The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1949-12-22
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
LINCOLN COUNTY
By Rose ]. Robertson, Co. Supt.

BY Rose j. Robertson, Go. Supt.
Lincoln County, located in the ex
IRENE northwestern corner of thu
State, has its centers of population
so far removed from other majo,
towns that separate county govern
ment was deemed essential as sooI
as a stable population had devel
oped. The population of the county
is distributed mainly along The
course of the Kootenai River. The
Kootenai enters the county from
Canada on the northern border
makes an elbow-like curve, anc
runs west and north out of the
State. Inside of this elbow there
are occasional streams tributary tC
the Kootenai, the largest being the
Yak. The region within the elbow
of the river, and for so to 100 miles
southeast of the river, is covered
with dense forests, largely unsur-
veyed and in many cases unex-
plored. The Cabinet Mountains
make a natural boundary on the
south, and the Whitefish Range or
the northeast Otherwise arbitrary
lines bound the county
David Thompson is credited with
being the first white man to have
entered the area and left a record
of his activities. He came in 1905
and left Finan Mcdonald in charge
of the building of a trading post
which was maintained for num-
Der of years. This was probably
the first construction of a per-
manent nature in the entire western
part of the present State. The To-
cation of this post is controversial.
A larger post was built in 1872,
and the Pacific Fur Company built
an opposition post nearby in the
same year. Father De Smet was
enthusiastic over the Tobacco Plains
section, near the present site of Eur
eka, where he met the Kootenai In
dams who habitually frequented
this area. He visited this region in
I843. William T. Hamilton secuted
and traded in the country in 1858
and made friends with the Koo-
tenai's. Mining brought a transient
population in the early 1905. The
coming of the Great Northern Rail-
road in 1892 finally made settle
ment and development on larger
scale possible and profitable
County government was organ
lied Immediately at Libby, July l.,
1909, with Paul D. Pratt, Elzeor
Demers, and w. w. Wilder as coun-
tv commissioners. In the election
of 1910, Libby was chosen as the
permanent county seat. The coun-
ty originally had 1850 square miles
of territory. The legislature in
1913 made adjustments with Flat
head and Sanders counties, and the
area was reduced to 1924 square
miles.
In the first year of county status,
there were II schools with q teach
ers and 457 children. BY 1915 a
marked increase was shown when
1874 grade school children attended
35 schools, but only "a high school
students attended 5 high schools. A
total of 81 teachers were employed.
The year 1920 marked the peak of
attendance when ,461 children at
tended 81 grade schools, 1876 at
tended 3 high schools, and 81 grade
and II high school teachers were
employed. Sch DOL expenditures,
which had totaled $50, 1850 in 1909,
had increased to $91, 60209 in 1918,
and to S2ll ,667.47 in 1920. In 1912
there were IA log schoolhoQses IN
the county, and as late as 1888 two
such schools were in operation. a
county high school is located IN
Eureka. At present Lincoln County
has seven one-room rural schools,
five two-room schools, three graded
L, total
1907 pupils attend elementary ana
448 the high schools
Lincoln County has produced num-
erous newspapers. Libby published
the first one, the Silver Standard,
in 1895. Others published in Libby
include the Weekly Montanlan,
1897: the Libby News, 1899; the
Western News, 1902; Lincoln Coun-
tv Herald. 1911; the Kootenai Times,
1914: and the Libby Times, 1917. In
the town of Troy, the Troy Herald
began publication in 1910, the Troy
Echo in 1914. the Troy Tribune IN
1924. and the Troy Ranger in 1884.
Eureka has produced the Tobacco
Plains Journal beginning in 1908
when the town was called Dewey,
the Eureka Journal IN 1917, ana
the Eureka Mirror in 1882. Inc
only paper in the county now is the
Western News.
Lincoln County has had a diff
ficult problem in highway con,
struction because of large areas and
broken country. u. S. No. SO runs
No. 81 follows the course of the Koo-
ing from Whitefish to Eureka. State
million dollar plant, and employs
tenai River from U. S. 81 and y: 5.
Q winds in from the south from Kali
ispell to Libby, and follows the Koo-
tenai out of the State. Numerous
secondary roads connect lumber
and mining camps with the koo-
tenai Valley.
Agriculture in Lincoln County
centers in the famous Tobacco Val
lev and in the valley of the Koo-
tenai which contains a narrow strip
of agricultural land in the lowlands
and on the benches. Since the low
1 Q00 foot