Location Description
Bearcreek owes its existence to area coal mining that began in the 1890s to supply coal for the Northern Pacific Railway and the Anaconda Company. The Bearcreek Post Office was established on November 22, 1905, with Sarah Criger as the town's first postmaster.[6] The town was platted and incorporated after the arrival of the Montana, Wyoming & Southern Railroad in 1906.
The town of Bearcreek was named for Bear Creek, which runs through the middle of town. Bearcreek came into existence due to coal mines and grew rapidly following the building of a short line railroad connecting the Bearcreek mines to the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1906. Between 1906 and 1953, the mines at Bearcreek produced large volumes of coal, which was a higher grade than other regional sources, from the extensive underground coal mining deposits. The mines were located along the creek and also in the surrounding coulees. The development of the coal mines after 1906 drew miners to the area. They came from other parts of America, and from Serbia, Montenegro, Germany, Scotland and Italy. The recent immigrants built separate ethnic-based communities in the steep coulees that run down into Bearcreek, with names like Washoe, New Caledonia, Chickentown, Scotch Coulee, International, and Stringtown. At one time in the 1920s and 1930s the population of Bearcreek combined with the other surrounding small communities was close to 3,000 persons. Bearcreek and the surrounding communities had seven mercantiles, a bank, two hotels, two billiard halls, a brickyard, numerous saloons, and Bearcreek sported concrete sidewalks and their own water system. Allegedly, the town had no churches. The economy of Bear Creek was based on coal. The Smith Mine Disaster in 1943, followed by the decline in demand for coal in the late 1940s and 1950s caused the closure of the connecting railroad in 1953 and subsequently most of the coal mines, and the population declined steadily to less than 100 persons. Many buildings in Bearcreek and the surrounding communities were moved to other towns or demolished, and only a few structures remain.
The town is home to the Bearcreek Saloon which hosts fundraising pig races throughout the year. In addition, Bearcreek plays host every autumn to Montana Falconer Symposium, the state's largest gathering of falcon trainers and birds of prey enthusiasts.
The Smith Mine was founded by Elijah Smith and George Lamport of the Montana Fuel & Iron Company in 1897. That company would eventually be called the Montana Coal & Iron Company which operated the Smith Mine.
It was a bright winter’s day on that Saturday in 1943. It was payday, and the miners were expected to return home with their money. When a plume of smoke billowed out of the mine shaft, and the wives and children of the miners likely knew what that meant: death. Seventy-seven men entered the mine that morning, going as deep as 8,000 feet, but only three came out alive. All told, 74 miners were killed that day, making it Montana’s worst mining disaster in the history of this state, whose motto “Oro y Plata,” (gold and silver) reminds us of our mining roots.
Newspaper reports say workers from nearby mines were called to the scene to help extricate the dead, while townsfolk kept a silent vigil and maintained hope that some miners would be found alive. However, none were.
It was determined that the miners died from the concussive blast and gas poisoning resulting from an explosion of gas and coal dust.
The disaster left 58 women without husbands and 125 children without fathers. One family devastated by the mine explosion was that of Adam Lee Wakenshaw. At age 72, this man from Dublin, England, was the oldest man killed in the mine disaster, along with his son, Robert.
The mine never recovered from the disaster, and it eventually closed.