <a href="http://www.midrivers.com/~pcclibrary/" target="_blank">the Petroleum County Community Library</a> has on its home page. While the words could apply to just about anywhere in Montana, they speak volumes to me about the love of a people for their home.<br />
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Petroleum County is March, roaring in like a lion, lambing sheds full of bleating sheep, two-year-old heifers waiting impatiently unsure of the stirrings within them, and old cows seeking shelter in the willows. It is soft spring winds with the smell of damp sage. V's of honking geese and meadowlarks who sing as though they alone had discovered spring. It is the taste of fresh rhubarb and new-grown asparagus. It is seeding and branding and watching the sky for June rains. It is hope.</blockquote>
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Petroleum County is cloudless broad skies and new-mown hay, and black rolling thunderclouds shaking fingers of lightning at those who dare to venture forth. It is August and dry hot winds that wither the grass with dust devils teasing and skipping away. It is fear--fear of prairie fires and drought and grasshoppers and debt. It is utter discouragement. </blockquote>
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Petroleum County is bountiful harvests and fat lambs and calves. It is chokecherry syrup and bright orange pumpkins and huge harvest moons. It is the first snowfall quietly covering the harshness of the landscape. It is long evenings and howling coyotes and northern lights. It is nights filled with millions of stars, and galaxies for those who search for them. It is acceptance of life.</blockquote>
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Petroleum County is wind and blizzards, and worry for man and beast alike. It is the unmistakable blue of chinook clouds. It is everything that is beautiful.</blockquote>
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-74818439535575999532015-04-12T14:09:00.000-07:002015-04-12T14:09:46.330-07:0054. Mineral County <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As might be expected in a county named Mineral, mining has a rich history in this small county on the Montana/Idaho state line. On August 7, 1914, a portion of Missoula County (# 4) straddling the Clark Fork and St. Regis river canyons in the Bitterroot Mountains became the new Mineral County, with Superior, the largest town being named County Seat. The Milwaukee Road played an important part in the history of the county, both for the good and the bad. When the railroad first came through these canyons, Alberton at the eastern end of the county became a division point on the line, and the town was even named for the President of the railroad, Albert J. Earling. (Note that Roberta Carkeek Cheney, in her <i>Names on the Face of Montana</i>, claims the town was named for a family of early settlers, the Alberts.) Further west, a guest at the Superior Hotel in Superior asked permission and placed the first ever Gideon Bibles in the rooms of the hotel. I have read that he was passing through town on a passenger train, but I can't confirm that. Haugan, in the county's West End, was a railroad town, as was Taft, "The wickedest city in America." Today, Haugan is little more than the 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar, and Taft is just an exit from Interstate 90. The Milwaukee Road ceased operations in the west in 1979, and most of the railbed ended up in the hands of private individuals. In western Mineral County, the roadbed is used as a hiking/biking trail, and the wonderful series of tunnels and trestles from the Montana line west into Idaho has been turned into the <a href="http://www.ridethehiawatha.com/" target="_blank">Route of the Hiawatha Trail</a>, a bike ride I highly recommend.<br />
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To the best of my knowledge, Lewis and Clark never made it to what is now Mineral County, but <a href="http://www.3rd1000.com/history3/events/mullan.htm" target="_blank">Lieutenant John Mullan</a> did. Given the task of connecting the head of river transportation on the Missouri at Fort Benton to the administrative capital of Washington Territory at Fort Walla Walla, John Mullan reached this area in the 1850s. In 1859, he returned with a crew of military and civilian laborers to build the 640 mile road that to this day bears his name. The <a href="http://www.mineralmtmuseum.com/index.html" target="_blank">Mineral County Museum</a> in Superior has a significant display honoring Mullan and his work, and as History Link, the <a href="http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9202" target="_blank">People's History Library</a> says, "It is a tribute to his skill and vision that freeway I-90 follows his route almost to the foot through its most rugged stretches." <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Mineral County Court House</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Superior, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>October 17th, 2009</b></span></div>
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The lure of gold brought miners to the mountainsides of the area in the 1860s, and in 1869, one settler called his home Superior City, after his hometown in Wisconsin. The Post Office was established in 1871, and the rest is history. Today the town straddles the Clark Fork River, with the old Mullan Road to the north and Interstate 90 and the Burlington Northern Railroad to the south, both running parallel to the river. The town hosts the county fair and rodeo every August and is home to the only hospital in the county, the Mineral Community Hospital. The old school house is a fixture on River Street, the main commercial street in town, and while it no longer serves as a school, it does provide a type of community center for the town and is home, every June, to the Old Schoolhouse Rocks Car Show, one of western Montana's larger car shows.<br />
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Alberton is the only town east of Superior, and sits right at the Missoula County (# 4) line. Ten of the county's sixteen locations on the National Register of Historic Places are in or near Alberton, including the Alberton School built in 1919 and still in service, the Alberton United Methodist Church, the Milwaukee Railroad Depot, and several homes. The Natural Pier Bridge across the Clark Fork River is also on the National Register. Wikipedia says this about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Pier_Bridge" target="_blank">the bridge</a>: "Built in 1917 by the Lord Construction Company of Missoula, Montana, it is one of only a few remaining bridges of its type [a steel Warren through truss bridge] in the state, and of those it is the only one that incorporates a natural feature in its design." Of course what I find most interesting about Alberton is the <a href="http://www.montanavalleybookstore.com/" target="_blank">Montana Valley Book Store</a>, an emporium claiming over 100,000 used books, and a place I never tire of visiting. It's "open 9-7 everyday all year."<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Natural Pier Bridge</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Alberton, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>January 3rd, 2010</b></span></div>
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A bit west of the mid point on I-90's traverse of the county, the Clark Fork River makes an abrupt turn to the northeast, and flows into Sanders County (# 35) where it turns west again to flow out of Montana and into Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho's northern panhandle. At the first bend, the St. Regis River, which has been draining Mineral County's West End flows into the Clark Fork. The town that grew up at this confluence is St. Regis, named by Father DeSmet for the Jesuit Saint, Regis de Borgia (one of those Borgias). Well, actually, there was never a St. Regis de Borgia, at least according to the web site devoted <a href="https://www.manresa-sj.org/stamps/1_Borgia.htm" target="_blank">stamps and postmarks honoring St. Francis Borgia</a>, the third General Superior of the Jesuits. Father DeSmet apparently conflated St. John Francis Regis, S.J., and St. Francis (de) Borgia, S.J., one of the great grandchildren of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI" target="_blank">Pope Alexander VI</a>, and grand nephew of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucrezia_Borgia" target="_blank">Lucretia Borgia</a>. The things you learn. Apparently, while the Pope may be infallible, at least speaking <i>ex cathedra</i>, Father DeSmet wasn't. As the first Montana town of any size that you encounter driving east on I-90, St. Regis has developed quite a shopping center for restaurants, tourist souvenirs, and antiques. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Abandoned Mine Sheds</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Sloway Region (between Superior and St. Regis), Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>March 19th, 2015</b></span></div>
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From Henderson west you are in what Mineral County calls the West End. Henderson had a post office from 1904 until 1930, when mail was sent to De Borgia, the next "town" west. I believe De Borgia still has a post office. Its zip code is 59830. But the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Borgia_Schoolhouse" target="_blank">De Borgia school</a>, another building on the National Register, has been closed as a school since 1958. Today it serves as a community center for the West End. A couple of miles west of De Borgia is Haugan, another place named for a Milwaukee Road officer. Calling it a town would be pushing things, but it is home to <a href="http://www.50000silverdollar.com/" target="_blank">Lincoln's 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar</a>, a place well worth a visit if you need tourist kitch, a bowl of soup, or a look at more silver dollars than you have probably ever seen in one place. Oh hell, if you've ever seen 50,000 silver dollars anywhere else, I'd be surprised. Next door to the bar is the Savenac Historic Nursery, at one time one of the USDA's largest tree nurseries, supplying over 12 million seedlings annually for the Forest Service.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Savenac Historic Nursery</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Haugan, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>April 7th, 2015</b></span></div>
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Traveling another six miles west will bring you to Saltese, population sixteen. Named for a Nez Percé chief who lived in the area, Saltese was a mining town and rest stop for people on the Mullan Road. From here on, it's all uphill traveling west. Cheney says that the town kept its jail open for weary hobos. Unfortunately, the Old Montana Bar and Grill, the largest building in Saltese, is currently closed. And five miles west of Saltese, you'll see Exit 5, Taft Area. Don Spritzer, in his <i>Roadside History of Montana</i>, refers to Taft as the Wickedest City in America. Built by the Milwaukee Road when they were blasting tunnels through the mountains, Taft sported a good number of saloons and bawdy houses, none of which survived <a href="http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/Policy/Fire/FamousFires/1910Fires.aspx" target="_blank">the 1910 fires</a> that devastated western Montana and northern Idaho. The Taft Hotel stayed open for tourists on U.S. Highway 10, but was torn down when Interstate 90 replaced the original highway through this area. Finally Exit 0 will take you to the <a href="https://skilookout.com/" target="_blank">Lookout Pass Ski Area</a> on the Montana/Idaho border. In the summer, you can buy your tickets to the Hiawatha Trail at the ski resort. In short, there's a lot to see and do in Mineral County.<br />
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-73025666711022288922015-03-29T12:36:00.000-07:002015-03-29T12:36:02.411-07:0053. Golden Valley County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Born at the height of the homesteading boom (October 4th, 1920), Golden Valley County with its chamber of commerce name promised rich harvests, presumably of golden wheat, but the climate didn't live up to the farmers' needs, and the county's population has dropped fairly consistently since its first census in the county's tenth year, 1930. 1980 and 2000 both showed an increase over the previous count, but the 2013 estimate of 859 residents is the lowest yet for this county that measures 30 miles wide by 50 miles tall. Nestled between the Snowy Mountains in the north and the Big Coulee in the south, the "Valley" follows the Musselshell River as it flows west to east across the center of the county, parallel to US Highway 12 and the old Milwaukee Road rail line. Today there are only two unincorporated communities in the county, Ryegate, the County Seat, and Lavina, seventeen miles to the east, where Montana Highway 3 meets US 12. The county's official website lists several books, including one, <i>Ghost Towns of Golden Valley County, Montana,</i><b> </b>that apparently documents sixteen ghost towns in the county, but that book is out of print and currently unavailable. One wonders what the county fathers were thinking back in 1920. Most of the county is roughly rectangular in shape and was taken from the western section of Musselshell County (# 23), but there is one small square of land that sticks down in the southwestern end of the county which came from Sweet Grass County (# 40). At its largest extent, this appendage measures twelve miles by twelve miles and is both west and, for the most part, south of the rest of the county. There must have been some reason to add this odd bit of land, but I have no idea what that might be. <a href="http://www.co.golden-valley.mt.us/html/history.html" target="_blank">The county's own website</a> divides the county into two sections, ranchland north of the Musselshell and farmland to the south. The site states:<br />
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The northern part of the county is predominately stock country and is liberally sprinkled with sagebrush and grease-wood from the river to the base of the Snowy Mountains. At one time during the homestead days, much of the land was broken by plow and farmed. The ground proved to be nonproductive as farm land. It does provide excellent range-land. Many large sheep and cattle ranches occupied this area at one time, but now most of the sheep enterprises have turned to cattle ranching. </blockquote>
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South of the Musselshell river much of the bench land is farmed. Wheat is the main grain crop along with oats and barley. There is also an abundance of range land here as well. Six miles south of Ryegate is the Big Coulee. This wide open valley surrounded by sandstone rims drew many settlers to the area.</blockquote>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Golden Valley County Court House</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Ryegate, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>September 8th, 2007</b></span></div>
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Ryegate got its start as a station on the Milwaukee Road. Emmy-Lou Garfield, writing about the <a href="http://www.co.golden-valley.mt.us/html/ryegate.html" target="_blank">Sims Garfield Ranch</a> has this to say:<br />
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The town of Ryegate was originally part of Sim's hay field. When the railroad purchased the right of way they had to set aside a town site every so many miles and name it. They set aside a siding for the railroad and a town site. Sims had a large field of rye there, so they named it Ryegate.</blockquote>
The most notable geologic feature in the Ryegate area is the three-mile long sandstone rimrocks, once the shore of an ancient lake. The rims are home to marine fossils and pictographs. South of Ryegate, in the Big Coulee Valley, John Murphy's cattle ranch, the 79 Ranch, was a prominent part of the community in the days before Golden Valley County was formed. The county's website has an excellent <a href="http://www.co.golden-valley.mt.us/html/79ranch.html" target="_blank">article on the ranch</a> written by Albie Gordon in 1971. Don Spritzer, in his <i>Roadside History of Montana</i>, says that "At its peak in the early 1890s, the 79 shipped seven trainloads of cattle to the Chicago Stockyards each year." p 311.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Grain Elevator along the non-existent tracks</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Ryegate, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>April 22nd, 2011</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.encyclopediadubuque.org/index.php?title=POWER,_Thomas_Charles" target="_blank">Thomas C. Power</a>, Montana's first U.S. Senator, built his fortune controlling shipping and freight from Fort Benton in Chouteau County (# 19). When the Northern Pacific Railroad came to Billings, Power got the idea of running a stage line between Billings and Fort Benton, the first north-south mail service in Montana Territory. Forty miles north of Billings he ran into a natural road block, the Musselshell River. At the site of a good ford, Power and his associates built a stage station, stables, a bunk house and, most importantly, a saloon. The first postmaster was Walter Burke who named the new community for an old sweetheart, Lavina. While to my eyes, Ryegate seems to be little more than a wide spot in the road, Lavina looks to be a place that has some history. Three of the five Golden Valley County locations listed on the National Register of Historic Places are in Lavina, including the <a href="http://theadamshotel.org/news.html" target="_blank">Adams Hotel</a>, once considered one of two luxury hotels along the Milwaukee Road, the Lavina State Bank, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slayton_Mercantile_Co." target="_blank">Slayton Mercantile Company</a>. <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The United Methodist Church</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Lavina, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>April 22nd, 2011</b></span></div>
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Some of my own, most vivid childhood memories center on Lavina. I have talked in the past of the different churches my father served as interim pastor while on assignment at Rocky Mountain College in Billings. One of the parishes he served in this manner was the Methodist Church's yoked parish of Ryegate and Lavina. Memories come back to me of attending Memorial Day services, complete with twenty-one gun salutes, at the cemetery in Lavina. I remember my mother baking my large panda bear because the bear, and I, had apparently come into contact with a Lavina child with pink eye. And most vivid is my first experience riding what we then called an English racing bike--one with three speeds and hand brakes. I had never used anything other than coaster brakes, the kind where you press back on the pedals to stop the bike. The bike I was riding around the block in Lavina didn't have coaster brakes. As I was pedaling along, I realized that I was about to ride into the middle of Montana Highway 3. I tried to stop, but all I succeeded in doing was getting the pedals to turn backwards. This did nothing to stop the bike. All I could see was getting crushed by traffic as I sailed into the intersection. I don't remember what finally happened. I probably fell down. What didn't happen was an accident in the middle of the highway. That much I do know.<br />
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Other communities have come and gone around Golden Valley County. West of Ryegate, almost to the Wheatland County (# 44) line, is Barber, truly a wide spot in the road. North of Ryegate, Montana Secondary 238, also known as the Rothiemay Road, will take you past Franklin which first had a post office from 1889 to 1902, then again from 1910 to 1953. Beyond Franklin lies Rothiemay, although you'll be hard pressed to find it on a map. Rothiemay had a post office in the early days of the 20th Century. Cushman, between Ryegate and Lavina, got its post office in 1909, and as of 1970, that post office was still functioning, according to Roberta Carkeek Cheney in <i>Names on the Face of Montana</i>. Today, however, the zip code for Cushman is more properly used with Lavina addresses, as is the case for Belmont, some five miles south. Cheney says that the post office in Belmont was established in 1892 and closed in 1965. The last time I was in Golden Valley County, April 22nd, 2011, we were driving through a blizzard. Most of my photographs from that trip are hazy, blurry, out-of-focus. I was able to grab this one whimsical sign, an indication that at least one country craftsman has an entrepreneurial bent. Makes me think of Kathy Lee Bates in the movie <i>Rat Race</i>. "Should have bought a squirrel."<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Sign along Highway 12</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Ryegate, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>April 22nd, 2011</b></span></div>
<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-43109960674302249492015-03-23T12:08:00.000-07:002015-03-23T12:08:15.823-07:0052. Wibaux County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There are two county names in Montana that out-of-staters (and some Montanans) routinely mispronounce. The other one is Meagher County (# 47). There are two counties in Montana where the county seat bears the same name as the county itself. The other is Missoula (# 4). Roberta Carkeek Chaney, in her book <i>Names on the Face of Montana</i>, felt obliged to indicate the pronunciation of Wibaux both for the county and for the town. As she says, "Wibaux (pronounced Wee-bo)" with long marks over both ees and the o. If Meagher County was named for some renegade Irishman who ended up becoming a territorial governor of Montana, Wibaux, both town and county, were named for a French immigrant who became one of the wealthiest cattle barons in Montana history, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Wibaux">Pierre Wibaux</a>. Chaney says that Wibaux was a French Huguenot (which she spells without the second "u," but it's hard for me to accept that when one of the National Historic Places in Wibaux County is the Roman Catholic Church, St. Peter's, which history tells us was built at the request of Wibaux's father. I just can't picture a Huguenot building a Catholic church.<br />
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Situated on the North Dakota state line, Wibaux County is one of the smallest in area in eastern Montana. Driving across the county on Interstate 94, it's less than twenty miles from the North Dakota line to the point where you enter Dawson County (# 16) on the west. North to south, from the Richland County (# 27) line to the Fallon County (#39) line, you'll cross roughly 53 miles of Wibaux County, giving the county a total land area of 890 square miles. The 2010 US Census counted 1,017 people in the county, the lowest number ever counted there, and one third of what the 1920 Census showed. The 2013 estimate, however, showed a 10% increase, bringing the count up to 1.121. Even by Montana standards, this is a low population for a county. The county was created on August 17, 1914, with land taken from Dawson County, although some references say that land came from Fallon and Richland Counties as well. While numerous small towns have, at some point, existed in Wibaux County, today the seat is the county's only incorporated town, and indeed, every address in the county bears the same zip code, 59353, since the whole county is served out of the Post Office in the seat.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Wibaux County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Built 1953</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Photo taken October 7th, 2009</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Wibaux, Montana</b></span></div>
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The town of Wibaux was originally named Keith, or possibly Beaver, then Mingusville. It sits on Beaver Creek which runs the length of the county, north to south, and whose water attracted early day settlers to the area. Chaney says that Keith had its post office established in 1882, but that the name was changed to Mingusville in 1884, and finally to Wibaux in 1895. I'm not sure who Keith was, but Mingusville got its name from Minnie and Gus Grisy, early day settlers. The story, perhaps apocryphal, is that Wibaux's ranch hands surrounded the town, essentially laying siege to it, until the town agreed to take the rancher's name--the one it still holds. Another story, which definitely sounds apocryphal but clearly isn't, concerns our 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt, who out for a ride, found himself in a bar in Mingusville. The National Park Service's website for <a href="http://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/roosevelts-bar-fight.htm">Theodore Roosevelt National Park</a> in North Dakota quotes the man himself:<br />
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“It was late in the evening when I reached the place. I heard one or two shots in the bar-room as I came up, and I disliked going in. But there was nowhere else to go, and it was a cold night. Inside the room were several men, who, including the bartender, were wearing the kind of smile worn by men who are making believe to like what they don’t like. A shabby individual in a broad hat with a cocked gun in each hand was walking up and down the floor talking with strident profanity. He had evidently been shooting at the clock, which had two or three holes in its face.<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
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…As soon as he saw me he hailed me as ‘Four Eyes,’ in reference to my spectacles, and said, ‘Four Eyes is going to treat.’ I joined in the laugh and got behind the stove and sat down, thinking to escape notice. He followed me, however, and though I tried to pass it off as a jest this merely made him more offensive, and he stood leaning over me, a gun in each hand, using very foul language… In response to his reiterated command that I should set up the drinks, I said, ‘Well, if I’ve got to, I’ve got to,’ and rose, looking past him.<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
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As I rose, I struck quick and hard with my right just to one side of the point of his jaw, hitting with my left as I straightened out, and then again with my right. He fired the guns, but I do not know whether this was merely a convulsive action of his hands, or whether he was trying to shoot at me. When he went down he struck the corner of the bar with his head… if he had moved I was about to drop on my knees; but he was senseless. I took away his guns, and the other people in the room, who were now loud in their denunciation of him, hustled him out and put him in the shed.”</blockquote>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Downtown Wibaux, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken October 7th, 2009</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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My own history with Wibaux goes back to my childhood, when my Methodist Minister father was serving as Vice-President at Rocky Mountain College. He was often called to fill in for churches needing temporary pastors, and one of the churches he served in this way was the Methodist church in Wibaux. I don't remember much about the church itself (I was seven at the time), but I do remember those long drives across eastern Montana every week. Today, with Interstate 94 to follow, it's 250 miles from Billings to Wibaux. In those days, we followed U.S. Highway 10 along the Yellowstone River at a much slower pace than today.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Wibaux United Methodist Church</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken October 7th, 2009</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Wibaux, Montana</b></span></div>
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Roughly half the population of the county lives in the town of Wibaux. The rest of the county's people are ranchers and farmers, with 40% of the men and 9% of the women engaged in agriculture, according to <a href="http://www.city-data.com/county/Wibaux_County-MT.html">City-Data.com</a>. The average size farm is 2,492 acres and livestock or poultry accounts for over 61% of the total agricultural market value in the county. But should you be traveling through this part of the state, by all means get off I-94 at exit 241 if only to visit the Beaver Creek Brewery. The only microbrewery on a 600 mile stretch between Billings and Fargo (according to the <a href="http://www.craftbeer.com/featured-brewery/beaver-creek-brewery-worth-the-trip">Craft Beer website</a>), Beaver Creek Brewery can provide you with not only great home-crafted beer, but also their own root beer, and bread made from the brewing process's spent grain. As they say on their website, if you're going to succeed in a town as small as Wibaux, you have to offer something for everyone.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Wibaux County Landscape</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Off MT Highway 7</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken August 26th, 2011</b></span></div>
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-6195834503123706682015-03-15T11:19:00.000-07:002015-03-15T11:19:30.906-07:0051. Jefferson County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Twenty-six counties in the United States are named, directly or indirectly, for President Thomas Jefferson. Only George Washington has more counties named for him (31). Of the twenty-six, three are only indirectly named for the third President. Montana's is one of those three, being named for the Jefferson River, one of the three rivers that come together to form the Missouri at Three Forks. The Jefferson River, of course, was named for the President, and it flows north from the confluence of the Beaverhead, Ruby and Big Horn Rivers near the town of Twin Bridges (Madison County, #25) till it turns east, forming the boundary between Jefferson County and Madison County. Eventually, the river joins with the Madison and then with the Gallatin to form the mighty Missouri. The rivers are named for three men vitally important to the Corps of Discovery, AKA the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Jefferson was, of course, the President who bought the Louisiana territory from France. Madison was his Secretary of State and successor as President. And Albert Gallatin, probably the least famous of the three, was the Secretary of the Treasury who wrote all the checks. All three have counties named for them in Montana, or rather, there are counties named for the rivers named for the three men.<br />
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With the creation of Montana Territory in 1864, governmental functions had to be met, which included county structures. Montana created nine counties, one of which was never actually organized and which held most of the land in the state. Big Horn County was pretty much everything east of a line drawn north to south through the center of the state, and it never had a seat or organized county government. Of the remaining eight counties, Jefferson was next to smallest. (Only Edgerton County, later Lewis and Clark County, #5, was smaller.) A stage stop on the way from Fort Benton to Virginia City, Jefferson City, was named seat. In time, Radersburg (now in neighboring Broadwater County #43) took honors as the seat, but by 1884 the die was cast, and the seat moved to Boulder, another Fort Benton to Virginia City stage stop, and there it remains to this day. In 1888, county voters approved a $40,000 bond issue to build a courthouse, hiring architect John Paulsen who designed a Richarsonian Romanesque structure of brick and stone with a high gabled roof. This building remains one of the most visually interesting courthouses in Montana and is on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_County_Courthouse_(Montana)">National Register of Historic Places</a>.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Jefferson County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Boulder, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>February 21st, 2010</b></span></div>
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Boulder, named for the large rocks that lay across the landscape, was originally called Boulder Valley, but lost the second word in 1871. In 1892, the new State of Montana set aside land and began the process of building the Montana School for the Deaf, Blind and "Backward Feeble Minded Children." Today the place is called the Montana Developmental Center, and is considered to be the most expensive institution in the state. <a href="http://missoulian.com/news/local/montana-developmental-center-is-state-s-most-expensive-institution/article_b989e968-df61-11e1-86f9-0019bb2963f4.html">The Missoulian reported in 2012</a> that with 50 residents and 250 employees, the daily cost of housing and treating patients was in excess of $770. According to the <a href="http://dphhs.mt.gov/dsd/MontanaDevelopmentalCenter">state's official website</a>, "The purpose of the Montana Developmental Center is to provide treatment to people with serious intellectual disabilities who have been determined by a court to pose an imminent risk of serious harm to self or others." Standards did not used to be so strict. A childhood friend of mine from Laurel, diagnosed with cerebral palsy, spent a good bit of his life at Boulder, no doubt considered one of the backward feeble minded children. <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Boulder Hot Springs and Hotel</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Boulder, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>February 21st, 2010</b></span></div>
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Another institution on the outskirts of Boulder is the<a href="http://www.boulderhotsprings.com/"> Boulder Hot Springs</a>. The springs themselves were known to area Native Americans as a spot to relax and, perhaps, heal. In 1863 James Riley, a prospector, built the first structure on the site. In the 150+ years since, the place has certainly had its ups and downs. With an outdoor pool, indoor steam rooms and hot plunges segregated by gender, hotel rooms and a restaurant, the place is open today and ready for business. I recall many wonderful weekends spent at what we then called The Diamond S. <br />
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Roughly ten miles east of Boulder is the mining town of Basin. Gold brought prospectors to the rocky landscape just east of the Continental Divide, and business brought the railroad. Both the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific served this small town, each with its own station and warehouse. The two main mines were the Katy and the Hope, both long closed. A mining engineer, Max Atwater, came up from Butte to run a zinc extraction plant in the small community. Weavers will recognize that name, for Max's wife was Mary Meigs Atwater, arguably the mother of modern handweaving in the United States. For eighteen years, from 1993 through 2011, Basin was home to the Montana Artists Refuge which hosted events across the artistic spectrum. They have a Facebook page, but nothing has been posted since the Refuge closed its doors in October 2011. Starting in the 1960s and continuing to this day, the mines have attracted a world-wide tourist trade looking for pain relief. Whether you believe that radon is dangerous or not, you won't keep folk from coming to Basin to visit the <a href="http://www.merrywidowmine.com/">Merry Widow Mine</a>. Visitors claim relief from a wide variety of ailments, and their testimonials bring more visitors every year. Basin is also home to Montana's first gay rights organization. When a group of friends and I met to form Out in Montana in the early 1980s, we followed the trail of the Montana Lesbian Coalition which got its start when a lesbian mom living in Basin, ran for school board and caused all hell to break loose. <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Headwaters of the Boulder River</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>West of Basin, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>February 21st, 2010</b></span></div>
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Jefferson County is one of three counties in Montana to be served by two Interstate highways. Interstate 15 runs north to south through the county, connecting Basin and Boulder to the larger cities of Butte and Helena. Interstate 90 runs across the southern edge of the county, past the town of Whitehall, the only incorporated town in the county other than Boulder. Whitehall got its start as yet another stage stop on the way to Virginia City, and the stage stopped at a large white house on the ranch owned by E.G. Brooke. Brooke called his home the White Hall, and the name stuck, although in 1877 the Post Office changed it to one word. Although the town sits at the east end of Homestake Pass, the 6,329 foot pass where I-90 crosses the Continental Divide, Whitehall has long been considered a suburb of Butte, west of the pass. Veteran NBC newsman Chet Huntley told of how he grew up in Whitehall, graduating from Whitehall High in 1929. He reported that many of his classmates spent their summers working in the mines in Butte. Visitors driving by on I-90 will notice two things near the community. East of town, on the flats before the road rises to cross the mountains, there are a number of homes with large detached buildings beside them. There are also windsocks visible. This is the Jeffco Air Park, a planned subdivision aimed directly at those commuters who have their own plane. I don't think it really caught on as there are, as I recall, at most a half dozen homes with hangars. Also at Whitehall, visitors will note a large smokestack south of the Interstate near the railroad tracks. This was the proposed site of a sugar beet factory which never got built. The soil was good for beet growth, but the weather didn't cooperate. Such is often the case in Montana.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Looking South from Interstate 90</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Near Whitehall, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>February 14th, 2010</b></span></div>
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The northern end of Jefferson County is home to several small communities, Clancy, Elkhorn, Jefferson City, and Montana City, all with their histories built upon mining. What has kept these communities from becoming ghost towns (and to be honest, Elkhorn is a ghost town today, having been abandonned in 1970), is their proximity to the state capital, Helena. In the 1970s, Jefferson County was the fastest growing county in the state as government employees moved across the county line for lower taxes and more elbow room. Today Clancy remains one of Helena's most important suburbs with over 1600 residents in the 2010 census. The county as a whole has almost tripled in population since 1950. The 2013 estimate counts 11,512 in a county that covers 1,659 square miles.BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-21167101223542739442015-03-08T13:26:00.000-07:002015-03-08T13:26:49.359-07:0050. Garfield County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The state of Montana added seven counties in February and March, 1919. Along with Treasure (# 33), Garfield County came into being on February 7th of that year. Prior to that date, what is now Garfield County had been part of Dawson County (# 16) which covered much of eastern Montana at the time. Bordered by the Missouri River on the north, Garfield County's area of 4,847 square miles coupled with its 2010 US Census count of 1,206 residents, makes it the least densely populated county in Montana, and the third least densely populated county in the U.S. outside of Alaska. One of the nicknames for the area is The Big Dry (from Big Dry Creek which flows through the county), and the lack of population has led some out-of-state conservationists to suggest that the county would better serve as a wildlife preserve, returning the land to pre-white settlement conditions. Not surprisingly, most county residents oppose this plan. Of course, <a href="http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.ii.008">Frank Popper's plan for a Buffalo Commons</a> covers much more than just Garfield County, extending to portions of ten states in the Great Plains region. Politically speaking, Garfield is probably most famous for being the home of the <a href="http://archive.adl.org/mwd/freemen.html">Montana Freemen</a>, an anti government group whose fraudulent banking practices drew the attention of the FBI. In 1996, an 81 day standoff between the FBI and the Freemen ended with the group surrendering to government forces. Of course, there are always at least two sides to any story, and <a href="http://americanfreepress.net/?p=888">one view</a> is that the Freemen were law abiding citizens unfairly targeted by the FBI.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Garfield County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>(Formerly the Garfield County Hospital)</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Jordan, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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The only incorporated town in the county is Jordan, the county seat. First settled in 1896 as a cow town, Jordan got its post office in 1899, a post office run by Arthur Jordan. According to Cheney's <i>Names on the Face of Montana</i>, Jordan suggested the name for the community, but did not name it for himself. Rather he suggested the name of a friend of his in Miles City, a man also named Jordan. Writing for the historical collection <a href="http://www.mtmemory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15018coll43/id/21874">Garfield County: The Golden Years</a>, Grace Walker says "When we came to Jordan, it was a small town." Of course, with a 2010 population count of 343, most people would say it is still a small town. In the same volume, Vivienne Nault Schrank uses the term "tiny." She remembers asking her mother, "Is this really it, just two houses and three people?" That was in April, 1913, and other than their own "cherry red HUDSON car," Vivienne saw no other automobiles in town. The drive from Miles City, some eighty-three miles away had taken them two full days. <br />
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Jordan has the only high school in the county, a high school that into the 1990s had a co-ed dormitory for those students who couldn't get home over night. With a total student body of fifty-six, Garfield County High School serves an area almost as large as the state of Connecticut. A friend of mine taught English there for several years. He had great experiences, and apparently was much appreciated. It's hard to find people these days who want to live out in the middle of nowhere. As another friend, Bill McRae who grew up on a cattle ranch in Garfield County and has written several guide books for Moon Handbooks puts it in his book <i>Montana</i>, "No one comes to Jordan ... because of its interesting history or architecture." He goes on to describe Jordan thus:<br />
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The most isolated county seat in the continental U.S., Jordan is 175 miles from the nearest major airport, 85 miles from the nearest bus line, and 115 miles from the nearest [passenger] train line. (McRae, <i>Montana</i>, p. 381)</blockquote>
The first time I visited Jordan back around 1980, I found the water unfit to drink. Heavily alkaline in nature, a glass of water in a restaurant was just not potable. Nor was the coffee made with that water. In 2010, when I stopped in Jordan for lunch, I was studiously avoiding the water glass set before me until the woman seated at the next table spilled hers all over the table and floor, with a good bit splashing on me. I was amazed that anyone would even attempt to drink the stuff until I figured out what the sign out in front meant. "New RO." RO? Oh, Reverse Osmosis. The restaurant had put in a water purification system that meant the water, coffee and ice tea actually tasted like something. Imagine my surprise at finding that you can buy machines to turn your water alkaline. Fortunately, in Jordan, at least one restaurant is going the other way.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Traffic Congestion in Garfield County</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Montana Highway 200</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Taken March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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That first trip also included camping overnight at Hell Creek Campground on the shores of Fort Peck Reservoir. <a href="http://stateparks.mt.gov/hell-creek/">Hell Creek State Park</a>, one of Montana's fifty-four state parks, is twelve miles north of Jordan over a road so bad that even the state parks information site says it will take you a half hour to drive. Personally, unless they've improved the road considerably in the last twenty years, I think that is an optimistic estimate. Don't get me wrong, the park is in a beautiful setting, and if you're into playing in the water or fishing for walleye, by all means go visit. But make sure your tent is securely tied down. All night long I felt as if we were going to blow into the lake at any minute.<br />
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One other thing before we leave Jordan. When I was there in 2010, I searched for some time looking for the county court house. Eventually I ended up in front of a rather odd looking building off a back street. I've seen lots of court houses over the years, and this building did not look like one, yet every bit of information I had said I was in the right place. I finally went inside and asked. Yep, this building, originally built as a hospital, was now serving the legal needs of the county. Apparently, the old court house, a white frame building, had burned down. Bluehiways3y has a picture of it on Flickr. <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaykaren/3972445905/in/photostream/">You can see it here.</a><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Some Garfield County Residents Getting Their Exercise</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Eastern Garfield County</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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Today, Jordan is the only incorporated town in the county (and it was only incorporated in 1951). But believe it or not, back in 1919, there was a competition for the honor of being seat of the new county. Cheney reports that some thirty "settlements" with post offices existed within the boundaries of the new county. Today there are just four outside of Jordan. Brusett lies off the main roads, but has a post office that was first established in 1916. Prior to that, folks got their mail in Bruce, down the road a piece. Cohagen is on MT Highway 59, the road to Miles City, in the southeastern corner of the county. Its post office was first opened in 1905, but even in 1948, local students wrote "Cohagen today is one of Garfield County's many little has-been towns." (Cheney, <i>Names on the Face of Montana</i>, p 47) Mosby and Sand Springs are both on MT Highway 200 in the western portion of the county. The former got its post office in 1904 and lost it in 1983. The latter, with a population of around 90, saw its post office doors open for the first time in 1911. I have been through Cohagen, Mosby and Sand Springs, but I really don't recall anything about any of them. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Big Dry</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Central Garfield County</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-45087529177378052712015-03-01T13:39:00.002-08:002015-12-11T13:37:40.325-08:0049. Park County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Created from neighboring Gallatin County (# 6) on February 23rd, 1887, Park County was present for Montana's admission as the 41st state in 1889. On March 1st, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Congressionally passed law creating the world's first national park, Yellowstone. While most of the park is in the state of Wyoming, three of the park's entrances are in Montana, and two are in Park County (the North Entrance at Gardiner and the Northeast Entrance west of Cooke City). Park County is one of twenty-two counties/parishes in the United States to share a border with a similarly named county in another state. Park County, Wyoming is on the other side of the state line. The county officially added almost 147 square miles in 1997 when that part of Yellowstone located in Montana was transferred to the jurisdiction of Park and Gallatin Counties. Prior to that, the park itself handled county functions within the park's boundaries. Today, Park County covers 2,813 square miles, laid out in a mostly north-south rectangle, and counts 15,682 people as residents (2013 census estimate). This number is slightly smaller than the 2000 Census and in a growth pattern unusual in Montana, Park County has grown in population steadily since its formation. The 1890 Census showed 6,881 county residents which increased to 15,694 in 2000. Only in three decennial census counts has the number dropped, most drastically in 1970, which showed a 15% decrease from the 1960 count. I have been unable to ascertain just what happened. The <a href="http://www.parkcounty.org/site/pdfs/Pln/FinalReport11182014.pdf">Summary Report on Land Use Priorities and Possibilities</a>, submitted on November 19, 2014, gives one possible hint on page 36 where the people of Clyde Park noted that at that time (1960s and 70s), "Cattle market went to hell- people who had borrowed money- lost due to low cattle prices." But I doubt that would account for nearly 2,000 people leaving the county.<br />
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The Northern Pacific Railway reached what is now Park County in 1882, building a station and plotting the town that would become Livingston. The name comes from a Northern Pacific director, <a href="http://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/review/pdfs/hvrr_4pt1_griffiths.pdf">Johnston Livingston</a>. As a side note, Livingston the man partnered with William G. Fargo and Henry Wells in the building of not only Wells-Fargo but also American Express. The biographical article written by Sylvie R. Griffiths, linked above, makes no mention of either Livingston, Montana nor the Northern Pacific Railway, unfortunately, but is a fascinating read, none-the-less.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The City-County Complex</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Livingston, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>October 4th, 2009</b></span></div>
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Straddling the Yellowstone River, Livingston has always been the Seat of Park County. Meriwether Lewis camped near here on his way back from the coast in 1806. A trading post named Benson's Landing sprang up along the river bank, a location the railroad renamed Clark City and then Livingston. The town grew quickly as the railroad built a major repair facility next to the depot. The depot itself dates from 1902 and was designed by the same firm that designed New York's Grand Central Station. Passenger trains no longer follow the southern route across Montana; Burlington Northern, Northern Pacific's successor closed the shops in 1986; and the Depot now houses a museum dedicated to the rail history of the area. It also serves as the starting point for a walking tour of Livingston's historic downtown, an area that has more buildings on the National Register of Historic Places than many much larger cities--at least on a per capita basis. The city is small enough that you can easily walk through the historic business and residential areas, or in the summer, you can catch a yellow Yellowstone Park bus and take a tour of historic Livingston. Brad Bunkers has put together a good website called <a href="http://golivingston.com/summer-vacations/history-tour/">GoLivingston</a> with the stories of many of the historic buildings in town.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Roosevelt Arch, Northern Entrance to Yellowstone National Park</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Gardiner, Montana</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>October 4th, 2009</b></span></div>
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Since Yellowstone Park predates both Livingston and Park County, the railroad quickly capitalized on the scenic attraction by building a spur line from Livingston to the northern entrance to the Park at Gardiner. Livingston thus became the first portal to the park and over the years a good number of tourists have passed through the city on their way to Yellowstone. More than a few have chosen to stay either in the town itself, or in the Paradise Valley that connects Livingston and Gardiner, some 54 miles south. Peter Fonda, son of Henry and brother of Jane, is perhaps one of the most famous residents of the valley, but many other well-known actors, singers, writers and artists have called the area home, at least for a short while. There is probably no place less like Key West than Livingston, Montana, but Jimmy Buffett has written several songs about the area, not just "Livingston Saturday Night." Thanks to all the creative energy, Livingston today is home to a lively arts scene.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>U.S. Highway 89 heading south toward Yellowstone Park</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Paradise Valley, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>October 4th, 2009</b></span></div>
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Perhaps the most controversial residents of the Paradise Valley were the followers of <a href="http://montanawomenshistory.org/tag/elizabeth-clare-prophet/">Elizabeth Clare Prophet</a> and her Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT). While the movement, cult if you like, got its start decades earlier, and had its roots in Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy, the I AM movement, and even Christian Science, Prophet brought her faith and her followers to the Paradise Valley in 1986, saying that the Montana landscape was perfect for creating "the environment of your soul." When Prophet sent out the word that the Soviet Union was about to launch a nuclear war against the United States, some 3,000 CUT adherents moved into the group's townships with their stockpiles of weapons and large fallout shelters. Prophet died in 2009, and the group has dwindled in her absence, but the homes, shelters and communities still remain in the hills of southern Park County.<br />
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North of Livingston stretches the Shields River Valley, a productive agricultural area and home to the towns of Clyde Park and Wilsall. Other than Livingston, Clyde Park is the only incorporated town in the county. On a personal note, Clyde Park is home to my only blood relatives in Montana, the daughter of my mother's cousin Floyd Stephens, who followed my parents to Montana and served as a Methodist minister in various parishes across the state. Clyde Park was quite a change from Parkersburg, West Virginia, and Floyd's seventeen year old daughter was not happy at first, giving up the city for rural life. I suspect that it was very hard to make such a move during the summer before your senior year in high school, but apparently she got over it, as all these years later she still lives in Clyde Park and her son, Mark Hoffman, owns <a href="http://www.crazymtn.com/">Crazy Mountain Motorsports</a> there, building high end snowmobiles that are sold all over the world.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Shields River Valley with the Crazy Mountains in the background</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Wilsall, Montana</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>August 30th, 2011</b></span></div>
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-79065124983132155952015-02-22T13:52:00.001-08:002015-02-22T13:52:47.823-08:0048. Liberty County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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According to the <a href="http://co.liberty.mt.us/about/" target="_blank">county's own web site,</a> Liberty County was the first Montana county to be formed after World War I in 1919 with land taken from Choteau County (#19) and Hill County (# 12). Voters chose Chester as the county seat. Montana history claims otherwise, showing that the official date of county creation was February 11, 1920, after several other Montana counties came into being in 1919. It could of course be the case that the local election took place in 1919 and it took until the next year for the state legislature to approve the vote. Covering 1,458 square miles, Liberty County is predominately fueled by agriculture, with barley and wheat being the principal crops. The 2013 US Census estimate showed 2,369 residents, just a few less than the 1920, or first official census count of 2,416. Over the years, the population has remained relatively constant, which is highly unusual for a rural Montana county. The 1960 census counted 2,624 residents, the highest ever, and the 2000 census showed the lowest, 2,158. Long and narrow, the county reaches from the Canadian border on the north down into the Golden Triangle--Montana's premier wheat producing region. It is mostly rolling plains, although the Sweet Grass Hills in the north western part of the county reach 7,000 feet in elevation. U.S. Highway 2 crosses the county parallel to today's successor to the Great Northern Railroad, the line responsible for most of northern Montana's towns.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Liberty County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Chester, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>April 23rd, 2011</b></span></div>
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Chester, the County Seat, came into being with the coming of the Great Northern Railroad. The first local telegraph operator named the town in honor of his hometown on the Delaware River, Chester, Pennsylvania. Curiously, the original settlers of that part of Pennsylvania were "Swedes," or more likely Finns, as they named their new home Finlandia. (Finland was, at that time, a part of Sweden.) The ethnic make up of Liberty County shows that a large portion of the county claims Scandinavian heritage, and the largest group of Protestants in the county are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which traces its own heritage back to Scandinavia. Note that at some point, the members of the largest Lutheran Church in the county, Our Savior's, withdrew from the ELCA joining the more conservative Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. The town was formally incorporated in 1910 and today remains the only incorporated community in the county. With a population of 847 (as of 2010), roughly one-third of the county residents live in the seat.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Welcome to Chester</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Highway Sign on U.S. 2</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>April 23rd, 2011</b></span></div>
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Ten miles east of Chester on US Highway 2, and just west of the Hill County line, Joplin is a mere shadow of its former self. Dr. Carroll Van West, working for the Montana Historical Society, visited Joplin in the 1980s and again just a few years ago, and has written up quite a history of the town in his blog <a href="http://montanahistoriclandscape.com/tag/joplin-montana/" target="_blank">Revisiting Montana's Historic Landscape</a>. He notes that two men are credited with the founding of the town, E. C. Tolley and Joseph E. Rehal, but apparently, as is so often the case, they were more in competition with each other than collaborators and the town grew in an "uneven and scattered" manner. The town grew quickly as the railroad advertised for settlers, but drought, freezing winters, and other catastrophes led to the population moving on, almost as quickly as they had come. At one time the town had a bank, a drugstore, hardware store, and of course the requisite school, bar and post office. Van West quotes Joplin resident Larry Olson telling how everything has changed in the seventy-two years he's lived in the area. "Nowadays, everything is closed up. You've got a [Lutheran] church and a bar--that's it." Well, not quite. The school closed in 2005 when the local school district merged with Chester's. But the Post Office still stands, as does the Community Center and park, and of course, the grain elevators.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Joplin Montana From US Highway 2</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>April 23rd, 2011</b></span></div>
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Thirteen miles west of Chester, just east of the Toole County (# 21) line, lies Lothair. I have not been able to find a reason for the name, even Roberta Carkeek Chaney in her <i>Names on the Face of Montana</i> says only that the town "is surrounded by promising oil and gas fields." She also notes that the post office was established in 1910. If I were to guess, I'd say that the community took its name from Benjamin Disraeli's novel <i>Lothair</i> which was quite popular around the turn of the last century, but is little known today. (Seems much more likely than naming a town for a Holy Roman Emperor, at least to me.) The grain elevators rising along the railroad tracks are about all that's left of Lothair, but Van West notes that back in 1918 the residents petitioned the railroad for a new depot, having lost their station to fire in 1912. The railroad never followed up on that petition, and the town withered away in short order.<br />
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South of Lothair lies Tiber Dam, blocking the flow of the Marias River and creating Lake Elwell or Tiber Reservoir. Built in the 1950s and rehabilited in the 1970s and 1980s, the dam is one of the largest earth-filled dams in the world, and has a 60 foot tall dike that is over three-miles long (17,000 feet). Lake Elwell is one of northern Montana's premier recreation areas, with 181 miles of shoreline and over 21,000 acres of water surface. It is also the location of the Lewis and Clark Overlook, commemorating the 1806 visit of Captain Meriwether Lewis as he returned home along the Marias River. <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Our Savior's Lutheran Church</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Chester, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>April 23rd, 2011</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.city-data.com/county/Liberty_County-MT.html">City-data.com</a> indicates that 39% of Liberty County residents consider themselves to be of German heritage. The same site also indicates that 16% of county residents speak an Indo-European language, other than English, when at home. These two demographic statistics are most likely tied to the four (City-Data.com says two) Hutterite Colonies in Liberty County. The Hutterian Brethren are an Anabaptist sect, originally from modern day Austria. Persecuted for their beliefs, the Hutterites left Austria for Russia, and thence to North America where they settled in Montana, the Dakotas and the Canadian Province of Alberta. Practicing community ownership of all property (also called Christian Communism), and speaking a dialect of German amongst themselves, the Hutterites are prosperous and successful farmers. As all property is owned in common, the farmsteads are known as Colonies. The four Liberty County colonies are Sage Creek (in the northern part of the county) formed in 1960, Riverview (formed in 1980), Eagle Creek formed in 1982 (near Lothair), and Sunny Brook (formed in 2012). Because there are now over fifty Hutterite colonies in Montana, the State's Office of Public Instruction has put together <a href="http://opi.mt.gov/pdf/Bilingual/EU_Hutterites.pdf" target="_blank">a resource guide</a> about these people, a group photographer Jill Brody describes as <a href="http://www.missoulaartmuseum.org/index.php/ID/71cc13cf939689cb0f3ca9398b3b9062/fuseaction/exhibitions.detail.htm" target="_blank">"Hidden in Plain Sight."</a> The movie <i>Holy Matrimony</i>, filmed in Montana but ostensibly taking place in Alberta, is set on a Hutterite Colony and gives a relatively sympathetic look at Hutterian life.<br />
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-77225190005905348422015-02-15T13:26:00.000-08:002015-02-15T13:26:12.919-08:0047. Meagher County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There are a few place names in Montana that folk from out-of-state really can't pronounce. Many Montanans have a problem with the proper pronunciation of Meagher County. Here's a hint. Most of the letters between the M and the R are silent. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Francis_Meagher" target="_blank">Thomas Francis Meagher</a>, for whom the county is named, was born in 1823 in Waterford, Ireland, at that time part of the United Kingdom. You can learn a lot about the man as he became famous, or infamous, in Ireland, Great Britain, Australia and the United States. Convicted of sedition by the British Authorities, his death sentence was changed to transportation to Britain's penal colony, which we now know as Australia. He escaped from Australia, and made his way to New York City, settling there in 1852. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Meagher enlisted in the Union Army and eventually was promoted to the position of Brigadier General. With the end of the War, Meagher was appointed Secretary of the new Montana Territory, and assumed the position of Acting Governor when Sidney Edgerton went East in 1865. In 1866, Green Clay Smith was chosen to be Governor, but again Meagher stepped in as Acting Governor. Under suspicious circumstances, he fell off a riverboat on the Missouri River and was presumed drowned. His body was never found. Today, his memory is kept alive in Montana through an equestrian statue placed in front of the state capital in Helena, and through Meagher County, which was formed shortly after his death in 1867, and thus became one of the original counties in the State of Montana.<br />
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While Meagher County is located to the south and west of the geographic center of Montana, the 2010 US Census placed the population center of the state in the northwestern section of the county. From its original boundaries, land was taken in the formation of six newer counties. The 1890 Census counted 4,749 residents, the highest ever for the county, but the 2010 Census showed only 1,891 folk living there. As the county covers 2,395 square miles, the population density is less than 1 person per square mile. The only incorporated city in Meagher County is White Sulphur Springs, the County Seat.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Meagher County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>White Sulphur Springs, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>September 8th, 2007</b></span></div>
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The hot springs that led to the town's name were well known to Native American people. Crow Chief Plenty Coups talked of them, but they only came to the attention of the white settlers when James Brewer found them and named them Brewer's Springs. Different sources give different dates, but in turn, Brewer sold the springs to <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=30420782" target="_blank">Dr. William Parberry</a>, an early Montana pioneer, who renamed them White Sulphur Springs, and then laid out the townsite. Today, the Parberry Block East is on the National Register of Historic Places. The springs continued to draw considerable attention, even bringing John Ringling of the Ringling Brothers Circus to the area. Ringling planned on building a resort, but the Great Depression killed his Montana dreams. The springs continue to attract visitors, and the <a href="http://www.spahotsprings.com/index.html" target="_blank">Spa Hot Springs Motel and Clinic</a> is happy to be of service should your travels bring you their way.<br />
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Roughly half the population of Meagher County lives in White Sulphur Springs, and famous former residents include the actor Dirk Benedict, probably best known for his roles in the original (1979) Battlestar Gallactica and the A-Team. He's also known for his biographical <i>Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy</i> in which he relates his battle with cancer and how he adopted a macrobiotic diet. Speaking of writers, in my opinion, the best of today's writers using Montana for their landscape, is Ivan Doig, author of <i>This House of Sky</i> and at least a dozen other novels. Doig was born in White Sulphur Springs. Anyone familiar with The Great Gatsby would not expect to find <a href="http://www.wildriverreview.com/Essay/Babe-in-The-Woods/F-Scott-Fitzgeralds-Unlikely-Summer-in-Montana/Landon-Jones" target="_blank">Scott Fitzgerald</a> in Montana, but in 1915 the future author arrived to spend the summer on a working cattle ranch just outside of White Sulphur Springs. His short story "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" is based on his adventures in Meagher County.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Castle</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>White Sulphur Springs, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>September 7th, 2007</b></span></div>
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White Sulphur Springs calls itself the home of the only castle in Montana. Bryon Roger Sherman, another pioneer Montanan, moved to the Smith River Valley in the late 1800s after a life as a miner and rancher in western Montana. He built a home to be his legacy on top a hill overlooking the town. Today the stone structure is home to the <a href="http://montanakids.com/history_and_prehistory/museums/castle.htm" target="_blank">Meagher County Museum</a>.<br />
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But don't spend all your time in town. Driving north from Interstate 90 on the Montana Centennial Highway, US 89, the first place you come to in Meagher County is Ringling. There's not much left of this settlement founded by the circus family, but it does have a fascinating history. A stop on the Milwaukee Railroad, (and also the southern terminous of John Ringling's White Sulphur Springs and Yellowstone Park Railway, the immediate area was used by the circus as winter quarters. Ivan Doig set <i>This House of Sky</i> in the Ringling area, and when you're driving by, make sure you have Jimmy Buffet's <i>Living and Dying in 3/4 Time</i> on your playlist so you can hear his song, "Ringling, Ringling." <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>St. John's Catholic Church</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Ringling, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>July 30th, 2011</b></span></div>
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Continue north on US 89, passing through White Sulphur Springs, and you arrive at Neihart, across the line in Cascade County. But before you leave Meagher County, you'll pass <a href="http://www.showdownmontana.com/" target="_blank">Showdown Ski Area</a> at King's Hill Pass at 7,385 feet in the Little Belt Mountains. This section of US 89, starting just east of White Sulphur Springs and heading north for 71 miles, has the official designation of the King's Hill Scenic By-Way.<br />
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Two other Scenic By-Ways cross at least parts of Meagher County. Heading northwest from White Sulphur Springs is the Smith River Scenic By-Way, a 92 mile stretch of mostly unpaved road that connects White Sulphur Springs to Interstate 15 at the town of Ulm. The Smith River flows northwest from its source in the Castle Mountains to its confluence with the Missouri south of the city of Great Falls. On its course, it has cut a canyon between the Big Belt Mountains on the west and the Little Belt Mountains on the east. The river is so popular as a recreational site, that access is limited by an annual lottery. Folks lucky enough to win a permit enjoy a multi-day float covering 59 miles of river between the only access point and the only take-out point on the river. Montana Highways 330 and 360 run more-or-less parallel to the river for those who don't win the lottery and are forced to see the scenery by motor vehicle.<br />
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East of White Sulphur Springs, turning north off US Highway 12 west of the town of Martinsdale, the Judith River Backcountry Drive crosses the eastern Little Belt Mountains and offers great views of the different mountain ranges of central Montana. But if you'd prefer to stay on paved highway, then stop at the town of Martinsdale and visit Charlie Bair's home. Martinsdale isn't actually on US Highway 12, but a few miles south, but it's worth the sidetrip. <a href="http://www.montanacowboyfame.com/151001/180115.html" target="_blank">Charlie Bair</a> at one time had the largest herd of sheep in the U.S., perhaps in all of North America. He came to Montana as a conductor on the Northern Pacific, left Montana to make his fortune in the Klondike, and returned to Montana where he invested not only in sheep, but also in banking, land and oil. In the process, he built a beautiful home where his two daughters continued to live out their lives well into the last part of the twentieth century. With their passing, they made provisions to turn the homestead into a <a href="http://bairfamilymuseum.org/" target="_blank">museum</a>, one of the best in Montana. The former Fox Theatre in Billings was remodeled in the early 1980s, and Charlie's daughter Alberta gave the lead gift in the fund raising effort. The theatre was renamed the Alberta Bair Theatre in 1987. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Bair during my tenure at UM's School of Fine Arts, and I can say with no doubt this daughter of Meagher County could drink any man under the table.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Bair Reservoir</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Checkerboard, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>July 30th, 2011</b></span></div>
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In short, there's plenty to see and do in Meagher County, Montana, and if you're still wondering how to pronounce the county name, it's simple. M*a***r. I told you most of the letters in between are silent. Mar County might be more easily said, but not nearly as colorful as the proper Irish spelling.<br />
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-66661126703613249972015-02-08T08:58:00.000-08:002015-02-08T09:11:43.709-08:0046. Granite County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Straddling the Flint Creek Valley, Granite County lies mostly in mountainous terrain. Bordered by the Garnet Range in the north, the Sapphire Range to the west, the Anaconda Range to the south and the Flint Creek Range to the east, with the John Long Mountains running through the center of the county, it's no wonder that early day miners found their way to this region in hope of hitting it big with the next gold strike. Many ghost towns and abandoned mines dot the landscape, and today it's mostly people in search of recreation who come to visit. We may never know who first found gold in what is now Montana, but <a href="http://www.legendsofamerica.com/mt-granvillestuart.html" target="_blank">Granville Stuart</a>, sometimes referred to as Mr. Montana, claimed the title for a strike on Gold Creek, which today flows from Granite County into Powell County (# 28) and then into the Clark Fork River.<br />
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Regardless of the truth of Stuart's assertion, many eager folk followed in his footsteps, and by the time Montana became a state in 1889, gold and silver camps had sprung up all over the region. By 1893, there was enough of a population that the state legislature took land from Deer Lodge County to form Granite County, naming Philipsburg as its seat. The County's very first official census, 1900, counted 4,328 residents. Since then the number has waxed and waned, and the 2010 Census showed 3,079 people living in the County.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Granite County Court House</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Philipsburg, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>February 27th, 2010</b></span></div>
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According to the <a href="http://philipsburgmt.com/P-burg-story" target="_blank">Philipsburg Chamber of Commerce</a> website, the town got its start in 1867 when it was "officially registered," and was incorporated in 1890. A German immigrant working at an area mine gave the town his name, his first name, that is, Deidesheimer being seen as too clumsy to use as a place name. <a href="http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/philipp-deidesheimer" target="_blank">Philip Deidesheimer</a>, born in Darmstadt, Hesse, studied at the Freiburg University of Mining, before heading to California in the early days of the gold rush there. From California, it was an easy jump to the Comstock claims in neighboring Nevada, where Deidesheimer invented the square-set timber system which allowed deep hard rock mining world wide. In Montana, he supervised the building of the first silver amalgamation mill, but he was important enough in the history of the West that he even had his own story told as a Bonanza episode--although the script writers made him Dutch instead of German.<br />
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Phillipsburg today is a small town, probably best known for its "painted ladies," its rich history, and what is arguably the best candy store in Montana, <a href="http://www.sweetpalace.com/" target="_blank">The Sweet Palace</a>. Drive down Broadway, the main shopping street in town, and you'll find one beautifully painted storefront after another. There are lots of choices for dining as well, and the community hosts a variety of festivals throughout the year. Just off Broadway is the <a href="http://www.operahousetheatre.com/" target="_blank">Philipsburg Opera House</a>. Originally built in 1891 as the McDonald Opera House, the theatre claims to be the oldest continuously operating theatre in Montana. Across the street from the Opera House is the Courtney Hotel, built in 1918, now home to the <a href="http://www.granitecountymuseum.com/" target="_blank">Granite County Museum and Cultural Center</a>. The Museum exhibits include several displays of the mining heritage of Granite County, including a replica of a silver mine, many household furnishings donated by pioneer Granite County residents, and the Ghost Town Hall of Fame. There's lots to see and do in Philipsburg, but if you're coming for the candy, don't bother visiting on a Saturday. The store, and its next door neighbor, the <a href="http://www.sapphiregallery.com/" target="_blank">Sapphire Gallery</a>, are closed on Saturdays. Open Sundays, though!<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Georgetown Lake with the Anaconda Range as Backdrop</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>June 26th, 2011</b></span></div>
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It's probably fair to say that most visitors to Granite County do not come for the theatre, the museum or the candy. This is a recreational paradise. Rock Creek, on the western edge of the county, is a blue-ribbon trout stream that draws anglers world-wide. I would be hard-pressed to think of I time I haven't seen fishermen out on Flint Creek as I drive Montana Highway 1, the Pintlar Scenic Highway (originally known as US Highway 10 Alternate). Photographer David Williams has a beautiful page of photos he took along the route on his <a href="http://bondpix.com/Pintler.htm" target="_blank">Bondpix website</a>. Also alongside Route 1 is Georgetown Lake, where Granite and Deer Lodge (# 30) Counties meet. Some of my earliest memories include boating on <a href="http://georgetownlakemt.com/" target="_blank">Georgetown Lake</a> while my father fished. It's hard to imagine that this vast lake is a reservoir first formed in 1885 when Flint Creek was dammed just above the waterfalls that lead the stream down into the Flint Creek Valley. And the lake and surrounding area is a four-season playground, with one of Montana's best ski resorts located just a few miles from the lake shore at <a href="http://www.skidiscovery.com/" target="_blank">Discovery Basin</a>. With deep powder on the runs which overlook the lake below, skiing at Discovery reminded me very much of skiing at Heavenly Valley looking down at Lake Tahoe. Or during the Summer, do as I have and find your own sapphires at the <a href="http://www.gemmountainmt.com/" target="_blank">Gem Mountain Mine</a> on the road to Skalkaho Pass.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Swinging Bridge over Rock Creek</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>(Look for adult fisherman in photo for a sense of scale)</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>August 23rd, 2008</b></span></div>
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At the northern end of the county the Bureau of Land Management oversees <a href="http://www.garnetghosttown.net/" target="_blank">Garnet Ghost Town</a>, a site they call "Montana's best preserved ghost town." Be forewarned, the drive up from the Bearmouth area off Interstate 90 is not for the timid. A much easier drive is from the north, turning south off Montana 200 just west of The University of Montana's Lubrecht Experimental Forest at Greenough. If you should feel up to the southern approach, you'll pass the remnants of many other 19th Century mining camps as well, but none can approach Garnet which was home to over 1,000 people once upon a time. Today, there are a few privately-owned cabins, but many of the original buildings remain for visitors to get a peek into history. And if you are a Montana resident, you can even put Garnet on your car in the form of a license plate promoting "Explore Montana Ghost Towns."<br />
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Aside from Philipsburg, there are three other communities in Granite County. Eleven miles north of the county seat is the small town of Maxville with 120 residents. There is a privately owned campground and restaurant along Highway 1, but that venue has been through many changes in ownership in recent years, and I cannot vouch for it being open when you drive by. Nine miles north of Maxville you'll find Hall with 358 people according to the 2014 estimate. Note that that is over 100% more people than were counted in the 2010 U.S. Census. Finally, seven miles further north, where Montana 1 meets Interstate 90, sits the only other incorporated town in Granite County, <a href="http://www.drummondmontana.com/" target="_blank">Drummond</a>, with their "World Famous Bullshippers." For those travelers who never leave the Interstate, Drummond is probably all of Granite County that they will experience, but it's worth the visit, if only to choose which of over 100 different burgers you want for lunch at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Parkers-Restaurant/141455575924200" target="_blank">Parker's</a>.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>View from Interstate 90</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>West of Drummond, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>September 23rd, 2010</b></span></div>
BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-77086162725663431692015-02-01T13:04:00.000-08:002015-02-01T13:05:01.499-08:0045. Prairie County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After a protracted battle for signatures and proxy votes between those who wanted a new county created, and those opposed to such a move, a vote held in Glendive brought about the creation of Prairie County in January 1915, with land taken from neighboring Custer (# 14), Dawson (# 16) and Fallon (# 39) Counties. <a href="http://mtmemory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15018coll43/id/10609/rec/35" target="_blank"><i>Wheels Across Montana's Prairie</i>,</a> available through the <a href="http://mtmemory.org/" target="_blank">Montana Memory Project</a>, tells of the at times humorous exploits of the early Prairie County settlers. The county, which covers 1,743 square miles, is bisected by the Yellowstone River, and is home to 1,179 people, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. The first census after the formation of the county showed 3,684 people (1920), and that number grew by 7% to 3,941 by 1930. Since then, as in most of eastern Montana, the population has steadily declined, with the sole exception of a small bump of less than 5% in 1980. The 2013 census estimate shows no difference from the 2010 actual count. I'm not sure what to make of that because surely people have died and babies have been born in that three year period. The county took its name from the predominate topography of the lower Yellowstone River country--prairie land. <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Prairie County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Terry, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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The only town in the county is Terry, which serves as the County Seat. Terry got its start as a supply point on the Yellowstone River, and when the Northern Pacific Railroad came through in 1881, the town, originally named Joubert's Landing, was renamed for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Terry" target="_blank">General Alfred Howe Terry</a>, a Connecticut native who attended Yale Law School, led Union forces in the Civil War, and became military commander of the Dakota Territory in 1866. Although he worked with General Custer, he avoided that man's fate and continued to serve in the Army until 1886. It was the men under Terry who found what was left of the Seventh Cavalry after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and it was Terry who went to Canada to negotiate with Sitting Bull. <br />
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Terry the town is a community of 605 people, pretty much right in the center of the county. The courthouse is a rather nondescript modern building that replaces a much more colorful building a block away that suffered a major fire. The Roy Rogers Saloon (and Pizza) is the main (but not only) eatery in town, and is located conveniently across the street from the Kempton Hotel, the oldest continuously operated hotel in the state of Montana. I can personally vouch for the Kempton, but be forewarned, if you're looking for a room during hunting season, you may be out of luck. The place fills up fast. The Kempton family, who no longer owns the hotel, was a prominent family in what would become Prairie County, and their story is told at length in <i>Wheels Across Montana's Prairie</i>.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Kempton Hotel</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Terry, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>March 25th, 2010</b></span></div>
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Imagine a Scottish Laird and his high-born English fiancée honeymooning in frontier Montana, and falling in love with the place, and you have the story of Ewen and Evelyn Cameron. Perhaps the most famous Prairie County resident, Evelyn Cameron bought a camera in 1894 and spent much of the rest of her life documenting Montana landscapes, wildlife and ranchwork, strapping her camera to her back and riding her horse across the countryside. Lord Cameron was an ornithologist, and his wife would photograph the birds that he wrote up in the articles he submitted to European journals. Evelyn died in 1928 and was buried in Terry. She is the subject of a PBS documentary, "Evelyn Cameron: Pictures from a Worthy Life," which is available on DVD from <a href="http://shop.montanapbs.org/evelyn-cameron-pictures-from-a-worthy-life.html" target="_blank">Montana PBS</a> for less than $20.00. She is also the subject of a book by Donna Lucey, former editor at Time-Life Books and Look Magazine, titled <i>Photographing Montana 1894-1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron</i>. (See the link below to purchase this book.) <a href="http://visitmt.com/listing/categories_NET/MoreInfo.aspx?SiteID=1&IDRRecordID=3172" target="_blank">The Prairie County Museum</a> at 101 South Logan in Terry is home to the Evelyn Cameron Gallery, and many of her photographic glass plates are now part of the collection of the Montana Historical Society.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Terry Badlands</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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Evelyn Cameron continues to bring countless visitors to Terry and Prairie County, even almost ninety years after her death. The other area draw is the Terry Badlands Wilderness Study Area, a triangular section of land measuring ten miles along the Yellowstone River and eight miles north, brings students and tourists alike. According to the <a href="http://visitmt.com/listing/categories_NET/MoreInfo.aspx?IDRRecordID=7012" target="_blank">VisitMontana website</a>,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The badlands exhibit soft marine and non-marine sedimentary rock which has been eroded by eons of wind and water into arches, bridges, flat tabletops, pinnacles, spires and scoria escarpments. Landforms reach up to 2,900 feet in elevation in some areas. <br />
Wildlife viewing, rock collecting, photography, hiking and camping are popular at this unique area. </blockquote>
In addition to Terry, there is a Census Designated Place some nine miles east of Terry along Interstate 94, Fallon, named for the same Benjamin O'Fallon who gave his name to neighboring Fallon County (# 39). According to Roberta Carkeek Chaney, in her work <i>Names on the Face of Montana</i>, Fallon had its post office established in October, 1884, only to see it close in December of that same year. The current post office was established in 1890. The Fallon area population was 164 as of the 2010 Census. <br />
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Mildred, twenty-miles southeast of Terry, was a station on the Milwaukee Railroad and had its post office established in 1909, again according to Chaney. Chaney gives no reason for the name of the community, nor can she be of any help with Zero, although she does note that Zero had a post office from 1915 to 1957. The "town" is located southwest of Terry on the Yellowstone River. Between Zero and Terry, my Montana atlas shows Blatchford and Kamm. Of the former, Chaney relates that this station on the Northern Pacific Railway had a post office from 1885 to 1896 and was named for a US Circuit Court Judge who came from New York. Of Kamm, Chaney makes no mention, but a rather intriguing website, <a href="http://roadsidethoughts.com/mt/kamm-xx-prairie-wishlist.htm" target="_blank">Roadside Thoughts: A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada</a> has this to say:<br />
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<ul style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
<li style="padding-bottom: 7px;">While we have added Kamm to our Gazetteer, we don't have any information about how large it might be or even if it still exists. Is it a cluster of houses and buildings or is the community scattered throughout the area. If it's gone, have all traces of Kamm been erased or is there some kind of indication of where it was located?</li>
</ul>
Makes me want to go find out.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Road North (Montana Highway 253)</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Prairie County, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>March 26th, 2010</b></span></div>
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While not the kind of news to please local Chambers of Commerce, Prairie County was home to the worst rail disaster in Montana history. On June 19, 1938, the Custer Creek Bridge collapsed under the Milwaukee's Olympian, an eleven car passenger train. There was no prior indication of danger, so the train approached the bridge at speed, with no braking being done. When the bridge collapsed, the locomotive and seven passenger cars were thrown into the creek. Officially 47 people died and 75 were injured, but this is just a guesstimate, as bodies were washed downstream in the flash flood that weakened the bridge supports. <br />
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To get a copy of Donna Lucey's biography of Evelyn Cameron, click on the link below.<br />
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BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-49796422618520968542015-01-25T14:18:00.000-08:002015-02-08T09:51:18.160-08:0044. Wheatland County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Would it surprise you to learn that the principal industry in Wheatland County is agriculture, and that wheat itself is an important crop, with over 37,000 acres of land devoted to raising that particular grain? Located just south of the geographic center of Montana, Wheatland County was created on February 22, 1917 with land taken from Meagher County (# 47) which lies to the west and Sweet Grass County (# 40) which lies to the south. Almost square in shape, the county covers 1,428 square miles and as of the 2013 Census estimate, 2,134 people called it home. In 1920, by comparison, the U.S. Census counted 5,619 people living within the county, a number that has never been equaled since. In fact, each successive enumeration has shown fewer people living in the county than the preceding count, with the single exception of the 2000 Census which showed an increase of 0.6% over the 1990 Census.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Wheatland County Court House</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Harlowton, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>September 8th, 2007</b></span></div>
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At the crossroads of US Highway 12 and US Highway 191, Harlowton is the only city in the county, and serves as the County Seat. From its origin in 1900 as a stop on the Montana Railroad, up until 1974 when the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific (The Milwaukee Road) ceased operations, Harlo (as it's affectionately known) was a rail town. It was even named for the President and founder of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_Railroad" target="_blank">the Montana Railroad</a>, Richard A. Harlow. Harlow's original idea was to connect the Northern Pacific line at Lombard (Broadwater County, # 43) to the mining camps in the Castle Mountains of Meagher County (# 47), but by the time the track was laid, the mines were all but played out. Harlow decided to continue the line to Lewistown in Fergus County (#8) and followed the Musselshell River to a point where the track turned north. At that "turning point" the town he named for himself was born.<br />
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In 1908, the Montana Railroad became part of the western expansion of the Milwaukee Road. Eventually, the Milwaukee reached Seattle, Bellingham, Washington, and even the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington State. By 1914 the difficulties of running steam engines through the mountains of western Montana led to the decision to electrify the line--at least from Harlowton on to Avery, Idaho. Harlo was the switching point where the new electric locomotives were put on the west bound trains and taken off those east bound. It's much too much of a simplification to say that the Arab Oil Embargo of the early 1970s did in the Milwaukee. The railroad had plenty of problems of its own causing. But the sad fact is that the company made the decision to end electrified rail service in 1974, and then had to deal with the increased cost of diesel fuel, not to mention the cost of replacing all their electric stock. By 1980, all Milwaukee operations west of Miles City, Montana ceased. Today it is remembered in Montana by its beautiful stations, and by displays in Harlowton and Deer Lodge of the last of the electric locomotives.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Welcome to Harlowton</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Electric Locomotive on display at the Welcome Park</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>September 8th, 2007</b></span></div>
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Harlo's business district was destroyed by a fire in 1907. Twenty-four buildings, including the only hotel in town, were lost. Local businessman A.C. Graves built a new hotel, but located it on the bluff above the railway station, and built it from locally quarried sandstone. The <a href="http://graveshotel.org/index.html" target="_blank">Graves Hotel</a> opened in 1909 with forty-five rooms, a restaurant and lobby, and a veranda on the second floor. The loss of the Milwaukee cost Harlowton dearly, and the Graves Hotel felt that loss as well. The largest privately owned building in the community, it stood sentinel on its hilltop, There are reports that the hotel is haunted, but new owners are determined to restore the place, including its restaurant and coffee shop, and they look to reopen the hotel as a bed and breakfast. They have put together a very colorful (in every sense of the word) website which includes a page of <a href="http://graveshotel.org/local-destinations.html" target="_blank">beautiful photographs</a> of the Wheatland County landscape.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Graves Hotel</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Harlowton, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>July 30th, 2011</b></span></div>
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The Harlowton Women's Club has put together a county history which is included in the online <a href="http://mtmemory.org/" target="_blank">Montana Memory Project</a>. <i><a href="http://mtmemory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15018coll43/id/8184/rec/36" target="_blank">Yesteryears and Pioneers</a></i> contains over four hundred pages of Wheatland County memories, including stories of ten different communities, most of which today are mere memories themselves. Apparently the oldest community in the county is Shawmut, located on U.S. Highway 12 in the southeastern corner of the county. The post office in Shawmut dates from 1885 according to US Post Office records, and was run by a Mr. Francis Shaw, originally from Boston, Massachusetts. The Shawmut Peninsula is where Boston's first streets were laid, and the name figures prominently in Boston history. Shawmut, Montana, on the other hand, isn't even an incorporated town, and in 2010, the Census counted 42 people as residents. <i>Yesteryears and Pioneers</i>, however, gives quite a history for this community which at one point boasted a hotel, a school, a bank, several shops, saloons (of course, this is Montana), a barber shop, restaurant, etc. Today, Shawmut is probably best known as the community nearest to Deadman's Basin, a 1900 acre reservoir that draws fishermen from all over central Montana.<br />
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At the northern end of the county, along U.S. Highway 191, lies the town of Judith Gap. Located at the low point between the Big Snowy Mountains and the Little Belt Mountains, the area has been traveled for centuries as the pass permitted movement between the southern part of the state and the central section. With 126 residents as of the 2010 Census, Judith Gap is more than just a wide spot on the road. The community itself grew with the coming of the railroad. Seven saloons, a hotel, a bank, and all the various shops supported a community of 1,000 people. The Great Northern Railway built a roundhouse and repair shop in the town, employing 250 folk in the early part of the twentieth century. Grain elevators became the dominant buildings on the skyline as the area shipped wheat to market. Surprisingly, the town had Montana's first cheese factory--not that it lasted very long, and also a cigar factory. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Musselshell River</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Two Dot, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>July 30th, 2011</b></span></div>
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Perhaps the most iconic of Montana's towns is located on the western end of the county, near the Meagher County line. Two Dot got its name from the cattle brand used by the rancher who donated the land for the town. The first post master was commissioned in 1900, and the town grew up around the railyard. But make no mistake, Two Dot was and is a cattle town. And just in case you're working on it, number 96 on the Great Falls Tribune's "<a href="http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/life/my-montana/2014/04/23/a-montana-bucket-list-100-things-every-montanan-should-do/8061087/" target="_blank">A Montana Bucket List</a>" is "Stop for a burger at the Two Dot Bar."BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-22676190560416603512015-01-18T12:13:00.000-08:002015-01-18T12:13:04.540-08:0043. Broadwater County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Growing up, I always thought that Broadwater County was named for the wide expanse of the Missouri River as it pools behind the Canyon Ferry Dam. Driving east from Helena on US Highway 12, you quickly cross a corner of Jefferson County, then enter Broadwater County as you drive along the shore line of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canyon_Ferry_Lake" target="_blank">Canyon Ferry Lake</a>. The third largest body of water in Montana (after Flathead Lake and the Fort Peck Reservoir, also on the Missouri), most of Canyon Ferry Reservoir lies within the boundaries of Broadwater County. But since the dam that forms the reservoir was only completed in 1954, and the county dates from 1897, my adult mind tells me that there has to be a different rationale for the county's name, and indeed there is.<br />
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The Montana Legislature took land from two of the state's original counties, Jefferson (# 51) and Meagher (# 47) to create Broadwater County on February 9, 1897, naming the county for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Arthur_Broadwater" target="_blank">Charles Arthur Broadwater</a>, one of early Montana's most influential men. Broadwater, like most early Montanans, was born out of state (St. Charles, Missouri), but built his fortune and lived most of his life in the Treasure State. Cattle, transportation, real estate, banking, Broadwater had his hand in all of these. He was also responsible for building one of the grandest structures ever seen in Montana, the <a href="http://www.helenahistory.org/Broadwater1.htm" target="_blank">Hotel Broadwater and Natatorium,</a> just west of Helena. <br />
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The U.S. Census showed 5,612 Broadwater County residents in 2010, the largest population in the county's history. This represents a 28% increase from the 2000 census, which itself showed a 32.2% increase over 1990. In fact, the lowest count for the county came in 1970, with 2,526 residents, the only time the population was lower than at the time the county was first created. Located between the Big Belt Mountains to the north and east, and the Elkhorn Mountains to the south and west, Broadwater County covers 1,239 square miles, and has a population density of 4.7 people per square mile.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Broadwater County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Townsend, Montana</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>July 30th, 2011</b></span></div>
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Almost perfectly located in the center of the county, Townsend is the seat. When the Northern Pacific Railroad came through the area in 1883, the railroad named the town for the wife of a former president of the company. The station was built to service the gold mines in the area, and the town grew up around the new commercial center. With a 2012 estimated population of 1,970, Townsend would not be considered a city in most U.S. states, but this is, after all, Montana. Townsend is the first city you come to following the Missouri River downstream from its source near Three Forks, and thus the city calls itself "The First City on the Missouri." It is the only incorporated city in the county, although there are numerous other communities, including one, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton,_Montana" target="_blank">Canton</a>, that is now completely submerged under the waters of the Missouri. Today, Townsend is a thriving commercial center, servicing the needs of the many prosperous farms in Broadwater County, and welcoming those who come for the many recreational opportunities offered by Canyon Ferry, the Missouri River, and the mountains that ring the area. <i>Montana Magazine</i>, many years ago, wrote up an Italian restaurant located in Townsend. I ate at that restaurant many times (although at this point I have forgotten the name), and at one point I asked the owner/chef why he had left New York City for Townsend, Montana. His answer was classic. "I like to fish, and here I can get away any time I want and be on the water." Either he has since retired, or he decided he needed to make a better living, as the restaurant is long gone.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;">The Broad Waters of Canyon Ferry Reservoir</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;">North East of Winston, Montana</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;">(Scanned from a photographic print)</span></b></div>
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South of Townsend, off a county road and far from any federal highway, lies the community of Radersburg. One of the earliest of Montana towns, Radersburg got its start thanks to gold. By 1869, five years after the creation of Montana Territory, the town had a population of 1,000. Located in one of Montana's original nine counties, the town was chosen to be the seat of Jefferson County, and its namesake, Ruben Rader, was one of the first county commissioners for that county. Elsie Ralls has written a great history of the community which shows up on the website of the <a href="http://www.townsendmt.com/chd_sec4pg13.asp" target="_blank">Broadwater County Museum.</a> She tells how the community thrived and shriveled as gold rose and fell in value. She points out that the fall in gold prices led Jefferson County to move the seat back to its original location in Boulder. That happened in 1884, and in what might be considered kicking a town when it's down, the railroad came through at the same time and completely bypassed the community. Many Radersburg folk moved to Townsend at that point. But unlike so many other once thriving mining camps, Radersburg is not a ghost town. According to the 2010 census, 66 people still call it home.<br />
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Almost due east of Radersburg, just off U.S. Highway 287 on the banks of the Missouri, sits the community of Toston. Named for early settler Thomas Toston, the community got a post office in 1882. The post office is still operating there, but the Methodist Church, which used to be served by the Townsend minister, apparently has closed. The 2010 Census counted 108 people in Toston, so it's larger than Radersburg, but still a very small town by any definition. Six miles upstream from the town is Toston Dam, the closest dam on the Missouri to that river's headwaters. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toston_Dam" target="_blank">Toston Dam</a> was built in the late 1930s (actually completed in 1940) and was the second most expensive dam of its kind to be built in Montana at that time. It is a "run-of-the-river" hydroelectric dam which means that it doesn't rely on a reservoir to generate electricity.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Clouds above the Big Belt Mountains</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Northern Broadwater County</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>September 8th, 2007</b></span></div>
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What I have found most surprising about Broadwater County is the number of new developments that have sprung up, either as bedroom communities for the state capitol in Helena, or for the tech center of the state in Bozeman. The Silos, for example, was always one of the most recognizable features of the drive along Canyon Ferry. Two large brick silos, uncapped as far back as I remember, stand sentinel between US Highway 12 and the lake shore. There has long been a Bureau of Reclamation campground there, which today is joined by a KOA with a marina in Broadwater Bay. But according to Wikipedia, there is a Census Designated Place there as well, with a 2010 population of 506. This would make an area that I think of as campgrounds, the third largest community in the county. Wheatland, another Census Designated Place, takes in the entire southern triangle of Broadwater County, and the 2010 Census counted 568 residents, making it second only to Townsend as a population center for the county. I recall seeing beautiful large homes sprouting up on the hills above US 287 and Interstate 90 in this region, and I wondered why, but it has to be the lure of Bozeman, without the city congestion. Wheatland is also the home of <a href="http://www.wheatmontana.com/" target="_blank">WheatMontana</a> which claims Three Forks in neighboring Gallatin County (# 6) for a mailing address, but their location is definitely on the Broadwater County side of the line. Wikipedia also claims the Spokane Creek Census Designated Place as a Broadwater County community. Located at the point where Broadwater, Jefferson and Lewis and Clark (# 5) Counties all converge, Spokane Creek is a housing development with homes priced in the millions. There must be money in government service as this can only be a bedroom community for Helena.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Old Ranch in the Wheatland Area</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Southern Broadwater County</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>April 28th, 2012</b></span></div>
<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-23494812710521574802015-01-11T13:10:00.000-08:002015-01-11T13:10:41.470-08:0042. Carter County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The southeastern corner of Montana is where you'll find Carter County. Formed in 1917 with land taken from the southern portion of newly formed Fallon County (# 39), Carter County was named for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_H._Carter" target="_blank">Senator Thomas H. Carter</a>, the first U.S. Representative from the State of Montana (1889-1891) and later two term Senator (1895-1901 and 1905-1911). The county covers 3,348 square miles and as of the 2010 U.S. Census, 1.160 people called it home, giving it a population density of .3 people per square mile. The 2013 census estimate revised the count upward by fourteen, the first increase in population the county has shown since 1930 when, at its height, the county boasted 4,136 residents.<br />
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The story goes that Claude Carter (and I haven't been able to establish any relationship between Claude and Thomas H.) was driving a wagon load of logs into Montana Territory, and bogged down in a creek. In order to get his wagon out of the muck, he had to unload the logs. While he probably used plenty of expletives in the process, he allegedly said, "Any place in Montana is good enough to build a saloon," and that's what he did. In time, other businesses grew up around his saloon and the location was called Puptown. When in 1885, the town's post office was created, the Postal Service assigned it the name Ekalaka, after the wife of a prominent local resident, Ijkalaka Russell. Ijkalaka was an Oglala Sioux woman, and her husband, David Russell was a scout who settled in the area near Carter's saloon, becoming one of the first homesteaders in the region. <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Carter County Court House</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Ekalaka, Montana</b></span></div>
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When Fallon County was created in 1913, Ekalaka was chosen over Baker to be county seat. With the creation of Carter County, Ekalaka, the only town of any size in the new county, took the honor again. The white clapboard two-story court house was built in 1920. It's a pretty building that I found almost impossible to photograph. For one thing, it faces north, so you're always shooting into the sun under good conditions. For another, the grounds are beautifully landscaped with large trees hiding most of the structure, as you can see in my photograph above. The <i>Missoulian</i>, Lee Enterprises' newspaper for western Montana, recently did an extensive story on Ekalaka as part of their <a href="http://missoulian.com/montana-a-to-z-e-is-for-ekalaka/collection_048936c4-de45-5553-a229-fee35ab7d3aa.html#0" target="_blank">Montana A to Z series</a>. E is for, what else, Ekalaka. The writer spent a lot of time with the Church of Hank Williams, a social group that meets in the garage of Ekalaka resident Duane McCord. Number one in their collection of twenty photographs of the area is of Montana Highway 7 looking north from town. Until recently, Highway 7 was the only paved highway leading to Ekalaka, and it ends right before the court house. No one drove to Ekalaka by accident (except, apparently, Claude Carter). Today, a paved road connects the town to the only other "town" of any size in the county, Alzada (2010 census count 29).<br />
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Founded in 1936, the <a href="http://www.cartercountymuseum.com/" target="_blank">Carter County Museum</a> is the oldest county museum in the State of Montana. Located in downtown Ekalaka, it is definitely worth a visit. One more stop on the Montana Dinosaur Trail, the Museum has many paleontological exhibits, including a 6'6" tricerotops skull and a complete skeleton of an Anatotitan copei. That's duck-billed dinosaur to the rest of us--one of only five discovered to date in the US. Of course 75 million years ago, they ruled southeastern Montana. The Museum also has geological, natural history, and early settlers (including Native American) exhibits.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Driving down Montana Highway 7 toward town</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Ekalaka, Montana</b></span></div>
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Eleven miles north of Ekalaka is one of the most fascinating landscapes in the state. Medicine Rocks has an interesting history as a state park. Originally land sacred to the Sioux nation who lived in the area, the "rocks" became part of a working cattle ranch in the 1880s. Carter County seized the land for back taxes during the dust bowl years of the 1930s, and turned 330 acres over to the State of Montana in 1957. The State has lost several battles with the people of Carter County in the years since. In 1991, for example, the State tried to close the park at night, but the people wouldn't have it. Then again in 1991, the state imposed a $3 entrance fee, which the locals successfully fought. The State responded by declaring the park "Primitive," which meant the State didn't have to do any maintenance. In the end, we all won as Montana license plates now have an opt-out State Parks fee included in the cost of our plates, and any Montanan has free access to any state park simply by being in a car that is so licensed. (And since it's an opt-out fee, most people don't bother.) An early white visitor to the region declared it to be "as fantastically beautiful a place as I have ever seen." That visitor later got, among other things, a Montana county named for him, a Nobel Peace Prize, and the Presidency of the United States. Yep, you know him as Teddy Roosevelt. Today there are picnic tables, twelve camp sites, and many, many rock formations to explore. Just please, don't carve your initials in the sandstone.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>One of the sandstone formation in the park</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Medicine Rocks State Park</b></span></div>
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U.S. Highway 212 cuts across the southern edge of Carter County, and is probably the only way most non-locals see any of the county. Long-haul truckers and I use the road as a short cut from Hardin, Montana, to Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and eventually the Black Hills. You leave Interstate 90 at Crow Agency, south of Hardin, and return to Interstate 90 west of Spearfish, South Dakota. In the meantime, you cross through the Crow Reservation, the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, and Powder River County (# 9) before entering Carter County near the unincorporated community of Boyes. I can't say that I remember Boyes, even though I've driven the highway many times. Roberta Carkeek Chaney, in her book <i>Names on the Face of Montana</i> has this to say about the community:<br />
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BOYES is a roadside store, gas station, and post office in the southern part of Carter County. It was named for a Mr. Boyes, a resident of the area. The post office was established in 1910.</blockquote>
<a href="http://visitmt.com/listing/categories_NET/City.aspx?siteid=1&city=boyes" target="_blank">Visit Montana</a> has a bit more to say about the place, including Mr. Boyes' first name, Henry, and dates the post office from 1906. Nowhere have I been able to find a population for the community. And if you want to send them a note, the zip code for Boyes is 59316. Six miles further down the road you'll pass Hammond, "a cluster of cabins and a general store," again according to Chaney. I can't say I remember anything about Hammond either, and Visit Montana doesn't give us any more information. Finally, just before you leave Montana and cross into northeastern Wyoming, you'll go through the town of Alzada. Alzada I do remember, although with a population of 29, there's not much to note there other than the Sinclair Station on the north side of the highway and the Stoneyville Saloon on the south side. The saloon proudly offers "Cheap Drinks" and "Lousy Food." Don't ask me, they put it on their sign. Alzada was originally named Stoneyville, but when they got their post office, it turned out that there was already a Stoneyville, Montana, so the town was renamed for the wife of one of the residents. You can turn north at Alzada and follow Montana Highway 323 for seventy-one miles to get back to Ekalaka--a long way to go to pay your taxes or license your truck. If you turn south, on the other hand, onto Montana 326, you're less than two miles from Wyoming, and only 41 miles from Devil's Tower. But if you do that, you're definitely leaving Montana.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Wyoming State Line on US 212</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Southeast of Alzada, Montana</b></span></div>
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-4840541586210084522015-01-04T10:42:00.001-08:002015-03-26T16:02:08.124-07:0041. McCone County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3-b4eLRVlN0/VKgq5b-5qkI/AAAAAAAAJvo/h1T6z2jcjGg/s1600/411.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3-b4eLRVlN0/VKgq5b-5qkI/AAAAAAAAJvo/h1T6z2jcjGg/s1600/411.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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McCone County, Montana, is a place I would venture to say even most Montanans have never visited. No federal highway crosses the county, although Montana Highway 200 does serve the area, and even forks just east of the county seat of Circle into 200 and 200S, the former heading on to Fairview and the North Dakota state line and the latter turning south toward Glendive in neighboring Dawson County (#16). The Montana State Legislature established McCone County in 1919 from land taken from Dawson (#16) and Richland (#27) counties, both of which now border McCone on the east. They named the county for state senator George McCone who was instrumental in the creation of the new jurisdiction. There is a fascinating biography of McCone included in H. Norman Hyatt's book <i>A Hard Won Life </i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=p-2gAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT438&lpg=PT438&dq=State+Senator+George+McCone&source=bl&ots=6b47Ei4kF1&sig=KKhD8JnJPS_X4s292TOU5fDE_n4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JyyoVPDtGoTUoASklIKwBQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=State%20Senator%20George%20McCone&f=false" target="_blank">available as an e-book here</a>. The county covers 2,683 square miles and as of the 2013 estimate, 1,709 people call it home, for a population density of .7 people per square mile. This is the fewest number of people counted in the county's history, down from a high of 4,790 in 1930. Every census since then has shown a substantial decrease with the single exception of 1960.<br />
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The only incorporated city in the county serves as county seat. Circle is one of those Montana towns named for a cattle brand. According to the historic point sign, in 1883 (or thereabouts), a Confederate Army veteran, Major Seth Mabrey, drove a herd of longhorn cattle up from Texas. He branded his cattle with a simple circle design, and the ranch he founded became known as the Circle Ranch. In time, the ranch spawned a saloon, and the saloon brought business (and drinkers). The town that grew up around the saloon got the name from the ranch. Today, those ubiquitous flags seen flying from lightposts all over the country say this, should you read them in town: Circle, Montana A Great Place to Be Around. In 1919, Circle had some competition for the title of county seat. Brockway, thirteen miles east along Montana 200 was in the running. Circle won. The 2010 Census counted 644 people living in Circle, roughly 38% of the county's population.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>McCone County Court House</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Circle, Montana</b></span></div>
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Circle is a pretty, little town, not unlike many other eastern Montana communities, but today it is the only town of any size in the county. This has not always been the case. As noted above, in 1919 Brockway gave Circle a run for its money in the race to become county seat. These days, there's not much left of Brockway, but in the not too distant past, the community was a major shipping point on the Great Northern's branch line. According to the book <i><a href="http://mtmemory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15018coll43/id/21422/rec/1" target="_blank">As It Was Yesterday</a></i>, as recently as 1963, more than a million bushels of wheat were shipped out of the Brockway station. (It strikes me that that was over fifty years ago, now.) Bob Fletcher, who wrote the text for all the original Montana Historic Marker signs said that Brockway "became a major livestock shipping point, reaching number one in the U.S. in 1934." In 1910, James Brockway and his two brothers laid out a townsite, and soon there was a grocery store, a hardware store, a hotel, and the first high school in the county. (The high school's last class graduated in 1943.) <i>As It Was Yesterday</i> lists some twenty businesses located in Brockway over the years, including a bank, a creamery and a flour mill. For thirteen years there was even a drive-in theater that closed in 1963. Brockway has an <a href="http://www.brockwaymt.com/" target="_blank">"official" web site</a>, but the most recent event listed there happened back in 2012, and most of the links on that site are broken. One link that still works, takes you to the <a href="http://www.peruvian-pasos.com/BrockwayMercantile.html" target="_blank">Brockway Mercantile's site</a>, where you learn that you don't even have to visit Brockway to shop at the Brockway Mercantile. The owner is a registered e-Bay seller. The most recent population count I can find for Brockway comes from the 2000 census when 140 people called the Brockway area home. From Brockway south to the Prairie County (#45) line, the landscape is rolling, semi-arid land, suitable for dry-land farming and livestock.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Farmland in Southern McCone County</b></span></div>
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Vida is the only other town still extant in McCone County, with a 2000 census count of 70. Vida is actually made up of two separate communities, Vida and Presserville, which merged in 1951. According to Wikipedia, Vida today has an elementary school, a post office, a convenience store and gas station, and two churches. Seeing as how none of the links on the Wikipedia site work, I won't vouch for the accuracy of their description, and sad to say, even though I drove through Vida on my travels around the state, I found nothing noteworthy there. I'm sure I missed something.<br />
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To illustrate the fever and disappointments of the homesteading era, we need look no further than to the list of post offices on page 430 of <i>As It Was Yesterday</i>. Fourteen area post offices make the list, opening as early as 1903 (Hedstrom) with all but Brockway now closed. Some were only open a short time (one year or less), many closed in the 1930s as the homesteads dried up and blew away in the dust bowl. Watkins stayed open until 1959, but Paris, and yes, there was a Paris, Montana, closed in 1937. There's a picture of the Paris Post Office in the book on page 431.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Lewis and Clark Bridge over the Missouri River</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>AKA The Wolf Point Bridge</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>(note my Volvo trying to hide in the lower left corner)</b></span></div>
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Montana Highway 200 is the only east-west highway to cross McCone County, but two Montana state highways run north-south. Montana 13 runs north from Circle to the Canadian border at the Port of Scobey, passing through Wolf Point (Roosevelt County #17) and Scobey (Daniels County #37). Where it crosses the Missouri River, it connects McCone County with Roosevelt County. One of the county's two National Historical Registry sites is located here. Since supplanted by a more modern highway bridge, the Lewis and Clark Bridge is the longest "and most massive <a href="http://pghbridges.com/basics.htm" target="_blank">through-truss</a>" bridge in Montana. Its 400 foot span is the longest in Montana, according to the Historical Marker sign at the location, which also notes that at its dedication on July 9, 1930,<br />
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The celebration included speeches, bands, a float, cowboys, and a daylight fireworks show. The bridge was blessed by tribal elders from the Fort Peck Reservation. A crowd of perhaps 15,000 people attended the festivities.</blockquote>
Along the western edge of the county, Montana Highway 24 runs from Highway 200 north to the Saskatchewan border at the Port of Opheim. It crosses the Fort Peck dam on the Missouri, and passes through country lined with sandstone bluffs and other colorful geologic formations. All in all, McCone County may well be out of the way, but still very much worth a visit.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Northeastern McCone County </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>as seen from Montana Highway 24</b></span></div>
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-73254417809681894232014-12-29T11:02:00.000-08:002014-12-29T11:02:50.855-08:0040. Sweet Grass County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3DE85D3FbmI/VJdz2WP9vWI/AAAAAAAAJqU/Dp_3OXXkhc0/s1600/401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3DE85D3FbmI/VJdz2WP9vWI/AAAAAAAAJqU/Dp_3OXXkhc0/s1600/401.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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The <a href="http://sweetgrasscountygov.com/about/about-sweet-grass-county/" target="_blank">Sweet Grass County website</a> can't be beat for introducing this county in south central Montana. They state:<br />
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The county of Sweet Grass (two words) is located in south central Montana. Don’t confuse the town of Sweetgrass with the county of Sweet Grass. The town of Sweetgrass (one word) is located on the Canadian border in Toole County in north central Montana.</blockquote>
Sweet Grass County came into being in 1895. It was formed out of parts of Park, Meager, and Yellowstone Counties. Between 1910 and 1920 parts of Sweet Grass County were taken to form Stillwater, Wheatland and Golden Valley Counties. It has been its present size since 1920.
<a href="http://www.nativetech.org/plants/sweetgrass.html" target="_blank">Sweetgrass</a> (Hierochloe odorata) is, of course, a native plant used by indigenous people for centuries in purification rituals. I'm sure that the folk who named Sweet Grass County were thinking more of attracting settlers by suggesting that this would be good farming country, with plenty of good sweet grass for cattle.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Sweet Grass County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Big Timber, Montana</b></span><br />
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In keeping with the two word, Chamber of Commerce approved county name, the seat of Sweet Grass County is Big Timber. Curiously, both Sweetgrass and Big Timber are names of films--the former <a href="http://www.pbs.org/pov/sweetgrass/photo_gallery_sweetgrass.php?photo=4#.VKGUNV4AKA" target="_blank">a semi-documentary</a> about a family of sheepherders in the mountains of south central Montana and the latter a silent film from 1917 set in the northern woodlands. Whether this means Montana woodlands or not, I do not know.<br />
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Big Timber the city got its start with the construction of a saw mill at the confluence of the Boulder and Yellowstone Rivers. The settlement that grew up around the mill was named Dornix, but the town's location was subject to flooding as not only do two rivers flow together at this location, but Big Timber Creek enters the Yellowstone from the north just a short distance from where the Boulder flows in from the south. In 1883 the Northern Pacific Railroad reached the area and built a station for the town which was soon renamed Big Timber honoring the large cottonwood trees growing along the stream fronts. The town was incorporated in 1902 and remains the only incorporated community in the county.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Outside The Sweet Grass County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Big Timber, Montana</b></span></div>
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Sheep have long been an important part of the county's economy. Do a Google search for Sheep Raising in Sweet Grass County, Montana, and you'll find pages of websites devoted to the topic. The <a href="http://www.cityofbigtimber.com/" target="_blank">City of Big Timber</a> reports on its website that sheep raising in the area began in 1880 when Charles McDonnell and Edward Veasey drove 3,000 sheep from California to the area. Note that this was before Montana became a state, and more importantly, before the Northern Pacific Railroad built its line across Montana. The site further states that in 1901, Montana's first woolen mill was built in Big Timber, and that at one time, Big Timber shipped more wool than any other community in the United States. <a href="http://www.langhussheep.com/" target="_blank">The Langhus Sheep Ranch</a>'s website states: "Sheep raising has always been the leading industry in Sweet Grass County (Montana). By 1895, the wool shipment reached the enormous figure of 4,138,763 pounds." I have already written about the Annual Running of the Sheep in Reedpoint, just across the county line in neighboring <a href="http://montanacounties.blogspot.com/2013/09/32-stillwater-county.html" target="_blank">Stillwater County (32)</a>.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Antelope in the foreground, Absaroka Mountains in the Background</b></span></div>
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Aside from ranching, and more recently the mining of palladium and platinum which I wrote about in my Stillwater County post, outdoor recreation is a major draw, as it is throughout Montana. With the Absaroka Mountains to the south and the Crazy Mountains (aka the Crazy Woman Mountains) to the north, the two divided by the Yellowstone River, and the Boulder River flowing north out of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, there are plenty of reasons to spend vacation time in Sweet Grass County. My own childhood memories include many trips to the Boulder River where my father loved to fish. It's no wonder that half the items on the Chamber's list of "<a href="http://www.bigtimber.com/" target="_blank">10 things you can do</a>" involve fishing, hiking, floating the river, or just getting outdoors. In fairness, they list some fun things to do indoors as well.</div>
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If the shooting sports are of interest, you may wish to visit the <a href="http://csharpsarms.com/" target="_blank">C. Sharps Arms Co., Inc.</a>, located in Big Timber since 1980. <a href="http://www.shilohrifle.com/why.php" target="_blank">Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing</a> is also located in Big Timber, and has been building rifles there since 1976. As the <a href="http://www.distinctlymontana.com/montana-town/12/04/2011/big-timber" target="_blank">DistinctlyMontana website</a> dedicated to Big Timber puts it, </div>
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"Within shooting distance of each other, C. Sharpe Arms and Shiloh Rifles offer their worldwide clientele the finest quality in custom-made, single shot rifles. According to owner, John Schoffstall, custom rifles from C. Sharpe Arms have been in great demand since he set up shop in 1975. Both C. Sharps and Shiloh sell their product worldwide through both reputation and the Internet."<span style="font-family: 'PT Sans Narrow', Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span></blockquote>
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It was just outside of Big Timber that I was introduced to black powder shooting by my friend <a href="http://www.northfrontierfoods.com/Dave_Christensen.php" target="_blank">Dave Christensen</a>, a man dedicated to eradicating hunger by reintroducing open pollinated corn to the world. While not a native of Sweet Grass County, nor even of Montana, Dave has made Big Timber his home for several decades now. He is a self-described "Mountain Man" and has taught Native American groups how to <a href="https://braintan.com/tanown/index.htm" target="_blank">brain-tan hides</a> as well as other traditional crafts many native people have lost in recent times.</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Crazy Mountains</b></span></div>
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Today, Sweet Grass County is home to 3,669 people (US Census 2013 estimate). This figure is considerably lower than the 1920 count (4,926) but up from the 1970 count (2,980). The county voters are overwhelmingly Republican, and have always been. President Obama, for example, received only 22% of the county's vote in 2012, and the only Democrat to win the county in a Presidential election was FDR in 1936. More to the point, in 1916 and 1932, Sweet Grass County was the only county in Montana to vote for the Republican candidate. While almost 90% of the county's population over the age of 25 has graduated from high school, less than one quarter has a bachelor's degree or higher. According to City-Data.com, 27% of males and 12% of females are involved in agriculture. The average size farm is 2,429 acres, and the average income per farm is $46,718. Compare this with the average expense of $48,745, and once again we see that family farming is a constant struggle.</div>
BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-69315081999074626822014-12-21T13:38:00.003-08:002015-03-26T15:23:55.168-07:0039. Fallon County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Following the arrival of the Milwaukee Road (The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad) in 1908, an influx of settlers raised the local population to the point that in 1913, they successfully petitioned for a county of their own, separated from Custer County (14) and named for <a href="http://www.anb.org/articles/20/20-00733.html" target="_blank">Benjamin O'Fallon,</a> an early Indian Agent and nephew of William Clark. Over the next few years, the new county lost area in the formation of Wibaux County (52), Prairie County (45), and Carter County (42). (Note: <a href="http://www.falloncounty.net/" target="_blank">Fallon County's website</a> says that Carter County was formed from land taken from Fallon in 1913. Most other historical records show that Carter County was not created until 1917.) Almost from the beginning the town of Baker, Fallon County's largest community has been the seat. When the county was first created, the towns of Baker and Ekalaka (now seat of neighboring Carter County) fought for the honor of being county seat. Ekalaka won the first vote, but a year later a second election was held and Baker won. By this time, the citizens from the Ekalaka area had already decided to form their own county, so they didn't fight to keep the Fallon seat in their town.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>City-County Administration Building</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Baker, Montana</b></span></div>
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The original Fallon County Courthouse was a three-story white frame building (two stories above ground and a full daylight basement) built in 1915. In 1975, that building was torn down and the current City-County Administration Building was constructed. Just around the corner is the original Fallon County Jail, now home of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/OFallon-Historical-Museum/208742539155279" target="_blank">O'Fallon Historical Museum</a>. The O'Fallon Historical Society, formed in 1968, is the sponsor of the Museum, and in 1975 the Society published a book <i>O'Fallon Flashbacks</i>, a history of the county to date. That book is available for sale at the Museum as a fund-raiser for the Society, and it has been digitized as part of the Montana Historical Society's <a href="http://mtmemory.org/" target="_blank">Montana Memory Project.</a> I haven't (yet) read all 549 pages, but the one question I would dearly love answered is why, if the county was named for a man named O'Fallon, did the O' get dropped?<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Original Fallon County Jail</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Now the O'Fallon Museum</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Baker, Montana</b></span></div>
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Today, according to Wikipedia, there are just three communities in Fallon County. Baker is the only "city," and Plevna, the only "town," but there is also an unincorporated community named Willard some thirteen miles south of Baker on Montana Highway 7, the only north-south highway in the county. Up until 1995, Willard had a U.S. Post Office, and it still has its own Zip Code (59354), but there's not much else left of the town. Nonetheless, it has its own chapter in <i>O'Fallon Flashbacks</i>, appropriately titled "Willard--The Birth of a Community." Turns out the area was settled largely by a group of folk recruited by the Milwaukee Railroad in Minnesota. The land around Baker, where the railroad ran cross country, was largely what we in Montana call "gumbo," and unsuited for farming. South of town, however, the gumbo gives way to good arable land, and that's where the Minnesotans settled. In 1909, one of these settlers, Fred Anderson, decided to apply for a Post Office Permit. The name "Anderson" had already been taken, so he proposed using his own middle name, and thus was the community of Willard born. With help from folks in Baker, the people of Willard built a community hall which hosted dances, dinners, and church, the building being used on alternate Sundays by the Lutherans and the Wesleyan Methodists. The community even boasted its own baseball team, but over time, drought killed the farms, the young people moved away for other opportunities, and the town withered.<br />
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<a href="http://www.blackmountainsoftware.com/2013/10/21/small-town-stories-plevna-montana/" target="_blank">Plevna</a>, thirteen miles west of Baker on U.S. Highway 12, started out as a railroad town. The Milwaukee Railroad brought in a number of Bulgarian workers who named the community for their hometown, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleven" target="_blank">Pleven</a> (Плевен)<span style="font-family: inherit;">, today the seventh largest city in Bulgaria. The Montana town is not as distinguished, with a 2013 estimated population of 179 (up from an all time low of 138 recorded in the 2000 Census). According to the Plevna chapter in <i>O'Fallon Flashbacks</i>, the name comes from a Russian (I'm guessing Slavic) word for churches, and at one time, Plevna had six churches, as well as a store, a bank, and a post office. The Wikipedia article for the Bulgarian city of the same name gives the etymology of the name as Slavic for either "barn" or "weed," both of which are plentiful in eastern Montana. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><b>South Sandstone Reservoir</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><b>(one of my favorite photographs)</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><b>South of Plevna, Montana</b></span></div>
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Turn south off US 12 at Plevna, and you'll drive across the rolling grasslands so prevalent in eastern Montana. Just east of the county road lies South Sandstone Reservoir, one of the largest bodies of water in Fallon County, covering 679 acres. There is a fishing access on the lake, and a small campground. I spent a nearly sleepless night tenting alongside the reservoir, wondering all the time if my tent was going to blow away, taking me and the tent to Oz, or worse, North Dakota. Wikipedia maintains that there are six bodies of water that could be classified as "lakes" in Fallon County, but the only other one that I have seen is Baker Lake found, appropriately enough, on the eastern edge of the city of Baker. Both Baker Lake and South Sandstone Reservoir are popular local recreation sites, but to paraphrase one Fallon County writer, the county is so remote from the rest of the world, that it's usually only locals visiting the various sites in the area. Personally, I feel this is unfortunate, although as near as I can tell, Benjamin O'Fallon himself never set foot in the county named for him. <span style="color: #252525; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> There is a lot to see and do in Fallon County, and while the photo above gives credence to the wide spread belief that eastern Montana is flat, the fact is that there are hills, small mountains even, throughout the area. </span></span><a href="http://peakery.com/seven-up-butte-montana/" target="_blank">Seven Up Butte</a><span style="color: #252525; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> and </span></span><span style="color: #252525;"><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><a href="http://peakery.com/bearhorn-butte-montana/" target="_blank">Bearhorn Butte</a></span></span><span style="color: #252525; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> flank the dirt road that leads from Plevna to Montana Highway 7 near Willard. At 3,455 and 3,553 feet respectively, they're the 2859th and 2812th highest mountains in all of Montana. We won't tell where they rank nationally.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8haWre8xb_E/VJc3jvNbrGI/AAAAAAAAJqE/AI9WR7K8XGo/s1600/394.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8haWre8xb_E/VJc3jvNbrGI/AAAAAAAAJqE/AI9WR7K8XGo/s1600/394.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-small; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><b>Southern Fallon County Landscape</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-small; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><b>Don't tell me it's flat</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-61560262948768425682014-08-07T10:02:00.000-07:002015-03-26T11:34:33.067-07:0038. Glacier County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JBDvKleYu24/Uz8UQ0j4B5I/AAAAAAAAJIA/F_M0fs9zeSE/s1600/381.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JBDvKleYu24/Uz8UQ0j4B5I/AAAAAAAAJIA/F_M0fs9zeSE/s1600/381.jpg" height="245" width="320" /></a></div>
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The area bordering Canada and reaching east from the Continental Divide was originally part of Chouteau County (#19), and became part of Teton County (#31) when western Chouteau County was broken off. In 1919, the state Legislature took the northern part of Teton County to create Glacier County. The two main towns in the county were Cut Bank and Browning, and after a bitter fight, Cut Bank was chosen as the Seat. It's important to note that by the time the Legislature created Glacier County, most of the land base for the county was outside the County's tax-base. The Blackfeet Reservation, created by treaty in 1855 (before the creation of Montana Territory) and the eastern half of Glacier National Park (created in 1910) take up most of the land area of Glacier County. Only a narrow strip of land bordering Toole County (#21) lies outside Federal or Tribal jurisdiction, a strip approximately eleven miles wide. Or to put it another way, nearly 71% of the County's land area is within the Blackfeet Reservation and another 20.6% lies within Glacier National Park. Not surprisingly, over 60% of the County's population is Native American. The 2010 U.S. Census counted 13,399 county residents and the 2012 estimate of 13,711 is the highest population count in the County's history.<br />
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<b style="color: red; font-size: small;">The Glacier County Courthouse</b></div>
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<b>Cut Bank, Montana</b></div>
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The County Seat, Cut Bank, traces its history to the coming of the Great Northern Railroad in the 1890s. It takes its name from Cut Bank Creek, one of the main water courses in the County, a stream which the Native folk called "the river that cuts into the white clay bank," according to <a href="http://www.cityofcutbank.org/Resc/generalcityinfo.php" target="_blank">the city's web site</a>. According to that same site, the city was originally located on the west side of the creek, but when it was discovered that the location was on Reservation land, the city fathers up and moved the town across the creek. Today, the railroad bridge across the creek is one of the notable features of the local architectural landscape.</div>
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<span style="color: red;">Rail Bridge across Cut Bank Creek</span></div>
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Based on the pictures above, one could reasonably conclude that Glacier County's topography is part of the Great Plains, flat to gently rolling land that stretches from the Canadian Rockies to the Mississippi River. But we cannot forget that the County takes its name from Glacier National Park and the County extends west to the Continental Divide where it joins Flathead County (#7). The western portion of the County is stunningly beautiful with countless vistas of mountains and lakes to capture the viewer's attention. The Blackfeet called this area the Backbone of the World, and one of the common nicknames for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_National_Park_(U.S.)" target="_blank">Glacier National Park</a> is the Crown of the Continent, a phrase first used by George Bird Grinnell in 1901. </div>
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The Siksika (Blackfoot) people are the largest population group in Glacier County. An Algonquian speaking people, the Siksika are believed to have originated in the area north of the Great Lakes. (There is considerable controversy over the English name of the tribe. Officially known as the Blackfeet Nation, tribal members point out that in their own language, the term is singular, not plural, and many use Blackfoot instead. Rather than get into that battle, for the purposes of this essay, I shall use the term Siksika.) In advance of European settlement, the Siksika moved westward and by the 1700s were living in what is now Saskatchewan. By the 1800s, they were the dominant tribe in the northern plains, and their home territory reached westward to the Rocky Mountains and south to the Yellowstone River and beyond. <a href="http://www.ccrh.org/comm/river/treaties/blackfeet.htm" target="_blank">The Blackfeet Treaty of Fort Benton</a>, signed in 1855 when Montana east of the Divide was known as Nebraska Territory, allocated almost two thirds of what is now eastern Montana to the Siksika people. As has happened repeatedly in US/Native American relations, that reserved land has been taken time and again, and today's Blackfeet Reservation covers less than 1,500,000 acres, with over one third of that owned by non-Native people. Note that the Blackfeet Reservation, unlike the Flathead Reservation west of the Divide, was never opened to non-Native settlement. However, between 1907 and 1911, tribal lands were allotted to individual members, and those lands could be sold, and often were sold to non-Native people so that the original owners could have money to live on. Today, the Tribe has first right of refusal allowing it to buy back reservation land being sold by non-Native land owners. </div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Colorful Tipis at a private campground at St Mary's</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Eastern edge of Glacier National Park</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Unfortunately, these tipis, photographed in 2009 and not at all authentic, no longer exist</b></span></div>
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In 1896, the Tribe sold the western extent of its much reduced reservation for the sum of $1,500,000 with the intent that the land sold would be used for mineral exploration. Fortunately, for us, not enough minerals were found to lead to the kind of land rush that has happened elsewhere under similar circumstances, and in 1910 this area was set aside as <a href="http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm" target="_blank">Glacier National Park</a>. The Great Northern Railroad built a series of hotels and chalets through the park with the goal of increasing tourism (and not-so-coincidentally rail travel revenues), and the railroad advertised the "Switzerland of America" heavily. By the early 1930s, it became obvious that a road would need to be built through the mountains of the Park, and in 1932, Going-to-the-Sun Road was completed, connecting Apgar Village near West Glacier to Lake McDonald and St. Mary's on the eastern edge of the park, traversing 6,647 foot Logan Pass on its way across the park. To this day, Going-to-the-Sun is the only road that crosses the Park, although U.S. Highway 2 connects West Glacier with East Glacier and follows the southern edge of the Park, with less than ten miles of the highway actually within the Park's borders. In 1932, thanks to the efforts of people on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border, Glacier Park and the adjoining Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta were connected under the name <a href="http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/waterton/natcul/inter.aspx" target="_blank">Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park</a>. This was the first international park in the world. Today there are 170 such parks. This is also the only place on the 5,525 mile U.S./Canadian border where you can cross the line without showing documentation. (Note that I have never tried to enter Canada, or re-enter the U.S. by taking the boat trip across Waterton Lake. Also note that should you try to enter the U.S. this way, you'll have a long hike from Goat Haunt at the southern end of the lake to any road or highway that will get you further into the U.S.) </div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>St Mary's Lake</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Glacier National Park</b></span></div>
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BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-1655432810356042462014-04-03T16:47:00.000-07:002015-03-25T18:18:37.780-07:0037. Daniels County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the most fascinating tidbits I've found while researching Montana counties is that according to an analytic tool called the <a href="http://www.incontext.indiana.edu/2007/january/2.asp"> Index of Relative Rurality(IRR)</a>, Daniels County, Montana, is the most rural county of all 3100 plus counties in the United States. The county came into being on June 1, 1920, when the Legislature took a portion of northeastern Valley County (#20) and western Sheridan County (#34) to create the new entity which was named for a local rancher, Mansfield Daniels. The county covers 1,427 square miles, almost all of which is dry land. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, 1,751 people called Daniels County home. As is so often the case in eastern Montana, the most recent Census is also the lowest population count in a county that has steadily lost population since it first appeared in the U.S. Census in 1930 when 5,553 people claimed it as their home. Daniels County lies on the Canadian border, bordering the province of Saskatchewan. Only Sheridan County (#34) separates Daniels from North Dakota. Topographically, the land is rolling prairie, and the county has more ghost towns than actual thriving centers. And if you're still pondering that "most rural county" status, it's based on, among other things: a) population; b) population density; c) extent of urbanized area; and d) distance from a metropolitan area. And no, I have no idea what c means. As for d, Scobey, the Daniels County Seat, is 150 miles from Regina, Saskatchewan, 225 miles from Minot, North Dakota, and over 300 miles from Montana's largest city, Billings. Let's just say that if you don't want to shop at the local market, you've got a fur piece to drive.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.399999618530273px;"><b><span style="color: red;">The Daniels County Court House</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.399999618530273px;"><b><span style="color: red;">Scobey, Montana</span></b></span><br />
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The Daniels County Court House is pretty much what I expected to find in rural county seats around Montana. To me, it looks like what an Old West county courthouse should. In actuality, it's one of a kind, at least in Montana. And we can't even call it the Old West. Scobey got its first post office (and its name) in 1901, and the town wasn't incorporated until 1916. As for its name, remember Mansfield Daniels, the rancher for whom the county is named? He named the town after a friend of his, Maj. Charles Richardson Anderson Scobey, a cattleman in the Glendive area (Dawson County, #16). Today over half the residents of Daniels County live in Scobey, where the 2010 U.S. Census counted 1,017 residents. There are two stories concerning the Courthouse building. The sanitized version claims that it was originally the Commercial Hotel. I prefer the story Don Spritzer tells in his <i>Roadside History of Montana </i>where he claims the building is the remodeled One-Eyed Mary's House of Pleasure. (p. 27) I heartily recommend Spritzer's book where you can also read about Scobey's professional baseball team--recruited from the scandal ridden 1919 Chicago White Sox.<br />
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I have a personal connection to Scobey, albeit a rather tenuous one. At the time my father was preparing to graduate from Seminary at Boston University, a District Superintendent from Montana visited the campus to recruit young ministers. Meeting my dad, the D.S. asked Father's plans and learned that Father intended to return to his home state of West Virginia. At that, the D.S. asked "Why do you want to go back to West Virginia where there's a Methodist Church on every street corner? Come out to Montana where we have wide open spaces and need people to fill them." Somehow that appealed to the gypsy in my father, who then asked "What do you have to offer me?" The D.S. offered Scobey, but when he described the location and topography of Daniels County, my parents together asked "Don't you have anything else?" He did, and in 1946, three years before I was born, my parents moved to Stevensville in Ravalli County (#13). Too bad, Scobey, you could have had me as a Native Son.</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.399999618530273px;"><b>The United Methodist Church</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.399999618530273px;"><b>Scobey, Montana</b></span></span><br />
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Community names in Daniels County do not show much imagination. As we have seen, both the county itself and its seat are named for people important to the area. Other communities in the county include Flaxville, named because of the flax that grows there, Four Buttes, so named because of the four hills that rise just outside of town, and Whitetail, named, you guessed it, for the numerous white-tailed deer in the area. Peerless (originally named Tande for a local resident) got its current name when the townsfolk moved the town to conform to the Great Northern Railway's tracks and choose the name of their favorite beer, Schlitz-Peerless. OK, so that showed at least a sense of humor. Madoc, now a ghost town, got its post office in 1910, but the postal officials called the community Orville. Local residents didn't take kindly to that name, and eventually chose Madoc as a compromise among the many names suggested. Lord knows what names were rejected. As for two other ghost towns, no one today seems to know how either Julian or Navajo got their names, and there's no one alive to tell us.</div>
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<a href="http://www.city-data.com/county/Daniels_County-MT.html">City-data.com</a> gives us a few interesting "facts" about Daniels County residents. For one, the median age of folk in the county is 50. For another, 2,425 people belong to either the Roman Catholic or Evangelical Lutheran churches in the county--674 more people that the census counted, and that doesn't include the Methodists or "Others." I have a personal knowledge of how church records are kept, and my guess would be that a lot of those church members reside in the various cemeteries around the county. Thirty-six percent of county residents claim to have Norwegian ancestry, and another twenty percent claim to be of German stock. As we could surmise, agriculture is the largest industry in the county accounting for forty-three percent of the market. Curiously, Broadcasting and Telecommunications comes in second at eight percent, beating out the traditional second place holder, Construction, which only accounts for seven percent. Of the farms in Daniels County, their average size is 2,240 acres and they produce $74,733 in products sold annually at a cost of $71,623. The average age of the farm head is 58. Wheat is harvested on 258,251 acres which accounts for the tallest building in any given Daniels County town--the grain elevator.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Grain Elevators in Flaxville, Montana</b></span></div>
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BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-11271020396831007752014-04-02T20:32:00.000-07:002015-03-25T14:36:25.512-07:0036. Judith Basin County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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While traveling through the area in 1805, Captain William Clark saw a northward flowing river, so clean and beautiful, that he named it for his fiancée, calling it the Judith. The river's source is in the Little Belt Mountains, and its mouth is at its confluence with the Missouri, some 124 miles northeast of the source. The area drained by the Judith and its tributaries, bounded on three sides by the Highwood, Little Belt, Big Snowy, and Judith mountains, with the Missouri River on the north, bears the name Judith Basin, and on December 10, 1920, the Montana Legislature took land from Cascade (#2) and Fergus (#7) Counties to form Judith Basin County, after what historian Donald Spritzer calls "one of Montana's longest, most expensive, most bitter county division fights." (<i>Roadside History of Montana</i>, p. 289.) Five communities vied for the title of County Seat, with Hobson and Stanford each putting $25,000 into the fight, but in the end, Stanford became the seat of government for the newly formed county. The county covers 1,870 square miles and as of the 2012 U.S. Census estimate, it held 2,024 residents. The 1930 U.S. Census was the first to be held after the county's formation, and it counted 5,238 people. The county's population has declined with every subsequent enumeration.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Judith Basin County Courthouse</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Stanford, Montana</b></span></div>
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Named in honor of Stanfordville, NY by Calvin and Edward Bower, ranchers who brought 100,000 sheep to the area in 1880, Stanford today is a small town with less than 400 people counted in the 2010 U.S. Census. The largest building in town is the county courthouse, and it was this structure that started me on the journey that has led to the current<i> Glory of the West</i> project. Tax revenues from the iron ore and coal that was mined nearby paid for the courthouse, and this gives Judith Basin County the distinction of being the only Montana county to build their house of government without floating a bond issue. The town itself got its start in 1875 as a stage station on the route between Billings and Fort Benton. The arrival of the Great Northern Railroad forced the town to relocate two miles, but brought many new settlers to the area. <br />
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Next door to the courthouse stands the <a href="http://centralmontana.com/listings/3119.htm">Judith Basin County Museum</a>. Open from June through August, the Museum charges no entrance fee, but does accept free-will offerings. It also has a variety of gifts for sale, not including any of the 2,000 sets of salt and pepper shakers or 5,000 buttons in the museum's collection. I can only note that that's a salt and pepper shaker set for every man, woman and child in the county.<br />
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Hobson is the only other incorporated town in Judith Basin County, but other communities include Benchland, Geyser, Moccasin, Raynesford, Windham and Utica. There is the wonderfully named ghost town, Ubet, which also started as a stage stop and got its name from the answer folks received when they asked about the possibility of overnight lodging. "You bet!" was the constant answer.<br />
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The people of Judith Basin County continue to have a friendly and warm sense of humor. On the Sunday after Labor Day, they celebrate What The Hay! on the <a href="http://montanabaletrail.com/">Montana Bale Trail</a>. From its beginning in 1990 as a friendly rivalry between two neighboring ranchers, What The Hay! has grown into a major community attraction involving Hobson, Utica and Windham, as well as the various ranches between the three towns. In 2011, the Travelocity gnome was one of the attendees.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The TravHAYlocity Gnome</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Hobson, Montana</b></span></div>
This is definitely a rural county, with a long history of animal husbandry and agriculture. Prior to white settlement, the Judith Basin held hundreds of thousands of bison, and Native American tribes came from all directions to hunt in the area. The first settlers brought sheep and cattle. By the 1880s, the Judith Basin roundup saw some 500 cowboys converge on the area to make sure the locally raised cattle made it overland to the nearest rail depot, Casper, Wyoming, over 400 miles away. One of the cowboys to work these roundups was a youngster from St. Louis, Missouri, a privileged youth whose father gave in to the teenager's desire. Charles Marion Russell came to Montana in 1880, not yet 16 years old, and in 1882 he ended up in the Judith Basin. As Spritzer says, "if Montana has a patron saint, it is probably Charlie Russell." (p. 278) Some of Russell's earliest and most iconic paintings deal with ranch life in the Judith Basin.<br />
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Today, agriculture dwarfs all other occupations in the county. Fifty-seven percent of working males and sixteen percent of working females are farmers, ranchers, or agricultural workers. Construction work comes in second at eight percent. According to <a href="http://www.city-data.com/county/Judith_Basin_County-MT.html#">city-data.com</a>, the average size farm in the county covers 2,626 acres and brings in $102,031 on average per farm. This sounds fine until we look at the average cost per farm which totals $102,571 per year. The average age for principal farm operators is 54, which, combined with the continual loss of population does not bode well for the future of farming.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Grain Elevator at Raynesford, Montana</b></span></div>
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And yet it is a beautiful land. Bordered on three sides by mountain ranges, some with peaks over 8,000 feet high, the rolling hills of the Judith Basin continue to entrance travelers, as they have from the beginning. Spritzer opens his section on the Central Valleys with a quote from Mrs. Clemence Gurneau Berger, wife of the leader of one of the first group of settlers in the region, a band of métis (people of mixed French Canadian and Native American blood). It seems fitting to let Mrs. Berger have the last word:<br />
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We came in by way of the gap to the famous Judith Basin which was, indeed, a paradise land of plenty, game of all kinds, lots of good water and timber. What more could we want? After finding what we had searched for, our journey ended right here.</blockquote>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The rolling hills and farm land of Judith Basin County</b></span></div>
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-52453148029107714122014-04-01T14:21:00.000-07:002015-03-25T14:29:40.393-07:0035. Sanders County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_F._Sanders" target="_blank">William Fisk Sanders</a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> </b></span>was born May 2, 1834 in Leon, New York. In 1863, when President Lincoln appointed his uncle Sidney Edgerton as Chief Justice of the Territory of Idaho, Sanders and his family moved to the new Idaho Territory as well. Edgerton advocated for splitting Idaho into two separate territories, and in 1864, Lincoln named him governor of the new Montana Territory. Edgerton returned to Ohio after a couple of years, but his nephew remained a Montana resident for the rest of his life. He was a lawyer and prosecutor in the early territorial days, and served in the territorial legislature. Sanders was the first President of the Montana Historical Society. When Montana became a state in 1889, Sanders was elected the first Senator from the new state. He died in 1905, in Helena (Lewis & Clark County, #5), and is buried in Forestvale Cemetery there. I can find no record of him ever living in the northwestern corner of the state that now bears his name, but six months prior to his death, a portion of Missoula County (#4) was taken to form the new Sanders County.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Sanders County Courthouse</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thompson Falls, Montana</span></b></span></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Thompson_%28explorer%29" target="_blank">David Thompson</a>, explorer and agent for the Hudson Bay Company, did spend a considerable amount of time in what we now call Sanders County. Thompson, who has been called "the greatest land geographer who ever lived," was born in London in 1770. At the age of fourteen, he entered an apprenticeship with the Hudson Bay Company, and left England for British North America. In 1807, in a British response to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corps_of_Discovery" target="_blank">Corps of Discovery (Lewis and Clark)</a>, Thompson was sent into the Rocky Mountains and beyond to find a new route to the Pacific. Along the way he established the first trading posts west of the Rockies, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saleesh_House" target="_blank">Saleesh House</a> near the site of the Sanders County seat, which bears his name, Thompson Falls. In addition, his name can be found in the Thompson River, the Little Thompson River, Thompson Pass, all in Sanders County, and the Thompson Lakes chain in neighboring Lincoln County (#56). The native people of the area called Thompson Star-Looker, or Koo-Koo-Sint, now the name of a popular <a href="http://fwp.mt.gov/fishing/siteDetail.html?id=8436263" target="_blank">fishing access site</a> on the Flathead River, approximately fifty miles upstream from Saleesh House and still in Sanders County. The name also has been applied to a <a href="http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/lolo/specialplaces/recarea/?recid=10316&actid=62" target="_blank">Bighorn Sheep viewing site</a> in Sanders County. ParksCanada has published a pamphlet titled The Koo-Koo-Sint Trail on Thompson's importance to the Pacific Northwest which is available as a <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CFQQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pc.gc.ca%2Feng%2Fpn-np%2Fbc%2Frevelstoke%2Fvisit%2F~%2Fmedia%2Fpn-np%2Fbc%2Frevelstoke%2Fvisit%2Fvisit11%2FKooKooSint-EN.ashx&ei=1xsJU5uCGISJogSRj4LwAQ&usg=AFQjCNGiUxr0C4eVSkUF9oxBsV-djkCUjA&sig2=gRpQaasKvSmf3oHqbmuc_Q&bvm=bv.61725948,d.cGU" target="_blank">pdf file</a>. <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-37sHhtoas1U/UwkmVkniCiI/AAAAAAAAJEM/WrfJmWsOd3U/s1600/20121210_0003aweb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-37sHhtoas1U/UwkmVkniCiI/AAAAAAAAJEM/WrfJmWsOd3U/s1600/20121210_0003aweb.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep (<i>Ovis canadensis)</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Along Montana Highway 200 </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Koo-Koo-Sint Sheep Viewing Area</span></b></span></div>
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Today, some 11,000 people call Sanders County home (according to the 2010 U.S. Census), a population spread mostly through a narrow river valley that stretches some 115 miles along Montana Highway 200 from the Idaho state line just west of the town of Heron, Montana, to a few miles west of the town of Ravalli where 200 joins U.S. 93. Wikipedia's entry on Sanders County lists eleven cities, towns and census-designated places in the county, and eight of those can be found on or adjacent to Highway 200. The Northern Pacific Railroad (now the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe) came through the valley in the 1880s and brought thousands of workers to the area. The discovery of gold in the mountains south of the river (and across the state line in Idaho) brought thousands more, and two boomtown communities, Belknap west of Thompson Falls, and Weeksville, west of Plains, flourished at least temporarily. Today they are known mostly for a community store (Belknap) and a topographical feature (Weeksville Creek). The towns themselves are long gone.<br />
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The 1855 <a href="http://www.cskt.org/documents/gov/helgatetreaty.pdf" target="_blank">Treaty of Hellgate</a> set aside a portion of Missoula County (#4) to form the Flathead Indian Reservation. With the formation of Sanders County, the western end of the reservation became part of the new county. Today the towns of Dixon and Hot Springs, and the communities of Old Agency, Niarada and Lonepine all remain part of both Sanders County and the Reservation. Hot Springs' Homesteaders' Days celebration each June honors the legacy of both the native people and the white homesteaders who came to the area following the opening of the Reservation in 1910.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Clark Fork River at Thompson Falls</span></b></span></div>
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Hot Springs is so named because of the various springs that provide soothing warm (and yes, hot) water to various pools and plunges around the area. One of the best known is at the Symes Hotel, right in the middle of town. The Symes provides more than relaxing baths, however. Each weekend the <a href="http://www.symeshotsprings.com/Music/index.html" target="_blank">Hot Springs Artists' Society</a> presents live concerts on stage at the Symes. <a href="http://quinnshotsprings.com/" target="_blank">Quinn's Hot Springs Resort</a>, approximately 30 miles south near the Sanders County town of Paradise, is home to the <a href="http://www.montana-baroque-music-festival.com/" target="_blank">Montana Baroque Festival</a>, a presentation of the Sanders County Arts Council. <br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Flathead River</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Near the community of Perma</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>Flathead Indian Reservation</b></span></div>
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The county's topography lends itself more to recreation than agriculture. According to <a href="http://www.city-data.com/county/Sanders_County-MT.html#ixzz2xfWtBWqY">city-data.com</a>, the average sized farm in Sanders County is just 745 acres with an annual value of agricultural products sold per farm of $30,342. The mountains that cover most of the county provides miles upon miles of hiking trails, mountains to climb, streams to fish, and rivers to canoe. Montana's largest river (by volume) is the Clark Fork of the Columbia. It enters Sanders County from the south and flows in a generally northwestern direction till it crosses into Idaho five miles west of the town of Heron. Three dams block the flow of the Clark Fork River as it carries its water out of Montana: Cabinet Gorge at the Montana/Idaho state line; Noxon Rapids just upstream from the town of Noxon; and Thompson Falls within walking distance of the county court house. All three dams allow reservoirs to fill behind them, creating lake-like features that are popular for fishing and boating. One of the Clark Forks main tributaries is the Flathead River which enters the county from the north and flows almost due west to its confluence with the Clark Fork near the town of Paradise. Note that if you want to use the Flathead upstream of the Koo-Koo-Sint fishing access, you will need a tribal recreation permit unless you are an enrolled member of the Salish-Kootenai Tribes. It is worth mentioning that the ice dam that held <a href="http://www.glaciallakemissoula.org/" target="_blank">Glacial Lake Missoula</a> in place was near Cabinet Gorge on the state line at the western end of Sanders County.<br />
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<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-72517478537351229222013-10-19T08:50:00.001-07:002013-10-19T08:50:31.563-07:0034. Sheridan County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sheridan County sits in Montana's northeast corner, west of North Dakota and south of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Formed in 1913 when the eastern part of Valley County (20) was set apart for the new county, Sheridan County would lose area in 1919 with the formation of Roosevelt County (17) and again in 1920 with the formation of Daniels County (37). With its current boundaries, it covers 1,706 square miles, of which 30 square miles are water, mostly Medicine Lake and the associated smaller lakes that make up the <a href="http://www.fws.gov/medicinelake/" target="_blank">Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge</a>. No federal highways can be found within the county's lines, sitting as it does north of U.S. Highway 2, the High Line. Montana Highway 16 runs north-south, connecting the county to Highway 2 at Culbertson in neighboring Roosevelt County and to Saskatchewan's capital city, Regina, the closest metropolis to Sheridan County. Montana Highway 5 crosses east to west without ever going through a town larger than Plentywood, the county seat.<br />
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Montana Highway 16 has its historical roots in the old Outlaw Trail, so named by Butch Cassidy, and used for running stolen cattle across the border into Canada. Legend has it that Cassidy set up a rest station just west of present-day Plentywood, and it was also near that town that Sitting Bull surrendered to the U.S. Army when he returned from exile in Canada. <br />
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Sheridan County serves as a good example of the depopulation of eastern Montana, and indeed of the entire Great Plains region. County residents were first counted as such in the 1920 US Census, which showed 13,847 residents. Every census since has shown a smaller number with the 2010 Census counting less than a quarter of those original residents: 3,384. The 2012 census estimate shows a slight gain, but whether that will still be the case in 2020 of course remains to be seen.<br />
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The county was named for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Sheridan" target="_blank">US Civil War General Philip Sheridan</a>, as were counties in Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming, and cities or towns in Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming. Sheridan is the alleged source of the quote "The only good Indian is a dead Indian," although he maintained that he never actually said that.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Sheridan County Courthouse</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Plentywood, Montana</span></b></span></div>
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The only city in Sheridan County is the seat, Plentywood. According to the 2010 Census, over half the county's population lived in Plentywood. Anyone familiar with the topography of northeastern Montana will figure the name to be a joke, or at least a form of sarcasm. Local legend has it that cowboys watching their cook try to start a fire with wet buffalo chips, told him that if he'd go two miles upstream, he'd find "plenty wood." The town's first business opened in 1900, and the Post Office two years later. The town was incorporated in 1912, after the Great Northern Railway built a branch line through the town.<br />
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Other towns in the county include <a href="http://www.medicinelakemt.com/" target="_blank">Medicine Lake</a>, Outlook and <a href="http://westbymontana.com/" target="_blank">Westby</a>, the eastern-most town in Montana. Now you might wonder why the eastern-most town would be called Westby, and you'd be right to do so. This is a part of the country settled largely by Scandinavian people. Westby and nearby Dagmar were settled by Danes. "By" in Danish means town, and Westby was the western-most town in North Dakota. Well, the proper businesses of Westby were in North Dakota. But Montana's "sin" laws were laxer, so the saloons and brothels went up across the state line. When the railroad came through and charged more for freight out of North Dakota than they were charging for freight shipped from Montana, the good people of Westby up and moved the whole town across the state line.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Rocky Valley Lutheran Church</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dooley, Montana</span></b></span></div>
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West of Westby and north of Plentywood sat the farming community of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dooley,_Montana" target="_blank"> Dooley</a>. I use the past tense because today, Dooley is a ghost town, one complete with its own tombstone. While driving through the region, I stopped to take pictures of the ghost of the old Lutheran Church, and once back on the road, my GPS directed me to turn left, then right onto a non-existent road. I drove around a roughly square mile loop, and got right back to where Tom-Tom wanted me to turn right again. Still no road there. The third time I did it, I decided that Tom-Tom didn't know what he was talking about, so I took the only road I saw heading west, even though Tom-Tom now showed me driving across a wheat field. I was so frustrated by the experience that I neglected to photograph what was at the place where I was supposed to turn, a large rock inscribed with the words: "Dooley, Montana. 1914-1957."<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sheridan County Farmland</span></b></span></div>
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Sheridan County's finance is farm-based, with over one-third of the men and eight percent of the women involved in agriculture. The farms average 1,672 acres in size, and bring in annual revenue of $68.832 on average. The people of the county are, as I noted above, primarily of Scandinavian descent. Nearly fifty percent claim Norwegian (36%), Danish (9%) or Swedish (4%) ancestry, and not surprisingly the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is the largest denomination in the county with 56% of all county residents who claim a religious affiliation. Roman Catholics are in a distant second place with 29%, and city-data.com lumps everyone else into the "Other" category.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Abandoned Farm Buildings</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Near Dagmar, Montana</span></b></span></div>
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Mirroring the county's population decline, the towns of Sheridan County are also losing people. Outlook, one of three "towns" in the county had half as many people living there in 2010 (47) as in 2000, and 1/6th of its highest count, back in 1930. Westby, with a 2010 count of 168, is down from its own highest population of 396 in 1950, and Medicine Lake, which also had its highest recorded population in 1950 (454) showed only 225 residents in 2010. The other communities in the county, Antelope, Comertown, Dagmar, Raymond, and Reserve are today little more than wide spots along the back roads, and may soon share the fate of Dooley. <br />
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Sheridan County's website can be found at: <a href="http://www.co.sheridan.mt.us/">http://www.co.sheridan.mt.us/</a><br />
The city of Plentywood has an unofficial site at: <a href="http://www.plentywood-montana.com/">http://www.plentywood-montana.com/</a><br />
<br />BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-24104794916969016142013-09-23T09:44:00.000-07:002015-03-24T16:02:34.740-07:0033. Treasure County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Treasure County was one of the counties formed during a ten-year period when land developers went crazy. From 1909 through 1919, twenty-two of Montana's fifty-six counties were created, seven of them, including Treasure County, in 1919. So many counties were formed in 1919 in anticipation of a push-back by state leaders who felt that too many counties had been formed under the lax laws in place during the 1909-1919 period. With new laws in place, only six counties were formed after 1919.<br />
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Under the laws enacted in 1919, Treasure County would probably not have been formed, but created it was, and the 1920 US Census showed a total county population of 1,990, the highest count ever for this small piece of Montana real estate (979 square miles) with less than 1 person per square mile. Only three Montana counties are smaller than Treasure in area (Silver Bow, 1; Deer Lodge, 30; and Wibaux, 52), and only Petroleum County, 55, is smaller in population. The land for Treasure County came from Rosebud County, 29, which borders Treasure on both the north and the east.<br />
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Prior to 1906, much of the land of Treasure County was part of the sprawling Crow Indian Reservation, but in that year, the US Government reduced the size of the Reservation, moving its eastern boundary west to its present location. This opened the land to white settlement, and in no time, The Flying E cattle ranch was formed, managed by Charlie J. Hysham. The Flying E had thousands of head of cattle, and in order to supply the ranch, the Northern Pacific Railroad built a siding. The town of Hysham grew up around this siding, and when the county was formed, Hysham became the County Seat. To this day it is the only incorporated town in the county, with a 2010 population of 312.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Treasure County Courthouse, Hysham Montana</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Note the map of the county done in contrasting brick</span></b></span></div>
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Of particular note in Hysham is the Yucca Theatre, built in 1931 by brothers David and Jim Manning. David Manning was not just a theatre owner, but a businessman, civic leader/booster, and politician. He was partially responsible for the city's swimming pool and water system, having improved area irrigation by building two dams in the region. He served in the Montana Legislature for fifty-two consecutive years (1933-1985) where he promoted rural electrification and highway construction, both vital to remote rural communities like Treasure County.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"> The Yucca Theatre, Hysham Montana</span></b></span></div>
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Next door to the Yucca Theatre are a series of statues, my favorite ones in the entire state. I especially love the fact that Sacajawea is pointing out the wooly mammoth and the saber tooth tiger to Lewis and Clark who came through this area on their exploratory tour of the new Louisiana Purchase.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lewis (or is it Clark) with a Saber Tooth Tiger and a Wooly Mammoth</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Next door to the Yucca Theatre, Hysham Montana</span></b></span></div>
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As can be expected, Agriculture is the largest industry in Treasure County, with almost 51% of the county's male population involved in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting. The average size of a farm or ranch in the county is 5,277
acres, and the average value of products sold per farm is $170,108.
Livestock, poultry and their products make up over 75% of the total
agricultural market value.<br />
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Education comes in second employing 6.7% of males, and construction and public administration are tied in third place with 6.3% each. Among women, education is the largest source of employment, with 21% of women working in the schools, and 15.3% work in public administration. Like the rest of Montana, Treasure County is overwhelmingly "white," with 92.8 claiming a "white" racial background, and 3.5% claiming "Hispanic." Again, mirroring the state as a whole, the largest reported "first ancestry" is German, with 29%, and Norwegian second at 14%. 97.8% of Treasure County residents report speaking English at home. <br />
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Early pioneer history is always a fun topic for research, and today's researchers are fortunate to have <a href="http://cdm16013.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15018coll43/id/5763/show/5609" target="_blank"><i>Tales of Treasure County</i></a> available on-line. One early pioneer, a Scotsman named Robert Grierson, wrote his family
in Scotland, describing conditions in what would become Treasure County.
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I considered it good land
though not black and the amount of bottom land is small compared with
the big extent of grassland around. This part of Montana grows grain
without irrigation. This country is on the sandstone and coal formation
no gold on it. As to objections the insects are pretty bad and next to
that horse stealing by straggling Indians is too common. I most
decidedly think this is the best of the United States to go to and now
[March] is the proper time as far as the climate affects the production
of corn, watermelons, pumpkins and such like. It is not a smooth, bare
plain but river bottoms for farming sheltered with grassy hills that
afford lots of free pasturage for stock. And another advantage is the
construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Another advantage, this
is the center of grazing grounds of the great buffalo."</blockquote>
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Apparently his letters convinced his brother Donald to bring his family to Montana. Further reading in <i>Tales of Treasure County</i> brought this story to my attention: the attempt by residents in the Pease Bottom area to secure postal service:<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Having
no post office equipment of their own, the citizens of Junction City decided
they needed that of the Etchetah Post Office. With the aid of the stage driver,
Wiley King, Guy's Post Office was loaded one time while Guy was away </span><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and taken to Junction. It was
returned, however, when Guy impressed the Junction residents of the probable
consequences resulting from the theft of a United States Post Office.</span></div>
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And while we're thinking of postal service, one of the unincorporated areas in Treasure County, Sanders, has its own zip code, 59076, even though its on-again, off-again post office first opened in 1904 and finally closed in 1994. Sanders is situated on the Yellowstone River and got its start as a place where the Northern Pacific locomotives could get the water they needed for steam generation.<br />
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Treasure County today is crossed west to east by the Yellowstone River, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (successor to the original Northern Pacific), and Interstate Highway 94, itself successor to US Highway 10, and the original Yellowstone Trail.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Treasure County Landscape</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Southwest of Hysham</span></b></span></div>
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While Treasure County itself does not seem to have its own website (the Treasure County Health Department does, though), the Hysham Chamber of Commerce has a site that can be found at <a href="http://hysham.org/">http://hysham.org/</a>BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354683482358622362.post-49435043775636223122013-09-21T08:16:00.002-07:002015-03-26T09:57:01.498-07:0032. Stillwater County<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Stillwater County was created on March 24, 1913 with land taken from its neighbors, Carbon (10) to the south, Sweet Grass (40) to the west and Yellowstone (3) to the east. It is named for a very swift flowing stream, the Stillwater River, that flows in a northeasterly direction from its source high in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness to its confluence with the Yellowstone near the town of Columbus, Stillwater County's Seat. Jim Annin, writing in the Columbus News in 1916, retells a lovely legend about how such a torrent would be named Stillwater. His story was printed in volume two of the collection of Stillwater County histories, <a href="http://cdm16013.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15018coll43/id/3459/rec/31" target="_blank"><i>They Gazed on the Beartooths</i></a>.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Stillwater County Courthouse</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Columbus, Montana</span></b></span></div>
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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. <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(Note:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Roosevelt County (17), eventually came into
being, but in a completely different part of the state.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>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 <i>They Gazed on the Beartooths</i> in the section titled: Stillwater County--A Commonwealth in the Embryo.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Occident Flour Elevator, Reed Point, Montana</span></b></span> </div>
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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 <a href="http://montanacounties.blogspot.com/2012/04/23-musselshell-county.html" target="_blank">23 Musselshell County</a>), 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.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Countryside south of Reed Point, showing the effects of the wildfires of 2004, 2006 and 2010</span></b></span></div>
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In southwestern Stillwater County lies the town of Nye. Nye is the home of the <a href="http://www.stillwatermining.com/" target="_blank">Stillwater Mining Company</a>, 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%.<br />
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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.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">W.H. Norton House, Columbus, Montana</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Stillwater County Sheriff's Office</span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"> and residence from 1913 to 1940.</span></b></span></div>
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Stillwater County's website is found at: <a href="http://www.stillwater.mt.gov/">http://www.stillwater.mt.gov/</a></div>
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The town of Columbus has its site at: <a href="http://www.townofcolumbus.com/">http://www.townofcolumbus.com/</a></div>
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BDSpellmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01549333339156387069noreply@blogger.com0