Distinctly Montana Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.distinctlymontana.com/i/1220199
D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 0 90 G E T T O K N O W A C O U N T Y S A N D E R S C O U N T Y O N FEBRUARY 7TH, 1905, THE MONTANA LEGISLATURE SPLIT OFF NORTHWESTERN MISSOULA COUNTY TO CREATE SANDERS COUNTY, HONORING WILLIAM FISK SANDERS, WHO PROBABLY NEVER VISITED THE AREA. Sanders came west with his uncle, Sidney Edgerton, Montana's first territo- rial governor. Edgerton spent only a couple of years in Montana, but Sanders made the new Territory and then State of Montana his life's work. He helped organize the Vigilance Committee, putting an end to Virginia City's lawlessness, then served in the territorial legislature and was the first senator from the new State of Montana. President of the Montana Historical Society for thirty years, and a founding member of the Society of Montana Pioneers, Sanders died on July 7th, 1905, exactly five months after having the new county named in his honor. While the county covers 2,762 square miles, most of the almost 12,000 county residents live in a narrow canyon along the banks of the Clark Fork River, between the Coeur d'Alene Range of the Bitterroot Moun- tains to the south and the Cabinet Mountains to the north. Montana Highway 200, recently designated The Road to the Buffalo, parallels three rivers for 115 miles from Idaho to the Lake County Line. This is the canyon that Glacial Lake Missoula cut when it poured out of Montana. Perhaps the most famous resident of Sanders County is David Thompson. Sent by the British Crown with the aim of beating Lewis and Clark to the Pacific, Thompson has been described as the most important geographer you've never heard of. He founded a trading post near the town that bears his name, Thompson Falls, the seat of Sanders County, and many other county features are named after him. The county has two incorporated cities, Thompson Falls and Plains, and one incorporated town, Hot Springs. There are thirteen census-designated places as well, including Heron and Noxon at the county's western end, and ten unincorpo- rated communities. Quinn's Hot Springs THOMPSON FALLS text and photos by BRYAN SPELLMAN