Turned porch supports, elaborately carved brackets, a baluster frieze, and decorative cresting along the roofline ornament this gable-front-and-wing residence. Railroads brought these precut architectural elements to small towns along their tracks, allowing builders to personalize homes. According to local sources, Edgar Camp built this home in old Laurel, likely as part of his real estate business. Abraham and Carrie Erb purchased the house circa 1907, cutting it in two to transport it to their farm adjacent to the recently platted new Laurel. The Erbs set the home onto a cast concrete block foundation. Simple and inexpensive to manufacture, cast concrete was virtually unheard of in 1900, but the decorative material had become popular soon after, particularly for foundations. During his residence, Abraham farmed and briefly owned an implement store. Carrie was active in the local woman’s club, a moving force behind creating Laurel’s library. After Abraham’s untimely death in 1916, Carrie hired a man to work the farm; the bunkhouse dates from that time. She also took a job directing the new library, which she had helped found. Even so, Carrie had to rent rooms to make ends meet, particularly during the depression. In 1930, she and her two children shared the home with a railroad worker, his wife, and their seven children, ages seven to six months. Carrie retired from the library at age seventy-seven in 1951. She resided here until her death in 1966. Family members continued to live here until 2002.

As soldiers and warriors exchanged fire here at the Canyon mouth, most of the Nez Perce were escaping up a side canyon to the plateau above. The US Army incurred too many casualties to pursue. At the base of the butte near the cottonwoods they established a field hospital to care for the wounded.

Although the Nez Perce blunted the armies attack here, this proved to be a costly victory. In the country ahead, the Crow people declined to help the Nez Perce and stole their horses. This further slowed the Nez Perce. With Canada so close but more of the military joining the pursuit, the Nez Perce could not afford to lose time.

Erected by USDI National Park Service.

Soldiers were elements from the Seventh and First Cavalry and the Fourth Artillery. Col. Samuel Sturgis commanding. Casualties; Three dead, eleven wounded.

Indians engaged wee the Nez Perce triple, escaping from their reservation and fleeing to Canada, Leader Chief Joseph.

The Indians crossed the Yellowstone River, east of Laurel, burned a stage station on Canyon Creek and cut spokes from stagecoach's wheels for use as quirt handles. They proceeded to this point, were they met and fought the Sturgis command in the area south of this marker.

Erected 1958 by Yellowstone Historical Society.

American auto tourists took to the roads in record numbers in the 1930s. To lure these tourists to Montana, the state highway department's Robert Fletcher developed an ambitious promotional program. It included publication of the first "official" highway map of 1934, the creation of a highway historical marker program in 1935, and a chain of roadside museums, constructed by the highway department but staffed and maintained by local chambers of commerce. The Laurel Roadside Museum was the only museum completed under the program.

Constructed in 1938, the log building housed the police station in one room, and the museum, which featured fossils, dioramas, and buffalo head mount, in the other. Throughout the years, it has served as police headquarters, justice court, information center and meeting place for chamber boards. Remodeled in 1999, it stands as it is today.

Erected by Laurel Chamber of Commerce.

The Northern Pacific Railroad steamed through the Yellowstone Basin in 1883, passing the small agricultural community of Carlton. The town was renamed Laurel, and a post office opens there in 1886

The Rocky Fork Railroad, an affiliate of the Northern Pacific, built a branch line to Red Lodge in 1889. The new Laurel was laid out as a typical railroad town; businesses sprang up along Main Street parallel to the tracks.

In 1906, Laurel incorporated. The Laurel Sentinel proudly invited the world to "watch Laurel grow" while boosters urged investors to come to Laure where "a sure thing" awaited them.

By 1914, the Northern Pacific; Chicago, Burlington and Quincy; and the Great Northern railroad converged at Laurel. The town became the leading terminal between St. Paul, Minnesota and Seattle, Washington.

Erected by Laurel Chamber of Commerce.

Captain William Clark provided the first documentation of what is now called Laurel, Montana on July 24, 1806 while encamped at the mouth of the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River. His mark, documented on the map that day, projected what he considered to be the absolute best location for start up and ongoing commerce in the area.

To the west from where we stand, Clark camped on what the old timers called Clark's Bottom. Up the river, 2 dug-out canoes were made, the food supplies were replenished, and half the parties horses were stolen.

Erected by Laurel Chamber of Commerce.

The park links a series of widely separated sites of deep significance to the Nez Perce historic villages, battlefield, and legends sites. The park experience involves a journey across both time and territory. Although firmly connected to homeland, the Nez Perce are a dynamic people who for thousands of years travel seasonally between the prairies and river valleys. This lifestyle was interrupted in 1877. Treaties forced bands from their homes in Oregon and Idaho, and war erupted.

Today those events are commemorated by the 1,170-mile Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail.

Together, the park and the trail tell the story of an encounter between two strong nations, from the 1805 meeting with Lewis and Clark, to the conflicts that led to the 1877 war, to the divisions and healing processes going on today. They provide opportunities to view our shared history of this landscape through a different lens.

Erected by National Park Service.

This historic bell is from Laurel's North School, which stood between 1909 and 1969 on the 700 block of 1st Avenue. The school's 1908 corner stone stands behind the bell.

The bell was placed in the Chamber of Commerce's garden bed in care of the Laurel Garden Club, by then council member, Gay Easton, in 2004

Laurel School Board voted in 2017 to keep the bell in the chamber's garden bed. Now all the public, past and present students can be aware of its existence and accessibility.

Erected by Laurel Chamber of Commerce.

In June 1877, several bands of the Nez Perce, resisting relocation from their native lands in northeast Oregon to a reservation in North-Central Idaho, attempted to escape to the east through Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming over the Rocky Mountains into the Great Plains. By September, the Nez Perce had traveled nearly one thousand miles and fought several battles in which they defeated or held off the U.S. Army forces pursuing them.

At Canyon Creek, the Nez Perce held off and escaped from a cavalry force outnumbering them at least two to one. However, the loss of about 400 horses to the Crow scouts was a blow as it placed an additional burden on their remaining and increasingly worn-out horses and slowed their flight toward Canada.

The Friends of Canyon Creek, a Laurel organization, have built a wayside interpretive shelter near the mouth of the Canyon Creek Canyon, approximately 7 miles north of Laurel, where much of the conflict took place.

Erected by Laurel Chamber of Commerce.

The first coast-to-coast auto route across the northern tier of states.

Motto: A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound.

Before 1912

Railroads dominated long distance transportation. Local road were dust and mud. There was little help from government so owners of the newly arrived autos rose to the challenge.

1912

Small towns businessmen from South Dakota formed the Yellowstone Trail Association to "get out of the mud" and to pressure counties to build usable automobile roads. They named the transcontinental auto road Yellowstone to draw tourists along it to the national park. Roads and autos were crude and travel was tough, With no maps tourists relied on guide books and yellow rocks to find their way.

1915

The Yellowstone Trail was extended from chicago (sic) to Seattle and, by 1917, to Boston. Yellow and black signs were posted across the country. The Association promoted the opening of Yellowstone National Park to auto travel.

Until 1930

Hundreds of towns supported the famous Yellowstone Trail. The

Association created free campgrounds, travel bureaus, and publications to help the travelers.

1930

Route numbering (now an international system but created by the State of Wisconsin in 1918) reduced the need for named roads. Then the Depression spelled the end for all trail associations.

Erected by Yellowstone Trail Association.