Finnish immigrant Gust Heikkila filed his 160-acre homestead claim along the Little Belt Creek coulee in 1902. By 1905, other Finnish settlers had homesteaded the area, calling it Korpivaara, “potentially dangerous wilderness,” for the remote wooded surroundings. Here the Heikkilas raised eleven children, expanded their holdings to 639 acres, and were among the first to shift from farming to ranching. The skills of Gust and local Finnish builders Victor Mattila and Matt Maki reveal an outstanding folk vernacular building style that transfers the Finnish farmstead to a New World setting. Early buildings such as the traditional sauna (1905), spring house (1905), and main house (1916) of Fenno-Scandian log construction crafted with Old World tools (vara, broadaxe, and awl) attest to the talents of these builders. Multiple rooflines and special use buildings convey a classic Finnish open courtyard appearance. In 1938, the sons of Victor Mattila, whose skilled craftsmanship contributed to the building of the homestead, bought the property. John Mattila, trained in carpentry by Matt Maki, expanded some of the existing buildings and, with his brother, also built new ones. American in design but Finnish in construction, the 1938 barn in particular represents a masterful blending of the two cultures by second-generation Finnish builders. In 1986, the homestead was deeded to Gilbert and Eugene Myllymaki, descendants of Victor’s wife, Fannie Jussila.
]]>Lewis and Clark named nearby Belt Butte for its girdle of rocks and, in 1877, John Castner named his town Belt. Coal brought Castner here, and Fort Benton was the first market for his Castner Coal Company. Then, in 1889, the Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company built their reduction works at Great Falls—in part because of the availability of Belt coal. Castner sold his claims to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, which had absorbed the Boston and Montana, and their mine soon employed a thousand men. The town experienced a boom time and in 1900 was Cascade County’s second-largest community, with a population above 2,800, including French, Finnish, Slav, German, and Swedish immigrants. It was during this boom that the jail was constructed, late in the 1890s, when 32 saloons flourished in town. Fire destroyed the Anaconda mine in 1915 and, in 1930, the smelters stopped using coal. Belt’s population fell off, but it remained a center for this agricultural area. The jail itself survived major floods in 1909 and 1953, and a 1976 fire caused by a train derailment, which destroyed five homes and three businesses.
]]>A one-story wood-frame building stood here between 1897 and 1907. Reflecting the mining town's early hard-drinking culture, it first originally housed two saloons. When Swedish immigrants Charles Carlson and George Edman purchased the lot in 1907, the town's prospects looked strong. The Anaconda Company had just expanded its coal mining operation, and in response to the influx of newcomers, Belt had incorporated as a third-class city. Main Street businessmen, including Carlson and Edman, began replacing their wooden false-front buildings with more permanent structures. Carlson and Edman relied on locally quarried, rough-faced sandstone to construct their two-story commercial block. The first floor housed the Oriental Saloon, which "boasted electric lights, running water and a bar and back bar of mahogany in a colonial style." Iron pilasters and an iron header allowed the contractor to install large plate-glass windows, letting natural light into the interior. Although the windows are gone, the iron framing remains. Carlson converted the saloon into a pool hall and then a "soft drinks parlor" during Prohibition, before retiring in 1926. Later businesses included a butcher shop and a grocery store.
]]>Pennsylvania native John Castner discovered rich coal deposits along Belt Creek in 1870. Within just a few years, he and Fort Benton trader T. C. Power opened a commercial coal mine near here. The partners sold coal for use by the Great Northern Railway, the Boston & Montana Refinery in Great Falls, and for domestic uses in central Montana. Belt originated to serve the mine, attracting men from throughout the United States and Europe to work side-by-side underground. In 1885, Castner and his wife, Mattie, one of Montana’s early African-American businesswomen, established a stage station and hotel at this site on the Lewistown-Great Falls Road. The expansion of the mine by its new owner, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, in 1894 caused a profound change in Belt. Its commercial district relocated to the area adjacent to the stage station on what became known as Castner Street. By the early twentieth century, a jumble of wooden false-front commercial buildings and saloons lined the street, keeping in character with the community’s origin as a mining camp. The expansion of the mine and the surrounding area’s increasing dependence on agriculture in the early 1900s significantly changed the appearance of Belt’s commercial district. The old false-front buildings gave way to the more substantial stone and brick-front buildings that line the street today. Although many lack architectural ornamentation, collectively the buildings gave the appearance of a prosperous and stable community. The commercial district represents the metamorphosis of Belt from a mining camp to a modern city.
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