AS ALL REAL TOWNS DO.
Chinese laundry was added to take care of the house- keeping duties and keep the linens starched and pressed. Eventually a new bank, a fire house, a barbershop, another hotel, and place to cache the stage coach were added to complete the picturesque main street.
All of the 20-plus buildings along Deadrock’s Main Street borrow from Montana’s his- tory. The bank has a vault door salvaged from the renovation of the Montana Capitol Building. The barber- shop has chairs from a long since forgotten barbershop in Miles City, and one of the structures, a century-old, stage-stop hotel, was pains- takingly brought to the site from Shawmut, MT. At the end of town, a bit back from Main Street, a liv- ery stable was added. Unlike a real livery stable, this one
serves as a hall for entertain- ing large groups; it houses a stage with full concert- sound and lighting system. The liv- ery stable has hosted concerts with country and western legends, from Alabama to Don Williams and the Oak Ridge Boys. The acoustics and lighting systems rival area concert halls, yet are hidden within an antique timber frame reclaimed from a trestle bridge that once crossed the Great Salt Lake. The town is still evolving as all real towns do. “It is amazing that this project has taken on a life of its own,” says Kipp Halvorsen. “It re- ally feels like a town when you walk down the main street.” The streetlights along the worn and tattered board- walk flicker as the sun sets in the western sky. Another day ticks by in the life of this real western town. You won’t be
d www.distinctlymontana.com 71
