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Monarch Area Community Association |
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History of the Monarch Area
In 1889 the King, Czar, Emperor, Rex, and Sultan mining claims were located at Monarch. (There are no ore deposits at Monarch. These were stone placer claims for gravel in the floodplain of Belt Creek. The railroad was coming to Monarch and large amounts of gravel were needed for the roadbed.) Using the same naming convention (for a ruler) a town was also founded that year on these mining claims and given the name of Monarch. The following year (1890) the railroad reached Monarch. A "wye" allowed the engine to turn around for the return trip to Great Falls. By 1891 the railroad connected Barker and Neihart so that ore could be shipped by rail to Great Falls. Monarch "boomed". It soon boasted a railroad station, hotel, boarding houses, restaurants, a newspaper, stores, saloons, a dance hall, lumber yard, sawmills, lime kilns, a church, school, doctor, and a tailor/barber. Settlers took up homesteads on agricultural land in Belt Creek Canyon, on Riceville Hill, in Kibbey Canyon, and in Belt Park and produced wheat, barley, oats, hay, vegetables, cattle, sheep, and horses to supply the demand. The silver mining "boom" and its eventual "bust" were the result of national monetary policy that evolved after the Civil War. The U.S. Government minted both silver and gold coins and backed its paper currency with both silver and gold. The exchange ratio for silver/gold was fixed at 16:1. However, silver was overvalued. The Sherman Act of 1890 required the government to purchase nearly $50 million of silver bullion per year (to mint silver dollars). As the price of silver on the world market fell but was kept artificially high in the U.S., silver mining "boomed", but the nation's gold reserves were nearly depleted. When the Great Silver Panic finally occurred in 1893, it triggered a nationwide Depression. The Sherman Act was repealed. The small smelter at Barker ceased operation. Many businesses failed. Some mines at Barker and Neihart closed, never to reopen. There was a gradual decline in mining activity. The railroad tracks to Barker were pulled up and removed in 1903. Monarch was no longer a "boom town", but it survived because some mines continued to operate, agriculture expanded, the railroad was used to ship ore, timber, cord wood, grain, hay, mine machinery, and merchandise for resale, and Monarch served as a transportation hub. The Monarch Mercantile Co., built in 1902, was the largest store in the area. A grain elevator was built in Monarch in the early 1900's. The "fish train" bringing fisherman from Great Falls to fish Belt Creek on weekends was the beginning of recreation and tourism industry. The watercolor drawing above shows the view down the tracks (towards Belt) in Monarch in 1920 with tree-covered slopes above and below the limestone cliffs. A view looking up the tracks (towards Neihart) would have shown the effects of the 1919 Fire when all of Monarch Mountain burned and the fire extended all the way to Barker. A fire in 1921 consumed the entire business district of Monarch. The Monarch Mercantile was rebuilt on the site of the current Cub's Den. After World War I the demand for metals increased. The greatest production of ore in the Barker/Hughesville and Neihart Mining Districts occurred during the "Roaring 20's". St. Joseph Lead Company purchased the Block P Mine in 1926, relaid the railroad tracks to Barker, built a 6 story high, 400 ton per day mill for lead and zinc ore at Barker, constructed a 1½ mile long aerial tramway to carry ore from the Block P Mine at Hughesville down to the mill, and greatly expanded the underground workings. Most of the value in the ore extracted was in the lead and zinc content. However, silver was an important by-product. Monarch was a thriving town again. The Stock Market crashed in 1929 signaling the start of the Great Depression. The Block P Mine ceased operation. Monarch struggled along with the rest of the country to survive. The Civilian Conservation Corps had a camp just below the current Belt Creek Ranger Station. CCC crews constructed a system of trails in the Little Belt Mountains, which is still in use today. The Block P Mine reopened in 1941 during World War II to supply strategic metals for the war effort. Lead was used for bullets and for the lead/acid batteries that started the tanks, trucks, and airplanes. Zinc was used to make galvanized steel for the Quonset huts in the Pacific. However, the mine could not produce enough ore compared with the mines at Kellogg, Idaho. The Block P Mine, the major producer in the Barker/Hughesville Mining District, was closed in 1943 and never reopened. The last train (Engine 511) to Monarch ran on November 3, 1945. In 1946 the railroad tracks from both Neihart and Barker to Monarch were removed and also removed all the way down to Armington by Belt. Monarch's role as a railway station and freight hub had ceased. Using Federal funds a paved highway from Belt to White Sulphur Springs through Monarch replaced the gravel country road in 1954 and became U.S. Highway 89--the Park to Park Highway. With mining no longer contributing to the local economy, Monarch became dependent on timber, agriculture, summer homes, tourism, and travelers for income. With the new highway people could buy their supplies in Great Falls rather than use a local store. A ski lift on King's Hill opened in the 1950's. Hunters and fishermen still flocked to the Little Belt Mountains. There was extensive logging in the 1960's and 1970's, but starting in the 1980's the Forest Service greatly reduced the amount of timber it sold from the National Forest. Sawmills at White Sulphur Springs and Judith Gap closed. The post and pole plant closed at Stanford. The Forest Service has been active in curtailing or eliminating all extractive uses of the forest and the incomes derived from such activity. This had a gradual but drastic effect on Monarch. The town shrank until it finally disincorporated itself. By 1980 the population in Monarch had fallen to about 13 year-round residents. Starting in the 1990's Monarch has been growing again. People are attracted by the mountains and the forest. Unfortunately there is an underlying assumption about the longevity of the beautiful forest. Local residents know that the long periods of peace and tranquility in the mountainous West are punctuated by short periods of intense violence. Our forest is "overripe" and too full of fuel. With the warming of the climate and the long, dry summers the possibility of a conflagration similar to the Bitterroot Valley Fire of 2000 is all too real. One of the goals of the Monarch Area Community Association is to influence policy so that a program of logging and prescribed burns gradually reduces the fuel load instead of the forest being consumed in one gigantic fire with devastating consequences for our community.
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