MONTANA'S TOWNS AND CITIES.
The "Bonanza" State, young as she is to-day, has more towns and cities
than such old and well developed States as Wisconsin, Illinois, or
Minnesota had at a period in their history at which they might easily
have expected to be far better developed, as regards population, than
Montana could reasonably expect.
A half-century marks the time when the great Chicago of to-day was Fort
Dearborn, planted, as it were, on a boundless prairie to watch a few
blanketed Indians and traders at the mouth of the Chicago River. This
was the nucleus of the great city--the second in rank of the many
wonderful cities of the United States. Fifty years ago the pioneers of
the Badger and Prairie States were doing what the old-timers and
pioneers of Montana are doing to-day, building towns and founding
cities. In the Eastern pioneer States where a few straggling hamlets
were first fashioned by the efforts of the early emigrants, there are
thousands of towns and cities, where the unpretentious log cabins and
town sites were no more inviting than those of the early settlers of
Montana.
Dating the first settlement of our State at twenty eight years ago, it
may be said, without contradiction, that no Eastern State from its
foundation to the twenty-eighth year of its age was half so marked or
half so prosperous as Montana, with her hundred towns and cities at no
greater age. If the State of Illinois has produced a Chicago at fifty
years of growth, and Wisconsin a Milwaukee at a less number of years,
and Minnesota the dual cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis in a much
shorter time, what may not be expected of Montana, whose boundaries
embrace probably the richest country in the world, and whose area equals
that of the New England States and New York combined?
We see with open eyes what a half-century of American genius and Western
enterprise has wrought; may we not see by a prophetic vision a grander
half-century's work as the future of Montana? As certain as history
repeats itself, the prospector's wickie-up will become the mining camp,
the corral of the round-ups will furnish the location for rustic
villages, the villages will become towns, and scores of towns will
become cities, each one of which must be larger than the other, and one
of which must be the great metropolis of the Northwest.
Following is a list of the towns and cities of the State, arranged in
counties, together with the assessed valuation of those counties:
BEAVERHEAD COUNTY.--Assessed valuation for 1890, $3,175,949. County
seat, Dillon; Bannack, Glendale, Redrock, Spring Hill, Barratts.
CASCADE COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $12,383,864. County seat, Great
Falls; Sun River, Cascade, Sand Coulee.
CHOTEAU COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $5,364,264. County seat, Fort
Benton; Chinook, Choteau, Harlem, Shonkin.
CUSTER COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $6,350,915. County seat, Miles City;
Rosebud, Forsyth.
DAWSON COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $3,025,332. County seat, Glendive;
Glasgow.
DEER LODGE COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $7,359,589. County seat, Deer
Lodge; Anaconda, Beartown, Blackfoot, Drummond, Phillipsburg, Elliston,
Granite, Helmville, New Chicago, Pioneer, Warm Springs, Stuart.
FERGUS COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $4,186,555. County seat, Lewiston;
Cottonwood, Utica, Maiden, Neihart.
GALLATIN COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $6,170,381. County seat, Bozeman;
Three Forks, Gallatin, Galesville, Madison.
JEFFERSON COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $4,917,382. County seat, Boulder;
Jefferson City, Radersburg, Basin, Placer, Elkhorn, Whitehall, Alhambra,
Clancy.
LEWIS AND CLARKE COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $31,081,030. County seat,
Helena; Marysville, Unionville, Rimini, Cartersville, Augusta, Dearborn,
Harlow.
MADISON COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $2,948,046. County seat, Virginia
City; Fullers Springs, Sheridan, Twin Bridges, Laurin, Silver Star,
Pony, Red Bluff, Meadow Creek.
MEAGHER COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $5,239,882. County seat, White
Sulphur Springs; Neihart, Castle, Martinsdale, Townsend, Clendennin,
York.
MISSOULA COUNTY.--Assessed valuation $8,815,854. County seat, Missoula;
Demersville, Kalispel, Stevensville, Columbia Falls, Ashley, Grantsdale,
Corvallis, Horse Plains, Thompson Falls, Camas Prairie.
PARK COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $4,936,451. County seat, Livingston;
Red Lodge, Cook City, Cokedale, Big Timber, Melville.
SILVER BOW COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $32,426,794. County seat, Butte
City; Melrose, Silver Bow, Divide.
YELLOWSTONE COUNTY.--Assessed valuation, $3,823,140. County seat,
Billings; Park City, Stillwater.
WEALTH OF MONTANA.--Nothing speaks louder for the future of Montana than
the figures that tell of her wealth and of the rapid increases which the
last few years, as they rolled along one by one, have shown.
The increase during the last year has been no exception to this rule.
From a total assessable valuation of $116,767,204 in 1890, her wealth
has increased to a total of $142,205,428 for 1891, a gain of over
twenty-five millions. The valuation of the State, given by counties, is
as follows:
County of Beaverhead $ 3,175,949
" " Cascade 12,383,864
" " Choteau 5,364,264
" " Custer 6,350,915
" " Dawson 3,025,332
" " Deer Lodge 7,359,589
" " Fergus 4,186,555
" " Gallatin 6,170,381
" " Jefferson 4,917,382
" " Lewis and Clarke 31,081,030
" " Madison 2,948,046
" " Meagher 5,239,882
" " Missoula 8,815,854
" " Park 4,936,451
" " Silver Bow 32,426,794
" " Yellowstone 3,823,140
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Total $142,205,428
But even this vast sum does not tell the whole story, for Montana's
additional real wealth is not included in the assessable property of the
State, as the vast millions of the intrinsic value of the silver, gold,
copper, coal, and lead mines, and their precious output, are not
assessable for taxation--only the improvements. So if the value of all
of Montana's mines were put in the calculation of her wealth, what a
vast amount of money-value would be placed to her credit. Of the
hundreds of her gold and silver mines, two are valued at $25,000,000
each.
The above assessment value of $142,205,428 is made up of real estate,
acre property, town lots, railroad rolling stock, road-bed and
improvements, and personal property.
Montana's present ratio of population is not quite one person to the
square mile, so with an assessment of over $142,000,000 with a
population (according to the census of 1892) at 140,000, what will be
the value of the State when its population shall have increased to ten
persons to the square mile? The calculation is easily made--so within
the next decade Montana's population may reach 1,440,000, and if the
assessed value then is equal to the present wealth per capita of her
citizens, the assessed value will reach the prodigious volume of
$1,203,000,000--a calculation not unreasonable, since Montana's
population in the last ten years increased 235 per cent.