Arnold Christopher Stoverud was born July 29, 1911 in Missoula, Montana to Borgney Udstuen and Anton Stoverud. He worked as a fuel truck driver and custodian for the Prescott School, among other jobs. He married Grace Luella Camer on August 13, 1938 in Missoula, Montana. Arnold Stoverud passed away at age 91 on February 16, 2003 in Great Falls, Montana.
Grace Camer was born on November 29, 1915 in Floodwood, Minnesota to Martha and George Camer. Grace attended schools in Cat Creek, Ronan, and Kalispell, Montana. She later worked in photography for Stanley Labs and McKay Labs in Missoula, Montana, and afterward went on to work in the Missoula County Assessor’s Office for many years. Grace and Arnold Stoverud had two sons, Dale and Bruce Stoverud. She and Arnold moved to Great Falls, Montana in September 1989. Grace Stoverud passed away at age 84 on April 16, 2000, in Great Falls.
Grace and Arnold Stoverud had a passion for Montana history and the outdoors. Beginning in the mid-1950s, they began traveling around Montana to view and research historic, abandoned, and, often, forgotten sites. The Stoveruds were both particularly interested in Montana ghost towns and their preservation. They were members of various ghost town societies, including the Western Montana Ghost Town Preservation Society.
This collection primarily contains photograph prints and slides from Arnold and Grace Stoverud’s travels around Montana visiting ghost towns, abandoned mines, and other industrial sites. Most of the photographs were captured from the 1960s to the 1990s, but the Stoveruds also collected some historic images taken by other unidentified photographers. The images document preservation and restoration efforts of these places over time, as the Stoveruds visited some of these sites decades apart. The collection contains photographs of easily-traversed, public state parks like Bannack, Virginia City, and Garnet as well as smaller, more inaccessible sites on private land, like Castle Town, Montana. The collection also features 1890s dividend checks from the Granite Mountain Mining Company and some photographs from sites in northern Idaho.
This collection is largely arranged alphabetically by location, reflecting original order, and by material type.
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of Archives and Special Collections, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, and The University of Montana-Missoula.
Researchers are responsible for using in accordance with 17 U.S.C. and any other applicable statutes. Non-exclusive copyright transferred to the University of Montana
Arnold and Grace Stoverud Montana Ghost Towns and Mining Sites Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana-Missoula.
The collection was held by Dale and Linda Stoverud, son and daughter-in-law to Grace and Arnold Stoverud, until it was donated to the University of Montana in 2016.
Gift of Dale and Linda Stoverud, March 2016.
During processing, photographs were removed from acidic album pages. Published material such as newspaper and magazine clippings were permanently removed.
Tourist brochures and Western Montana Ghost Town Preservation Society newsletters were removed during processing and added to the Montana Pamphlet Collection (Pam 10); postcards were separated and added to the K. Ross Toole Archives Postcard Collection (Mss 679)
The Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections also holds the
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Includes a composite illustration of F. A. Scheuber's Drug Store; Bowen Brothers Residences; Kroeger's Brewery; J. Miller and W. M. Noble Residences; and the Northern Pacific Depot
Recreation maps with ghost towns and historic sites highlighted and with access annotations.