Beaverhead County, Montana 1870-1888

The following data is extracted from Bancroft Works, Volume 31, History Of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889, Hubert H. Bancroft, 1890. The History Company, Publishers, San Francisco..

Beaverhead County, where the first town of eastern Montana was laid off in 1802, contains 4,2110 square miles. More than any other part of Montana, it reminds the traveler by its nomenclature of the journey of Lewis and Clarke in 1805, containing Horse Prairie, Willard Creek, Beaverhead Rock, and the pass by which these explorers crossed the Rocky Mountains.

It is a mountainous district interspersed with a few fertile valleys, and furnishing excellent stock ranges on the bench lands between the valleys and the high ridges. Its population was less than 3,000 in 1880. In 1884, its taxable property was valued at $4,500,000. The number of farms in the county was small.

Bannack, which was for a short time the capital and the metropolis of Montana, and the county seat of Beaverhead, was later but a small town containing 250 inhabitants. Glendale, the seat of a large mining interest, had in 1885 a population of 678, and Argenta also was a thriving mining town.

The county seat was removed to Dillon, which as a business centre ranked next after Helena and Butte.

The other settlements made in Beaverhead County were Allerdice, Apex, Barratts, Beaverhead Rock. Burnt Pine, Darling, Dell, Dewey's Flat, Edgerton, Fairview, Glen, Glendale, Grayling. Hecla, Horse Prairie, Hot Spring, Lyon City, Mervenstoe, Montana, Pine Butte, Poindexter, Red Rock, Rock Creek, Ryan, Soap gulch, Spring Hill, Terminus Creek, Trapper, Vipond, Watson, and Willis.

Source: Bancroft Works, Volume 31, History Of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889, Hubert H. Bancroft, 1890. The History Company, Publishers, San Francisco.

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