Historic Treasure

By The Montana Standard Staff - 11/02/2008

One of the largest ghost towns in southwest Montana is now recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.

The National Park Service recently completed the listing process for the Coolidge-Elkhorn mine area, located about 20 miles south of Wise River.

While the area falls within the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, the designation won't change how the Forest Service manages the area, officials said. The area is already managed as a valuable historic district.

Last summer, for example, the Forest Service used money from the Madison Beaverhead Resource Advisory Committee to restore one of Coolidge's cabins.

With the National Register designation, Coolidge will have an advantage over sites without the designation when it competes for historic preservation grants, a news release said.

The history recognized by the National Register designation begins with former Montana lieutenant governor William R. Allen consolidating mining claims in the area starting in 1911.

The town of Coolidge dates from 1914 when it began as a silver mining camp.

Allen named the town for his friend Calvin Coolidge, who in 1921 became vice president of the United States, and in 1923 succeeded to the presidency when President Warren Harding died.

Between 1917 and 1919 the Montana Southern Railroad line was built from Divide to Coolidge.

A school with 20 students operated from 1918 to 1930, the mill was built in 1919, and a post office operated from 1922 to 1932.

Coolidge once boasted a population of 350 people, with 250 of those employed at the mine and mill.

In 1927, a Montana Power Co. dam on Pettengill Creek burst and washed out 12 miles of the Montana Southern rail line.

Coolidge never could recover as metal prices went down with the national economy in the Great Depression.

Sporadic mining went on until 1953. In the 1990s the mill, in private ownership, was dismantled.

Coolidge and the Elkhorn mine and mill are excellent examples of early 20th century industrial mining outside of cities like Butte, according to the Forest Service.

To learn more Visit http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/b-d/cultural-resources/history/heritage-areas-spec-int.htm or call the Forest Service in Wise River at 832-3178.