Montana's Silver Dollar Bar

 

Everybody stops there; the gravity and allure of the place (not to mention clean restrooms) pulls you in right off of I-90 if you're on your way east from Washington state.  You've been there, right? Probably more than once!

Here's the history of the famous bar:  The story begins in 1951 when Gerry and Marie Lincoln moved from Libby, Montana, to Alberton, Montana. Two miles west of this small Montana town on what is now I-90, they built a small bar and named it "Cherry Springs." Soon, however, they realized that people needed a reason to stop, an attraction, and they got an idea.

At that time the local customers (loggers and miners) were paid in silver dollars. Also, travelers to Montana always received their change in silver dollars. They weigh a ton in your pocket! (This is why loggers wear suspenders.) So on October 1, 1952, Gerry cut a round hole in the bar top, hammered a silver dollar into it, and inscribed he and Marie's names beneath it. 

The idea caught on and by December 1953, over 2000 people had placed their coins and names in the bar top. As a result of this, the name was changed to Lincoln's 2000 Silver $ Bar. The original bar top is still intact and in use. It contains 2115 pieces and all the other coins in the collection are embedded in boards and displayed around the barroom. Each coin is the possession of the individual who left it and many people, or their children or grandchildren, return year after year to visit "their" coin. 

Today, according to their website, there are over 75,000 silver dollar coins on display! If you haven't, maybe you ought to stop on your next trip east. 

Montana State Genealogical Society Conference

Montana State Genealogical Society Home Page

Please Note: As of 31 July 2017, the original room block has sold out. A few more rooms at the Big Horn Resort have been added at the adjusted rate of $99.00/night plus tax, but these are expected to sell out quickly as well.
Click for downloadable PDF Form:

Registration Brochure & Form

There will also be 3 FREE WORKSHOPS starting at 5:00 on Thursday afternoon, September 21, 2017.

These are informal gatherings where attendees interested in learning about the topic can ask their questions and learn from each other.

Topics offered this year are:

First Families & Early Settlers of Montana: Have questions on the application process? This one is for you

Norwegian Research: Get help with this often tricky and confusing area

DNA Q & A's: Confused about DNA? Ask & Learn from each other's experiences

Coming Early and looking places to visit in Billings? Click here for some ideas!

Check back often for more details!
For more information, contact Verba Valentine at blgsmarket@aol.com

Finding "Lost" People

 

Did you see the article in The Spokesman-Review that included this picture? It was a story from

Medicine Rocks State Park in Montana and was the sad story of how they've found where a lonesome sheep herder named Herbert Dalton in 1904 carved a likeness of his lost love into a sandstone bluff. He was from Ireland and, according to the article, "she wouldn't come West." The carved portrait shows a profile with a "sweeping turn-of-the-century bun and facing her, a bird in flight offering a delicately drawn flower."  So sad.  

 

I did some looking and did find a Herbert Dalton, age 33, single, born April 1867 in Ireland, immigrated in 1872 and was naturalized,  living as a farm laborer/sheep herder in Flatwillow District, Fergus County, Montana, on June 21, 1900 (U.S. 1900 census). I did not find him in the 1910 or 1920 census. Nor could I find him in any online Montana death databases.

 

Is there a Dalton family somewhere looking for a lost Herbert Dalton?? Do you look for these sorts of things and do they motivate you to go find "the rest of the story?"