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: THK TREASURE STATE 133 • 



• • 



southern part of the county, along the Wyoming border, lies the Elk basin oil field, 

 which is the scene of the first discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Montana 

 and is now being extensively developed. Two large companies and many smaller 

 concerns are now operating in this district, and there is every indication that it will 

 shortly become one of the great oil-producing regions of the country. A pipe-line 

 has been laid for the transportation of petroleum to refineries. The Elk basin oil 

 field is now reached most easily from Bridger, a station on the Clark's Pork branch 

 of the Northern Pacific, connecting with the main line at Billings. 



Other industries are coal mining, stock raising, and fruit growing. Immense 

 coal measures exist. A government report stated that in 1907 there were 1,238,796,784 

 tons of unmined coal in the Red Lodge field which is one of the several fields. 

 Forty-five feet is the total thickness of the veins. A thousand men are employed 

 at Red Lodge and about 600 at Bear Creek, Washoe, Bridger and Coalville, making 

 a total of about 1,600 men who are employed at good wages and their demands 

 create a home market for farm products. 



Stock growing is an important industry. Many sheep run on the ranges and 

 Carbon county is noted for the excellence of its beef cattle. Besides raising live- 

 stock on the range and hogs on alfalfa pasture. Carbon county has uncommon 

 advantages for the fattening of beef cattle and sheep for market, having a good 

 climate, abundance of water, and home grown hay, grain, beet top and beets for 

 food. The conversion into beef, mutton or pork, of hay and grain on the place 

 where produced, is the most profitable use that can be made of these crops. 



The Clark's Pork valley, about fifty miles long and from four to ten miles wide, 

 is the principal agricultural district of Carbon county and is one of the most 

 productive parts of Montana. Prom the river and streams that empty into it 

 enough water is brought to irrigate the greater part of the land in the valley, 

 while on the foothills farming is successful without irrigation where the proper 

 system of cultivation is carried on. Clark's Pork valley produces a great variety 

 of field and orchard products. Sugar beets is a main crop, alfalfa is extensively 

 grown, and wheat, oats and barley make large yields. Standard vegetables do 

 well; celery is extensively grown, and cantaloupes of the Rocky Ford flavor are 

 raised. Near Promoerg, is the noted apple orchard of Rev. J. G. Clark, from 32 acres 

 of which $10,000 worth of apples, plums and crab apples have been gathered in 

 one year. 



The main line of the Northern Pacific railroad is separated from this county 

 by the Yellowstone river. At Laurel the Rocky Fork branch to Red Lodge goes 

 out from the main line and also the Clark's Pork branch which terminates at 

 Bridger. Prom Bridger the Montana, Wyoming and Southern railroad extends to 

 Belfry, Bear Creek and Washoe, a distance of 2.5 miles. The Burlington railroad 

 has completed the Fromberg cut-off from Schribner near the Wyoming line and runs 

 through trains using the Northern Pacific tracks from Bridger to Laurel and the 

 Great Northern tracks from Laurel to Great Palls, Shelby Junction and Pacific 

 coast points. 



Washoe and Bear Creek are coal mining towns in the foothills west of Clark's 

 Fork valley. Bridger is a coal mining town and the supply point for a farming 

 and ranch country. Fromberg, the chief town of the valley, has two coal mines 

 adjacent to it and is surrounded by a highly cultivated region of farms and 

 orchards. 



Joliet, a flourishing town in Rock Creek valley, is the principal shipping point 

 for the central part of the country. 



Red Lodge, the county seat, had a population of 4,860 in 1910, is the seat 

 of a coal mine that gives steady employment to over 1,000 men, and is one of the 

 busiest and mose prosperous cities in the state. It has a high school, graded 



