Maybe it’s just me. But something about the 4th of July makes me want to visit a national park that day. Could be because at these 400 or so places across the nation I always find inspiration whether in the beauty of the landscape or the story that is preserved. Or both, as is the case in the Big Hole Battlefield and the Nez Perce National Historic Trail near Wisdom.
As the visitor center’s excellent exhibits about Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce search for peace and freedom in 1877 remind us, the story is sad because it was a repeat of one that happened across the west after the Civil War—Soldiers and civilians combining to dispossess Native peoples of their lands, and here at Big Hole, of their lives. It was not America at its best. But as the exhibits also stress, tellingly in the words of the past and the Nez Perce themselves, Big Hole has since become a place where we learn and can make a commitment to do better.
When you combine meaningful history lessons with a beautiful landscape, it is always inspiring. By admitting truth and preserving where that truth happened, we take yet another step towards fulfilling the promise of a more perfect Union made by our revolutionary forefathers.
Thank you Big Hole Battlefield for bringing me these reflections on the 4th of July 2025. Your dedicated work makes me so glad we have a National Park Service, and proud to be an American.
Nestled in the south end of Hamilton’s historic residential neighborhood is the Rocky Mountain National Laboratories. It began as a state initiative, as a way to combat Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a disease carried by the wood tick. For 20 years scientists searched for solutions and at one time worked out of an old abandoned log school. By 1924 an effective vaccine against Rocky Mountain spotted fever had been developed. The state of Montana built the first permanent brick laboratory at Hamilton in 1928.
Rocky Mountain Laboratory c. 1940, National Archives
During the New Deal, the federal government took over the state program and with Public Works Administration funding, it built a new modern campus, allowing the scientists to expand their research.
The new campus, completed c. 1940, created a quad of three-story brick buildings for the laboratory, with the new buildings having a slight Collegiate Gothic style.
Across from the labs was housing for scientists, with the north house reflecting a modest Colonial Revival style while the south house was a classic Dutch Colonial styled house. There was a shared garage in back of the homes.
Good thing the lab was expanded. Officials looked to it to find solutions for yellow fever and vaccines against diseases common in the Pacific theater of Wirld War II. It developed the standard Army vaccine to fight yellow fever in 1942.
You can discover more about the laboratories and its 21st century at the visitor center, which opened in 2006.
The older section of the laboratories from the New Deal era was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Readers of this blog know that Big Timber is one of my favorite Yellowstone Valley towns. It still has that classic Northern Pacific Railroad town plan with a long commercial artery extending south from the railroad tracks that then turns into a quite captivating residential neighborhood.
The restoration of the Grand Hotel in the 1990s really helped the commercial area turn a corner.
I have spent nights at the hotel and had a couple of meals there, always thought it would be a mainstay for years. The pandemic alas hurt a lot of small town businesses everywhere and Big Timber’s Grand Hotel struggled. When I was there in July 2025 it was closed but promised a reopening.
But there had been another quite jarring— the read brick was gone and everything was painted black, like the place was in mourning.
Then I noticed a second shock, the classic Rustic style Timber Bar (one of my favs for 40 years) also was covered in black.
I always tell folks—don’t sweat the paint colors on a historic building. It can always change. But black in Big Timber, it just didn’t seem right.
But please don’t paint over Edna and Mel’s Gooseys place. What a jewel!
And leave the town plain in place. Here is a western town always worth a stop. Change is ok but please respect the classic.
Last post was a shout-out to the restoration of KPRK radio station in Livingston. That is not the only success of the summer of 2025. In Helena came the successful restoration of the iconic fire tower that has watched over the city for decades. it too some discussions and considerations but the outcome of giving this city landmark a life to the end of the century was certainly worth it.
Tower in 2006
On the other side of the Gulch in Helena an uncertain future awaits the historic Hawthorne School. It closed at the send of the spring 2025. Let’s hope new life, and a new purpose, can be given to this neighborhood landmark. So many Montana towns have carried out effective adaptive reuse projects with historic schools. Helena can follow those traditions.
During the 1984 survey of Montana for the state historic preservation plan even I realized that the small rectangular building with a stylized Art Deco entrance outside of Livingston on old US 10 was a special, unique place. By that time the interstate highway bypassed the landmark, and over the next 30 years it slowly began to deteriorate.
The station in 1990KPRK c. 2013Restoration summer 2025
But in 2025 good news abounds for this modernist landmark. Not only is restoration underway, there is a neat bike/pedestrian trail that takes you to the station, and along the way from the east is a beautiful view of the Yellowstone River.
In 1947 Paul McAdam had taken the chance to build the station, one of the first in Montana after World War II. William Fox of Missoula was the architect. Even though the Art Deco style was dated by 1947, it was a perfect choice as time has proven.
Here’s to the successful completion of the restoration, giving this building new life in the 21st century.
Repeat visitors to this blog about historic places in Montana quickly see that the focus is very much on the era of 1860 to 1960. But I have taken time to also record the modern past. This brief detour into northeast Montana (Roosevelt, Sheridan and Daniels counties) shares commercial, public, and religious buildings from the late 20th and early 21st century.
The Montana State Bank (now in 2024 the Bank of Plentywood) in Plentywood has its business roots in earlier bank in the railroad town of Reserve. Its echoing of classical columns in a modern setting makes it my favorite modern style bank in the region.
Not far behind is the Independence Bank in Scobey, built in 1972. After the First Security bank of Havre acquired the bank in 1998 it changed the name to Independence in 2000.
The store is now closed.The store front has changed since this image from 2013
Colorful metal sheathing over old storefronts helped owners update their businesses from the 1960s into the 1980s, enabling downtown locations seem more like shopping centers. The top example is from Plentywood while the bottom, Bryan’s, is from Wolf Point.
The Perkulator coffee shop is still going strong on U.S. Highway 2 in Poplar. Highly recommended!
The design of U.S. post offices moved away from the preference for Colonial Revival styles in the first half of the 20th century and embraced a modern look as shown in Culbertson (top) and Scobey (bottom).
The Roosevelt County office building in Culbertson continued with modem styling into the 21st century. Staying in Roosevelt County new schools for Culbertson and Bainville in the early 21st century also shared contemporary styling. Bainville school
Fort Peck Community College in Poplar has significantly expanded its campus after achieving accreditation in 1991 and the gaining land-grant status in 1994.
Lutheran churches in Plentywood and Wolf Point are also modern landmarks. Plentywood Lutheran ELCA dates to c. 1957-1960 while the Trinity Lutheran Church is a late 19th century congregation that worships in a 1960s building.
Plentywood Lutheran Plentywood Lutheran ELCATrinity Lutheran in Plentywood Trinity Lutheran in Plentywood
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, a 19th century congregation, in Wolf point ends our regional tour of Montana modernism. the building reflects the diocesan decision to build contemporary style churches in towns large and small through eastern Montana in the 1950s and 1960s.
News out of Helena this week is that the historic Manlove homestead has been tagged and within days will be dismantled and placed into storage.
A landmark along U.S. Highway 287 for decades, the log building records the early homesteading era in the Prickley Pear Valley of Lewis and Clark County.
Manlove homestead in 1984
Its core dates c. 1864 but it has been moved to this roadside spot in the 20th century. It rarely has received the attention it had earned and now you wonder, due to the ever expanding sprawl of Helena and environs, if the cabin will ever see the light of day again. Once dismantled too many buildings stay that way.
Dillon is one of my favorite towns in western Montana, and a big reason why is the university. It’s a beautiful campus, donated by the Gothic Revival style of Main Hall (1895-1897), designed by John C. Paulsen.
I’m a huge fan of Paulsen’s with across late 19th century Montana and Main Hall of what was originally the Montana State Normal School is one of his best designs.
With the homesteading boom of the early 20th century, the college began to expand. Its name changed to the Montana State Normal College in 1903, and soon thereafter the one huge building was not enough. The state made the first addition in 1907, which included an auditorium.
Soon another building was added and a long rectangular, quasi Craftsman style wing was built to hold more classrooms. if I read the internet sources correctly, Billings architect Charles S. Haire was the designer, but the completion of the building was delayed by a constitutional challenge to its funding.
The university art museum ended up in this wing
Despite the funding controversy, the college continued to grow from 780 students in 1910 to about 1800 in 1920.
Matthews Hall, a classically inspired, yellow-brick building, was a residence hall constructed to help meet women student enrollment in 1919. The dining hall in a more Colonial Revival style came along a couple of years later in 1921.
With the construction of a new gymnasium and classroom building (later Business and Technology) in 1924, the first generation of growth at State Normal College came to an end.
The modern era introduced an entirely new architectural vocabulary to the college. The college became Montana State Teachers College in 1931 and then Western Montana College of Education in 1949. The student union building dates to that era and was built in 1958.
Once the institution became Western Montana College in 1965 and started to expand its curriculum, new buildings were a must. The James Short Center and the Lucy Carson Library came in 1969.
Short CenterCarson Library
Then in 1971 came my favorite, Block Hall. Named for science professor Daniel G. Block, the building gave the college modern labs and led to expansion in the college’s environmental studies program.
In 1988 the college again changed names to Western Montana College of the University of Montana and with the turn of the 21st century it changed for perhaps the final time as the University of Montana Western. Two buildings belong to this past generation of development, the Bulldog Athletic and Recreation center and the Swysgood Technology Center, finished in 2001.
BARC buildingSwysgood Center
One other building joined the campus before the end of the twentieth century, and did so in a very roundabout way. Edward and Effie Roe established a large ranch in the Clark canyon area of Beaverhead County. They built a two-story Colonial Revival ranch house. By the 1990s no one lived in the house but media baron Ted Turner owned the ranch. He gave it to the college if the college would move it—28 miles to Dillon. The move took place in 1998 and then the college restored it as offices, with further donations from the Roe family.
The Montana Western campus is a jewel in the state’s public architecture. Dillon is so lucky to have to be its home.
As readers of the blog know, the Shields River Valley is one of my favorite places in Montana. A good place to start any exploration is the village Wilsall, which, from my perspective, is close to a lot of larger towns and population but, then, also thrives quite well in its own.
The town’s past lies with the cattle ranch of Will and Sally Jordan—thus the same Wilsall—and the building of a spur line by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1909, and the homesteading boom in northern Park County. The historic grain elevator is one potent reminder of both the railroad and homesteading. The tracks ran to the west of the present US 89 highway.
By 1910, the place had a post office; a modern one stands along the highway while an older one is attached to the mercantile building.
Soon the town’s primary crossroads at Elliot and Clark streets was defined by an impressive classical style bank on the west side and a large brick mercantile store on the east side.
The Bank Bar in fact has recently been in the news because, guess what, national media has again “discovered” a great Montana eatery—
something that locals have known about for years. Maybe the review will get more people to slow down a bit and look around.
The stop is worth it, not just for a cold brew and perfect burger, but for the town’s Crazy Little Museum (also called the former Norwegian Embassy). It’s always refreshing when a place has a good perspective on itself and honors a person like Bob Tomasko who did a lot for the town before his death in 2012.
Historic community buildings survive such as the school from the 1910s, now boarded up.
And the town community hall, which remains in use even as the population has dwindled from 237 in 2000 to under 200 in 2020.
US Highway 89 is one of my favorite north-south routes in Montana stretching into Wyoming. I always look forward to my next visit to Wilsall.
Montana Highway 16 stretches north from U.S. Highway 2 following a spur line of the Great Northern Railway laid about 1910. Following that railroad corridor first brought me to Medicine Lake, the actual lake and town of that name in February 1984.
Great Northern depot in 1984
When I returned over thirty years later, the depot was gone, but the lake and town were doing ok.
Depot is gone today
Medicine Lake is a very important place in northeast Montana and the 8,000 + acre lake has been protected as a National Wildlife Refuge since 1935.
Medicine Lake NWRMedicine Lake NWR
Native Americans for centuries visited and hunted here, as hundreds of tipi rings along the lake bluffs documented. The lake remains a touchstone for several tribes today.
Medicine Lake, MT
The town is much more recent, established by the railroad in 1910, with the iconic Club Hotel and Bar in business within a year.
I have stopped at the Club Bar where the old neon sign was a bit weathered but hospitality was everywhere. Don’t know about the hotel—maybe rooms was still used during the hunting season.
The Medicine Lake K-12 school keeps the town of about 250 people together but since my last visit the school lost its distinctive mascot name of The Honkers. For sports the school has merged with Froid and took us nickname of Red-Hawks. Did that mean that town gathering spot would change its name from the Honker Pit? Absolutely not. Great place!
Medicine Lake, the town, has several buildings from its first generation of settlement, including a corner gas station (adapted into a new business) and classic false-front one-story commercial buildings, including a lumber business and a hardware store.
Yet a dwindling population has hurt the business core. For 40 years between 1940 and 1980 the town’s population stayed around 400. The next 40 years witnessed a decline—and in a small town a loss of 150 people can really hurt.
But the town began a slight rebound in population in between 2010 and 2020, with some of it fueled by fracking man-camps
The bones of an early 20th century homestead town are still there. I hope to visit again and see new changes in 2025.
Montana's Historic Landscapes 