Governor Schweitzer Announces New Book that Tells Stories behind Names of Montana Places

Picture this. You’re enjoying a Montana vacation, taking a road trip across the state. As you pass through Westby, the questions hit you: Just who decided that the most northeasterly town in Montana should be called Westby? Couldn’t the founders read a compass? Were they backward? Or did they just have a strange sense of humor?

If you’ve stashed a copy of Montana Place Names from Alzada to Zortman in your glove box, you’ll have the answers to those questions at your fingertips. Montana Place Names, a new book just released by the Montana Historical Society Press, is designed to be carried along on road trips, dog eared, marked up, and flipped through over and over again any time you get curious about Montana’s places.

“As a Montanan who travels across the state I often wonder how towns got their name,” said Governor Brian Schweitzer. “This is a great book to keep in the car. It provides a learning moment at nearly every Montana town and site.”

As you’ll find out by reading Montana Place Names, Westby actually began its life in 1903 in North Dakota, where indeed it was out west. The Danes who settled the area combined “West,” because it was the farthest west in North Dakota, and “by,” which is Danish for “town.”

But in 1914, the residents moved the town across the Montana border so they could be on the newly laid railroad tracks. The book gives one more fact: at the time Westby was moved, liquor was illegal in North Dakota and legal in Montana.

Besides Westby, more than 1,200 names of towns, geographic features, parks, and historic sites are included in Montana Place Names. The book includes easy-to-read maps and historic photographs of places across the state. Here are some more tidbits:

* Monida Pass, part of a 1860s stage line, linked the Bannock and Virginia City goldfields to Corrine, Utah. The first railroad into Montana was later built over the pass. Because it is on the border with Idaho, the “Mon” is for Montana and “ida” for Idaho.

* Grasshopper Glacier in Park County was named in 1914 when USGS mining engineer J. P. Kimball discovered thousands of grasshoppers frozen in the ice. Scientists believe the grasshoppers got caught in a sudden blizzard hundreds of years ago. The bugs are gradually disintegrating as the glacier thaws.

* Shelby came by its name in an ordinary way; Great Northern Railway and later Montana Central Railway general manager Peter P. Shelby lent his name to the town. But the book tells how one of the state’s most historic sporting events took place there in 1923 when famous heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey defeated Tommy Gibbons.

* Ringling, contrary to local legend, was never even temporary home to livestock of the Ringling Brothers Circus. In about 1910, John T. Ringling did buy a large ranch in Meagher County, but for other commercial purposes. However, singer Jimmy Buffett gave the town continued fame when he wrote the song “Ringling, Ringling” that includes the words “it’s a dying town.” Still on the map, though.

Montana Place Names is available in bookstores across the state, or can be ordered from the Montana Historical Society Store by calling toll-free 1-800-243-9900 or online at http://www.montanahistoricalsociety.org. The National Park Service provided financial support for the book.