First Families of Montana Certificate


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History of Clinton, Montana

One of the most comprehensive histories of the Clinton area that I have found online is actually from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. They have a historical narrative about the Clinton/Wallace mining district . 2023 Update: The original link was broken and I couldn't find the content on the current DEQ website, so the link now goes to an archive of the page.
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Before it was Wallace, Montana, it was called Baker's Station

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The oft-repeated history of Clinton, Montana claims it was established in 1883 as a stage stop and post office on the Mullan Road and was initially known as Betters’ Station, named after my great-great-grandfather, Austin Betters. The reality is that Col. J.C. Baker had established a stage station on the Mullan Road in the vicinity of present-day Clinton at least 13 years earlier. Not only that, but the stage stop that became known as Baker's Station was much closer to the Wallace Mining District and the eventual locations of the railway stations for the NPRR and Milwaukee Road than the Betters homestead was. Baker's Station, the Stage Station The earliest mention I have found of Baker's Station in any printed documentation was in the January 20, 1872 edition of The Pioneer , which referred to Col. Baker as "the proprietor of Baker's station on the Deer Lodge road," but it's likely he established his stage station a few years before that. In the 1870 Censu...
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What kind of station was Betters' Station?

Do you ever receive a response to an email you sent so long ago that you forgot that you sent it? Earlier this week I had that experience, when the Montana Historical Society Research Center responded to the email inquiry I sent to them back in March.  In the book,  Montana Place Names, published by the Montana Historical Society, it says "When it was established in 1883 as a stage stop and post office on the Mullan Road, Clinton was known as Betters' Station, after settler Austin Betters." In all of my research, I have yet to come across any mention of Betters' Station, or find any existence of a stage station run by the Betters in old Montana maps, history books, and land records. So I emailed MHS to see if they could provide me with the original source of their information. Here is their response: As far as I can determine, the info came from two sources---1) similar information is in "Names on the Face of Montana," by Roberta Cheney, 1984.  2) ...
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