Libby Montana Picture Tour

Welcome to the Libby, Montana Picture Tour

You made it to Libby, Montana.  Well done!  With a population of just over 5,400 people you reached the largest town in the extreme Northwest corner of Montana.

The Libby Montana area was first visited by members of the of the Kootenai tribe who lived and hunted in this part of Montana and the adjoining territory in Idaho and Canada. While it is believed that no tribe made a permanent home in near Libby, several tribes frequented the area to hunt and for spiritual purposes. Kootenai Falls on the Kootenai River is still a sacred site to the local Indians. The Libby area held another special attraction for Indians of all tribes.  A certain location up Pipe Creek contains soft, multicolored stone which they used in carving the bowls for their tobacco pipes. The Pipe Creek quarry was regarded as the best quarry in the Kootenai territory for red, yellow, black, green and gray colored rock. The Libby area Kootenai were canoe Indians, often using the river for transportation.  They were noted for their plain clothing, absent of decoration, with long fringes. In 1855, the Kootenai were relocated south of Flathead Lake with the Salish Indians on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Flathead Reservation, where many still live today.  The first white men in the area were trappers and traders from British Fur Companies.  They came as early as 1809 searching for beaver to supply the demand back east for beaver fur hats.

Land Speculation – Where Will The Rail Road Build?

The earliest ranches in the area were located near the mouth of Libby Creek in the late 1880s in the hopes of taking advantage of the rumored coming of the Great Northern Railroad to the coast. The early settlers worked the nearby Libby Placers and built homesteads and mills along Libby and Flower Creeks. The stream, “Libby Creek” was named by prospectors in the 1860s after one of their daughters. It is believed the town of Libby was named after this creek. Libby is spread out into two areas due to confusion by speculators on who owned what land. They did not realize the land they had begun to sell and build on near the confluence Libby Creek and the Kootenai river had actually been a section of land grant property owned by the railroad. Homesteading one half mile south of Libby began where obtaining a clear title on the land was much easier. The first train hauling passengers and freight arrived in Libby on May 3, 1892.

You Can Still See Reminders Of The Fire Of 1910

The summer of 1910 was unusually dry with fires beginning as early as June of that year. In August, strong southwest winds consolidated the many small fires and turned them into a raging inferno. The fire burnt a path 30-50 miles wide, with over 100 square miles of timber burned in Montana.  The town of Sylvanite, Montana was burned to the ground. The fire came as close as three miles to the town of Troy and over 200 people manned fire lines to keep the fire from consuming Libby. As a result of the devastation of that summer’s fire, Congress authorized the first national fire protection system for the nation’s forests in 1911.