MARCH 2026 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter From The Wolf Point Herald , March 31, 1921 Train Trips to Paradise– Part 1 Railroads usually connect regions, states, cities and towns. But they also connect time, eras and centuries. In Montana, there is a direct railroad connection between the transportation revolution of the 19th century and the homestead era of the 20th. This is that story. The coming of the transcontinental railroads to Montana Territory in the 1880's is the single most transformational economic development in the entire history of Montana. This careening generalization certainly deserves explication. Here in the 21st century, it is impossible to recall how isolated Montana was for the non-Native population in the 19th – how out-of-the-way, how offthe-beaten-trail. Montana’s transportation history before 1880 is colorful, exciting, romantic but ultimately ephemeral. Transportation was seasonal. It was hard to get here in the summer and even harder to leave in the winter. Most people came on foot. They walked or picked their way across the plains and over the mountains on horseback. Montana was a long way from nowhere. The Bozeman or Bridger trails from southeastern Wyoming to the Photo Courtesy of Montana Historical Society Old Railway Station: A locomotive and wagons parked at the old railway station in Gardiner. Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
P a g e 2 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r gold fields along Alder Gulch were hundreds of dangerous miles long. Sioux Indians resented the intrusion. They forced closure of the trails in 1868. But the next year, the Union Pacific met the Central Pacific at Promontory Point in Utah. Now the hike straight north to Montana was less than 400 miles. Along this route – modern I-15 – muleskinners and bullwhackers hauled the mighty Murphy wagons, bringing almost five tons of goods and equipment at a crack to Montana. Stagecoaches also plied this “Corinne Road,” maintaining regular schedules to Montana towns. Drivers were called “Jehus,” from 2 Kings 9:20: “And the driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously.” Montana also boasted water transportation for almost six weeks out of the year. Booming little Fort Benton on the Missouri River, the “Chicago of the West,” became America’s most interior port city. When the water was high in the spring, American steam vessels, built to run on a thick dew, could travel 2,600 miles up the river from St. Louis. In terms of costs, figured at price per ton per mile, this was the cheapest way to get supplies, equipment and people to Montana. Long wagon trains fanned out from Fort Benton to Helena and the Montana mining camps and even north into Canada. But Montana’s rivers run dry in mid-summer, and Fort Benton is drydocked. These early travel ventures are the stuff of frontier literature, but nobody expected them to last. Railroads represented the coming of age in 19th-century America, and until they reached Montana the territory would remain in its infancy. Already railroads had impacted the state. In 1853, Isaac Stevens had led a northern-tier transcontinental railroad survey through yet-undefined Montana. However, no one would build a railroad through unorganized territory. The first step was to segregate Indians; so just two years later, the same Isaac Stevens was back in Montana setting up reservations. Stevens’s chief lieutenant, John Mullan, later hacked out a mountain road across the Rockies. All this happened before the great gold rushes of 1862-1864. Miners, merchants, farmers and cattlemen all arrived in Montana in the 1860's, dreaming of railroads. Early territorial legislatures nearly pledged their patrimony to attract them. Many Montanans must have experienced rapture when the Northern Pacific Railroad was chartered in 1864. But the N.P., although a landgrant road, suffered from extremely shaky finances and even went bankrupt during the Panic of 1873. Another line, the north-south Utah Northern, also was curtailed by the Panic. A reorganized Utah and Northern/Union Pacific finally reached Butte on a sub-freezing day in December 1881. Two years afterward, the Northern Pacific, under the new financial management of Frederick Billings
P a g e 3 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r and then Henry Villard, drove its last spike at Gold Creek east of Missoula. Just four years later, a second transcontinental, James J. Hill’s Great Northern, cut across the Hi-Line to Havre, then southwest to Helena and Butte. Provided Courtesy of: Harry W. Fritz | University of Montana | Department of History Originally published on THIS IS MONTANA, an uncommon website. By means of photography, essays, maps, and much more, the University of Montana presents a vivid portrait of the beauty and uniqueness of the Montana. Check out more at: https://www.umt.edu/this-is-montana/ default.php S a n d P a r k C e m e t e r y As I drive up to Garnet on the Garnet Range Road, there is a sign that says “Sand Park Cemetery” and I am intrigued as to why there is a lone cemetery along the side of the road. I park the vehicle and see a sign that tells of the miners that were buried there in the very early 1900’s. As I glance up the hill I see some graves, a jack link fence and a path. The graves sit high on the ridge to the west, in a pretty little sloping meadow. A little less then four miles northwest of the preserved ghost town of Garnet. Sand Park primarily served Coloma. I grabbed the camera and off I go to see what is there. There are four weathered wooden grave markers sitting among wild flowers and dead tulip plants. Frank Hamilton (1905) , William Ross (1898), William Scheenan, (1906) and Tom Williams (1898) Frank Holmes (1915)These are remote graves that offer a glimpse into Montana’s gold mining past. But, who are these men? Frank Holmes was simply called Frank. Turns out Holmes led a reasonably nondescript life as a quartz miner and saloonkeeper. A 20 year old immigrant from Sweden in 1880, he lived in Garnet when the 1900 and 1910 censuses were taken. Holmes never married and was probably roomed in the Ivernson Hotel when fire leveled it and most of the rest of downtown Garnet on Oct 1, 1912. Holmes died “very suddenly” of heart failure at age 54 on March 11, 1915, not in 1914 as his grave marker suggests. His assets were related to his saloon business, including a dozen quarts of Budweiser beer, 332 gallons of whiskey, several hundred cigars, various taxidermied animal heads and an Edison Graphophone with 40 records. He left an undivided one half interest in and to the Lucky Star Mining Claim and a two room frame house near the claim. These items were purchased by F.A. Davey at a public auction. Photo Courtesy of GPA
P a g e 4 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Frank Hamilton was born about 1870 in Colorado, but died September 26, 1905 in Missoula County. Frank Hamilton died last Tuesday and was buried in the Coloma Cemetery on Thursday, under the auspices of the Garnet Miners Union. Deceased was about 35 years of age but nothing is known of his antecedents, further than that. Thomas (Tom) Williams was born in Galena, Illinois and died May 23 1898. On May 28, Tom committed suicide this morning, some time about 10 O’clock by severing the veins of his temple with a small penknife. He was one of the best known prospectors and miners in this part of Montana and had been wealthy several times during his life. An inquest will be held this afternoon before D.H. Morgan, justice of the peace and acting coroner. A telegram has been sent to his relatives and the remains will be held pending an answer. Many friends will read with regret of the deceased of whole-soled, generous Tom Williams (The Anaconda Standard, 31 May 1898). This past year he has been employed by J.W. Moss of Coloma as a miner, but lately has not been working on account of ill health. He evidently contemplated taking his life, as he left the address of his father and brother, with a partner and made a will on the 26th inst., Duly witnessed, leaving all of his property consisting of personal to Mr. Moss. Since coming west he has resided mostly in Montana and was considered one of the best posted practical miners in the state. William Scheenan, died 1906 no information can be found about Mr. Scheenan. There were many men of the same name, living in the area at that time. Mrs. Pete Shipler Pete Shipler had two wives and neither of them were buried at the Sand Park Cemetery, he had a daughter, Maude Shipler, who’s death information has not been found. There was a wooden grave marker for Mrs. Pete Shipler. -Courtesy of our friends at the Garnet Preservation Association, Find out more about them and their work or about visiting and supporting Garnet Ghost Town at: http://www.garnetghosttown.org/ Photo Courtesy GPA
P a g e 5 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY-continued From The Livingston Enterprise, January 1, 1900: S. H. CROOKES—County Surveyor. We now have before us one of Montana’s prominent civil engineers, who received his education in the schools of merry old England. He is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, born in May, 1868, and when only seven years of age went to London, England, with his parents. Up to his fifteenth year he was under private tutorage, then until 21 he passed through the regular course at Minthole college. He next passed through the special course in civil engineering at the London Polytechnic, completing the course with one year in school and one year in the field. After working a short time on the Manchester ship canal he set sail for his native country. Immediately after landing he joined the engineering department of the Northern Pacific railway, and for five years was employed on the various branches that were S.H. Crookes being constructed throughout the mountainous country. For two years he was given control by the government of work in the Crow reservation, superintending the erection of Fort Harrison at Helena. In the fall of 1896 Mr. Crookes was elected to the office of surveyor of Park county and re-elected in the fall of 1898. During his term of office he has drawn all the accurate maps of the county that exist today; has also laid out many of the principal county roads. During the year of 1898, while serving as road superintendent, the expenses for such purposes were decreased forty percent of any previous year, although any one in passing over them would think that a much greater amount had been used, so judicious has been his judgment in the economical use of the county’s funds. It was also through Mr. Crookes’ efforts and energy that the city of Livingston possesses the best sewerage system of any city of its size in the state of Montana. Since 1895 he has been deputy mineral surveyor of Montana, having been appointed to this position by the state surveyor general. Mr. Crookes is also a member of the Montana Society of Engineers. WALTER V. GRANNIS- Deputy Clerk. Walter V. Grannis, the present deputy clerk of Park county, was born in Lagrange county, Indiana, August 20, 1855. Leaving there when quite young he started on his trip to the west and northwest, locating at Atchison, Kansas, and in a few years removing to Pikes Peak, Colorado. In the fall of 1865 he went to Virginia City, Montana, by the overland route across the Great Plains, at which time he encountered the first hostilities of his life with Indians. Since this time Mr. Grannis has
P a g e 6 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r made Montana his home, the earlier years being in Jefferson county and the latter twenty-one years in Gallatin and Park counties. For several years he was a resident of Bozeman and that vicinity, where he did clerical work. In the spring of 1878, he fixated in the Shields river valley and was engaged in stock ranching until February, 1897, when he was appointed deputy clerk under Charles Angus. His education was obtained in the public schools at Helena and Bozeman, Montana, terminating in a business course at the latter place. Mr. Grannis is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, being the present past master of the home lodge. He is, also, at present filling the second chair in the local camp of the Woodmen of the World. Geo. W. Potter, Photographer. Whatever great ability, long experience, ripe judgment, accumulated public honors and a spotless private character can do to render anyone an object of interest, respect and admiration they have done for Livingston’s popular photographer, G. W. Potter. He was born in Albany, New York, January 21, 1858, but at an early age removed with his parents to Madison, Wisconsin. Here his education was obtained in the public schools, graduating from the high school, and terminating in a course at the Business college. When only twelve years old he took up the study of photography with H. N. Roberts of that city, going to Chicago in 1875, where he remained for a time under the tutorage of T. H. Whiting. Early in his life Mr. Potter came to the wise conclusion that in Walter V. Grannis George W. Potter order to better understand the art of his profession he must acquaint himself with the work in prominent sections of the country, consequently, his attention was now directed to San Francisco, where he became associated with the work of I. W. Tabor & Company, the leading art gallery there, remaining until the summer of 1878, when he again made a change of location with Salt Lake City as his destination. Here he was a student with C. R. Savage, the noted traveling photographer and collector of views for the Union and Central Pacific railways. In 1881 he came to Helena, Montana, and was engaged in the work with O. H. Bundy for a time, late in the summer of this year removing to Bozeman, Montana. For about a year he
P a g e 7 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r was manager of J. J. Bennett’s gallery, but in the fall of 1882, when the tide of emigration was flowing toward Clark City, he, too, was numbered with the founders of the future city. Owing to the inability of securing suitable apartments he did not embark in his profession until May 10, 1883. In 1890, Mr. Potter associated himself with Gordon Brothers in their lumber establishment, continuing in this capacity until 1896, when he re-established himself in his present quarters in the Hefferlin block. He is an active member in the I. O. O. F. Lodge of Livingston, the Encampment of this lodge, and the Rebecca Order. He is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and Knights of Maccabees. His gallery is large and commodious, with up- to-date settings and furnishings, while he has the exclusive privilege in this locality for taking statuary. -Read More in Next Month’s Issue! Accessed via: https:// chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ HISTORIC HEADLINES Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz March 18, 1903 SLAIN FOR A DRINK Barkeeper At Bannack Is Shot Down in Cold Blood Last Night. ACCUSED IN CUSTODY Murderer Was Seized By By-Standers and Held for Officers. VICTIM WELL KNOWN Had Family and Prospected in Montana For a Number of Years. Because he was refused a drink George Pollack shot and killed Richard Martin, a bartender in a Bannack saloon, shortly after midnight last night. Bannack is 30 miles west of here and only brief facts of the tragedy have been received. The county attorney, coroner and a deputy sheriff have gone to Bannack to investigate the case. Pollack is under arrest, having been seized by bystanders immediately after the killing. Martin tended bar in Clement & McManus' saloon and beside tending bar has prospected in this vicinity, having lived in this locality for about 15 years. He was about 35 or 40 years old, and, so far as known, had no family in this section. Pollack has worked as a laborer around Bannack. He has the reputation of being quarrelsome when drinking. According to the story reported here he had been drinking and was quarrelsome. Martin refused to give him any more drinks. This made him still more angry, and, going to George Stephenson's cabin, nearby, he procured a pistol and returning fired five shots at Martin. One struck the latter in the temple, another went through his heart, and the balance pierced other parts of the body. Death was, of course, instantaneous. Pollack was promptly taken into custody and the affair created considerable excitement.- The Butte inter Mountain
P a g e 8 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r The WCTU The Montana Chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union or WCTU, formed in 1883. The national organization was primarily evangelical and protestant, and helped women become more involved in politics. Its purpose was to create a pure and sober world. Delegates from Butte, White Sulphur Springs, Helena, and Dillon met to organize the Montana chapter. The organization took up a number of causes and current social issues including labor, prostitution, public health, sanitation, and international peace. The organization especially advocated the prohibition of alcohol and tobacco. The Montana WCTU began with a strong leadership, but by 1886 its membership had dwindled. In that year, fifty-year-old Thomas Cruse of Helena married twenty-five-year-old Margaret Carter in the most lavish, extravagant wedding Helena had ever seen. Cruse spent an astronomical sum on the reception which officially took place at Helena’s Cosmopolitan Hotel. But the entire community celebrated the event, and saloons all over town offered free drinks. Thomas Cruse paid all the bar bills to the tune of $30,000. There was so much public drunkenness and so many hung over husbands that it reinvigorated the WCTU. The organization re-emerged. There were thirteen local chapters and departments, or committees. These included Social Purity, Unfermented Wine at Sacrament, and Purity in Literature and Art. By 1910, Montana’s WCTU had over 1,000 members and had taken up the cause of destitute mothers, the opposition to drinking Coca Cola which at that time was made with cocaine, and other causes. In 1913, the Montana WCTU had its own influential lobbyist and was instrumental in getting suffrage and eventually prohibition on the ballot. By 1916, more than 4,000 had joined. The WCTU continued to have substantial influence until the 1950s. –Ellen Baumler Ellen Baumler was an award-winning author and Montana historian. A master at linking history with modern-day supernatural events, Ellen's true stories have delighted audiences across the state. The legacy she left behind will be felt for generations to come and we are in debt to her for sharing her extensive knowledge of Montana history in such an entertaining manner. To view and purchase Ellen’s books, visit: http:// ellenbaumler.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html My/Donor Information: SUBSCRIBE TO THE GHOST TOWNS AND HISTORY OF MONTANA NEWSLETTER! Renewal? Y/N Send a Gift to: NAME____________________________________ NAME___________________________________ ADDRESS__________________________________ ADDRESS_________________________________ CITY______________________________________ CITY_____________________________________ STATE__________________ZIP________________STATE_________________ ZIP________________ Yearly subscriptions are $19.95 (published monthly). Please make checks payable to Ghost Towns & History of MT, LLC and send with this clipping to 701 Cedar ST, Anaconda, MT 59711 ©2026 Ghost Towns and History of Montana, LLC. All rights reserved. Etta Weatherson, Candace Shaw, Elizabeth Blakeman ride on a WCTU parade float on July 4, 1916, Columbus, Montana. Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 951-822
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