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.
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 National Register of Historic Places.
The Jefferson County Courthouse
Boulder, Montana
February 21st, 2010
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. The Missoulian reported in 2012 that with 50 residents and 250 employees, the daily cost of housing and treating patients was in excess of $770. According to the state's official website, "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.
Boulder Hot Springs and Hotel
Boulder, Montana
February 21st, 2010
Another institution on the outskirts of Boulder is the Boulder Hot Springs. 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.
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 Merry Widow Mine. 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.
The Headwaters of the Boulder River
West of Basin, Montana
February 21st, 2010
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.
Looking South from Interstate 90
Near Whitehall, Montana
February 14th, 2010
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.
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