A fall drive along U.S. 12

Posted on October 8, 2023 by carrollvanwest

When I lived in Helena from 1981 to 1985 one of my favorite jaunts was along U.S. Highway 12 from Townsend to Roundup. It remains so today, 40 years later. My initial interest centered on railroad corridors. Helena to Townsend followed the Northern Pacific Railroad and a good bit of the Missouri River (now Canyon Ferry Lake).

Northern Pacific bridge over Missouri River near Townsend

Missouri River and Canyon Ferry valley near Townsend

It was a brilliant day with fall colors just popping as we left US 287 and turned into the heart of Townsend.

As soon as you leave town to the east you encounter a lovely mix of ranches and irrigated fields until you thread your way through a national forest along Deep Creek.

We decided to continue east by briefly jumping off US 12 and go to Montana 284 so we could follow the Milwaukee Road corridor from Lennep to Martinsdale where we would reconnect with US 12. Two of my travelers had never been to the Milwaukee Road “ghost town” of Lennep. It was a beautiful morning to be there.

You first realize that this abandoned railroad corridor is different when you encounter an electric powerhouse—the Milwaukee Road’s tracks were electrified from Harlowton Montana west to Idaho.

At Lennep the landmarks remain—the Trinity Lutheran Church, the store, the school, a teacher’s cottage and an early notched log house—but all were a little worse for the wear compared to my last visit 10 years earlier.

As we traveled east that morning we quickly moved through the county seats of Harlowton and Ryegate to get to Roundup by lunch. The Musselshell Valley was brilliant even as signs of the old railroad almost disappeared.

Roundup continues its renaissance with new businesses and restored buildings. The town core, clustered around the intersection of US highways 12 and 87, was busy on a fall weekend.

A mural on the great cattle drive of 1989

As I observed a few years ago Roundup residents worked together and created a plan—and the place continues to work the plan, from the adaptive reuse of its historic stone school to the careful stewardship of its historic fairgrounds. It’s impressive.

After Roundup we stopped at two county seats on the return to Helena. Harlowton was rocked by the closing of the Milwaukee Road over 40 years ago. It has struggled to reach the economic comeback achieved at Roundup. But the historic stone buildings have great potential. Three of them are now part of a large museum complex.

Then there’s the newcomer: the Gally’s microbrewery and pub, housed in the 1913 Montana Block.

It’s a great place for local beer and good conversation—and maybe the start of something good for the town.

US Highway 12 was torn up for major repairs when I last visited White Sulphur Springs last decade. The improvement along its population growth and the ever expanding hot springs gives the place a new look, reflected in new catchy fronts to local bars along with new businesses such as a huge Town Pump.

But historic White Sulphur Springs is doing ok too: the New Deal constructed Meagher County Courthouse is still a roadside landmark while the old railroad corridor, just west of the Hot Springs, remains, awaiting its rebirth.

These places are mere highlights along a historic route that’s worth a drive anytime in the fall.

Milltown State Park, revisited

Posted on October 7, 2023 by carrollvanwest

When I last explored Bonner and Milltown in 2015, the effort to reclaim the river landscape created at the confluence of the Blackfoot and Clark’s Fork rivers—but long hidden by past industrial uses—was underway but far from finished. At the end of September 2023 I was able to return to the park and see the transformation myself. It is a quite remarkable super-fund project that restored a natural landmark but also told a significant historical story.

At the confluence section of the park, the removal of the dam is now 15 years old and while you can still visualize its location, to many it must look like a place that hasn’t changed in decades.

The interpretation kiosk relates the changes well but I like how the park is not inundated with markers. Paved trails take you everywhere, and give you an up close but safe way to view the steel bridge of the Northern Pacific Railroad’s mainline along with the nearby but now abandoned tunnel for the Milwaukee Road.

Talk about a transportation crossroads for the Mountain West—still a great site from the Milltown Bridge where you have bridges for Montana 200, the Interstate and the two railroad lines easily viewable from the pedestrian bridge.

Trails that link the pedestrian bridge to the river were not complete in 2014 but now they are finished and give you another opportunity to go to the Blackfoot river bank.

Milltown State Park is a remarkable historical landscape, whether you explore by hiking, biking or by boat.

Restoration at Fort Shaw: the Regimental Commanding Officers Quarters

Posted on August 17, 2023 by carrollvanwest

For almost 50 years the Sun River Valley Historical Society has undertaken the preservation and restoration of Fort Shaw (1867-1891), one of the most important federal sites in the west. When I first met and talked with the group in 1984 during the state historic preservation planning process, efforts were just underway, focused on the officers duplex, the wash house, and bakery.

Now I would like to focus on achievements of the last 10 years since the last visit in 2013. I have posted earlier about how the society has restored the cemetery. This post is about the regimental officers quarters, where restoration began with repairing the historic adobe walls in 2014 and continued with a comprehensive interior restoration over the next several years.

While the first restored building serves as a general history exhibit about the fort and immediate region, the society restored the Commanding Officers quarters as a period historic building.

Within the period objects found in each room, the society also empathizes a “First Lady” theme, adding a strong historic textiles collection to the museum.

The society took care with the kitchen and also addressed the presence of Chinese cooks at the property. The federal census of 1880 records 5 Chinese men at Fort Shaw. A letter from 1887 documents that Ah Wai was employed as a cook for the private company that operated the post’s mess hall and store. The Fort Shaw Indian School superintendent, who may have resided in this building, hired Joe Ling as a cook in 1898.

A bedstead for an unidentified Chinese cook at Fort Shaw is located within the pantry of the building

Bedrooms arranged in the second floor—note the massive chimney flue of adobe brick.

My initial impression is that the many period objects are both a blessing and a curse. A blessing is that the furnishings make the place “come alive” and creates ample opportunities for storytelling about the inhabitants. It reinforces the Victorian era that the fort was part of—and the storyline of military families in the west. The curse is that the rooms may have too many objects—and few that are directly tied to the property. Do overfurnished interiors overwhelm the visitors visually—it is too much to take in?

Such is the challenge of the period room historic house museum. If the past here is any indication, the preservation of Fort Shaw is far from over—I look forward to future visits.

Chico Hot Springs, uncertain future?

Posted on August 5, 2023 by carrollvanwest

This week Chico Hot Springs and 500-plus acres were sold—shocking news for many but really not surprising, considering what happened earlier in the year at Izaak Walton Inn in Essex. A big development company that operates high end hotels and resorts from California to New York purchased the property and surrounding acreage for $33 million.

First I am glad the long-term owners got “paid.” They deserved it. They have been successful and effective stewards of this special place, a property I first documented during the historic preservation plan survey in 1984.

Let’s hope the new owners “get it” and respect the history and traditions of the place. After all it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. (You can read my earlier 2016 blog “Chico Hot Springs” on the place for more on the history).

The place has changed in my 40 years of visiting. By the 21st century, the one-story side wing had grown to two stories and a small conference center had been built.

However these changes left the historic barn and stables intact. My children loved to pet the horses at the barn.

Over the last 40 years other buildings were added: cabins, wagons, separate spa and more—but the historic lodge remained at the center and the heart of the experience. From 1984 to today, Chico had evolved into a destination not just a hot springs pool with an absolute killer bar and restaurant. (In fact the restaurant has been legendary for almost 50 years and was highlighted in the classic western movie “Rancho Deluxe” from 1975.)

Prime rib—a house special for over 40 years.

Throughout the changes the rustic feel, the early 20th century aura of the place remained. The lobby had the same lumpy chairs, the same heavy tables, well worn. If you had to have more modem facilities, they had it. But if you wanted a taste of the west from decades ago, you had the lobby—the perfect place to have a great cup of coffee and watch people in way too big of a hurry.

And you have the plain, no air conditioner third floor rooms—a bed, sink, and common bathroom down the hall. I have heard now for years that visitors complain about the third floor. I really hope the renovation leave these plain but comfortable rooms as they are.

Chico has many character defining nooks and crannies that could disappear in an over-wrought renovation. There’s no need to make every room a $300 “suite”. Do that in the modern additions of the last 30 years; respect the old historic inn and the pool. Keep Chico accessible to all, not just the few.

Marysville, a Montana “ghost town”

Posted on July 28, 2023 by carrollvanwest

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.

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

Posted on July 26, 2023 by carrollvanwest

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.

Baxendale School restoration

Posted on May 29, 2023 by carrollvanwest

Preserve Montana is leading a community effort in Lewis and Clark Counto to preserve the historic Baxendale School.

Located adjacent to the historic campus of the Archie Bray Foundation and just down the road from Ft William Henry Harrison, the school with the neat Victorian entrance will become a preservation resource center where residents can have hands-on experiences in historic restoration.

An end of the century trip to Central Montana

Posted on February 4, 2019 by carrollvanwest

The vast majority of my effort to document and think about the historic landscapes of Montana lie with two time periods, 1984-85 and 2012-16. But in between those two focused periods, other projects at the Western Heritage Center in Billings brought me back to the Big Sky Country. Almost always I found a way to carve out a couple of additional days to get away from the museum and study the many layers of history, and change, in the landscape by taking black and white images as I had in 1984-85. One such trip came in 1999, at the end of the 20th century.

In Billings itself I marveled at the changes that historic preservation was bringing to the Minnesota Avenue district. The creation of an “Internet cafe” (remember those?) in the McCormick Block was a guaranteed stop.

But my real goal was to jet up highways 191 and 80 to end up in Fort Benton. Along the way I had to stop at Moore, one of my favorite Central Montana railroad towns, and home to a evocative set of grain elevators.

Then a stop for lunch at the Geraldine bar and the recently restored Geraldine depot, along a historic spur of the Milwaukee Road. I have always loved a stop in this plains country town and this day was especially memorable as residents showed off what they had accomplished in the restoration. Another historic preservation plus!

Then it was Fort Benton, a National jewel seemingly only appreciated by locals, who faced an often overwhelming task for preserving and finding sustainable new uses for the riverfront buildings.

It was exciting to see the recent goal that the community eagerly discussed in 1984–rebuilding the historic fort.

A new era for public interpretation of the northern fur trade would soon open in the new century: what a change from 1984.

I beat a quick retreat back to the south, following the old Manitoba Road route along the Missouri and US Highway 87 and back via highway 89 to the Yellowstone Valley. I had to pay a quick tribute to Big Timber, and grab a brew at the Big Timber

Bar. The long Main Street in Big Timber was obviously changing–new residents and new businesses. Little did I know how much change would come in the new century.

One last detour came on the drive to see if the absolutely spectacular stone craftsmanship of the Absarokee school remained in place–it did, and still does.

My work in Tennessee had really focused in the late 1990s on historic schools: few matched the distinctive design of Absarokee. I had to see it again.

Like most trips in the 1990s to Billings I ended up in Laurel–I always felt this railroad town had a bigger part in the history of Yellowstone County than

generally accepted. The photos I took in 1999 are now striking– had any place in the valley changed more than Laurel in the 21st century?

Transformations of Montana Avenue

Posted on January 12, 2017 by carrollvanwest

Billings c. 1882. All historic images courtesy of Western Heritage Center.

At the time of my field work for the Montana state historic preservation plan in 1984, I had already gotten myself deep into one Montana place–Billings, the seat of Yellowstone County, and its early history. I have to blame June Sampson, David Carroll, and Lynda Moss at the city’s Western Heritage Center for my initial immersion–they along with board members wanted a research report about both the town of Coulson, the short-lived precursor to Billings along the Yellowstone River, and the early history of Billings, the railroad town.

Billings birdseye view, detail, 1904.

Starting in 1982, I began to drive to Billings, explore the landscape, dig into archives and museums, and talk to people, which of course meant in 1982, when the city was a mere 100 years old, there were a few children of the founders still around for interviews.

At first the competition between Coulson and Billings captivated me, particularly the efforts of regional merchant Perry W. McAdow to transfer his business dominance from Coulson to the new city of Billings by placing his store on Minnesota Avenue, on the south side of the Northern Pacific Railroad, rather than on Montana Avenue, on the north side of the tracks, where development was controlled by one of the west’s leading capitalists, Frederick Billings.

Yellowstone Co Billings Minnesota Ave 11

Perhaps it is symbolic, or even appropriate, that McAdow’s first store on Minnesota Avenue still stands–but its best days long ago passed away, leaving it today as a junk store in 2011, or in 2015 the Big Sky Blue Gallery. While, on the other hand, a grand statue of Frederick Billings–who never lived here but did come to visit his son Parmly–stands on the north side of the tracks, and helps to mark Montana Avenue as the predominant commercial street in Billings.

No doubt, Montana Avenue, and the north side of the tracks became the public face of Billings. Not only did a range of two to three-story commercial blocks populate a long stretch of the street, here too was the grand Classical Revival styled passenger depot of the

Northern Pacific Railroad. And when U.S. Highway 10 was designated through the city in the 1920s–first known as the Yellowstone Trail–it used Montana Avenue to pass through Billings. The bright, shiny, and busy appearance of Montana Avenue in this second decade of the 21st century, however, is a fairly recent phenomenon. When I did the bulk of my research in Billings from 1982 to 1992, there was not much going on, outside of the Rex Hotel. The depot was boarded up, and falling apart.

Listing Montana Avenue as a historic district in the National Register of Historic Places in the 1990s began to change the street’s fortunes, along with the development in that same decade of the Western Heritage Center as a real cultural anchor and heritage tourism lure, and then the investments by new entrepreneurs who convinced city officials to revisit sidewalks, add plantings, and make the street more pedestrian friendly. It has been a bit amazing to see this transformation in the past decade as Montana Avenue became an “it” place–and shed its forgotten, tired past as a railroad corridor.

Kalispell’s Main Street Business District

Posted on October 9, 2016 by carrollvanwest

Kalispell’s Main Street–the stem of the T-plan that dates to the town’s very beginning as a stop on the Great Northern Railway–has a different mix of businesses today than 30 years ago when I visited during my state historic preservation plan survey. It also now is a historic district within National Register of Historic Places, noted for its mix of one-story and two-story Western Commercial style businesses along with large historic hotels and an opera house for entertainment.

The Opera House, and I’m sorry you have to love the horse and buggy sign added to the front some years ago, dates to 1896 as the dream of merchant John MacIntosh to give the fledging community everything it needed. On the first floor was his store, which over the years sold all sorts of items, from thimbles to Studebakers. The second floor was a community space, for meetings, a gymnasium, and even from a brief period from 1905 to 1906 a skating rink. In this way, MacIntosh followed the ten-year-old model of a much larger building in a much larger city, the famous Auditorium Building in Chicago, providing Kalispell with a major indoor recreation space and landmark. Allegedly over 1000 people attended a performance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin soon after the opening.

Another highlight of the historic is the Kalispell Grand Hotel (1912), designed by local architect Marion Riffo and constructed by B. B. Gilliland, a local builder. Designed not only as a railroad hotel for traveling “drummers,” it also served as a first stop for homesteaders flooding into the region in that decade. Montana writer Frank B. Linderman was the hotel manager from 1924 to 1926, and his friend western artist Charles M Russell visited and stayed at the hotel in those years. This place, frankly, was a dump when I surveyed Kalispell in 1984-1985 but five years later a restoration gave the place back its dignity and restored its downtown landmark status.

The Alpine Lighting Center dates to 1929 when local architect Fred Brinkman designed the store for Montgomery Ward, the famous Chicago-based catalog merchant. Its eye-catching facade distinguished it from many of the other more unadorned two-part commercial blocks on Main Street.

My favorite Main Street building is probably the cast-iron, tin facade over a two-story brick building that now houses an antique store. It was once the Brewery Saloon (c. 1892). This is a classic “Western Commercial” look and can be found in several Montana towns.

Main Street defines the heart of the business district. Along side streets are other, more modern landmarks. Let me emphasize just a few favorites, starting with the outstanding contemporary design of the Sutherland Cleaners building, located on 2nd Street, the epitome of mid-20th century Montana modernism. It is such an expressive building but of course in 1984 it was “too recent” for me to even note its existence.

At least I had enough good sense to note the existence of its neighbor, the Art Deco-styled Strand Theater (1927). I enjoyed a movie there in 1984–and the theater kept showing movies until 2007.

Flathead Co Kalispell Strand Theater Art Deco

The preservation of the Strand Theater, and the other downtown historic theater building, the Classical Revival-styled Liberty Theater (1920-21) by Kalispell architect Marion Riffo, is the work of the Fresh Life Church, which owns and uses both buildings to serve its congregation and the community.

Another modernist favorite is a Fred Brinkmann-inspired design, the flamboyant Art Deco of the historic City Garage (1931), now home to local television station.

On the other side of Main Street is another building that evokes 1930s interpretation of Art Deco, the Eagles Lodge Building, a reminder of the key role played in fraternal lodges in developing towns and cities in early Montana.

Let’s close this look at Kalispell’s commercial architecture with the Kalispell Mercantile Building (1892-1910), which was established by the regional retail powerhouse, the Missoula Mercantile, at the very beginning of the city’s existence. Kalispell has figured out what Missoula refuses to do–that a building such as this is worthy of preservation, and if maintained properly, can continue to serve the town’s economy for decades more.

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Montana's Historic Landscapes

35 Years in the Big Sky Country

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