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Early School Bus in Carbon County MT
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Carbon County Creamery Co
Harness / Saddle Shop in Red Lodge MT Early 1900's
Washoe Coal Company
1903 Directory for Carbon County Montana
Bank interior ca. 1910.
Daniel O’Shea, bank president
1922 Belfry Montana
“Montana, A State of Extremes,” was a
favorite adage, not to mention a great book by the late historian K.
Ross Toole. His words could not ring more true than in Carbon County
which has experienced in the course of one year, the extremes from
fire to flood. Overseeing it all are the stalwart and brave firemen.
The town’s first major fire on March 23,
1900, devastated the business district, thus demonstrating the need
for a fire department. By July of this year, an “excellent”
volunteer fire fighting force was formed with William Larkin as the
first chief. They were equipped with hand-drawn carts, but later a
“new-fangled” fire wagon was purchased. It contained a hook and
ladder and several thousand feet of hose that provided 140lbs of
pressure thus ensuring “ample” fire protection. The only paid member
was the wagon-driver, who needed skills to handle the wagon and
trained horses, in 1904 this was William Slaughter.
The town’s first fire truck a 1916
LaFrance is viewed in 1930 with driver, Kenneth Donley. Seated: Fire
Chief, Fred Alden; running board, Asst. Chief Harold Graves. Back,
l-r, Dick Mallin, Unknown, and Tom Olcott.
South on Hwy 310, a skip from the Wyoming
border, was this Montana outpost in Warren; established as a post
office in 1911.
The larger than life advertised venture
belonged to George Dabney. As signs of the time (no pun), Dabney
even added second story shopping. Cliental would have included
homesteaders, filing by 1915 on 50,000 acres. Of course, noted the
“Bridger Times,” most of “these people come from the east” with
plans to drill for artesian wells. Black gold was the goal of
others. Oil outfits kept as many as 20-six horse teams freighting
from the railroad at Warren to rigs ranging from Cottonwood Creek to
“Big Elk Basin.” The small berg quickly boasted of a lumber-yard,
café, lodging houses, three stores, school, and a measure of comfort
with the arrival of Dr. Lilly.
The berg hit rough patches, but perhaps
memory serves your recollections of “Snuff’s Place,” home of the
“best fried shrimp.” Today, Warren relies on a large limestone
quarry and processing industry.
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