Flathead Valley Montana History

The first inhabitants of Flathead Valley were Native Americans. The main Indian tribes that lived in the area were the Kootenai, the Upper Pend d'Oreille (the Kalispell Indians), and the Salish (the Flatheads). The tribes hunted and fished in the many lakes and rivers in the valley. The waters were so fertile that the three tribes constantly had to defend their territories from the Blackfeet Indians from the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. The Treaty of 1855 divided the Flathead Lake into two halves with the southern portion set aside as the Flathead Indian Reservation. Today, these tribes live on 1.2 million acres of designated reservation land.

Traders and fur trappers were making their way to the Flathead Valley between 1800 and 1820. The first trappers came down from Canada, and the first fur-trading post was set up by Joseph Howse in 1810-1811.

The fur traders paved the way for homesteaders looking to make a new start on fresh land. A surge of homesteaders flocked to the area throughout the 1870s and 1880s. Most of the homesteaders were immigrants from Europe, and began claiming every parcel of land, even land designated as part of the Indian Reservation. By 1909, Indian Reservation land was being sold to homesteaders for a couple dollars and acre.

One of the biggest contributors to Flathead Valley's growth was the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883. The railroad brought passengers and goods from Missoula to the southern shores of Flathead Lake. Steamboats also increased growth by allowing passengers to travel back and forth across the lake.

Agriculture also boomed in the 1800s. The land and climate in Flathead Valley were conducive to growing successful fruit orchards. The steamboats and railroad made transporting crops easy and economical. Apples and sweet cherries were major crops.

In the late 1800s, James J. Hill had a vision to extend a railroad from St. Paul, Minnesota to the West Coast. He created the transcontinental railroad, the Great Northern Railway, and extended the railroad from eastern Montana to Glacier National Park. Hill also highly advertised the fertile opportunities that lay in the Flathead Valley and offered cheap fares to Homesteaders. By the early 1900s there were over 700 farms in the valley.

Flathead Valley's first town was Ashley, named after Joe Ashley, one of the valley's first settlers. The town of Ashley did not survive and eventually became part of rapidly growing Kalispell.

The discovery of gold, copper, quartz, oil and coal in the area that would eventually become Glacier National Park, attracted hoards of miners and prospectors. Not only was the area being exploited of its natural resources, the native Blackfeet Indians were starving and dying from small pox, while their main food source, bison, were being killed off. After visiting the area, George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream magazine, began to advocate for the support of the Blackfeet, and for the preservation of the Flathead region. Grinnell pushed for the area to be preserved as a national park. In 1910 President Taft signed a bill to create Glacier National Park. The park originally encompassed 1,600 square miles of wilderness. Today, Glacier National Park includes over one million acres.