12. Hill County

James J. Hill, founder and CEO of the Great Northern Railway, became known as the Empire Builder as he pushed his railroad westward from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington. Along the way, the railroad built a station in north central Montana, near the site of Fort Assiniboine, and named it Havre, for the port city in France, Le Havre. On February 28, 1912, the Montana Legislature split Chouteau County, one of Montana's original nine counties and formed a new county from the northern part of the original. They named the new county for James J. Hill (who was still alive at the time), and chose Havre as the county seat. Today, Hill County covers 2,897 square miles (or approximately 50 x 57 miles), and according to the 2010 U.S. Census, 16,096 people call it home. This is down 3.5% from the 2000 census count, and even more from the 1990 count of 17,654. The county number assigned to Hill County is 12, although today's population would put it at number 11. A life-sized stature of James Jerome Hill stands in front of the Amtrak Station in downtown Havre.

The Hill County Court House in Havre, Montana

Montana east of the Continental Divide became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Lewis and Clark crossed what would become Montana both headed west and on their return, but their route following the Missouri River had them south of what is now Hill County. The first white settlement in the region was Fort Assiniboine, built in May of 1879, fifteen years after the creation of Montana Territory, and in direct response to the Battle of the Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand). A certain First Lieutenant John J. Pershing (later to become a General--you may have heard of him) had an early assignment at the Fort. Pershing led the 10th U.S. Cavalry to Montana, which later earned him the sobriquet "Black Jack." (The 10th U.S. Cavalry was at that time an all-black unit of the Army, part of the famous "Buffalo Soldiers." Fort Assiniboine was the largest military base within the confines of Montana, indeed the largest in the U.S. at the time, and today is largely intact, though serving now as an Agricultural Experiment Station run by the Montana University System. Built as an offensive fort rather than a defensive fort, there was no wall or protective fence surrounding the complex.

Located on the Milk River, the Great Northern Railway, and U.S. Highway 2, Havre grew into a prosperous commercial center, serving as the main hub for a large section of north central Montana. Incorporated in 1893, the 1900 U.S. Census showed 1,033 residents of the city. This grew to a high of 10,891 recorded in the 1980 Census, but has declined steadily since. The 2000 Census showed 9,621 city residents, and the 2010 Census 9,310. Havre is home to Montana State University-Northern, formerly known as Northern Montana College of Education.

A waterfall in Beaver Creek Park, the largest county park in the U.S.

Driving south from the center of Havre, you pass farms covering the rolling hills as you climb toward the Bears Paw Mountains. Visiting Havre, I asked several people what was the one thing to tell people they should see in the area. Everyone responded "The Bear Paws." Note that while the actual name is Bears Paw, almost no one says that. A former colleague, now living in his home town of Havre, offered to act as a guide, and on a beautifully sunny Saturday morning, we headed into the mountains. After twelve miles of farmland, we entered Beaver Creek Park. One of the largest, if not the largest county administered park in the U.S., Beaver Creek Park covers 10,000 acres on the northern slopes of the Bears Paw. Roughly one mile wide by seventeen miles long, the park is full of lakes, camping areas, hiking and riding trails, and local history.

What remains of the Cottonwood Community Church
(and indeed of the Cottonwood Community itself)

Back in Havre, I asked our guide about old barns that I might photograph. He countered with old churches, and led us to what is left of Cottonwood Community, roughly ten miles north of Havre. This proved to be a treasure trove of photographic opportunity for me, but the only building left standing was the former Cottonwood Community Church. A truly ecumenical structure, having served as a meeting hall for Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics (at different periods), today the structure seems to serve mainly as a cowshed, judging by the amount of dung covering the building's floor. Can anyone say, "Holy Cow"? As you can see by this picture and the one below, the landscape is relatively flat--perhaps the flattest land in Montana. This is farm land, wheat and barley being the most important crops. In the early days of Hill County, ranching was an important part of the economy, but the climate is not kind to the raising of animals, and sheep and cattle gave way to winter wheat, arguably the finest wheat grown in the U.S. Havre is the northern terminus of U.S. Highway 87, and the area bounded by US 87 and US 89 to the west is called the Golden Triangle. You can drive for miles on end seeing only wheat growing alongside the road. Hill County towns are visible from a distance largely because of the grain elevators that rise along the railroad.

A Hill County Farm, perhaps the flattest place in Montana

The southern part of Hill County (and the neighboring northern Chouteau County) serves as the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation. Set aside for the Chippewa and Cree people in 1916, Rocky Boy is the smallest of Montana's seven reservations. It is the home of Stone Child Community College.

Havre has an extensive website located at http://www.havremt.com/index.html

and Hill County's website is found at http://co.hill.mt.us/

11. Phillips County

NOTE: Clicking on any picture will open a new window with a full-screen view of the picture. Also all links open in a new window.

Phillips County, named for area rancher and state senator Benjamin D. Phillips, was created out of Blaine County (number 24) on February 15, 1915. It covers 5,140 square miles in north central Montana, and stretches from the Canadian border (province of Saskatchewan) to the Missouri River. The 2010 U.S. Census counted 4,253 residents, down 7.6% from the 2000 census number of 4,601, and the 1990 census count of 5,163. If the county numbers were assigned based on the 2010 population, Phillips County would be number 37 (of 56). A small portion of western Phillips County is part of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, most of which is in neighboring Blaine County. As is the case throughout Montana, the population base is predominately white (89%), with a 10% Native American component. Twenty-five percent of the population traces its ancestry to Germany (or other German-speaking countries), and another 19% are of Norwegian stock while only 6.5% claim an English heritage.

The Phillips County Court House, Malta, Montana
Note the Canadian Flag flying to the right of the US Flag
Taken 10/8/2009

The region Montanans call the High Line is that portion of the state adjacent to US Highway 2 and the former Great Northern Railway line (now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe) that crosses the state from North Dakota to Idaho roughly half-way between the 48th and 49th parallel. Many place names along the High Line were chosen by Great Northern officials who wanted to attract settlers and customers for their company, and the lands given them by the Federal Government when the railroad was built. Many of the names came from an official spinning a globe and putting his finger down at random. This is the case with the Phillips County seat of Malta. There is nothing remotely like the Mediterranean island in this neck of the woods

The post office in Malta was established in 1890. In 1903, Kid Curry, part of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, robbed the Great Northern, getting away with over $40,000. The city is on the Milk River, which caused one Montana sports writer to suggest that the high school's teams should be christened the Malta Milks. (Actually, they're the Mustangs.) This is dinosaur country, and the Phillips County Museum is a great place to learn more about these early county residents. The Malta Chamber of Commerce's web site is a font of information about this fascinating part of Montana.

A Phillips County Stream (near Dodson, Montana)
Taken 10/8/2009

Malta is not the only community in Phillips County. On the eastern edge of the county, sitting alongside US Highway 2, is the small town of Saco. Saco has a personal meaning to me in that I first visited the place when I was seven or eight years old. My mother's cousin, Floyd Stephens, had followed my folks to Montana from West Virginia, and was living in Saco at the time. While he lived in several other Montana towns as well (like my father, he was a Methodist minister), he and his wife chose to be buried in the Saco cemetery. For those of you old enough to remember the NBC news team of Huntley and Brinkley, Saco is the home town of Chet Huntley. Saco's web site gives quite a good history and overview of this community of some 200 souls, and quotes Chet's final broadcast with words that we would all do well to take to heart. I've copied the quote at the bottom of this post.

West of Malta, also on Highway 2, is Dodson. Dodson is the home of the Phillips County Fair, originally established in 1915. It claims to be "the longest continuous running fair held in the state of Montana." Right on the Fort Belknap Reservation boundary, Dodson is fifty percent white and 45% Native American.

Phillips County rangeland, looking toward the Missouri Breaks and the Judith Mountains
Taken 4/22/2011

The land of Phillips County, like most places, is partly private, partly government owned. Fifty-one percent of the land is in private hands, while the federal government holds 43% and the state of Montana the remaining 6%. Most of the private land is agricultural, with 83% used for rangeland. Fourteen percent is dry cropland and only one percent is irrigated. This is a very arid region. Today deer, elk and antelope play on the range, but as noted above, once upon a time dinosaurs roamed the region. Archeological digs have turned up numerous dino remains, including some fully fossilized. If you subscribe to Science News, you can read their account here.

Giving lie to the notion that eastern Montana is flat, the Little Rocky Mountains rise in the southern portion of Phillips County, with Mount Antoine climbing to 5,722 feet. (Malta, by contrast, sits at an elevation of 2,254 feet.) The Little Rockies were named by the Corps of Discovery (Lewis and Clark) and are considered an outlying mountain range, separated from any other ranges. As is the case so often, the discovery of gold brought a rush, and mining camps sprung up around the peaks. Two towns still surviving (if just barely) are Zortman and Landusky. Driving up the dirt road toward Landusky, you can easily see the devastation caused by modern day mining methods. It seems as if half of one mountain has been removed. Back in the early 1980s, on a drive around Fort Peck Reservoir on the Missouri River, I tried to follow a road clearly marked on my map that ran from Hays to Landusky. The road was little more than a wagon track, and my faithful Ford had to live up to its name and literally ford a creek that kept crossing the road. After what seemed like hours of driving, we emerged near the top of the mountain and found ourselves at a locked gate signed "No Trespassing." We had arrived at one of the mine boundaries and obviously weren't welcome.

A home in Landusky, Montana. Butch and Sundance may have slept here.
Taken 4/22/2011

Today, Landusky is little more than a ghost town, and while most of the dozen buildings we found were in better shape than the one pictured here, we saw more four-footed animals than humans. That is to say we saw two deer and two horses, no humans at all. The road was dirt, the snow was falling, and we had been driving through ground blizzards for most of the day. We decided against trying to reach Hays from this side, so I have no idea if the gates are still locked (although I suspect they are).

From Chet Huntley's final broadcast on the NBC News:

Be patient and have courage—there will be better and happier news some day, if we work at it