Category Archives: Montana historical landscape

A second visit to Butte’s Mountain View Cemetery

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Due to considerable interest from readers of this blog, I planned a second visit to Mountain View Cemetery in May 2023. Perhaps best known nationally as the final resting place for stuntman and daredevil Evel Knievel, I discovered in my first visit the rich and informative ethic handprint on the place. The cemetery is an excellent property to explore Butte’s ethnic history, and I want to explore more of that in a later posting.

This post, however, aims to explore concerns about the southern half of Mountain View cemetery, and how a lack of irrigation and upkeep have left hundreds of graves in poor repair and in danger of headstones or burial names and locations being lost forever.

Southern section closest to irrigated northern half of the cemetery
Southern boundary of cemetery looking east
Note the piles of trimmed branches and dirt dividing the northern and southern sections of the cemetery
The southeastern corner of the cemetery has many graves marked only by small metal signs holding burial information. These signs are rusting away, taking invaluable information with them.

Historians of the labor movement in Butte should be concerned because the southern section is also the final resting place for Frank Little, one of the most important individuals associated with the IWW during World War I.

Admirers of Little and later labor activists have insured that his gravesite is not lost. judging from Little’s words and deeds, however, you wonder if he would not be concerned that while his grave is preserved those of his fellow miners and citizens buried around him are neglected.

Maintaining historic cemeteries is a challenge as we have seen in many places, not just across Montana but the entire nation. In tough times with many demands for services and support, what is the priority for cemetery maintenance compared to other pressing community needs, like schools and public safety? I wish I had instant answers—but I think I know where you start: by recognizing the problem and then having discussions and more discussions to find community solutions.

New Views of Anaconda’s remarkable Upper Hill Cemetery

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In an early post to this blog I discussed and explored the historic cemeteries of Anaconda. That work happened in 2013. When I briefly visited Upper Hill Cemetery ten years later, in 2023, I was delighted to find new markers throughout the property, identifying a Medal of Honor recipient (Thomas J. Ward who received the medal for his actions at the Vicksburg campaign during the Civil War) and locating burial plots of different fraternal lodges. I want to share some new photographs of these positive changes, which help even casual visitors to better grasp the value of the city’s historic cemeteries.

Among the most compelling and visually complicated Woodmen of the World memorials in Montana.

Champions Park in Shelby: 100th anniversary of the Dempsey-Gibbons heavyweight championship fight

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This month, July 1923, is the 109th anniversary of perhaps the biggest hyped sporting event in Montana history. The homesteading boom of the first two decades of the 20th century shaped the map of eastern Montana permanently. Shelby, on the hi-line of the Great Northern Railway, had been one of those railroad stops that the boom elevated into a county seat, as Toole County was formed in 1914.

Then the boom busted. Even though oil had been located in Kevin, to the west of Shelby, town boosters aimed for something larger. Why not use the rail connections and host a heavyweight championship fight on July 4, 1923? Jack Dempsey would fight—for a huge guarantee—as would his opponent Tommy Gibbons. Suddenly plans that were perhaps not that serious at first—more of a publicity stunt—became deadly serious. The event would either make, or break, Shelby.

The town and promoters worked together to build a 40,000 seat outdoor venue for the fight. And got that done west of the town center! But then, just days before the fight, the constantly escalating money guarantee fell through and word was broadcast everywhere that Dempsey wouldn’t fight. The buzz surrounding Shelby died overnight.

Then Dempsey changed his mind and the fight took place, but too many people, except for several national sportswriters and many locals, changed their plans. Rather than tens of thousands in attendance, there were an estimated 8,000 to watch the fight. It was a great 15-round fight, one of the toughest of Dempsey’s career, but as a money making event for Shelby it was a disaster, one that few wanted to talk about then or for decades to come.

I started the 1984 historic preservation survey in Toole County. There was no marker then talking about the fight or locating where it took place. No one really wanted to discuss it.

But time passes and it was with great delight that when I visited Shelby in May 2023 its Champions Park stood on the site of the fight. Finally effective public interpretation of a very important event!

Arranged as if you were in the grandstand back then, a combination of statues and kiosks tell not only the story of the fight but also the history of Shelby and environs. Dedicated on July 4, 2013–the 100th anniversary—the park is one of the best outdoor history museums in the state.

The interpretive panels don’t pull punches on the shenanigans behind the event
To even think that a 40,000 person grandstand once stood where you stand today—hard to wrap your head around that fact

The added history background on the town and county adds so much to the experience of exploring Champions Park. Congratulations to everyone who made the park a reality. What had been just a story—and oh what a story it was—now has the place preserved and interpreted. The power of place—Shelby gets it.

When you add the adjacent town carousel, a 2018 project that preserves a 1936 wooden carousel that is still in working order, Shelby has created a new heritage and recreation infrastructure that should serve it well for a generation. Impressive.

Townsend’s Holy Cross Cemetery

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Located east of Townsend, the seat of Broadwater County, is the county’s Catholic cemetery, Holy Cross Cemetery. Established in the early 20th century, the earliest grave marker I located was from 1914.

Members of the Neild family were among the cemetery’s earliest burials. A ro
East side of cemetery

The cemetery is still active but most burials date to the middle decades of the 20th century. A drive divides the cemetery into two large rectangles. Trees and ornamental plantings separate the place from the surrounding prairie.

East side of cemetery
West side of cemetery
West side of cemetery. Note the depressions in the ground, an indication of unmarked graves.

The cemetery has no artistic wonders among its grave markers but it has many of interest, including the Moran hand-carved sandstone marker below from 1925.

The R.M. Williams hard scribed marker in concrete dates 1925.
The Anna McDonald (d. 1917) marker combines Victorian details with the Bible motif.
The McGuin and Bubser markers convey a rough-cut stone look, suggesting permanence.
The open Bible and gates of heaven motifs define the marker of Lt. Robin Pennington, who died in World War II. “Greater love hath no man than a man lay down his life for his friends” reads the epitaph.

The ethnic diversity of Townsend’s Catholic community is directly expressed in several tombstones.

The Holy Cross Cemetery is a well maintained and dignified place even as it is surrounded by development on two sides. It is a significant contribution to the building of community institutions in Townsend and Broadwater County during the height of the pre-World War I homesteading boom.

Rimini, a “ghost town” in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest

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Rimini is another “ghost town” in Lewis and Clark County that actually has a number of permanent residents and that number increases during the summer and on weekends. The town served mines first discovered c. 1864 but not developed until the 1880s once the Northern Pacific Railroad ran a branch line to the town. the buildings from the late 19th century are excellent examples of False-front commercial architecture, especially where log buildings have a frame front.

The town’s 1904 school house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It serves as the Rimini community hall today.

Nearby is the Moose Creek Ranger Station, another National Register-listed building. Made of logs, the station was built in 1908, at the time the federal government established Helena National Forest. It is also associated with Camp Rimini, a CCC camp established across the road from the station in 1939.

The building then became associated with the U.S. army’s dog training facility from 1942-1944. The soldiers trained dogs to serve in Artic search and rescue teams.

Moose Creek Ranger Station garage

Thus this 100-year old log building is not only associated with the history of the US Forest Service but also helps to tell the story of the New Deal and World War II.

Marysville, a Montana “ghost town”

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Marysville was the first mining ghost town that I visited in Montana in 1982. Forty years ago it wasn’t really a ghost town—several families lived there year round. But many buildings were abandoned, in disrepair, even one of the historic churches. Whenever families or friends visited me in Helena, I always took them to Marysville to see what was left because I wondered just what the future of the place would be.

I need not have worried. I had not been in Marysville since 1985 when I visited in May 2023. Today about 80 people live in Marysville—again far from being a ghost town. But so much preservation work had taken place since the 1980s.

Today many historic buildings from c. 1880 to the 1920s help to tell the story of gold mining in Montana at the fabled Drumlummon Mine owned by Thomas Cruse, a mine that overlooked the town. But work remains—other key buildings need their champion to ensure their preservation.

Drumlummon concentrator ruins
Ruins only remain of this dwelling
Stone commercial building from 1895
The 1898 Masonic Lodge Building with its impressive brick exterior dates to 1898. Both Mountain Star 130 and Ottawa 51 met in the building.
Another important building was the general store, initially established by Ann and Blibal Betor (Betor was from Lebanon) c. 1898. When I lived in Helena the place was abandoned and in rough shape. A well planned restoration began in 2004 and was finished in 2018.
The general store interior speaks to its conversion into a saloon and dance hall c. 1940.
The former Northern Pacific railroad depot is now home to the town’s bar and cafe.
Another restoration was led by the Hollow family at the town’s Methodist Episcopal church. This 1886 building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church also dates to 1886. Thomas Cruse later took some of his Drumlummon fortune and donated it for the construction of the Cathedral of St. Helena in Helena, MT.
The Marysville Pioneer Memorial Building contains a museum about the town and its mining history.

The people who call Marysville home have been remarkable stewards. By keeping the town alive they also have preserved a special place in Montana’s mining past.

An Altered Modernist Landmark in Kalispell

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Sutherland Cleaners in downtown Kalispell was one of my favorite mid-century modern buildings in Montana when I surveyed the town in 2013.

There was the funky angled shed roof, with oh so prominent brackets, painted green. The name Sutherland in script was so 1950s. The concrete block screen and canopy setting off the entrance was cool. And the two-tone red and green color scheme gave a certain identity to what was actually little more than a functional concrete block building.

Ten years later the building still stands—thankful for that—but the entrance screen and wrap around canopy are gone. Colors are still two-tone but so close in color that the brackets get lost.

An era has passed, I understand. But what had been a vibrant historic building is now just an old remodeled place. Again I’m grateful that the building has a second life of service but boy do I miss the funkiness.

Whitehall revisited

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I last addressed Whitehall, a town along the historic US 10 route (Montana Highway 2) seven years ago. I have always liked this place, as a crossroads (Montana 55 and2) and for its 20th century history as a sugar beet refinery town.

Passing through in May 2023, I realized that I had not said much about the town’s roadside art—especially murals. Is there a better decorated pawn shop than Community Pawn on Legion Avenue (Montana 2)?

Just down the street is a mural celebrating Whitehall itself on the side of the Star Theater.

Of purse Whitehall also has a mural about the Corps of Discovery, telling the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition in Jefferson County.

The Boarders Hotel is a reminder of the age when Montana, not nearby I-90, was a major east-west highway in Montana.

A block north of Legion Avenue is the town’s residential district. Is there a better example of yard art than this bungalow?, especially with its welcoming gate titled “sans souci” (without worry)?

Why worry indeed, when you can always stop at Whitehall’s Mint Bar before continuing your journeys in Jefferson County. cheers!

“Old” Highland Cemetery in Great Falls

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There are two Highland cemeteries in Great Falls, and for my money, the first Highland, now known as “old” Highland, is the more interesting and compelling funerary landscape. In fact, in its range of markers and the stories conveyed by the markers, Old Highland is one of the most interesting cemeteries in the state.

A paved drive divides the old from the new, but just exploring the grave markers themselves and their earlier dates separates the two cemeteries. The markers are so diverse in materials and form that it difficult to convey the place in a post of moderate length. But here goes.

Martha Cunningham’s 1912 cast-iron marker was the first, of several, that I encountered. The marker reads: “She did what she could. Now at Rest in that city where the streets are pure gold.” Sarcasm in your marker–Martha I bet was an original.

Ralph Jones, a mason from England, died while constructing the tower of the Anaconda Smelter in 1908. His friends erected the cross, with the words Safe Home, in his honor. Jones’ story is also told at annual cemetery tours.

Old Highland also has several Civil War veterans buried throughout the cemetery.

Barbara Harper’s metal marker is also noteworthy, but the most interesting metal marker by far is a small one in a corner of the cemetery. Alexander Leistiko died in 1906. His marker is pressed metal of two people at a cemetery, with the metal sculpture, complete with a skull motif, resting on a metal pedestal. I am a long ways from seeing every cemetery in Montana but this marker, thus far, is unique, and fascinating.

The artistic treasures of this cemetery just don’t end there. There is the grand obelisk for Robert Vaughn, a famous Cascade County rancher, dominating a low stone wall family plot.

Indeed, a few steps away from the Vaughn family plot, you can look to the north and see the treed landscape of “new” Highland Cemetery, and then look to the south and see the edge of the initial Highland cemetery.

You would expect to find a more Victorian presence in the Old Highland markers since the place began in the late 19th century, The Delaney family plot, even with its overgrown ornamental planting, is an impressive statement of Victorian sensibility. The John Wilson marker of a decorated scroll over stones is just as impressive.

The heavy obelisk of Scottish immigrant James Stewart Tod (d. 1891). Tod lived with his family in Glasgow as late as 1891, being listed in a Scottish census for that year. But in the summer of 1891 he was in Montana as a merchant but died soon after arrival. The local Board of Trade (the precursor to the chamber of commerce) praised Tod for his character and service.

The Caulfield family plot also memorized service, in this case to the Great War.

There is no such to see and say about Old Highland Cemetery. I will revisit this place, hopefully soon.

Highland Cemetery in Great Falls

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Highland Cemetery, established in 1911, is a private, perpetual care cemetery that serves as the primary burial ground in the city. Located south of the city, the cemetery’s many trees and irrigated grounds make the place a shady park-like oasis in an otherwise barren prairie.

Paris Gibson (d. 1920), the civic capitalist who founded and nurtured the city, is buried not far from the gates. Like with most ventures in Great Falls, Gibson had encouraged the creation of a new, privately administered cemetery adjacent to the original Highland Cemetery (now known as Old Highland Cemetery).

His grave marker, a tall chiseled stone, is different than most. Low rectangular, regularly sized and spaced markers characterize the cemetery in almost every direction you look.

As is the case with many Montana cemeteries from over 100 years ago, you will find sponsored sections for fraternal organizations, such as the monument identifying members of the Elk Lodge, see below, as well as members of the Masons and Woodmen of the World.

The cemetery’s opening coincided with the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War. A centerpiece of the cemetery is a large, expansive veterans section, centered on a mounted Columbiad cannon, given by New York City to the Sheridan camp of the Grand Army of the Republic in Great Falls. U.S. soldiers, and some Confederate soldiers, are buried in a circle facing the cannon and the flag. The massive stone base for the cannon tells its story and adds on a side panel “In Memory of the Boys Who Wore Blue, 1861-1865.” It is the most compelling Civil War monument in a Montana cemetery.

Two Confederate soldiers, units not identified, at the foreground of this image.
Charles M. Meek, probably born enslaved in Tennessee in 1849, served as a teenager in a Kentucky regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops in the Civil War.

Famous individuals besides Paris Gibson have been buried at Highland Cemetery. Governor Edwin Norris (d. 1924) is represented by a tall obelisk marker.

Television and movie actor George Montgomery (d. 2000), who was once married to actress and singer Dinah Shore, is also buried here, represented by a full sized metal statue, dressed in cowboy gear. It might seen odd, at first glance, for a Hollywood star to be buried at Highland, but Montgomery was born in the small town of Brady in Pondera County. By being interred at Highland, Montgomery in a sense had come home.

The most famous Montanan to be buried here is Charles M. Russell, who, like Gibson is represented by a chiseled stone boulder, with his trademark initials in a metal plaque affixed to the stone. Nearby is the grave for his wife, and manager, Nancy Russell. A scholar of Russell’s art and life, Frederic Renner (d. 1987), is also buried nearby. Speak of devotion to your subject!