Page 24 - Flathead Beacon // 11.5.14

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NOVEMBER 5, 2014 150 YEARS OF MONTANA
FLATHEADBEACON.COM
BOOM TO BUST
FROM BUTTE TO THE BAKKEN, MONTANA HAS A RICH HISTORY OF BOOMTOWNS
BY MOLLY PRIDDY
Boomtowns are a major part of Montana’s history, having served as extremely powerful magnets for new settlers before the land was declared a state, or even a territory.
These towns went up quickly and were deserted with nearly the same speed once the natural resource of choice – usually gold in the earliest cases – was tapped out.
This boom-and-bust cycle has oc- curred in most corners of the state, and with the Bakken oil fields in eastern Montana and North Dakota currently drawing thousands to seek their fortune in black gold, only time will tell if the historic bust is on its way.
Miners started flooding Montana and Idaho in the 1860s on a gold rush, focusing mostly on Bannack City and Virginia City, which both became in- corporated towns in 1864.
So many miners were drawn to Vir- ginia City that it became the capital of the territory, and, according to the Vir- ginia City Preservation Alliance, the boomtown had the first newspaper, first public school, and first meeting of the Montana Historical Society.
By 1875, most of the mines had dried up, taking the population with it, though more quartz mining would take place in earnest from 1898 to 1937.
According to the Montana Histori- cal Society, the miners started moving outward, claiming new mining territo- ries and setting up a primitive form of government: mining claims were gov- erned by mining territories, which set up rules for claiming land and record- ing those claims.
In Northwest Montana, Libby drew miners in the 1860s, and the railroad made it there by 1892. Libby was incor- porated as a town in 1909, and nearby Troy was incorporated eight years later.
Butte is one of the most notable boomtowns in Montana’s history, when “the richest hill on Earth” drew a multitude of miners to its copper ore. The city’s saloons and red-light district also drew many miners from around the region.
The settlement’s population was 40 men and five women in 1866, and it exploded to 14,000 people by 1885, and 41,000 by 1910. The copper pulled from Butte was critical for laying tele- graph, telephone and electric lines throughout America, and it brought in money from magnates like the Hearsts
Butte. SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO and Rockefellers.
Labor unions first cropped up in An- aconda in 1897, and Butte would even- tually earn the nickname “the Gibral- tar of Unionism” because the unions were so organized.
Copper money also crowned Mar- cus Daly and William A. Clark as royal- ty of sorts, and they were known as the Copper Kings. Their influence was felt from the ground up, with Clark eventu- ally being elected as a U.S. Senator in 1894. His choice of Helena as the state’s capital beat out Daly’s choice of Ana- conda by less than 2,000 votes.
The money and power Daly and Clark used to fix elections eventually led to a 1912 law forbidding corporate political spending, which the U.S. Su- preme Court overturned in 2012 with the Citizens United decision.
JANUARY 1977
Montana U.S. Sen. Mike Mansfield re- tires after 34 years in Congress and a record 16 years as Senate majority lead- er. Considered one of the most influen- tial politicians in the 20th Century, he shepherded the Great Society program and helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1989.
1980
Most of the copper mines and smelters in Butte and Anaconda shut down, leav- ing thousands of unemployed residents and a cleanup mess for the Environ- mental Protection Agency.
1988
The largest wildfire in the record- ed history of Yellowstone National Park sweeps the landscape, consum- ing 793,880 acres, or 36 percent of the park. At its peak, the fire attracted 9,000 firefighters who attacked the various blazes.
Prosperity in Butte flowed up through the 1950s, when the ore started running low and other mines started bringing competition. Census informa- tion shows the city’s population steadily decline from the 1950s until the 1980s, when it was boosted to over 37,000, but the decline continued afterward. The latest census information from 2010 counted 34,200 people in Butte.
In eastern Montana now, the Bak- ken boom has drawn thousands to the oil fields, increasing the population there and in North Dakota. In 2005, the population of Williston, North Dakota was 12,109. In 2013, it was 20,850.
America’s latest crop of pioneers are looking to strike it rich in the Bakken, and the formation will likely continue to produce oil for years to come.
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1996
Ted Kaczynski, the “Unabomber,” is ar- rested at his cabin in Lincoln, ending a national scare surrounding mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 others.
JAN. 6, 1997
Judy Martz becomes Montana’s first fe- male governor. She serves one term.
SUMMER 2003
Six major fires burn more than 135,000 acres of forest in Glacier National Park, roughly 13 percent of the park. Fires come close to burning down Apgar, West Glacier and park headquarters.
JAN. 3, 2010
Gov. Brian Schweitzer announces that Montana officially has 1 mil- lion residents.
MILESTONES IN MONTANA HISTORY
JULY 15, 1933
The iconic thoroughfare through Gla- cier National Park, the Going-to-the- Sun Road, is dedicated after 12 years and $1.25 million of construction. The project helped provide jobs in the depths of the Great Depression.
MARCH 11, 1941
The attack on Pearl Harbor leads the U.S. into World War II. Flathead Coun- ty furnishes more men per capita to the armed services during the war than any other county in the United States. An estimated 30,000 Montanans enlist be- tween 1941 and 1944.
1953
Due to wartime demand for power, Hungry Horse Dam is built 5 miles southeast of the South Fork of the Flat- head River’s confluence with the main stem of the Flathead River. The con- struction of the dam carries on between 1948 and 1952 and provided work to as many as 2,550 men. The towns of Mar- tin City and Hungry Horse were cre- ated because of the dam project, and all the settlements in and near the Canyon
fluctuated with the project, which is completed in 1953.
1962
John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Char- ley: In Search of America” is published after the Noble Prize-winning author traveled the country with his dog. His trip through Big Sky Country left a lasting impression and in his book he wrote, “I’m in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection. But with Montana it is love. And it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it.”
JUNE 7-8, 1964
Ten to 14 inches of rain falls over the Continental Divide, resulting in the largest flood to hit the Flathead Valley in nearly a century. The 1964 flood be- comes known as a “500-year event.” On the Blackfeet Reservation, two dams give way, claiming the lives of 31 people and becoming the state’s deadliest flood.