Kootenai River at Libby Dam

In 1966 the U.S. Corps of Engineers began the construction of one of the largest dam projects of that decade–the massive Libby Dam and Lake Koocanusa reservoir.  By 1972, the project was complete, and the entire center of Lincoln County had been transformed.

The dam is 422 feet tall and stretches across the river for 3,055 feet–well over a 1/2 mile.  It creates a huge reservoir, extending 90 miles to the north and into British Columbia, among the ten largest reservoirs in the nation. And like that, a historic river valley became a recreational lake in a joint project between the United States and Canada.

The impact of the project on Lincoln County was immense–especially the boom it created in the county seat of Libby, which will be explored in the next post.  But the lake did create new recreational opportunities, and led to the establishment of a federal scenic route along Montana Highway 37, which the project also created.

The Lake Koocanusa Bridge, which provides access to a Mennonite community and a backroad way to Yaak, is the state’s longest, and in many ways, its most spectacular multi-truss bridge.  The bridge is 2,437 feet long, and stands, depending on water level, some 270 feet above the lake.

There was no interpretation at this bridge in 1984, but the scenic highway designation has led to the placement of overlooks and interpretive markers at some places along the lake. One wishes for the same at the Montana town that the lake displaced, Rexford.  This once

small river town had to move, or be inundated.  And since the move took place in the mid to late 1960s, the town embodies the mid-century modern aesthetic, both in the design of many buildings but also in the town plan itself as the federal government finished relocating Rexford in the early 1970s.

Here is another place in Montana worthy of National Register consideration as a landmark of mid-20th century modernism and the lasting, transformative impact of federal construction projects on the state’s rural landscape from that same era. The Rexford

school by itself is a fascinating statement of both design but also a community’s determination to stay, no matter what the federal government threw their way. Needless to say, in 1984 I paid Rexford no attention–nothing historic was there, it was all new.  But now it is clear what a important place in Lincoln County’s 20th century history Rexford came to be.