Garneill
Travel
Montana
A view from 1939:
GARNEILL, 15 m. (4,415 alt., 160 pop.), at first seems to
consist of a single brick store. Beyond this building, however,
are a church, a school, and scattered dwellings, then abandoned
buildings, faded, rickety, and near collapse. Garneill was
named for Garnet Neill, the wife of an early rancher; it was
a trading post when the Central Montana R.R. established a
station here in 1903. The railroad named its station Ubet,
in honor of an old stage station, 3 miles west. Three towns
were laid out, because of a division of sentiment on moral
issues. There was Ubet around the railroad station; there was
North (or dry) Garneill, which survives; and there was South
(or wet) Garneill, which consisted of the pretentious hotel,
saloon, blacksmith shop, and stores that burned in recent years.
The railroad company in time changed the name of its station
to conform to local wishes.
At Garneill is the UBET AND CENTRAL MONTANA PIONEERS MONUMENT
(R), a two-and-one-half-ton granite rock; in its concrete base
are embedded pieces of ore, Indian relics, petrified wood,
and other objects—between the names of important pioneers
and the dates of their arrival in Montana. On each side of
the monument are pear-shaped sandstones, molded seemingly by
human hands. They were found on Blood Creek in Petroleum County.
Source: Montana: A State Guide Book; Compiled and Written
by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration
for the State of Montana; September, 1939.
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