Belt Museum Inc.

01/08/2026

Prototype

01/08/2026

08/23/2025

Old West drink tokens were coin-like objects used in saloons and bars during the 19th century, often issued as a form of currency for drinks. They allowed patrons to pay for future drinks or receive change, helping establishments manage the scarcity of minted coins at the time."

According to duck duck go web browser AI via Wikipedia & HistoryNet

08/16/2025

From the Belt Valley Times on April 4, 1895

A Bad Man With a Gun Shoots Deputy Sheriff McLeod White in the Discarge of his Duty.

The Prisoner Comes Very Near Being Lynched. - The Deputy Resting Well and May Recover.

One of the most cowardly crimes and attempted murder that has yet occurred in thes country was the shooting of Deputy Sheriff McLeod Sunday night by Bill Hall.

Hall, who is well known hereabouts having worked around the stage company’s stable and lately working on Jack Jughes’ ranch, came to town Sunday and during the afternoon got into a quarrel with his employer, Jack Hughes. At about 7:30 in the evening the two men were quarrelling in front of Hoe Howson’s old stand when Hughes struck Hall, the latter falling into the alleyway….

Hall got up and uplled a gun saying “I’ll kill the S— of a b—.” Hughes, seeing the gun, called Deputy Sheriff McLeod’s attention to the fact and the latter started into the alley to disarm him.

When within a few feet of him Hall raised the gun and pulled the trigger, the ball striking the deputy in the lower part of the neck, just grazing gthe breast bone and ulnar vein, and continuted in a downward course, piercing the top of one lung lodging somewhere in the back.

McLeod turned and walked to his room in the Castner hotel after directing someon to seize Hall.

Constable Moran arrived upon the scene at this time and arrested the would-be murderer, disarmed him and took him to the deputy sheriff’s office where he was soon droned hand and foot and as there talk of lynching, the constable transferred his man to Schmidt’s livery stable for safe keeping and later started with him to Great Falls, arriving there at 2 o’clock Monday morning.

As soon as it was discovered that the sheriff was shot a messenger hastended for a doctor and Dr. Primm was soon on the scene and did all in his power to relieve the suffering man. Dr. Chamberlain arrived soon aftern and both awaited the arrival of Dr. Ferguson of Great Falls. It was impossible to locate the ball and the doctor decided to have the patient removed to the hospital in Great Falls, which was done, the party going by private conveyance, arriving there at about 2 o’clock Monday afternoon. At last accountsthe unfortunate man was resting comfortably and although the wound is a serious character there is no immediate danger unless blood poisoning swets in.

The people were so incensed that for a time it was feared that the prisoner would be strung up without ceremony, but wiser counsel prevailed and the excitement subsided.

Hall was arraigned in the police court in Great Falls Monday morning and pleaded guilty to assult with a deadly weapon and attempt to commit murder. His bonds were fixed at $5,000. Parties who witnessed the shooting say that Hall was not drunk, although he had been drinking.

Dunc McLeod is one the best known and most popular men this section and had his case proved fatal before the prisoner was removed, it is safe to say that there would have been another tragedy.

08/09/2025

The sudden influx of people into the mining camp prompted the establishment of the first bank, which was a private institution, established in 1895 with a capital of $10,000 under the name Bank of Belt. Gold T. Curtis and H.J. Skinner, both from the First National Bank of Great Falls, were president and vice-president, and L.O. Risser, cashier. Risser was the bookeeper for the Castner Coal & Coke Company when he accepted the position of cashier and manager of the Belt Bank.

Source: Belt Valley History 1877-1979 text by Eva Lesell Stober

The building was located on Castner St. At the location of the parking lot in front of the present day Belt Valley Grocery.

08/09/2025

In the Belt Valley Times on December 24, 1896

Matt Hill got a little to much payday whiskey and attempted to depopulate the tenderloin district. He succeeded in leaving his trade mark at various places before sheriff McLeod got his hands on him.

The next morning, Hill presented a $50 gift to the county and Judge Fitzgerald called it square.

J.E. Sheridan - Editor
R.H. Bemis - Business Manager

08/09/2025

From the Belt Valley Times on April 29, 1897

CAPTURED AN EAGLE
Last Sunday Ben Watkins and another man were playing “crack-a-loo” using a 20 dollar gold piece.

When “A young hanger on who gave his name as George Teddy, happened into the saloon about this time, and seeing the shiner laying on the floor, picked it up and darted down the road.

Deputy sheriff McLeod was at once notified of the theft and surmising that the gold bug would make for the hill and board a train just pulling out, he jumped on a horse and rode up town, where he succeeded in capturing the lover of the yellow metal.

Teddy had $14 in his possession when he was arrested.

Monday, he appeared before judge Fitzgerald, although the judge is a strong advocate of free silver, and consequently not partial to goldbugs, he was lenient with the believer in free gold and let him off with 60 days in jail.

J.E. Sheridan - Editor
R.H. Bemis - Business Manager

Historical Context for this story:

According to Merium Webster, Crack-a-loo is a gambling game in which players toss up coins and consider the winner the one whose coin falls and rests nearest to a crack in the floor.

The 1897 Liberty Head 20 dollar Gold Coin was designed by James B. Longacre and was struck by the Philadelphia and San Francisco mints.

20 dollars in the year 1897 would be the equivalent of 750 dollars today so that when George Teddy was caught by Sheriff McLeod with 14 dollars on him, he had burned through the equivalent of 225 current day dollars in the short period of time from when he snatched the gold piece to his capture.

A prime example of the efficiency of the saloon keepers and merchants of the Black Diamond City, as the unincorporated mining camp of Belt was known, at extracting the coal miners hard earned wages as they extracted coal from the mines of the Great Falls Coal field.

The Editorial pages of the Belt Valley times proclaimed that Belt was a free silver town.

According to Wikipedia, Free silver was a major economic policy issue in the United States in the late 19th century.

Its advocates were in favor of an expansionary monetary policy featuring the unlimited coinage of silver into money on demand, as opposed to strict adherence to the more carefully fixed money supply implicit in the gold standard

Free silver became increasingly associated with populism, unions, and the struggle of ordinary Americans against the bankers, monopolists, and robber barons of the Gilded Age.

08/08/2025

The Belt Museum's Historic Belt Jail Preservation Program ensures that the Belt Jail remains on the National Register of Historic Places Inventory.

The building measures 28' 4" by 30' 4". 4". The exterior walls are of buff colored sandstone laid up in a random ashlar pattern. The stones on the front (west) facade are larger than those of the side and rear walls. The exterior walls are over a foot thick.

The window sills and lintels are rough faced dressed stones, as is the lintel of the single centrally located doc The roof is built of rough sawn 2 by 8's. These are standing on edge and nailed together to form a solid roof. The roof is a slightly pitched shed roof with a built-up roof covering. The front facade has two tall rectangular barred windows, one on each side of the single doorway. There are no openings on the sides of the building.

The three cell windows on the rear wall are horizontal rectangular barred units and are set high up on the wall near the roof.

08/03/2025

The Belt Museum's History Education & Community Engagement Programs provide residents and visitors to the town of Belt with educational and volunteer museum docent programs that focus on creating public awareness of historic names, places and notable community milestones that have taken place in the Belt community in the 19th-20th Century.

08/02/2025

According to "Belt Valley History 1877-1979" by Eva Luselle Stober

"In 1891 Marcus Daly, head of Anaconda Mining Company, asked P.J. Shields to scout Montana for coal. In Great Falls Shields, hearing of the large deposits of coal near the Little Belt Mountains, took the stage to Belt where he found a stage station, small store, saloon, and blacksmith shop...Shields found outcroppings of coal on hillsides on each side of Belt Creek and suggested to Marcus Daly that he acquire the property, which was mostly government land." John Castner had been mining coal in Belt for over 10 years by then his operation was the Castner Coal and Coke Company.

By 1895, Marcus Daly had purchased Castner's mining operation in Belt and folded into his Anaconda Copper Mining [ACM] Company. "The peak years for production & employment in the ACM mine were 1896, 1897, and 1898. An average number of 1000 men mined an average number of 2500 tons daily during those years."

08/02/2025

From the Belt Valley Times on September 9, 1897

Belt history and merchants supplement

Belt, the famous “Black Diamond City of Montana,” is one or the most substantial towns in the state.

It is eligibly located in the Belt Valley, in the very midst of one of the greatest coal regions of the United States, and surrounded by a vast swill of compact and well defined mountain foothils of which are natural hay and grazing land. Affording perfect stock ranges and sheep pastures. Thus, the trade of Belt has been legitimate growth the town never having the inflation of a (boom) bubble woing to it’s diversified resources, and everything that has been put in town will remain here for its own welfare.

The spring of ’93, with Mr J.K Castner’s old log tavern, Mr. E.R. Clingan’s log store, D. McLeod’s pioneer livery stable, Ed Dougherty’s log cabin saloon and Harry Millard’s log hut, togethere with a few primitive dugouts, saw the nucleus of the town. Even at that recent date, coal mining has comparatively in it’s infancy, being conducted on a very small scale the output being teamed to Ft. Benton.

The metamorphosis began at teh advent of the railroad in thew same year (93) when the Neihart train on it’s way to the ilver camps would drop off a few coal cars here, and by fall the then straggling village showed considerable animation, many additional residents joining the original quitette of pioneers.

By the time the little burg contained about 75 souls; now in ’97, our thriving and wide-awake town reaches a handsome population of over 4,000 inhabitants.

The following year (1894) the Anaconda Copper Mining company started to develop their coal mining interests here, which has grown to enourmous proportions.