Harlowton
Travel
Montana
Harlowton
Directory Listings
A view from 1939:
HARLOWTON, (4,167 alt, 1,473 pop), seat of Wheatland
County, is hidden by river bluffs until the road makes a
turn and a descent about a mile from town. At the top of
the hill is the Graves Hotel built in 1909 of stone quarried
from the nearby rim rocks. The town's presence is first revealed
by the concrete cylinders of a flour mill. The road turns
right into the main street at the base of the hill. Local
stone has been used in a number of buildings here. The town
overlooks
the Musselsheil River and is protected to some extent from
the almost continual northerly winds by the river bluffs.
Many houses on the west side are perched on the very edge
of the river-bank.
Harlowton was named for Richard Harlow, who built the "Jawbone
Line" . It is a division point on
the C. M. St. P. & P. R. R., whose electrified section
begins here, and whose shops and yards provide much local
employment. The flour mill, outstanding for this region,
has 22 storage tanks with a capacity of 25,000 bushels each,
and the daily output is 950 barrels of flour and large quantities
of poultry and stock feeds. The town is the trading center
for a steadily productive sheep and cattle region.
The Rene La Brie Arrowhead Collection (open on application;
inquire at the Times Bldg., Main St.) contains more than
1,000 arrowheads gathered over a period of 15 years. It is
not completely catalogued, but includes most of the styles
of points known to archeologists—the slender, fluted
Folsom, the "Folsomlike," the Yuma, and many others.
The range of size and types is as interesting as the variety
of flints and other materials. Most of the points were found
on Indian campgrounds, but many were obtained by laboriously
screening tons of dirt from piskuns. Many of the Folsom and
Yuma points were found buried near bones of mammoths, ground
sloths, camels, and prehistoric horses. La Brie also has
axes obtained by Indians from early fur traders, stones used
for pounding pemmican, stones used in ceremonial games, war
clubs, skinning knives, fleshers, pipe reamers, and medicine
bowls.
The W. F. Almquist Firearms Collection (open on application;
inquire at the Times Bldg., Main St.) is another valuable
uncatalogued collection built up over a period of years.
Some of the pieces, such as the Kentucky muzzle-loading rifles,
have great beauty of workmanship. Others, such as the dragoon
pistols and pepper-box revolvers, have more purely antiquarian
interest. Most of the pieces have historical associations;
many played a part in the making of Montana—the original
derringer, the early Sharps, the Spencer, first repeating
rifle, the first Colt revolver, and the Winchester. A number
of the guns are in bad condition.
Source: Montana: A State Guide Book; Compiled and Written
by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration
for the State of Montana; September, 1939
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