Terry in the Yellowstone Valley

Posted on October 8, 2026 by carrollvanwest

Terry, the seat of Prairie County, is an often forgotten, bypassed part of the Yellowstone River valley. Yet it has long been one of my favorite places, beginning with my first exploration of its history and landscape in 1984.

The valley is stunning—the river is wide and commanding buttes and badland outcroppings flank either river bank, as do the tracks of the Northern Pacific Railroad (now Burlington Santa Fe) on the river’s south side and the later automobile Yellowstone Trail (old U.S. 10).

Once from 1997 to c 1980 the tracks of the Milwaukee Road ran along the north side of the river, from east of Terry into Miles City. Today you can still see traces of its roadbed and right of way.

Milwaukee Road right of way, east of Terry, 2014

In the 1980s residents impressed me greatly with their sense of, and pride in, their settlement past.

For my work on the state historic preservation plan in 1984, I held a community meeting in Terry, at the recently established Prairie County Museum.

It was a converted State Bank Building, an architecturally impressive 2-story Classical Revival-style building, anchoring one of the corners of the business district. The historical society had basically just moved in and kept many of the ban’s interior details and furnishings and used them to place objects on.

The meeting was a lot of fun, at least for me. And I learned a valuable lesson—listen and observe, don’t immediately judge. The example was a small graveyard, near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Powder Rivers, where the museum had installed a low fence and basic interpretive sign.

I acknowledged that this site was clearly significant but offered that without an interstate highway sign (an exit was less than a mile away) or a marker on old U.S. 10, which was adjacent to the cemetery), “no one knows that it exists or where to find it.” One resident then remarked: “son, we know where it is and what it means.” I have never made that boneheaded mistake again.

Interpretive sign, US Highway 10, in 1984

In the 1980s, another museum devoted to the amazing photography of Evelyn Cameron was established, in a historic building next to the museum.

The impressive preservation work already underway in Terry was not the only reason I liked Terry. It was a “double railroad” town, that still had its northern Pacific depot at the top of the “T” in the classic t-town plan found in some many Montana towns.

Then its county courthouse was one of the most unassuming public buildings in the state.

Plus there were two can’t miss heritage tourism experiences. The historic Kempton Hotel, a huge rambling, fascinating place is where I spent a night.

And I probably had too much to eat and drink at the local bar/cafe, Bud ‘n’ Bette’s. Bud and Bette Goplen owned and operated the place. Bud died in the 1990s but Bette kept it going until the end of the century. Not only were the pours generous and the beer cold, but they sold one of the best caramel rolls in the valley. And yes it did have prints of C.M. Russell paintings plastered along the walls and a fairly size-able Jim Beam decanter and bottle collection. What a place!

Little did I know that when I visited Terry in 1984, 1985, and 1988, it was during its height. Today the town’s and county’s population is about half of what it was in the 1980s.

The county courthouse has been modernized and enlarged while the Northern Pacific depot has been moved to the museum’s block.

Much had changed in the 20 years between visits in 1994 and 2014. When I had the chance to stop for a moment in 2026, I was concerned with the condition of the Northern Pacific caboose.

At the same time I was very happy to see the excellent condition of the early 20th century Terry school. It is a great building, so expressive of the founders’ hope for the town and county. 100 years ago.

I already noted in an earlier post the transformation of the hunters graveyard along old U.S. Highway 10–it is now one of the best interpreted sites along the Yellowstone River. Along the interpretive panels there is a short-distance walking trail with great views of the river plus you can easily see both the historic bridges over the Powder River at the confluence of the Powder and Yellowstone rivers.

And residents of Prairie County are not done. In partnership with the Montana History Foundation, the state historical society, and the county economic development office, they have added other markers about the deep history of this place in the Yellowstone valley.

Just wish I had a caramel roll from Bud ‘n’ Bette’s!

Vandalia and Tampico revisited

Posted on July 3, 2026 by carrollvanwest

Montana Highway 246 is one of those “side” roads that few travel, unfortunately, because if you go that way from the west toward Glasgow it will take longer than US Highway 2. But the time is well worthwhile because once you cross the Milk River (by way of a modern concrete bridge) you step back to the turn of the 20th century.

Vandalia has history as a late 19th century trading post at the crossing of the Milk River. Then it became one of the early milk River ranches. Once the Great Northern Railroad built its initial route westward the tracks came this way, following the river.

The tracks brought the first generation of homesteaders who built the white-painted frame school in 1912. The school later became the post office, and served that role when I first visited Vandalia in 1984.

When I next visited almost 30 years later, the post office had closed and the school was in rough condition. Imagine my delight when I next stopped in the fall of 2025. The school was taking on new life. The roof had been prepared and replaced, and prep work was underway to give it a fresh coat of paint.

The story was not so bright for the old bar and store that was next door. The old gas pumps were still there but the porch roof was sagging and it looked forlorn.

Original route US Highway 2 heading east toward Tampico

The drive remains fun, especially the graveled original route of US Highway 2 with the occasional Burlington Santa Fe freight train roaring by. Imagine driving cross country on this route when large sections of it remained unpaved.

The next town to the east is Tampico, established around 1908. In 2013 the town was tiny but showed some life. Twelve years later, the abandonment was striking.

Most early 20th century railroad towns across the northern plains struggle one hundred years later but those off the major highways, like Vandalia and Tampico, could easily disappear.

Huntley School, U.S. Highway 2 Landmark

Posted on January 23, 2026 by carrollvanwest

One of the oldest historic preservation projects along Montana’s U.S. Highway 2 route is at Saco. In 1961, the Saco Garden Club moved, restored, and interpreted the 1916 Huntley school, which once served homesteaders in Phillips County. Their efforts came five years before the landmark National Historic Preservation Act and the creation of the National Register of Historic Places.

Why this school and why in 1961? The answer lay with one of the school’s primary students, Chet Huntley. His father had earlier donated the land for the school, thus it was given the name of Huntley. In 1961, however, Chet Huntley was a national news icon, part of NBC Network’s Huntley-Brinkley Report.

Tiny Saco had a direct connection to one of the most famous newscasters in America. The show, with Huntley reporting from New York City and David Brinkley reporting from D.C., began in 1956 and continued on air until 1970.

Sometime between 1988 and 2013, the Saco Garden Club added another historic building to their site. 1n 1988, the Immanuel Lutheran Church stood to the east, outside of Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs (below).

By my next visit to this corner of the state, the building had been added to the Huntley site.

Like the school, the church is well preserved and maintained, particularly its compelling and beautiful interior.

When I visited Saco again in the fall of 2025 I found a third historic building, the first Saco Jail, added to the site.

Plus the Garden Club had installed new landscaping and a sidewalk tying together the properties by the Saco Pioneer Garden.

The efforts made by tiny rural communities across Montana to preserve their history and to share their stories never ceases to amaze. The Huntley School is one of the most impressive landmarks along the Hi-Line, and a reminder of the role of women in the state’s historic preservation traditions.

Kalispell’s modernist traditions

Posted on January 10, 2026 by carrollvanwest

Kalispell is the seat of Flathead County, established on the Great Northern Railroad line in the 1890s. Today the city is the hub for commerce, transportation and medical care in northwest Montana. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation designated it as a Preserve America community in recognition of its historic downtown and multiple National Register of Historic Places properties.

Certainly the town has many impressive late Victorian era buildings, like the County Courthouse, but this post focuses on a part of Kalispell’s historic built environment that doesn’t get enough attention—its buildings of modern 20th century styles.

The key town founder was C. E. Conrad and similar to how he started the town, you could also say he started the modernist traditions by commissioning his grand Shingle-style mansion from architect A.J.Gibson in 1895. Architectural historians consider the Shingle style, introduced by major American architects Henry Hobson Richardson and the New York Firm McKim, Mead, and White, to be an important precursor to the modernist buildings that would flourish in Kalispell during the 1930s.

Another important example of early modernist style is this local adaptation of Prairie house style, a form introduced and popularized by the designs of American master Frank Lloyd Wright.

Kalispell’s best modernist examples come from the 1930s to 1960s. In 1931 Brinkman designed the KCFW-TV building in a striking Art Deco style. It was originally a gas station but has been restored as an office building with its landmark tower intact.

The Strand Theatre closed as a movie house in 2007 but its colorful Art Deco marquee and facade remain, another landmark across the street from the History Museum which is housed in the old high school.

The Eagles Lodge (1948-1949) is an impressive example of late Art Deco style, especially influenced by the federal “WPA Moderne” buildings from the New Deal. G.D. Weed was the architect.

Then the town opened Elrod School in 1951. It is a good example of mid-century International style in a public building.

The 1950s decade witnessed new modern style religious buildings. The Central Bible Church (1953) evolved from a merger of Central Bible and the West Side Norwegian Methodist Church. Harry Schmautz was the architect.

That same year, the Lutheran church added a new wing for its youth ministry, the Hjortland Memorial, which is one of Kalispell’s most impressive 1950s design. Ray Thone was the architect.

In 1958 Central Christian Church completely remodeled its earlier 1908 building to a striking modern design.

That same year came the opening of St. Matthew Catholic School, an impressive two-story example of International style in an institutional building. the architect was the firm of Brinkman and Lenon.

Architectural rendering published in Flathead News and Farm journal, May 16, 1957

Kalispell also has two excellent examples of commercial buildings in the mid-century contemporary style. Below is the stone veneer and window wall of the McGarvey and Townsend building.

But my favorite, until a recent “remuddling,” is the Sutherland Dry Cleaners, now a golf supply shop.

Kalispell has several good examples of mid-century domestic design. My favorite is this Ranch-style residence near the Conrad Mandion.

This post doesn’t include all of Kalispell’s modernist designs but hopefully I have included enough to demonstrate that the town has a significant modernist architecture tradition.

Revisiting Nashua in Valley County in 2025

Posted on December 27, 2025 by carrollvanwest

It had been over a decade since I last stopped in late September 2025 at the tiny railroad town of Nashua in Valley County. Recently in the state and regional press, there have been stories about the uptick in tourism in northern Montana. It’s about time, especially for intrepid heritage tourists. As my posts from over ten years ago emphasized, an amazing array of stories and places await those who venture beyond Havre on U.S. Highway 2.

Even tiny Nashua (probably less than 300 residents today) reflects virtues worth exploring—community pride especially as reflected at the recently renovated Nashua High School, above. Since the town had lost population since my last visit, I had wondered if the school was still there as an anchor. Indeed it was, and looked almost modern as its 1935 core from the New Deal had been layered over with a new facade.

The railroad was the dominant influence in the town’s history—save for the 1930s boom during the construction of nearby Fort Peck Dam—and the town’s rail corridor is still defined by its grain elevators.

Competing for the Big Sky line of Nashua is the tall Gothic style bell tower of the Catholic Church. Established in 1917, Queen of Angeles Catholic Church began as a mission church. The Sisters of Charity worked with the diocese to establish an adjacent one-room school, below, as a way of growing and maintaining the congregation after the end of the Fort Peck Dam boom.

Then in 1953 Rev A. J. Schuh wrote an appeal to The Catholic Worker, a major newspaper, asking for the support for the construction of a rectory so that a more permanent foundation for the church’s work in Nashua could be laid. I had no idea if the appeal worked or not—but something happened. Queen of Angels Catholic Church was in great condition, and a major town landmark.

Along the old highway route was another landmark, of a quite different purpose: Vic’s Bar and Bowling Alley. Here is the private social center for the town. Great rural Montana towns always have at least one traditional watering hole. Vic’s is that place in Nashua.

Victor Dostert (1886-1961) homesteaded south of the town along the Milk River during the boom of the 1910s but when the bust came in the 1920s Dostert, his wife Anna, and their three sons stayed, making their mark with construction projects (from a theater to the Catholic Church) and taking advantage of the thousands of construction workers passing through by building and operating Vick’s Bar in 1935. He added the bowling alley in the 1950s—a decade when the bowling craze as a community institution reached its peak across the nation.

Dostert as Nashua’s town official had already been instrumental a few years earlier in the creation of the Nashua Civic Center, the public community center for this part of Valley County still today.

These places and brief stories hint at the richness of heritage experiences in Valley County. I’m glad I stopped at Nashua again (just too bad that it was early in the morning and Vic’s Bar was not yet opened). But give the residents much credit—they hung through another tough decade through commitment, community spirit, determination and faith.

Another restoration success, along with a worry, this time in Helena

Posted on July 20, 2025 by carrollvanwest

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.

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.

Modernism in Northeast Montana

Posted on October 12, 2024 by carrollvanwest

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 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.

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.

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.

A bit more on Wilsall

Posted on September 19, 2024 by carrollvanwest

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.

Whitetail: almost another Soo Line ghost town in northeast Montana

Posted on August 25, 2024 by carrollvanwest

I last visited Whitetail ten years ago. Established along the Canadian-based Soo Railroad line a century earlier, the town was in a free fall, from a height of 500 c. 1920 to a handful of families in 2010. Then the Canadian, then the U.S. government closed the border crossing between 2011 and 2013. Now the town is down to a population of nine in 2020. God bless those still there, doing what they can.

The school building tells much of the story. Built when hopes for the town were high in the 1920s, it’s two-story height and bell cupola made it a landmark in the flat open terrain. I hope when I visit next, the school is there, a silent statement of the dreams with which our high plains were settled.

Secure in its concrete base, the old school bell, removed 50 years ago, is still there to ring, or so I can hope.

The community church, still a gathering place or has it gone the way of the Catholic Church, moved to the Daniels County Museum in Scobey?

A metal facade and open door marked what was left of the Whitetail Theater.

Businesses were largely gone ten years ago. But the post office and grain elevators remained. I bet the elevators are still there serving ranch families but you wonder about the post office.

Whitetail in Montana’s northeast corner is as far removed from Whitefish in Montana’s northwest corner as two places could ever be. They both began as railroad towns. One didn’t make it; the other thrives.

But what’s been lost at Whitetail tells as much about history as what has been gained in Whitefish. You cannot understand Montana history without both.

Montana in Black and White

Posted on August 24, 2024 by carrollvanwest

In doing the photography for the 1984-85 survey for the State Historic Preservation Office, everything was in Black and White, both for the stability of black and white negatives but also for the cost—color slides were expensive. Thirty plus years later, it’s totally different. Everything is digital and only a few places will even process black and white film.

But I have continued to take a few rolls of black and white film on my recent work in Montana. Here are a few images to share.

	heroic5c4b540635 on Terry in the Yellowstone …
	heroic5c4b540635 on Terry in the Yellowstone …
	Timeline History Abo… on Missoula: a two-railroad …
	Mara on Red Lodge’s Commercial D…
	Montana Towns Sunk T… on Canton, a forgotten Missouri R…

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