WELCOME TO CARBON COUNTY MONTANA

June 2013

 

CARBON COUNTY I am Rebecca Maloney the County Coordinator.  If you have genealogy items of interest you would like to share- PLEASE Contact me !   Thank you to the previous CC's and volunteers that have helped with this MTGenWeb Project! 1890  Red Lodge 1895 Red Lodge       Red Lodge Red Lodge, the county seat of Carbon County Montana, was another town created by the Northern Pacific Railroad (NPRR) in 1887 because they needed the coal in the region but mostly because corporate insiders wanted to make money. The key developers were Montana Territory Governor Samuel T. Hauser who also owned the largest bank in Montana; Henry Villard, president of NPRR, and Frederick Billings, former NPRR president. They developed the Red Lodge mines, railroad and town site but the real reason they went after this site was because it was within the boundaries of the Crow Reservation and was off limits to other speculators. The developers were able through their contacts at the national level to have the boundaries of the Crow Reservation renegotiated. Hauser and his associates had secured claims to the coal lands, funded construction of the new mines and railroad and got federal consent for the railroad right-of-way through the Crow lands. They also controlled sale of electricity and town lots. Red Lodge was built in the foothills of the Beartooth Range next to the mountain stream Rocky Fork. In 1889, Red Lodge was connected to the NPRR main line by the 44 mile long Rocky Fork Railroad. The mines then came into operation and the new town's population went almost immediately to over 500 people. By early 1890, it was a boom town and by 1906 about 10,000 people lived there. The moral of the story: Great Wealth in the West went to those that already had enough money to exploit the resources. It was a classic case of the rich getting richer. Power could even stop Red Lodge in one place and start it somewhere else. In 1893, a homesteader barred the way to expansion of the town around the new mine so Hauser and associates of the Rocky Fork Town and Electric Company (RFT & EC) simply moved further west closer to the tracks where they built the town's first brick building, the Spofford Hotel (now at 2 North Broadway, Red Lodge). Then they declared this the new town center even though it stood alone surrounded by mud and muck where it was three stories in the center of nothing. Meanwhile, half a mile a way the "old town" continued as busy as ever. Eventually the town meandered west. The manager of the coal mine was Dr. J. M. Fox. In 1901, his daughters invited friends from back east and then led them on an expedition up the mountain at the edge of town where at the top they broke open a bottle of champagne and christened the mountain Mount Maurice after their father. The new town had a towering upper class already. Most of the new arrivals were workers and many were immigrants who came to Red Lodge to work in the coal mines. There were also saloon keepers and brothel madams, in 1887, to make a quick profit from railroad and mine workers and then others like Jim Virtue who owned a small livery barn in 1888 and Charles Bowlen who opened a lumber business in 1889. By 1891, there was a newspaper, restaurants, clothing stores, a drug store, barbers, jewelers, grocery stores, shoe stores and other businesses. Many people didn't stay around but others did and as Red Lodge grew bigger people got richer. Many Italian immigrants started businesses in Red Lodge like the Sconfienza Bakery and Grocery in 1908. The opening of farming land was another paradox. Poor people couldn't travel out west, buy seed and tools, plant the first crop and then wait a year with no income to take advantage of the various federal Homestead Acts. Only people with money to back them could get some of the "free" land offered up -- after it was taken away from the Crows. John "Liver Eatin' " Johnson was wounded in the Civil War and came to Montana where according to legend he got his nickname after a battle with Sioux Indians when he pretended to eat a strip of meat which he claimed was a human liver. He was the sheriff at Coulson, Montana Territory in 1881. Later, he moved to Billings and had a farm on an island in the Yellowstone River. He homesteaded about 3 miles south of Red Lodge in 1897. His rustic one room cabin is now on display at the Carbon County Museum at 1131 South Broadway Avenue in Red Lodge. For more information you can contact the Carbon County Historical Society and Museum at 224 North Broadway, Red Lodge, Montana 59068 (406) 446-3667. Johnson was the first constable of Red Lodge and he served several terms keeping the peace without carrying a gun preferring to beat up offenders rather than put them in jail. There were no repeat offenders he once said. One story claims he killed and ate 13 buffalo. The movie Jeremiah Johnson is a very inaccurate Hollywood version of "Liver Eatin" Johnson. Johnson died in 1899 in California. In 1975 he was dug up and reburied at a tourist stop in Cody, Wyoming. To get to Red Lodge from Billings, go west on Interstate 90 and take Exit 434 and go south on U.S. Highway 212 and it is about a 62 mile trip. A last note about Red Lodge. Over thirty men killed in the Smith Mine Disaster where from Red Lodge and 43 are buried in the Red Lodge Cemetery. 25 of the miners killed in the disaster are buried in Bearcreek, Montana while others are buried in Robinson, Billings, Bozeman and in Idaho. author Gregan Wortmann   Karen De Groote, State Coordinator Suzanne Andrews, Assistant State Coordinator Rebecca Maloney, County Coordinator Contact Information for USGenWeb ®:   National Coordinator: Linda K. Lewis     Copyright  2020- Carbon County MTGenWeb Project