This piece has been adapted from Bret Lian’s posts, and others’ comments, on Facebook.
Recently, a bartender in Butte asked my wife and I if we were from Helena.
“Nope, Jefferson City,” I answered.
“Close enough,” she said—and I corrected her again.
Growing up, I was always very aware that when people would ask me or my friends where we were from, the answer would often be “Helena,” which made and makes me cringe. I was from Clancy, and felt then as I do now, that there’s a difference, albeit with a shrinking delta.
So whether or not you live in Montana City, Clancy, Jefferson City or beyond, it is a geographic truth that not one square foot of Helena is in Jefferson County, and thank God, and may it forever be so.
[Reply] It’s shrinking fast. Clancy is pretty much a suburb of Helena and Montana City is solidly connected to Helena now.
[Reply] True, true. I actually do wonder what the Jefferson County area population has grown to. Maybe not what it was in its much earlier heyday, but with new subdivisions, need for new P.O. boxes, an actual little “rush hour” commute, etc., it has grown significantly over the last decade-plus.
B.L.: We are growing fast, and faster than any other community north of the hill, relative to the amount of folks who currently live there.
[Reply] Have you considered incorporating?
B.L.: Nope. Not sure what one would gain from that. I like and utilize the concept in the spirit of a census designated place. From the federal register: “one that is recognized and used in daily communication by the residents of the community” (not “a name developed solely for planning or other purposes”) and recommend that a CDP’s boundaries be mapped based on the geographic extent associated with inhabitants’ regular use of the named place.”
Little bit wishy-washy. Little bit open to interpretation. I wouldn’t blame someone for saying they were from Corbin, Wickes or even Brown’s Gulch, Montana!
[Reply] Amen. When we moved to Jefferson County 16 years ago, we made the choice to be here and not Helena. People vote with their mortgages.
[Reply] No doubt. A capital is where the dirty business is done. It can sure stink up a county.
[Reply] Is there a state law in Montana that prohibits Helena from annexing parts of Jefferson County just across the county line from current city limits?
B.L.: Not that I am aware of, no. There was an attempt to have some Jeff. Co. land annexed into Helena in 2006, and folks got riled up. I should research how that works more. Here is the incorporated city boundary.
In some ways, I can understand annexation. Montana City, for example, is a de facto city in terms of people and businesses, and I could imagine scenarios where these de facto cities would have to reckon with certain issues, and annexation or incorporation might be the way to do it.
[Reply] To be fair to those of us that live here, there is Butte and everything else is “close enough” to something not Butte!
B.L.: My hope that Jefferson County retains its identity is mirrored in a prayer that Butte always stays Butte!
[Reply] As a Clancy resident, I understand the sentiments… but I predict that it’s just a matter of time before Helena makes its way into North Jeff. Co., unless they can make an arrangement to provide city of Helena services (water, sewer, etc.) without annexation. The land in North Jeff. Co. is too valuable to not develop it at a city-level density, and there is way too much tax money (both Jefferson County and city of Helena) that they’re missing out on.
[Reply] In the 1990s we zoned the northern portion of Jefferson County in an attempt to accommodate growth without altering the nature of the community. In many ways, that has forestalled wild and uncontrolled growth. By the same token, and regretfully, there has been less and less willingness by the County Commission to enforce that. As long as that continues, places such as the north end will be at risk to things like annexation or “citification.”
[Reply] Tell that bartender they are from Anaconda… close enough.
B.L.: No doubt I am a cheesy guy, and even though I mentioned that not a square foot of Helena is in Jefferson County, my concern is less associated with the pragmatic possibility that it may happen someday as it is the loss of community identities that I find to be an important characteristic of the places I love.
Whether it is countries, states, communities or families, there is a lot of value in group identity. I worry about a day when northern Jefferson County’s residents view themselves as Helenans in the amorphous subdivisions that already stretch from the south Helena exit to Montana City and beyond. I remember people who took pride in being from Montana City, or Clancy—I am one of them—and it will be a sad day when they no longer exist. I think community is something folks take for granted.
Bret Lian, a Jefferson City resident—and don’t forget it—is a regular contributor to The Monitor.
