Marion History / History of Marion

Two of the earliest recorded settlers in the Marion area were Joe Ashley and Nick Moon, both of whom settled in what later came to be known as the Ashley Lake/Ashley Creek area, about 1879.

Theodore Roosevelt and a Mr. Merrifield co-owned a ranch in what is now Pleasant Valley.  The ranch was later owned by the Art Lund family.  Mr. Roosevelt, and a fellow Rough Rider named Fred Herrig did a lot of hunting in the area, and Mr. Roosevelt killed a moose in the head waters of Griffin Creek (just north of Little Bitterroot Lake.)  Fred Herrig was one of the first game wardens and forest rangers in the area.  The tributary that feeds into Little Bitterroot Lake is called Herrig Creek.

  In 1889, The Great Northern Railway decided to push it’”Ēs way from Havre, Montana, to the Pacific Coast.  C.F.B. Haskell was given the job of scouting the route for the Great Northern, and on January 30, 1890, he set forth from Demersville (just south of present day Kalispell) to survey the route.  His team was out for 52 days in temperatures as low as %Gā€“%@44  f, and with as much as six feet of snow to go through.  In spite of the hardships, the survey was completed by May of 1890.  Haskell pass, which contained a tunnel under the mountain, is just north of Little Bitterroot Lake, and is named after C.F.B. Haskell.

  Track laying began on October 20, 1890, and Kalispell was reached on January 1, 1892.  The winter of 1891-92 was a mild winter, so construction continued through the winter, and the Great Northern reached Spokane, Washington on June 1, 1892.  The section of track from Kalispell (Demersville) to Jennings (near present day Libby, Montana) was laid in only three months.  This amounts to nearly a mile a day, through some fairly rugged country.  The area of Marion was used as a base camp for the railroad workers.  The majority of the workers on the project were Chinese, and many of them died during the construction, and were buried along the railroad grade.  There is a mass grave along the old railroad grade where the bodies of 17 to 22 Chinese men were killed by a blast.  The blast occurred about February or March of 1892.  Some people said the men died of disease, but this story is unlikely.

  During the time the Great Northern was routed through Marion, the railway used ice from Little Bitterroot Lake for their water supply on their Chicago to Seattle passenger trains.  The water was the best to be had along the line, and until very recently, the water in the lake tested out at 98% pure, year after year.

 The first passenger train entered Kalispell on August 17, 1892.

  The railroad didn’”Ēt roll through Marion for very long.  Due to the 1 ½% ruling grades, both westbound and eastbound, the climb was more difficult for the trains to make than it was for them to cross the continental divide.  By August 1, 1901, surveyors were at work locating a new main line routed through what is now Whitefish, Montana.  On October 24, 1904, the new main line was put into operation, and remains in that location to this day.

  The old main line through Marion became a branch line, and was abandoned in stages.  The train continued into Marion for several years, until 1952.  My Dad often told stories of how he and his friends would stand along the tracks and the engineer would toss a bag of candy out to them.  Dad also said the engineer let him "drive the train" one day, taking it down the tracks a couple of miles, then backing back up to Marion.

  The Marion Store housed the post office until 1989, when a new building was constructed across the road from the Marion Store.  At one time, the store building contained a store, a dance-hall/saloon, and a hotel.  Directly across the road and tracks was a field that was used as a tie yard.  A large water tower lay just to the west of the Marion Store, and was torn down in 1951.  The town also had a large livery stable/barn just west of the store.  The barn collapsed due to wet, heavy snow in 1969.

  There were many Native Americans in the area in the early years.  During the summer months, the women were known to give birth to their babies in Joe Mothka’”Ēs barn.  (Joe’”Ēs son, Tom, married my great Aunt Eleanor.)  Uncle Tom told a story once about an event he witnessed as a young boy.  He and Joe were standing in their field when they saw an angry Native American woman chasing after a brave with a bull whip.  Both the woman and the man she was chasing jumped on horses and took off.  Uncle Tom said ’”Čshe was making that whip snap so hard that it sounded just like a gunshot.’”É

  Another oldtimer in the Marion area was a man named Charlie Newlin.  Charlie was still around when I was a little kid, although he was quite old.  Charlie’”Ēs place used to be a place we’”Ēd take out of area visitors.  Charlie fed the deer at his place every winter, and at times he’”Ēd have several hundred deer in the meadow by his house.  I personally witnessed Charlie walking among the herd, petting them as he walked by.  Nobody else could get near the deer, but they weren’”Ēt the least bit afraid of Charlie.

  The school district was established on December 27, 1905.  The first school was built in 1906, and it had 24 school aged children in the district.  The current school site was donated by Charlie Newlin a couple of years later.  For years, the school was a small 2-room school that housed 8 grades.  A third room was added on the north end of the old school building in the mid-1960’”Ēs.  A new school building was built a few years ago, behind and to the east of the old school building.

  The lumber industry has been the primary means of making a living in the area since the beginning.  Only in recent years has the lumber industry declined.

  In the early 1900’”Ēs Lewis Kelsey relocated his sawmill from Somers, Montana to the south east shore of Little Bitterroot Lake.  At the height of operation, the mill employed 40 to 50 men.  As a short-cut, logs were floated across the lake for many years to the mill, and eventually, some brave souls ventured out with their logging trucks to haul the logs across the ice of the frozen lake in the winter.  One truck driver wasn’”Ēt as lucky as the others, and the remains of his logging truck are still at the bottom of the south end of the lake.  When the time came to discontinue floating the logs across the lake, the people in charge sank their boat in the lake.  It’”Ēs said that on a clear day, you can still see the outline of the boat from an airplane.

  I grew up on the south east shore of Little Bitterroot Lake, just north of where the old Kelsey Mill was located.  The house just south of the one I grew up in was built from lumber that was milled at the Kelsey Mill.  The old house still stands, although it’”Ēs not in very good shape anymore.

  At the time I was growing up, we were one of only 4 families that lived on the lake year round.  Summer time was busy around our place as various cousins and friends came to swim.  Years ago, my Dad and I went up the Thompson River Road to get a puppy from some people up there.  We had to chuckle at the man as we talked to him.  He said something to the effect of ’”Čif you’”Ēre driving through Marion at night and your headlights go out and you hit something, it’”Ēs either a Kinniburgh or a cow.’”É  That pretty much sums up Marion, Montana from the 1950’”Ēs through the mid 1980’”Ēs.  We had to tell the man we were part of the Kinniburgh clan.

  Many changes have taken place since the area was known as Swan Station.  Many of the old land-marks are gone, and most of the ’”Čoldtimers’”É have gone on.  (In fact, a year or so ago, a friend of ours was putting together a history of Marion and accused me of being one of the oldtimers in the area now.  Much of the information given here has come from the research done by that friend-- Willetta Boehm--in her book, Marion History)

Source: unknown author from http://home.centurytel.net/~cowgirl/marion.htm