Distinctly Montana Magazine

89 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m to Tiffany's who respond- ed asking for more of the same. Hoover had found a previously unknown form of sapphire. As Hoover was mining in the Yogo Gulch, his blue stones became known as Yogo Sapphires. Over the years, Distinct- ly Montana magazine has published several articles on the gem, so I won't go any further than to suggest you search for "Distinctly Montana Yogo Sapphires." There's a lot to learn about these precious blue stones. No Montanan needs an introduction to Charlie Russell. We even put his statue in the U.S. Capitol building in D.C. But when he first came west, he hired on with Jake Hoover and lat- er claimed that everything he learned about being a cowboy, Hoover taught him. But painting grabbed him by the chaps and much of what we know of the life of the cowboy, Russell taught us through his art. Most of his art work was done in the Judith Basin, and the county museum in Stanford has a collection of prints done from Russell's works. Speaking of Stanford, the county's seat began as a trading post built by Thomas C. Power. Power would later go on to be one of Montana's first two U.S. senators after statehood. His trading post was just one of many ventures he pursued during his life, many of which involved transportation across central Montana. With the arrival of the railroad, the communi- ty picked up stakes and moved three miles to be near the tracks. With the formation of the county in 1920, Stanford was named seat, and in 1925 the pres- ent courthouse opened on Central Avenue. In the author's opinion, it is the finest building in Stanford, and indeed, when I found myself passing through the town in 1980, I was so struck by the building that I set out to find just what Montana's other fifty-five county courthouses looked like. My goal was to create a coffee table book showcasing all fifty-six structures and have it avail- able for the statehood centennial in 1989. Alas, between work- ing full-time and the cost of buying, developing, and printing film, I put the project on hold, and did not finish it until 2015, after I had retired from the University in Missoula and had changed over to digital photography. Today the population of Stanford is 403, making it one of the least populous county seats in Montana. While Stanford is incorporated as a "town," nearby Hobson is the only incorporated "city" in Judith Basin County. With a population of 179, it's a very small "city," but it's hard to miss

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