1069 - Bell Tower
This photo shows a rural scene in Belltower, Montana, featuring an open landscape with rolling hills and grassland. In the foreground, there is a metal sign listing family names such as Farwell, Rozell, Summers, and Kennedy, representing local homesteads or community members. A dirt road winds into the distance, leading toward a large white barn-like structure, with a clear blue sky and scattered clouds above.
The advent of the white man, beginning with fur trappers and mountain men, started to change the dynamic of southeastern Montana in the late 1800s. The story of Belltower echoes that of countless pioneer towns, a simple beginning, periods of boom and bust, and then, sadly, the steady decline of a once lively town.
It began in the late 1870s and early 1880s, when a pair of cattle tycoons turned a bunch of Texas longhorns loose in the area surrounding Belltower Rock, in the Long Pine Hills. For the next 25 years or so, a few other families had trickled in, but for the most part, it was pretty quiet. That all changed in 1910 when a great influx of homesteaders took place. In the handful of years that followed, the country surrounding Belltower Rock was nearly all taken up as homesteads. By 1918, the town of Belltower was born. Soon after, a post office, general store, and schoolhouse were constructed to meet the needs of the growing community.
Like many farming and ranching towns, success was dependent on the weather. Hot, dry, and windy summers made way for months of never-ending snow and bitter cold. Some homesteaders gave up on account of the unpredictable weather, while others endured, even through the challenging years of the Great Depression. While there were plenty of hardships in the early days of Belltower, many good times were had as well. Picnics, dances, and ball games were enjoyable social activities that brought the tight-knit community together.
By the 1970s, both the post office and school had closed, and Belltower began to fade back into the landscape, leaving a ghost town behind. Today, the townsite, south of Ekalaka, is nothing more than the old community hall and the former school building, relics of a time long past.