For centuries Native Americans have been coming to these pure, flowing hot water springs for rest and healing. Legend tells that they called this area Peace Valley. They agreed to lay down their weapons when they sojourned here, believing that the land and the waters were for everyone to share and could not be owned. In the 1860s, prospector James Riley chanced upon the springs and filed a land and water rights claim. In 1864, he built a crude bathhouse and tavern. When Riley succumbed to smallpox in 1882, new owners built a small, more fashionable hotel. In 1891, it was remodeled and enlarged in the Queen Anne style and boasted fifty-two rooms, electricity, facilities for invalids, a resident physician, gymnasium, and various entertainments. Between 1910 and 1913, the present bathhouse, east wing and an addition at the west were built. The older building was also remodeled with raised parapets and a covering of stucco, creating a grand hotel in the present California Mission style. Opulent interior appointments included Tiffany glass lighting, beamed ceilings, and hand-stenciled walls in the Arts and Crafts tradition. Under various names and owners, Boulder Hot Springs has catered to a widely varying clientele. Architecturally significant as vintage Queen Anne remodeled to a newer style, Boulder Hot Springs is the last vestige of the many large-scale hot spring retreats that provided respite and recreation to early Montanans.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Swiss miner Peter Wys discovered the lucrative silver veins of the Elkhorn Mine that would eventually yield $14 million. After Wys died in 1872, Helena entrepreneur Anton M. Holter and partners developed the Elkhorn Mine. Holter sold out to an English syndicate circa 1888 and the mining camp flourished into the 1890's. At its peak, the community housed more than 2,500 residents and three passenger trains arrived weekly on the Northern Pacific's branch line. In 1893, the Fraternity Hall Association incorporated to build the town's architectural and social center. Fraternity Hall was aptly named: the town's various fraternal organizations, including the Masons, Oddfellows, and Knights of Pythias, shared its upstairs lodge room. The popular hall was the heart of the community. Here dances, traveling theatrical troupes, graduations, prize fights, and other public gatherings bound citizens together. Fraternity Hall's outstanding architecture reflects the Greek Revival style. Its false front is common to mining camps across the west. The sophisticated neo-classical style balcony above the entry, however, is unique. Elaborate ornamentation at the roofline recalls elements crafted of stone or brick in more urban places, but here adapted to readily available wood. The Silver Panic of 1893 impacted Montana's silver industry and by 1897, the mines had begun to play out. Although it operated off and on into the twentieth century, the death knell sounded when the Northern Pacific removed its tracks in 1931. Remarkably well-preserved, Fraternity Hall has endured time, neglect, and heavy snows to become one of Montana's most photographed buildings.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of Interior.

In cooperation with the Montana Historical Society www.montanahistoricalsociety.org

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

In 1888, Jefferson County voters passed a $40,000 bond issue to build a permanent courthouse. Flourishing gold and silver mines and the advent of the railroad meant the county would see its population quadruple between 1870 and 1890, and there looked to be no end to the boom. Seeking a building that mirrored their confidence in the future, county commissioners hired Montana Territory’s most noted architect, the German-born and trained John Paulsen, to draw up plans. Paulsen reflected the young settlement’s ambitions with this Richardsonian Romanesque style building. Inspired by the enduring structures of the Middle Ages, the style particularly appealed to frontier communities that wanted to assert their staying power. The massive courthouse features a tall square tower capped by an octagonal spire and two turrets. It also boasts the semi-circular arches, rough-cut stone accents, and asymmetrical roofline that typify Richardsonian Romanesque. Gargoyles at the building’s corners, perched just below the eaveline, add a touch of whimsy. Contractor J. S. McKenzie built the two-story monument from locally quarried granite and bricks burned within a mile of the construction site. The interior features elaborate woodwork, including decorative door and window trim and an ornately carved staircase. In the courtroom itself, walls rise twenty feet to a ceiling of stained beams and planking. Completed the year Montana achieved statehood, the building ultimately cost the county approximately $50,000 (an estimated $1.1 million in today’s dollars). Built for the ages, it is one of the oldest courthouses in Montana still used for its original purpose.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Montana pledged its commitment to children with disabilities in 1887 when Territorial Governor Preston Leslie requested funds for a Montana Deaf and Dumb Asylum. Its title, although shocking by today’s standards, reflects accepted nineteenth-century terminology and attitudes. Upon statehood in 1889, Congress granted Montana 50,000 acres of land to raise funds for the school. The 1893 legislature provided operating expenses and chose Boulder as the site. Students attended classes in a private home while the school built this first campus building, begun in 1896 and completed in 1898. Despite its formidable name, the school offered innovative college-preparatory instruction and training for deaf and blind youth. In 1903, the state legislature changed the name to the Montana School for the Deaf and Dumb, thereby acknowledging that it was not an “asylum,” but rather a public school for children with special needs. By 1915, additional buildings increased the campus capacity to 200 students, who ranged from ages 5 to 20. By this time its mission had expanded to include educating developmentally disabled youth. Until the 1930s, this building served numerous purposes as the center of activities, housing for students and staff, and dining rooms. Blind students learned various manual industries and deaf students learned lip-reading in addition to the usual public school curriculum. The school also offered an extensive music program. State architect John C. Paulsen designed the building of local brick and granite, appropriately trimmed in Montana copper. The blending of Italianate and Renaissance revival styles, and its long institutional service, mark this Boulder landmark as a state milestone.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The trusses on this structure were salvaged from the "Hubbard" or "Red" Bridge. The original structure was built by the Gillette-Herzog Manufacturing Company in 1899. The company was one of several Minnesota-based bridge construction firms active in Montana fro the late 19th century to the early 1920's. The bridge was one of eight pin-connected Pratt through truss spans built by the company over a ten year period beginning in 1891. It provided access to Boulder from the rich mining and ranching operations located on the west side of the river. The design of this structure represents an accord between local citizens wanting to preserve some aspects of the original bridge, while providing a structure that could accommodate modern traffic needs. The new bridge represents the best of late 19th century and late 20th century technologies.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.