Summer 15

Toole County Courthouse in Shelby, MT, built in 1934 with PWA (New Deal) funds. Unfortunately the tree made it difficult to capture the details. While the landscaping walls look like New Deal era work, I saw no documentation to indicate that. livingnewdeal.org/projects/toole-county-courthouse-shelby-mt

Detail of the entrance way and 'scales of justice' for the Courthouse.

Downtown Shelby, from the courthouse.

Admittedly didn't capture this very well, but the font used in the "Library" sign suggests a building from the 30's. The similarity in stone work also suggests it might have been build at the same time as the courthouse.

Continuing my focus on forgotten memorials, here's one that seems to have been forgotten (see the adjacent picture. The sign describes the Whoop Up trail, a trail that ran from Ft. Benton (later pictures) to Ft. Whoop Up, which is in Alberta. In the late 1800's and before the railroads, Ft Benton was the farthest that goods could be shipped by boat up the Missouri, from there goods (and people) to northern Montana and adjacent parts of Canada traveled by wagon. The park and monument were developed and erected by a local Boy Scout troop in 1968.

Another forgotten memorial. I happened to notice this because of the distinct, but overgrown, pull off from the highway. The trail marks the Whoop Up trail (see adjacent picture) and I'm standing on one end of where the Whoop Up trail crossed this property.

Grain elevator/mill and a roadside business that appeared to be abandoned. There's also some houses and small, abandoned, commercial buildings on the other side of the grain elevator.

The grain elevators of Chester, MT. Behind the grain elevator near the center of the picture there were large piles of grain being stored outside.

Grain being stored on the ground. Per a friendly clerk in the store behind me, Chester is a shipping point for grain from this part of Montana as well as from nearby parts of Alberta and thus there are times when there is more grain than capacity in the elevators.

BNSF container train passing through Chester, MT.

Downtown Chester, MT on a Sunday afternoon. It's not as quiet as it looks. Just after I took this photo, I heard some people talking, walked up to the intersection, looked around the building, and saw a cluster of about 15 young people and cameras. They were shooting a commercial for Cheetos (see adjacent picture).

Little did I now that the mascot for Cheetos and Chester's Puffcorn (which I'd never heard of) is Chester Cheetah, thus the shooting of a Cheetos ad in remote Chester. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Cheetah

The Grand Union hotel, on the levee in Fort Benton. The hotel was planned and built when Fort Benton, due to being the fartherest navigable point on the Missouri, was a center for passengers and shipping heading to other parts of the west. Unfortunately, the year it was finished, the railroad was completed and diminished Fort Benton's role. The hotel is nicely restored with an elegant restaurant on the lower level.

From 1859 till 1890, Ft. Benton was busy as the westernmost port on the Missouri River, providing materials for the expansion of the west. Boats would unload freight and passengers on the levee that is on the left side of the picture. Material traveled further by foot, horse, and wagon, including along the Whoopup Trail (see photo #353) to what is now Lethbridge, Alberta. With the advent of the Northern Pacific transcontinental railroad, the importance of Fort Benton rapidly declined. www.fortbenton.com/levee.html

The Fort Benton bridge, completed in 1888 and in use until 1963, now refurbished with sidewalk and benches. The bridge originally had a swing span on the north end (right side of picture) to allow steamboats to go a little further upriver. (see photo #0384). The bridge was heavily damaged in a flood in 1908, but rebuilt.

Fort Benton bridge, see details with #389)

The Fort Benton levee and park, from the bridge.

Photograph showing the one time that the swing bridge opened, in 1888.