blackfoot-valley

By the turn of the century, some 400 voters were registered. Ovando was officially incorporated as a city. By 1894, it even had telephone service with a line to Drummond, strung along stakes, fence posts, and trees. Not only were ranching and farming flourishing, but residents were expecting a railroad to come through Lincoln and possibly cross over the Divide. Events however, conspired to turn Ovando’s growth the other way. The railroad didn’t materialize, a local logging boom faded, and farmers were stricken by years of drought. Incorporation could not be maintained, and even the log town hall was abandoned when a heavy snowfall caved in its roof. Ovando’s population shrank to a fraction of what it had once been. The town retains a small, but interesting, historical museum on its central square, however, which is open during the summer season and upon request at other times. To those interested in the local history it’s well worth a visit. The one rail line that did push up the Blackfoot Valley was built for logging purposes only. Built by the Milwaukee railroad between 1911 and 1936 to feed the sawmill at Bonner near Missoula, it was used almost entirely by the Anaconda Company to supply its smelting and refining operations in Anaconda and Butte. During those years its timber operations made Anaconda the largest timber producer in Montana, but the company ceased its Blackfoot logging operations in 1949. The line never reached as far as Ovando, and later its tracks were pulled up. The story is told with some additional details on a roadside historical marker about a half mile east of Clearwater Junction on Montana Highway 200. The role of pioneers in the Ovando area is as heavily tilted toward Eng- lish names as Helmvilles is toward Irish. (However, a few Irish names are represented too; in fact, the earliest of all seventy pioneer family names listed for Ovando in the Powell County book for years 1878 to 1900 is a Geary, his 1878 date two years earlier than that given for Ovando Hoyt himself.) 136 “Nez Perce warriors with Chief Joseph, 1876” United States Library of Congress