Glendale Hotel Register, June 16, 1886 to Aug. 31, 1889

Glendale, Montana, in Beaverhead County, is a mining ghost town. The post office opened in 1875 with Louis Schmalhausen as postmaster, and was active for 25 years. The town once supported a population of 4,000 residents. In 1884 the residents of Glendale organized a campaign to make their town the state capital. Glendale was located on Trapper Creek and had only one main street with a blacksmith shop, alehouse, warehouse, iron house, sack house, coal sheds, stables, assay office, powder houses, the Glendale Hotel (H. Neil was the Proprietor of the Glendale Hotel), the Hecla Hospital, a Methodist Episcopal Church, a two story schoolhouse, and houses for officials. There were 35 bartenders in town, compared to only four schoolteachers and two preachers. The town brewery at one time had a supply of 50,000 pounds of hops.

The town mansion, owned by Henry Knippenberg, had six fireplaces, silver doorknobs and Brussels carpeting, but it burned down in the early 20th century. The Hecla Mining Company dominated the economic life of the town. Most people worked at the smelter, which reduced copper and silver ore brought down by freight wagons from the Trapper Mountain mines nine miles above. The national silver crash brought economic life of the town to a halt, and by 1890 much of the Hecla Mining Company’s activities had ceased. The town became deserted soon after 1900, when the Hecla smelter was shut down due to a dwindling supply of ore. The Hotel was closed soon after that time. Glendale is now famous for the coke kilns and the schoolhouse that are still standing there.