Time Line
Flathead Indian Reservation
1910 - 1919
 

Chief Charlo, painted by Edgar Paxon in 1910.

Chief Charlo died.

A Dance in the Forest, 1910 by Edward S. Curtis.

Edward S. Curtis arrived on the Flathead reservation to document the culture for his massive work, the North American Indian. The work took 26-years to complete. He took more than forty thousand photographs, collected more than 350 traditional tales, and made more than ten thousand recordings of Indian speeches and music. His interest was not in documenting the contemporary lives of Indians, but in depicting the past. He staged his photographs, sometimes paying subjects to enact events for him in traditional dress. Edward S. Curtis collections at the Library of Congress.

R. F. Vinson began running daily stages between Dixon and Polson. The trip took twelve hours in a Concord Tourist Wagon, the "Cadillac" of stagecoaches. The first gravel road was built from Arlee to Polson, with convict labor. A cut from this road can still be seen just west of today's Highway 93 on the south slope of Ravalli Hill.

The city of Polson was incorporated. It had three banks, four hotels, two churches, eight rooming houses, one steam laundry, one electric light plant, one water works system, three grain warehouses, two department stores, two grocery stores, three general merchandise stores, one jewelry store, one photograph gallery, three secret societies, one chamber of commerce, two weekly newspapers, one moving picture show, three blacksmith shops, one woodworking factory, five lumber yards, one saw mill, four restaurants, three billiard halls, two harness shops, three hardware and implement stores, four physicians, four lawyers, one drug store, one soft drink bottling company, one undertaker, two furniture stores, two telephone companies, three livery stables, two express and stage lines, two paint and wall paper stores, three barber shops, two auto stage lines, and two steamboat lines.

Construction of the first bridge across the Flathead River in Polson began. As it neared completion, a controversy erupted as to whether it would connect with B Street or C Street on the Polson side of the river. Eventually, it was constructed with a "Y" approach connecting to both streets.

Polson's first power plant was built near Koss Landing (now Kwu-tuk-nuk). The wood-fired steam plant furnished power to main street and a few businesses but no power to residential streets. The lights were turned off at midnight.

A land rush ensued when unclaimed homestead lots were opened to entry at midnight. 1909 Presidential Proclamation Opening Flathead Reservation

Crops flourished in wild soil that had stored fertility and moisture, never having been cultivated: grain and hay on a Dayton farm grew six feet high, a cabbage on a farm near Ronan weighed forty pounds, a potato crop near Elmo averaged over 230 bushels per acre, and a sage brush flat in the Little Bitterroot yielded over fifty bushels per acre of wheat. Beginning dryland farmers believed such yields might last. They did not. 

Polson telephone directory (a 6 x 12 sheet of cardboard) listed 39 businesses or professionals and 19 residences with telephones. The Telephone Company of Kalispell brought the first telephone lines to the valley, one from Kalispell and one from Missoula. It provided service from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Telegraph messages were received by the Western Union office in Kalispell and phoned to Polson, and outgoing messages were phoned to Polson then telegraphed to Kalispell.

The Polson Public School opened with four elementary school teachers.

The Ronan Public School opened. It was part of School District 28, which extended as far south as Missoula County and north to the section line north of Pablo, including an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.

A contract for construction of Pablo Reservoir south of Polson was awarded to Nelson Rich of Possner, Washington. Rich Bid $115,695 for Class A materials and $116,093 for Class B materials. It was anticipated that 400 men would be employed.

The town of Ronan, formerly known as Ronan Springs for the springs running through the north end of the settlement, was incorporated. It had been in operation since at least 1885. On the same day it was incorporated, citizens elected E. H. (Harvey) Rathbone, editor of the Ronan Pioneer, as the first mayor.

The Dewey sawmill began production in Polson.

Ronan fire, 1912. Courtesy Don Olsson.

The Ronan business district was decimated by a fire that left only four buildings standing west of Spring Creek: The Ronan Pioneer, Lemire Brothers Store, The J. F. O'Brien General Store, and a millinery shop. Buildings on the east side of the creek survived.

The Polson City Library began in the Gilliam Building with space offered by Mrs. D. J. Gilliam. The library opened with 100 books, many collected by women going door to door canvassing for book donations.

Polson General Hospital opened. Date also given as January 7, 1915.

First public flight by a hydro-aeroplane was made at the Narrows on Flathead Lake by T. T. Maroney. Maroney assembled his plane at Polson and flew it to Idlewild, an island at the Narrows.

Rancher Michel Pablo died.

St. Julian's Hospital in what was later Taelman Park in St. Ignatius opened with 10-12 beds. In 1921, the name was changed to Holy Family Hospital. A modern one-story building was built in 1962, with a 20 beds and a nursing home. In 1977, the hospital was sold to the community of St. Ignatius.

The Interior Department issued orders to sell lake shore villas, 2-5 acre tracts of reservation land. These were offered for sale at public auctions in Polson, Dayton and Kalispell between July 26 and August 7. The plan was to make the lake front "bloom like a rose." When the bids were opened, it was realized that most of the 899 lots offered for sale had been purchased by one man: Colonel White. White launched an ambitious and unsuccessful effort to resell the lots, which he had paid $15 an acre to purchase. He defaulted on his payments and in 1924 the Interior Department took back most of the lots. Several more years passed before most of the lake shore passed into private ownership.

A bumper crop of 417,000 bushels of grain was shipped by barge from elevators at Polson to the railroad at Somers. 

The Northern Pacific announced it would build a line northward from Dixon. By October 1917 track was being laid and in the middle of December the line reached Polson. This line would eventually connect to Somers and to the Great Northern Railway. There had been rumors and aborted attempts to get a line built for more than a decade. The use of trucks and automobiles was increasing rapidly, however, and the new railroad did not satisfy people's desire for fast efficient transportation, since the roads were still bad, unusable in snow or mud.

A fire destroyed the Sisters of Providence School in St. Ignatius. Another in 1922 razed the Ursuline School. Federal funds were cut and the high school closed in 1931. The Ursuline Academy was closed in 1972.

The Pablo Press produced its first issue. Editor E. F. Bales included photo engravings of scenic pictures and portraits of local residents. This was unusual for newspapers of that time.

Nine buildings were destroyed in St. Ignatius by a fire started when a cigarette was tossed to the floor in the Idle Hour Pool Hall. In addition to the pool hall, these buildings were destroyed: the Kimball Hotel, the St. Ignatius Post, the Mission Opera House, the Minute Lunch, the Mission Bakery, the C. J. Hoeschen Furniture Store (including an undertaker parlor and residential apartments), the Valley Meat Market, the drug store, and Dr. T. A. Matthew's office. Water was turned into the town from the St. Mary's Reservoir, and firefighters were able to save the Mission State Bank and the Holbert Hotel.

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