Visit Deer Lodge MT

19/04/2024

DEER LODGE, Mont. - NBC Montana's Laurel Staples takes you on a cruise down memory lane exploring the wheels of yesteryear at the newly expanded Montana Auto Mu

08/04/2024

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all p*e in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery. If you had to do this to survive you were “p**s poor.”
But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot; they “didn’t have a pot to p**s in” & were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands & complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s.

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. Since they were starting to smell, however, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women, and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it … hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath water!”

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, resulting in the idiom, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed, therefore, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, leading folks to coin the phrase “dirt poor.”

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way, subsequently creating a “thresh hold.”

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while, and thus the rhyme, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.”

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the “upper crust.”

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up, creating the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive, so they would tie a string on the wrist of the co**se, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

Now, whoever said History was boring?

07/04/2024

Nickolas John "Nick" Bielenberg arrived in Ft. Benton in June of 1865 following the trail set by his brother, John, and his half-brother, Conrad Kohrs. Another brother, Charles P.H., reached Ft. Benton a month later. Butchers by trade, they all settled in Deer Lodge City. Nick located in Blackfoot City after buying the Edger Meat business from Henry Edger, one of the discoverers of Alder Gulch. His brother John and Conrad Kohrs staked him. He moved to Helena for a two-year stay, and returned to Deer Lodge in 1872 where he married Annie M. Bogk. Her parents, Augustav and Margaret, were proprietors of the McBurney House.

Nick sold his Blackfoot City butcher shop in 1873 and purchased the Prowse Ranch on Dempsey Creek. It became the Figure Five Ranch. He returned to the butcher business, establishing a meat business in Butte which became a foremost business of its kind in the northwest. He erected a cold storage plant and developed a large wholesale trade which became the Butte Butchering Company. He associated with J.K. Mallory and D.D. Walker in a livestock and butchering operation in Anaconda, Bielenberg and Company.

In the 1800s, the Bielenbergs and Kohrs became involved in an extensive cattle operation including the D-S (Davis, Hauser, and Stuart) outfit. Nick was one of the first members of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, formed in 1879.

Not too much later he and Joseph Toomey began an enterprise of immense proportion. He and his associates were known as the fathers of the sheep industry in northern Montana; they handled more than 130,000 head of sheep in one year. He was the first shipper to discover the value of screenings in the feeding of sheep in transit.

He built a mansion in Deer Lodge in 1883-1884 which was described as the "handsomest dwelling house in western Montana," a "splendid residence," and "best dwelling house in western Montana." In 1904 the building became the high school. It was razed in 1917 so a more modern high school could be built there.

His continuing interests as a builder were distinguished by the three-story structure of brick, stone, and cast iron at 15-19 West Broadway in Butte. The building is the "Mantle and Bielenberg" building, also known as the "Henderson and Beilbenberg" building. He was involved in the construction of the Hotel Deer Lodge which was incorporated May 11, 1911. He also built one of the first summer homes on Rock Creek Lake.

Many of Bielenberg's mining interests were noteworthy. He was President of the Champion Mining Co., Vice President of the Deer Lodge Mining and Reduction Co. He was Director of the Potomac Copper Co., Vice President and Director of the Toulumme Mining Co. Nick's son-in-law, W.I. Higgins, was partner in the B and H Mine. They built a 12-mile, 50,000 volt transmission line to the mine, making it one of the first mines in the country to be electrically operated.

Nick was also a delegate in 1892 to the National Convention at Minneapolis and to the National Progressive Convention at Chicago in 1912 which nominated Theodore Roosevelt for President on the Bull Moose ticket. Nick himself was a friend and confidante of Theodore Roosevelt.

An active participant in the development of the city of Deer Lodge, he was one of the principal founders of the Citizens Water Company and served as its president. He contributed funds for the completion of the Deer Lodge Woman's Club house as a memorial to his daughter, Augusta Kohrs Bielenberg, who passed away in 1901. Nick's wife, Annie, was one of the charter members.

In the famous "smoke case" (Fred J. Bliss Vs. The Washoe Copper Company and the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, May 5, 1905-April 26, 1909), Bielenberg was the leader in the fight of the farmers and ranchers against the powerful interests of the Copper Kings. He fought these formidable adversaries with courage, vigor, and his own financial resources.

He belonged to the following Masonic orders: Deer Lodge #14, A.F. & A.M., Valley Chapter #4, Royal Arch Masons, charter member of Ivanhoe Commandery A #16, Knights Templar and Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Deer Lodge. He was a member of the Butte Silver Bow Club, the Elks Lodge, and the Society of Montana Pioneers.

It is evident that Nick Bielenberg's interests were varied and extensive. He not only lived to see Montana take her place among the great western states but also contributed to the new status. Nick's motto was "Do right by all and fear no one."

(Story Credit: Powell County-Where It All Began)

04/03/2024

In this week's On the Map, FOX 9's Karen Scullin takes us to a portion of the Yellowstone Trail in Olivia, Minnesota. The Yellowstone Trail was created for car drivers in 1912. The route went coast to coast in the northern part of the U.S.

29/01/2024

Monday Conversations

03/01/2024

Little different weather this year.

Jan 3, 1862 The New Year’s celebration at Johnny Grant’s ranch in the Deer Lodge Valley finally came to an end. “The blizzard ceased about daylight, but it was very cold with about fourteen inches of snow badly drifted in places and bare ground in spots. We estimated the cold at about thirty-five below, but fortunately there was but little wind. After breakfast all the visitors left for home, men, women, and children, all on horseback. Everyone got home without frost bites.” Granville Stuart.

26/12/2023

Buildings in Deer Lodge, Montana, including a livery stable, drug store, and brewery. City Hall and a store front with D. B. Halderman and J. Rosenthal on the front are also pictured. In the foreground of the image is an ox team pulling two wagons. The team was owned by Hoffman and Groves, and they delivered wood to the town in the wagon This block was destroyed by fire in 1872.

26/12/2023

View of owner (Jensen, at left) and clerks, and possibly patrons, in grocery store on Main Street in Deer Lodge, Montana. Shelves are lined with canned goods, glass cases are filled with food and ci**rs; artfully arranged boxes and stamped tin ceiling are prominent.

11/12/2023

Deer Lodge Women’s Club
Women’s suffrage was at the political forefront when Edward Gardner Lewis, a St. Louis promoter and publisher of women’s magazines, founded the American Women’s League in 1908. Lewis saw the League as the perfect means to promote American womanhood. League membership was achieved through magazine subscription sales or pledges of $52 worth of Lewis’ publications. In exchange, the League constructed 39 local chapter houses in 16 states including two in Montana at Avon and Deer Lodge. Unfortunately, Lewis went into bankruptcy as the Deer Lodge house reached completion. Founding League member Alma Bielenberg Higgins appealed to her father, Nicholas J. Bielenberg, who purchased the mortgage. He then donated the building to the women of Deer Lodge in memory of his daughter, Augusta, who died in 1901. The Deer Lodge Woman’s Club has since maintained the facility, which has always served its intended function as a women’s cultural, literary, and social center.

03/12/2023

The Montana Standard - April, 1939
SHIP TO SCATTER PIONEER'S ASHES OVER MT. POWELL
"Tonight, as the shades of darkness draw quietly about the slopes of snow-capped Mt. Powell, the cloud-haloed sentinel of the Deer Lodge Valley -- they will hide within their gentle fold all that is mortal of two of Montana's most beloved pioneers -- Mr. and Mrs. Frank Conley -- each of whom answered the last call since the first snows of the last winter.
At 11 0'clock this morning an airplane carrying two urns of ashes from the Great Falls crematory, will take off from that city in route to the homeland of the deceased couple. The ship will drop down at Butte where it will take aboard two daughters of the Conley's and a few close friends. Leaving Butte the large skyliner will head into the Northwest. It will dip gently over the city of Deer Lodge, then bank into the West to circle Mount Powell.
And up there somewhere about where the clouds kiss the mountain top, the giant motors will be throttled down for a brief moment while the urns are emptied over the side of the ship and ashes of the two pioneers consigned to eternal nature. Far below will be seen the landmarks of the Conley ranch, where the family spent so many happy years, and not so far beyond, the enchanting blue waters of the Conley Lake, where the former trailblazer spent his spare hours with reel and rod; boat, gun and dog.
The ceremony is one that was especially requested by Mr. Conley more than two years ago during a motor ride to his ranch in company with Art Kelly, division traffic manager for Western Air Express and other friends. "When I die" Conley said to Kelly, "I want you to do me a last favor."
"Sure, what is it?" asked the Airline executive.
"Crank up one of your sky doodlebugs and scatter my ashes over this mountain you see ahead." And then, thoughtfully he added "and do the same for my wife."
At the time of this conversation, Mr. Conley was playing host to a group of friends as he and his wife had so often done in the past.
Mr. Kelly promised that his wish would be carried out.
A year later, on the death of Mrs. Conley, Mr. Kelly called up and asked if he should carry out the first half of the bargain.
"No, hold a spell" replied Conley. "I'll be with her inside of two months."
True enough, about two months later Mr. Conley became ill. He came to Butte and entered Murray hospital. His friend Kelly called to see him a few days before he died. "Don't forget your promise" said the grizzled old veteran who was headed for the last roundup.
And today the promise will be kept. The plane that brings his ashes from Great Falls will be in charge of A. W. Stephenson, pioneer pilot since the autumn of 1928. Also on the plane will be Miss Loye Harmon, stewardess of Los Angeles and Traffic Manager Art Kelly. Boarding the plane in Butte will be two of Conley Daughters -- Hilda and Helen and a few close friends from Butte and Deer Lodge.
The history of Frank Conley is the history of Montana. Stage hand, range rider, Indian fighter, deputy sheriff and Warden of the State Penitentiary. His exploits constitute one of the colorful chapters in the winning of the west. Big in mind as he was in stature, jovial, generous to a fault and brave as a lion -- his name in Montana is as imperishable as the mountain he loved."

08/11/2023

Best state!

19/10/2023

Thank you to Josh Perkins!

01/10/2023

Dillon Tribune 01 Nov 1884

18/08/2023

Learning to carve wood is a talent which requires patience! On display at The Powell County Museum in Deer Lodge.

11/08/2023

Did you know that you can visit the Powell County Museum adjacent to Cottonwood City for FREE? Yes, this little museum is free! Take the time to visit.

11/08/2023

Visiting the Powell County Museum today!

11/08/2023

The Yellowstone Trail

05/08/2023

This photo is of Mayor Frank Conley outside Hotel Deer Lodge. I believe the photo was taken to show his new car. The Mayor and his wife were investors in the Hotel and were the first guests when the hotel opened March 20, 1912. The hotel opened with 52 guest rooms and 14 offices. The accounts all called it “one of the finest in Montana” because of the elevator and the hot and cold water in all rooms.