Meagher County was one of the original counties in Montana and encompassed the majority of central Montana. White Sulphur Springs, the county seat, was named for the white deposits around the hot sulphur springs in the area. The Indians came to the area for the benefits of the “medical waters”. They were also able to hunt and gather food throughout the area. Remnants of teepee rings can be found still today.

James Brewer’s first cabin in the Smith River Valley, at a spot later call Trinity Springs, was the only house on the East Side of the Belt Mountain Range or east of Diamond City. Flathead Indians told him of the “hottest white Sulphur springs” close by, and it was to this spot that Brewer then moved. By 1872 he had constructed a bathhouse with three single bathrooms and one 12′ X 12′ plunge. Baths cost 75 cents-whiskey was extra. The hotel a short distance to the north was made up of a cluster of individual cabins, all constructed of logs with dirt roofs. Guests came from the Missouri Valley, Helena, Ft. Benton and Camp Baker.

In 1876, James Brewer sold 50 percent of his holdings to Dr. Parberry who later acquired the remainder. Postal service was established in that year and “Brewer’s Springs” became “White Sulphur Springs,” by order of the Post Office Department after Brewer’s sale to Parberry. Parberry’s townsite was located in 1878. Two years later, White Sulphur Springs replaced Diamond City as the county seat.

The county seat had a population of 800 people and listed 218 taxpayers in 1898. Jonas Higgins once said of the town that “business is conducted by one large store, two drug stores, two drug livery stables, one harness shop, one meat market, a saloon or two and then some, a good newspaper and two first class banks.”

Mineral water was at one time bottled for shipment to many parts of the United States by the Montana Mineral Water Company. Indians roaming through the county were the first to recognize the medicinal value of the springs. They would stop to bathe in the “Wampum Waters” (Wampum translates roughly as “good” or “beneficial”.) Many tribes, including the Flathead, Blackfeet and Crow, came here to use these waters to heal their sick. Since some were warring tribes, a form of truce was worked out and this valley became a neutral ground, a Valley of Peace. It was permissible to kill your enemy on the other side of the mountains, but not here. Here you had to co-exist, be peaceful, and share the healing waters.

Trivia:

Dirk Benedict (born Dirk Niewoehner) is an American movie, television and stage actor, perhaps best known for playing the characters Lt. Templeton “The Faceman” Peck in The A-Team television series and Lieutenant Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica movie and television series. He was born in Helena, Montana, and grew up in White Sulphur Springs, Montana.

On August 17, 1959 at 11:37 p.m. (MST) the ground began to shake roughly 10 miles to the northwest of West Yellowstone in Madison Canyon resulting in the strongest and deadliest earthquake to ever strike Montana — It caused a huge landslide that blocked the flow of the Madison river, caused 28 fatalities, and created ‘Quake Lake’.

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The U.S. Weather Bureau reported at the time that the quake lasted 30–40 seconds. During the earthquake the surrounding landscape dropped as much as 20 feet and shock waves caused numerous seiches to surge across Hebgen Lake for 12 hours. Water pushed by the seiches poured over the dam which did not collapse. Several aftershocks ranging from 5.8 to 6.3 were reported after the quake.

The earthquake struck in Madison Canyon, an area to the west of Yellowstone National Park. Several nearby campgrounds were occupied by vacationing campers and tourists at the time.

State Highway 287 slumped into Hebgen Lake — Although magnitude estimates for the 1959 earthquake vary (the United States Geological Survey recorded the quake at both 7.3 and 7.5, now calculated by the ISC as 7.2 Mw) the 1959 earthquake is comparable to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake as one of the strongest earthquakes in North America, behind the 1964 magnitude 9.2 Good Friday earthquake in Alaska.

The 1959 earthquake is also the most severe earthquake in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States along with the 6.9 magnitude earthquake which struck Idaho in 1983. The landslide caused by this quake was the largest since an earthquake in Wyoming in 1925 caused a landslide amounting to 50 million cubic yards of rock and debris that left 28 people dead.

The death toll from the quake was also the highest since the 1925 earthquake and most recent for the Northwestern United States since an earthquake in 1927 that left seven people dead. The 1959 earthquake was also the most damaging earthquake to occur in Montana since the 1935–36 earthquakes that left four people dead. The Hebgen Lake area also experienced earthquakes again in 1964, 1974, 1977 and 1985.

New geysers and cracks sprouted up in nearby Yellowstone National Park. Near Old Faithful, the earthquake damaged the Old Faithful Inn, forcing guests there to evacuate.

Landslides caused by the quake blocked a road between Mammoth and Old Faithful, damaging a bridge inside the park. There was one reported injury when a woman broke her wrist. The earthquake also created fault scarps as high as 20 feet, causing extensive damage to roads, homes, and buildings. In Belgrade, Montana the earthquake damaged measuring equipment placed in a 100-foot water well. The quake also knocked out telephone communications between Bozeman and Yellowstone, with the city of Bozeman itself suffering moderate quake damage to homes and buildings. Buildings at the Montana State University campus also sustained quake damage. In Butte, the quake caused a pendulum clock to stop at 12:42 a.m.(MST) and caused minor damage to homes.

Areas around Hebgen Lake were also affected as the quake caused parts of the lake to rise eight feet. Roads and highways running along the shores of the lake collapsed into the water. In Ennis, most residents were evacuated due to concern Hebgen Lake might flood the town. The evacuation was subsequently called off when it became known the landslide had blocked the river’s flow. In West Yellowstone, the earthquake damaged a courthouse and a railroad station.