CARBON COUNTY
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1890 Red Lodge
1895 Red Lodge
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Red Lodge
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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
Resembling cue balls these ceramic "China" grinding stones were once used to
grind chrome ore in Red Lodge. The mill, located on the former site of the East
Side Coal Mine, was completed in 1942 by the U.S. Vanadium Corporation for
processing chromite ore. The chromite mined atop Hellroaring Plateau and other
strategic locations became imperative during WW11 when foreign sources were shut
off. The properties of chromite ore were known to strengthen alloys making them
attractive as a vital defense metal. The impurities of the local product when
mixed with stockpiled foreign chromite was found satisfactory and then fashioned
into briquettes. The mil closed on Oct 8, 1942 as other sources became available
and then later burned in 1951.
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
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