Editor’s note: The following essay on the Jefferson County community of Basin was written by Leah Hartman, 8th grader and Basin resident. Her research was reviewed with assistance from the Heritage Center.
Basin started as a mining camp in the 1860s. After a few years a settlement was established. In the 1870s the Bullion, Hope and Katy gold mines were opened. The Katy and Hope mines brought success to the little town.
But 1894 Basin had four grocery stores, a drug store, ten bars, a bakery, three butcher shops, a few restaurants, two hotels, a bank, and a weekly newspaper. The population was 800. In 1895 the Katy was closed from fire damage, and in 1896 the Hope closed from fire as well.
In 1901, a fire burnt six buildings, and in 1903, two little boys messing with matches caught the town on fire. Over half the business industry was burnt.
During 1905 the Hope and Katy mines were taken over by a company in Butte and repaired. By then Basin had a population of 1500. There were four rooming houses, three hotels, three grocery stores, a butcher shop, two confectionery stores, a drug store, a cigar shop, a shoe shop, two blacksmith shops, a bowling alley, a bathhouse, a bank, a telephone, a newspaper, a church, a volunteer fire department, and twelve saloons. The owner of the drug store, Dr. Rainville, was Basin’s physician and surgeon.
Between 1906 and 1910 Basin had two railroad tracks: the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern, which were both passenger and freight trains. A smelter was put on the hill, but was vandalized and never used. Basin had a water wheel and a dam. In 1908 a five cell jail was built. There was also a grandstand, a dance pavilion, a playground, and a baseball diamond.
Basin played for the state baseball championship against Great Falls. They send a special train, which included a bar, dancing car, and banners on the sides saying “Busy Basin Baseball Special.” They won the tournament and the train’s whistle blew all the way back.
By 1910 Basin had added a hardware store, livery stables, a brewery, a sawmill, and a dairy barn to its businesses. The Butte Clark Mine held its annual picnic at the Basin pavilion. Just days before the event, the pavilion was burnt by another mining company. It was rebuilt and the picnic was held right on schedule. Basin sent two trains, with twenty cars each, to bring the 1600 people to the picnic.
In 1908 the annual 4th of July celebration was held. George Lowry of Butte had made a hot air balloon and was going to throw fireworks out of it at dark. The fire to heat the balloon was to be put out by a bucket of water, but a bucket of kerosene was accidentally grabbed and the balloon arose on fire. A hot air balloon, on fire, full of fireworks, is not a good thing, as the viewers soon found out. A bakery was burnt and the pilot jumped out, earning him a broken leg.
In 1912 the mines were once again closed, only to be opened up again in 1919, in the up and down roller coaster of a mining town. During 1925 the Hope and Katy mines closed for the last time, never to be used again.
In 1975 Basin formed water and sewer districts, and built a water delivery, sewage and waste handling system. Soon after, Interstate 15 was built, over the Great Northern Railway. In 1999 progress began on removing the arsenic, copper, cadmium, lead, and other mining waste from the area. It was completed in 2004.
Basin now has a sawmill, a post office, two health mines, a pottery gallery, a cafe, a pizza place, a bar, a volunteer fire department, a low power emergency radio station, and a school, which currently has about a dozen students.
As of the 2010 census, Basin’s population is 212 people. There are 99 total households and 122 total housing units. Basin is currently at the bottom of the mining town roller coaster, when mines are closed down, and nothing ever happens. Some towns at the bottom eventually wither away and die, but I think Basin won’t. It may one day grow and prosper, only to shrink back down again.
It’s lasted almost 200 years, and I think it will last at least 100 more, although I doubt it will ever see a hot air balloon going down in flames, with fireworks exploding all around, ever again. And I don’t think we’ll get the baseball championship any time soon.
