Villages sprang up for dam builders

Lack of housing in North Dakota and Eastern Montana with the oil and pipeline boom reminded me of Hungry Horse Dam days. For example, General-Shea-Morrison had total employment of 1,900 employees at Hungry Horse dam site in 1949. Columbia Falls, a town with reputation of "no one born for 50 years" became a community of newcomers. And no houses.

Areas in vicinity now known as the Canyon suddenly had four new towns. Long established Coram, Lake Five community, Belton and Apgar plus surrounding areas had new inhabitants.

Vern Greene started the new town of Martin City and was always called Mayor Greene. Community soon grew with theater, main street lined with bars, active volunteer firemen, Lions Club, church and school.

Hungry Horse Village had new homes built for U.S. Bureau of Reclamation employees and families. Years later, most of these homes were sold with many moved to Columbia Falls.

GSM Town site, occupied by General-Shea-Morrison, general contractor's employees, soon became an active community. South Fork, near the Flathead River, included a new church. Glacier Bible Camp was later established below the town.

James Tolliver started first trailer park in Columbia Falls. Housing project was purchased by the city and moved from Oregon to area below Pinewood Park. First apartment tenants were required to be veterans.

Actually it had not been too many years since the road along Bad Rock Canyon had been improved. Discussions in 1928 showed cost estimated at $20,000 by the government. Flathead County commissioners agreed to pay $3,000. No one dreamed of future heavy travel usage. Great Northern trains provided transportation from Columbia Falls to Belton, Kalispell and Whitefish for many residents.

Henry Hutchings wrote his experiences from Belton in a Masonic Lodge history. It was too late for him to ride noon train from Belton to attend the evening meeting in 1912. So Henry caught a ride in a box car filled with tools on a work train. He handed out tools to workers during stops. Train arrived in Columbia Falls at 6 p.m.

The Galloping Goose came from Kalispell daily to meet Great Northern Railroad's main line trains. My dad, George T. Van, transferred from the main line to become conductor on the Galloping Goose in 1929. He had been sixth in seniority on list of passenger conductors on the Kalispell Division, service dating back to May 2, 1902. In addition, a bus later ran from Kalispell to provide transportation for Hungry Horse Dam workers and others.

Gladys Shay is a longtime resident and columnist for the Hungry Horse News.