Memories of Montana's Bear Creek Valley flicker briefly to life each February on the anniversary of its darkest day. It is remembered as the site of Montana's worst coal mining accident, which claimed the lives of 75 miners, but the valley was so much more. For decades it was Montana's "coal basket," housing two towns, dozens of coal mines, and a population equaling that of neighboring Red Lodge. Businesses included a movie theater, dry goods store, grocery stores, hotels, hospitals, butchers, banks, bars, and union halls, all serving residents with pan-European origins. Its schools produced championship sports teams and community leaders. Gone, but not forgotten, Bear Creek Valley lives on in this book.

Bear Creek Valley (Images of America)

Arts & Photography

Carbon County Historical Society

McNeish, Jeff

Photography & Video

Arcadia Publishing

Many of the great icons of western American history left their mark on Carbon County while living in or traveling through the natural byway that is Montana’s Clark’s Fork Valley. The Apsáalooke, or Crow, people called the valley home for centuries. The Lewis and Clark expedition recorded and named the valley’s river in 1806. In 1807–1808, John Colter, the discoverer of Yellowstone Park, explored the southern end of the valley. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company and adventurers like Jedediah Smith, Joe Meek, and Thomas Fitzpatrick soon followed. In 1864, Jim Bridger blazed the Bridger Trail through the valley. Chief Joseph and his band of Nez Perce followed the valley north from Yellowstone Park during their 1877 flight toward Canada. Calamity Jane and Caroline Lockhart, a noted author and literary rival of Zane Grey, once called the valley home, and Buffalo Bill Cody and John “Liver-Eating” Johnston visited it frequently.

Clark's Fork Valley (Images of America)

Clark’s Fork Valley Museum

Carbon County Historical Society and Museum

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Books by McNeish, Jeff