Remnants and Relics

Montana is full of remnants and relics of its colorful past.  I am not referring to the obvious ones like the well preserved ghost towns or the highly recognized landmark’s like the head frames that  loom over the city of Butte, or Helena’s old fire tower, The Guardian of the Gulch; nor am I referring to out of the way places where no one ever goes.  The remnants and relics that we often overlook are clearly visible from the streets of our towns or the highways connect our towns.

To give you an example, in Carbon County, just off of Highway 212 between Joliet and Rockvale, there are the remnants of a restaurant and hotel.  The restaurant and hotel were part of a Hot Spring Resort called Montaqua .  The resort came into being when a local prospector  named Major Keown, drilling for oil in 1904, instead tapped into a  natural hot springs.  Seeing it as a way to cash in on his discovery he built a spa.  In time a hotel and restaurant were added on.  While that in itself makes the remnants an interesting spot, the event that destroyed the business is equally compelling.  In August of 1959, the devastating earthquake near the Montana - Idaho border  caused a  major landslide, burying the campers who were trapped there.  Highways and buildings in the area were destroyed and a new  lake, Earthquake Lake, was formed.  More than a hundred miles away, the hot waster supply was cut off to Montaqua when the ground beneath it shifted.   As devastating as that was, the final blow came as a natural gas fissure opened up after the quake.  The gas was accidentally ignited and the explosion destroyed the spa.

There are many other examples of remnants and relics with interesting stories behind their demise and I will be sharing these stories from time to time.

Part of the information for this entry came from the brochure :Driving Tour of Historic Carbon County, published by the Carbon County Historical Society and Museum