48. Liberty County

According to the county's own web site, 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.

The Liberty County Courthouse

Chester, Montana

April 23rd, 2011

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.

Welcome to Chester

Highway Sign on U.S. 2

April 23rd, 2011

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 Revisiting Montana's Historic Landscape.  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.

Joplin Montana From US Highway 2

April 23rd, 2011

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 Names on the Face of Montana 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 Lothair 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.


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.

Our Savior's Lutheran Church

Chester, Montana

April 23rd, 2011

City-data.com 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 resource guide about these people, a group photographer Jill Brody describes as "Hidden in Plain Sight."  The movie Holy Matrimony, filmed in Montana but ostensibly taking place in Alberta, is set on a Hutterite Colony and gives a relatively sympathetic look at Hutterian life.

47. Meagher County

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.  Thomas Francis Meagher, 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.

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.

The Meagher County Courthouse

White Sulphur Springs, Montana

September 8th, 2007

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 Dr. William Parberry, 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 Spa Hot Springs Motel and Clinic is happy to be of service should your travels bring you their way.

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 Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy 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 This House of Sky 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 Scott Fitzgerald 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.

The Castle

White Sulphur Springs, Montana

September 7th, 2007

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 Meagher County Museum.

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 This House of Sky in the Ringling area, and when you're driving by, make sure you have Jimmy Buffet's Living and Dying in 3/4 Time on your playlist so you can hear his song, "Ringling, Ringling."

St. John's Catholic Church

Ringling, Montana

July 30th, 2011

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 Showdown Ski Area 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.

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.

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.  Charlie Bair 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 museum, 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.

Bair Reservoir

Checkerboard, Montana

July 30th, 2011

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.

46. Granite County

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 Granville Stuart, 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.

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.

Granite County Court House

Philipsburg, Montana

February 27th, 2010

According to the Philipsburg Chamber of Commerce 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.  Philip Deidesheimer, 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.

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, The Sweet Palace.  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 Philipsburg Opera House.  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 Granite County Museum and Cultural Center.  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 Sapphire Gallery, are closed on Saturdays.  Open Sundays, though!

Georgetown Lake with the Anaconda Range as Backdrop

June 26th, 2011

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 Bondpix website.  Also alongside Route 1 is Georgetown Lake, where Granite and Deer Lodge (# 30) Counties meet.  Some of my earliest memories include boating on Georgetown Lake 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 Discovery Basin.  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 Gem Mountain Mine on the road to Skalkaho Pass.

Swinging Bridge over Rock Creek

(Look for adult fisherman in photo for a sense of scale)

August 23rd, 2008

At the northern end of the county the Bureau of Land Management oversees Garnet Ghost Town, 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."

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, Drummond, 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 Parker's.

View from Interstate 90

West of Drummond, Montana

September 23rd, 2010

45. Prairie County

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.  Wheels Across Montana's Prairie, available through the Montana Memory Project, 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.

The Prairie County Courthouse

Terry, Montana

March 26th, 2010

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 General Alfred Howe Terry, 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.

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 Wheels Across Montana's Prairie.

The Kempton Hotel

Terry, Montana

March 25th, 2010

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 Montana PBS 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 Photographing Montana 1894-1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron. (See the link below to purchase this book.)  The Prairie County Museum 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.

The Terry Badlands

March 26th, 2010

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 VisitMontana website,

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.
Wildlife viewing, rock collecting, photography, hiking and camping are popular at this unique area.

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 Names on the Face of Montana, 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.

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, Roadside Thoughts: A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada has this to say:

• 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?

Makes me want to go find out.

The Road North (Montana Highway 253)

Prairie County, Montana

March 26th, 2010

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.

To get a copy of Donna Lucey's biography of Evelyn Cameron, click on the link below.