NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
 
Fraternity Hall ** (added 1975 - Building - #75001084)
Jefferson County - Main St., Elkhorn
(less then 1 acres, 1 building) 
Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Unknown
Architectural Style: Greek Revival
Area of Significance: Architecture, Social History
Period of Significance: 1875-1899
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Social
Historic Sub-function: Clubhouse
Current Function: Vacant/Not In Use
 
 


 
Montana Deaf and Dumb Asylum ** (added 1985 - Building - #85000994)
Also known as Old Administration Building
Jefferson County - Off MT 281, Boulder
(40 acres, 1 building)
 
Historic Significance: Architecture/Engineering, Event
Architect, builder, or engineer: Suite,John, Paulsen,John C.
Architectural Style: Italianate, Renaissance
Area of Significance: Social History, Architecture, Education
Period of Significance: 1900-1924, 1900-1924, 1925-1949
Owner: State
Historic Function: Domestic, Education, Health Care
Historic Sub-function: Hospital, Institutional Housing, School
Current Function: Vacant/Not In Use
 

 According to the Jefferson County local government office, Jefferson County was organized in 1865, with the county seat, at the time being Radersburg. However, being located near the very edge of the county, Radersburg was considered inaccessible to those people who had to travel the length of the county to transact their business and a more suitable locality was sought.

In the spring of 1883, an election determined that the county seat should be moved to Boulder, a more centrally located town, and that Radersburg be annexed to Broadwater County. The official records were transferred from Radersburg to Boulder in the fall of 1883 and a temporary courthouse was set up in the Masonic Hall. The present day courthouse was completed in 1888 and all records were moved to the new building.

 Elkhorn is about 18 miles by road from Boulder, MT. Go through town, south from Boulder, on State Highway 69, about 4.5 miles, to a well-marked turn off. Turn left on to a dirt road, and then just after crossing the Boulder River, turn right. At all other junctions keep left and travel about 12 miles. You have now embarked on a short trip into the past.

Peter Wye, a native of Switzerland, discovered the Elkhorn Mine in 1870. Peter Weiss, Wm. Hahn and Herman Koch had located the first mine in this area only two years before.
A.M. Holter, an Alder Gulch pioneer, developed the Elkhorn Mine in 1875. A mill was built in 1884 and a smelter the following year. By February of 1888, the mine had been worked down to about the 800-foot level and its monthly production was valued at more than $30,000.The Northern Pacific provided daily rail service on a branch line to Boulder in 1887. As mining began to taper off, service was cut and in 1931 the tracks were removed.

Timbered areas near Elkhorn were clear-cut before 1887 to provide fuel for power in the mines and heat for homes. More than 500 woodsman and 1500 mules worked in the woods. Elkhorn's population reached 2500 in the 1880's. Additional hundreds lived in the surrounding gulches.

An English syndicate purchased the mine for $500,000 in 1889. By 1900 the Elkhorn Mine had produced a total of 8,902,00 ounces of Silver, 8,500 ounces of gold and more than 4 million pounds of lead. The boom ended with the 1897 drop in the price of silver. Elkhorn enjoyed short-lived rivals in 1901 (by John, Henry, and Frank Longmaid of Helena in 1905.(vertical files, Sheridan, WY.)
 

 

 

 

         WELCOME TO JEFFERSON COUNTY MONTANA

"The Undiscovered In-between"

Welcome to Genealogy Trails History Group, Volunteers Dedicated to Free Genealogy. Our goal at Genealogy Trails is to transcribe and post genealogical source data so that family researchers can track ancestors through time, throughout the country, FREE. This is a Jefferson County, Montana web site. My name is Jo Ann Boyd Scott. I grew up in Montana. This is “Big Sky Country”. I will do lookups, just e-mail me. Send me text or picture data, information on Jefferson County and I will post it. Your data is owned by you not the web site. SEND DATA to this e-mail. All work is copyrighted, 2007-2008.
If you would like to help transcribe, e-mail, I can really use the help. Check back, lots more coming.  State site  National site
*Note: Unless otherwise stated, ALL DATA and INFO are donated, transcribed and submitted by JoAnn Boyd Scott and the "Friends of Free Genealogy" I keep a folder in the computer which had all "Friends of Free Genealogy" which includes names, date, email and copy of the data sent. Most photos are family pictures, others are cited. All maps and county data are from Wikipedia.
Here at Genealogy Trails, we will always give contributors the credit they deserve when they contribute data to our sites. And we will ALWAYS abide by a researcher's request to remove their contributed data if ever asked to do so. THIS APPLIES TO ALL COUNTIES AS WELL.