OK Solberg: 00:00

I wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, find a shady spot, get a cup of coffee, glass iced tea, let's see what's happening.

OK Solberg: 00:07

Spring wheat $6.56 a bushel. 550lb steer calf gonna give you a range, $5 to $5.15 a pound, on the top end, which is a good price. And a 100lb fat lamb in Billing, sitting where it has for a month or more $3.30 a pound. But guys, there's more much more.

OK Solberg: 00:30

Okay. Okay. Okay. We talked about Whitewater, the town that moved. We talked about Bowdoin, the town that, well, disappeared. What say we hear about another town that many of you didn't even know existed right here in Phillips County, Montana.

OK Solberg: 00:47

Now I understand some of you know, but most need a refresher course. The town I'm talking about was North Of Malta about 14 miles on the Milk River. 14 miles north right near the Milk River.

OK Solberg: 01:03

Any guesses out there? You think and I'll find a bible verse. Listen. From the message translation from Isaiah 64:10, your holy cities are all ghost towns. Zion's a ghost town.

OK Solberg: 01:20

Jerusalem, a field of weeds. Again, Isaiah 64 verse 10. Now the ESV says, your holy cities have become a wilderness. Well, wilderness or ghost town, it's all the same. And that's what happened to the town North Of Malta about 14 miles.

OK Solberg: 01:39

Anyone say the name out loud yet? Freewater! Sure. It was Freewater. Listen from the yesteryear's book, and I quote, travelers driving north on Highway 242, which I might add is now 191 North.

OK Solberg: 01:58

Travelers driving north to the North Country or to Canada may notice about 14 miles north along the Milk River, a slight depression near the highway. There is little to indicate that on some 18 acres of land at that place, there once existed a store, a post office, bunk houses, corral, and even a school. A little community named Freewater.

OK Solberg: 02:29

Freewater catered to farmers and ranchers from the North Country and provided for grain haulers a convenience stop on the two way trip to Malta with teams and wagons. RE Edwin Garland, who was born and reared in Malta, gives an account of Freewater in the years between 1914 and 1921.

OK Solberg: 02:52

And I quote, my father, Richard w Garland, and I passed that particular spot many times as we went back and forth from our ranch on Little Cottonwood Creek. Dad had always liked the place because it was the only land that was not fenced between Malta and the mouth of the Big Cottonwood.

OK Solberg: 03:13

My dad found that the future site of Freewater was an odd piece of land because it was owned by the state and that he could buy it. He envisioned a general store, post office, restaurant, feed barn, bunkhouses, and corrals. He believed he would market the meat and the hay and the potatoes grown by local farmers and ranchers, And he was right.

OK Solberg: 03:39

After the 1st buildings which consisted of a store, post office, ice house, blacks blacksmith shop, a barn, and a shed to accommodate 20 horses and a cabin with a campground with easy access to the river.

OK Solberg: 03:55

These were built in 1914. We were busy as bird dogs with teams and wagons coming and going almost day and night all fall and winter. Then in 1916, a larger store was built. Now my dad was postmaster and I was assistant until dad's health began to fail in 1919 and Horace g Cowan took over as postmaster.

OK Solberg: 04:23

The Freewater School was built on an acre of land that dad had donated just for that purpose. An average about 10 children attended. Frank Zuber and I bought the stock in the grocery store and rented the buildings from dad. Came the dry years, well, we extended credit as most store operators did, and we just about made ends meet. Trucks had replaced teams and there were less need for overnight stops, but there was always a call for lunches.

OK Solberg: 04:58

The store burned to the ground in 1921, and I saw seven years of work go up in smoke. There I end the quote. So always remember and never forget the little town of Freewater about 14 miles to the north, the good old Malta, Montana. So here's to Freewater. May your memory live on in the annals of Phillips County history.

OK Solberg: 05:24

So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.