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

30. Deer Lodge County

Deer Lodge County is one of the oldest counties in Montana, having been formed by the Idaho Territorial Legislature on January 16, 1864.  Of the present Montana counties, only Missoula County is older, having been formed from the eastern part of Spokane County by the Washington Territorial Legislature in 1860.  With the creation of the Montana Territory, later in 1864, all the counties recognized by Idaho within the new territorial boundaries were accepted as Montana counties.  Over the next forty-three years, Deer Lodge County's lines changed repeatedly as Silver Bow (1), Granite (48), and Powell (28) Counties were formed in 1881, 1893 and 1901 respectively.  Other changes over the years involved boundary adjustments with other western Montana counties.  The loss of Powell County in 1901 almost brought about a change of name as well.  The Montana Legislature authorized the northern part of the county, now known as Powell County, to retain the Deer Lodge County name, and named the southern section Daly County, in honor of the copper king Marcus Daly, founder of the city of Anaconda.  For some reason, the name change never took place and today Powell County has as its seat the city of Deer Lodge, but Deer Lodge County has Anaconda for its seat.  Today Deer Lodge County is the second smallest county in Montana, covering 741 square miles (only Silver Bow County, #1, is smaller) and has a population of 9,298 according to the 2010 U.S. Census.  The county is one of two in Montana in which the city and county governments have consolidated.

 

The Deer Lodge County Courthouse

Anaconda  Montana

It is, I suppose, fitting that Deer Lodge County and the city of Anaconda should consolidate their governments.  The history of the city and its surrounding county are closely intertwined, and both tied to the fortunes of their neighbor to the southeast, Butte.  In 1883, copper king Marcus Daly filed for a town plat on farmland twenty-six miles northwest of Butte where he planned to build a smelter for the ore he was pulling out of "the richest hill on earth."  His chosen name for the town had already been used, so the Post Office suggested the name Anaconda.  The town and the smelter grew rapidly, and by 1910 there were over 10,000 residents in the city--almost all of whom worked either in the smelters or in the service industry serving those smelter workers.  One of the dirtiest election campaigns in Montana history occurred in 1894 when Daly tried to get his town chosen as the capital of the new state of Montana, then only five years old.  About the battle, historian Don Spritzer writes:

Many disliked both cities.  Helena, the temporary capital, was already entrenched in power and wealth. Anaconda was a "company" town owned largely by one man--Marcus Daly.  Yet everyone enjoyed the free drinks, cigars, and five-dollar bills dispensed by both sides in the weeks leading up to the election.  In the end all of Daly's money could not buy enough votes.  Helena prevailed by nearly 2,000 votes.*

  

The old Anaconda City Hall and Fire Station

I should note that at the time of the election, the seat of Deer Lodge County was the town of Deer Lodge, some twenty-five miles north and east of Anaconda.  In the aftermath of losing its bid, the people of Anaconda blamed the people of Deer Lodge for the loss (even though Deer Lodge residents had voted for Anaconda), and moved the seat to Anaconda.  My own take on the matter is that having lost the capital, the people of Anaconda erected a new "capital" building to serve as county court house.

Anaconda is one of those places I never tire of visiting.  I love walking the streets with my camera in hand, marveling at the historic architecture to be found throughout the city.  The old City Hall, shown above, is just one of hundreds of beautiful buildings to be found, not to mention the remnants of the Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway--the road Daly built to carry ore from Butte to Anaconda.  Having mentioned the railroad, I must add that if you saw the John Voight/Eric Roberts 1985 film "Runaway Train," the part of the Alaska Railroad was played by the BA&P.  My friend Catherine Dixon was a set painter on the film as well.  (If you haven't seen it, rent it from Netflix.)

Anaconda Smoke Stack State Park

Rising above a hill on the southeastern side of town, Montana's only inaccessible state park can be seen from twenty miles away.  The smoke stack from Daly's smelter was completed in 1919.  At the time, it was the largest free-standing masonry building in the world.  Even today it remains one of the tallest.  It is so tall (585 feet) with an inside diameter of 75 feet, that the Washington Monument would fit inside the stack with room to spare.  When ARCO (the Atlantic Richfield Company, owner of the Butte mines) closed the smelter in 1980, most of the facility's buildings were torn down.  The people of Anaconda asked that the stack be left as a memorial of the region's history, and the State of Montana took it over as a State Park, albeit one you can see only from a distance.  What you see in front of the stack in the picture above is just one of the piles of mining slag that cover hundreds of acres of ground around the town.

  Northeastern Deer Lodge County,

as seen from Interstate 90 near Warm Springs

The area between Anaconda and Butte is now part of an EPA Superfund cleanup site, and in the spirit of making lemonade from unwanted lemons, The Old Works Golf Course now stands on the grounds of the old Upper Works smelter which processed its first ore back in 1884.  Dormant for many years, the land was repurposed in 1994 when golf legend Jack Niklaus designed a world-class course for the site.  

But golf isn't your only option for recreation in Deer Lodge County.  One of my favorite cross-country ski areas is Mount Haggin, approximately fifteen miles southeast of Anaconda.  With deep powder, plenty of groomed sloping runs and almost perpetual blue sky, it's hard to beat a day on your skinny skis in Deer Lodge County.  If you prefer downhill skiing, Discovery Basin is just a few miles west of Anconda on the Deer Lodge/Granite County (46) line.  Discovery's runs look down on Georgetown Lake, a four season recreational area created in 1885 when Flint Creek was dammed to create electrical power.  The southern edge of Deer Lodge County follows the Big Hole River, a blue ribbon trout stream that draws anglers from all over the world.  The mines might be quiet and the smelters gone, but there's lots to do in today's Deer Lodge County.

*Spritzer, Don, Roadside History of Montana, Mountain Press Publishing, Missoula MT 1999, pp 218-219.