Thompson Falls, MT

06/19/2026

Excellent “Auto Age” exhibit at the Old Jail Museum in downtown T-Falls. Even if you can’t make it for this special event, check out the exhibit this summer. Preserving our town’s history depends on your support!

Come join us on Sunday, June 21st, from Noon to 4 pm for the Vintage Automobile Exhibit and visit the Old Jail Museum.

06/15/2026

This young white tail buck just about strolled into camp – before suddenly realizing maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Unlike its Town Deer cousins who wouldn’t hesitate to test boundaries, such as garden fences. —Photo by Walter J. Watson

06/11/2026

LOOKING BACK: Steam shovel at work in Thompson Falls, 1911

The Northern Pacific Railroad brought a steam shovel and crew of 50 men to Thompson Falls in May of 1911 to work on a variety of projects. Here, the steam shovel is excavating the embankment west of the depot to create space for an additional side track. Based on news reports at the time from the Sanders County Ledger, this photo was made by E.J. Frazier (who operated a photo studio here) in June of 1911.
The NPRR regularly used steam shovels along its line. After expanding the yard here, this steam shovel was moved to Woodlin (east of town) for more siding improvements.
In the background is the first house of worship built in Thompson Falls. The cornerstone for the Methodist Episcopal Church was laid on Oct. 24, 1905 at the corner of Preston Avenue and what later became Jefferson Street. The bell tower was 50 feet in height. Thompson’s first “resident pastor”, the Rev. Samuel Taylor, arrived in February, 1909. Today, the much-remodeled facility is home to Thompson Falls Community Congregational Church.
Also visible is the house at 616 W. Preston Ave. which was built in 1908 by Fred S. Hougland, a butcher and political activist who in 1911 was elected as the town’s first mayor – simply because he was not in attendance at the meeting!
On May 19, 1911, the Ledger reported: “Mayor F.S. Hougland has had several teams at work this week grading up the yard in front of his residence, taking advantage of the opportunity to secure dirt from the bank in front of his house before the steam shovel arrives to cut away the embankment.”
The house is also unique in that since it was built in 1908 it’s been owned by only two families: Hougland and Hopkins.
A few years after this photo was made, steam shovels like this one became an important component in the construction of the Thompson Falls hydroelectric dam project.

06/08/2026

High water on the Clark Fork River in northwestern Montana.

06/06/2026

BRIDGE NEWS: ‘Rehabilitation work’ on Hwy 200 bridge expected into November; bridge opened in 1960

Presenting a photo from September 1960 showing construction of the highway bridge just west of Thompson Falls, MT, and a photo from May 2026 with a bridge “rehabilitation” project underway.
Here in 2026, the Montana Department of Transportation and Hamilton Construction Co. began work in April on the Highway 200 bridge one mile west of Thompson Falls. Crews are working from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Automated traffic signals direct alternating single lane traffic. Wide loads, over 10 feet in width, must find an alternate route, according to MDOT. Mid-November is the project’s anticipated completion date.
Rehabilitation work includes repairing the bridge deck, refurbishing bridge joints, and asphalt mill/overlay of the roadway connection on either side of the bridge. Other work is to include resetting existing guardrail, and new pavement markings. The project’s goal is to extend the span’s life.

BRIDGE HISTORY
The bridge was constructed from 1958-1960 during a time when the Clark Fork River level was changing as the Noxon Rapids Dam hydroelectric project created what was then termed “Noxon Lake.” Also, the modern bridge replaced the narrow Birdland Bay Bridge (1928), although that small span remains in use today.
The 2026 photo is taken from the Prospect Creek Road looking easterly toward the bridge, with the eastbound lane currently closed.
The 1960 photo from Sanders County Ledger files is taken from the river’s west side looking toward Thompson Falls. The town dump had been located near the bridge’s eastern edge, just out of view here. At that time, garbage, appliances and other debris were simply tossed over the cliff with some of it ending up in the river. In 1956 the dump was relocated to the town’s eastern edge, and made into a “sanitary landfill.”
Construction of the Rimrock Café near the bridge’s east end was underway as the span was finished. The Rimrock opened Dec. 22, 1960 with a much-expanded business still in operation today.
The 1960 photo also shows the original Highway 10A and the Harlow Road, separated by the Northern Pacific Railroad tracks. The Prospect Creek Road is located at bottom right.

BRIDGE A BIG BOOST
In the 1950s, local support for the new highway bridge focused on its location near the Prospect Creek Road as boosting potential to improve the Thompson Pass connection with Idaho, rather than the alternative of either replacing the Birdland Bay Bridge in that location, or building a new highway bridge further out along Blue Slide Road.
The new bridge came into service when the timber industry was booming in Sanders County, and the lack of an overhead bridge structure (like at Birdland Bay Bridge) was considered a huge benefit for logging trucks.

(History compiled by Patrick J. Sullivan, Sanders County Historical Society volunteer and TFHS Class of 1977.)

06/02/2026

We stumbled upon this nest of a Spruce Grouse (Canachites canadensis) in a drainage near Thompson Falls, MT. A fella who has worked in the woods of Sanders County for 45 years has seen plenty of grouse, but never a grouse nest. We quickly backed away from the eggs, kept our distance, and the mama grouse returned.

05/25/2026

LOOKING BACK: Freight wagon at Northern Pacific depot, 1906

Presenting a scene from 1906: a freight wagon ready to leave the Northern Pacific Railroad depot in Thompson Falls, MT. A barn-type building existed on the property when the rails were laid through what was not yet a settlement in 1883. The railroad put the building to use as a warehouse. The NPRR initially established a depot on the Woodlin flats east of the falls, with plans for a locomotive roundhouse. (There are indications one was built, but no photo evidence exits). In early 1884 the NPRR relocated a depot to “downtown” Thompson which by then was booming with people waiting for the snow to melt for access into the newly-advertised placer mine diggings in North Idaho. The original barn converted into a depot/warehouse was used by the railroad until 1963.
Pictured here are (back row): Alden Bailey, Albert “Happy” Preston, Frank Hartman and Jack Tikler; (front row): Frank Preston and “Kentuck” Allen. The Preston family operated a livery business along what became Preston Avenue north of the tracks, so this is probably their wagon.

MORE ABOUT MEN IN THIS PHOTO
Mr. A. B. Bailey’s daughter was married to Frank Preston; Alden Bailey was Frank Preston’s brother-in-law. In February of 1907, with the temperature about zero degrees, Frank Preston saved the life of rancher A.B. Bailey and his son, Alden Bailey. The elder Bailey had arrived in town and went to the Clark Fork River’s edge to water his unhitched horses but miss-stepped on the ice and fell in. His son, Alden, tried to rescue him and also went into about 11 feet of water. Frank Preston saved them both.

MORE ABOUT FRANK HARTMAN
Frank Hartman, the son of a railroad worker, was employed by the Northern Pacific at Thompson Falls from 1905 to 1960. In the Ledger’s May 9, 1913 issue, it was reported that: “Frank Hartman, manager of the local office for the Western Union, went to Missoula Sunday evening, just to be riding on the varnished cars.” For railroad men of the time, the “varnished cars” is a dig at riding in passenger railcars instead of an employee’s usual trip in a locomotive or a caboose.
–Photo courtesy of Sanders County Historical Society

05/18/2026

Presenting a view of Thompson Falls, MT, from Clark Mountain (5,046 feet elevation) that one cannot acquire simply by standing on the ground. The town itself is at 2,419 feet above sea level. The Clark Fork River is flowing northwesterly alongside the Cabinet Mountains. —Photo courtesy of Clark Heater

05/13/2026

LOOKING BACK: New Chevrolet & Jeeps on display in Thompson Falls, 1965

The year 1965 in downtown Thompson Falls, MT, marked the full transition from “Gill-Adams, Inc., Chevrolet and Jeep” to “Westland Chevrolet” owned solely by Jim and Doris Taylor. Presenting here photos and a story from the May 13-14, 1965 “showcase” for new vehicles.

“I remember this like it was yesterday,” said Nick Taylor, Jim and Doris Taylor’s eldest son, TFHS Class of 1968. “Each year the new car announcement was an event for Thompson Falls. Heater and Heater [Ford dealers next door along Main Street] did their announcement simultaneously. There would be coffee and cookies, local businesses would send flowers, those plastic model cars would be handed out, and everyone would show up throughout the day to see the new cars.”

The new model year of vehicles arrived in town on a Northern Pacific train. The vehicles were unloaded and “we hid them in a warehouse by the middle rail crossing that Herschel Butte rented to us. It was important to keep them hidden so the debut would be exciting,” Nick recalled.

The new Chevrolet and Jeep models were backed in against the sidewalk along Main Street. Special models were inside on the showroom floor. Nick remembers that his mother was always “giddy” at these new model debuts.

GARAGE HISTORY
“This particular year [1965] was special because it was also the grand opening for my folks’ total ownership of Westland Chevrolet,” Nick recalled.

The building housing Westland Chevrolet was erected in 1917, the second building in town designed for an automobile-business with storage for 12 vehicles, starting with Ford then shifting to Chevrolet. Jim Adams became involved in 1929 later operating as Adams Garage. The business became Gill-Adams, Inc. in 1946 with Henry “Hank” Gill.

In 1956, James L. Taylor purchased Adams’ half of Gill-Adams, Inc. By year’s end, contractor Art Turk had the garage enlarged with concrete floors throughout, improved repair shop with hydraulic hoist, a new rear entrance, heating system and a new roof.

GRAND OPENING
The Taylors completed a buy-out of Hank Gill in June of 1964. The “grand opening” of Westland Chevrolet took place in May 1965, when a new line of vehicles was introduced.

The idea was to have at least one model of every new vehicle. Pictured here in one photo are (from left) a red El Camino light-duty pickup, a Chevy II station wagon, Jeep Wagoneer, a Biscayne sedan, Bel-Air sedan, a Suburban, a half-ton pickup and then a three-quarter ton pickup.

“I know the half-ton looks like a Suburban but if you zoom in you will see the back window of the pickup,” Nick Taylor observed. The photo shows other vehicles parked in the dealership’s lot.

According to advertisements in the Sanders County Ledger, the dealership in May of 1965 had 20 new cars and trucks and 30 used vehicles for sale.

Specifically for this 1965 model year was presented a red Malibu Super Sport, which Nick said, “Snitz Dufresne went ga-ga over.” The 1965 TFHS yearbook features a Westland Chevrolet sponsorship photo of Doris Taylor standing by that same car.

Photos from the 1965 Grand Opening line-up show a pair of Union 76 gas pumps out front. “One of dad's first moves was to lock up the gas pumps; he hated then,” Nick Taylor said.

A Taylor family photo of the dealership’s refreshment table includes, through the window, is Rich Wollaston next door at the Heater & Heater Ford garage pumping gas into his 1962 Chevy Impala Super Sport. Heater & Heater kept its front-door fuel pumps through the 1970s. This photo also shows the western access from Main Street to the railroad’s “middle crossing,” which was removed in the 1990s.

The Westland brand lasted into early 1980s, and a used auto dealer remained at the location through the 1990s. Here in 2026, the garage has been remodeled several times over and is now home to Limberlost Brewing Co.

--Photos courtesy of Sanders County Historical Society, and Nick Taylor. Research by Patrick J. Sullivan, TFHS Class of 1977.

05/05/2026

The Old Jail Museum opens for the season on Sunday, May 10, noon to 4 p.m. Along with the fur trade room, the revamped domestic/kitchen area, revamped Sheriff's Office and the second story cell block the featured exhibit this year is "The Automobile Age. "
The museum is located on South Madison Street in Thompson Falls and is open noon to 4 p.m. 7 days a week from May 10 through September 30.