Jennings

The history of Jennings, Montana, is a story of a town born from the convergence of rail and river, a testament to the brief but intense period of development that transformed the American West. Situated on the Kootenai River in what is now Lincoln County, Jennings was never a sprawling metropolis, but its role as a transportation hub for a short period in the late 19th and early 20th centuries made it a vital link in the regional economy. Today, Jennings is a ghost town, its memory preserved in historical records, old photographs, and the lingering presence of the railway that created it.

The Land and Its Earliest Inhabitants

Before the arrival of European settlers and the railroad, the Kootenai River valley was the ancestral home of the Ktunaxa (Kootenai) people. The Mid-Kootenai band, in particular, frequented the area around what would become Jennings and the nearby town of Libby, utilizing the river for transportation and sustenance. The Ktunaxa were known as "canoe Indians," and their deep connection to the river predates any other recorded history in the region. European contact began in the early 1800s with explorers and fur traders. David Thompson, a Canadian explorer for the North West Company, traveled the Kootenai River and was guided by the trails and rock cairns left by the Kootenai people. Early trading posts, though temporary, were established along the river, including one built by the Hudson's Bay Company about a mile downstream from the old Jennings townsite around 1810-1811. These early interactions set the stage for the dramatic changes to come.

The Dawn of a Town: The Great Northern Railway and the Steamboat Era

Jennings's existence is inextricably linked to the vision of one man and the railway he built. James J. Hill, known as the "Empire Builder," was the driving force behind the Great Northern Railway. His railway, which stretched from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean, reached the Jennings area in the late 1880s and 1890s. The arrival of the railroad was the catalyst for the town's founding. Jennings became a crucial station on the Great Northern line, a point of transfer where the land-based railway met the water-based transportation of the Kootenai River.

At the turn of the century, Jennings's prosperity was fueled by the booming steamboat trade. The town served as a lower-river port for sternwheelers that navigated the Kootenai River. These steamboats were essential for transporting freight and mining ore from the rich mining districts upstream, particularly around Fort Steele in British Columbia. Several sternwheelers were built and launched in Jennings, including the steamer North Star, which was constructed in 1897 by Louis Pacquet for Captain Frank P. Armstrong. The North Star and other vessels would make the perilous journey up the Kootenai River, often navigating the dangerous stretch of whitewater known as Jennings Canyon. The town of Jennings, therefore, became a logistical hub, where goods were offloaded from trains, loaded onto steamboats, and sent upriver to the mines. The symbiotic relationship between the Great Northern Railway and the Kootenai River steamboat traffic was the lifeblood of Jennings.

The Boom and Bust Cycle

Jennings, like many frontier towns, was a product of the boom-and-bust cycle. Its population, while never huge, swelled during its heyday. Some sources suggest it may have had a population of up to 1,500 people. This growth was driven by the combination of railroad workers, steamboat crews, and those serving the freight and mining industries. However, the very forces that created Jennings also led to its downfall. The steamboat era was brief. By October 1898, just a year after the North Star was launched, new rail lines were completed in the Kootenay region, and traffic quickly shifted from riverboats to the more efficient and reliable railways. The steamboats were laid up at Jennings, their purpose obsolete.

The town itself was also subject to a series of devastating fires. A major fire in 1904 and another in 1914 destroyed much of the settlement, further contributing to its decline. The community's reliance on the railway for its existence meant that as the railway's needs changed, so did Jennings's fate. While the Great Northern continued to operate its line, the specific role of Jennings as a transfer point diminished.

A Legacy: The Libby Dam and Modern Jennings

The final chapter in the physical history of Jennings came with the construction of the Libby Dam in the late 1960s. The dam created Lake Koocanusa, a reservoir that would flood the Kootenai River valley upstream from the dam. The rising waters submerged the remnants of many small communities. The Great Northern Railway line itself had to be relocated to a new right-of-way, bypassing the old route between Jennings and Stryker. A short remnant of the old line still exists, serving as a physical reminder of the railway's original path. The history of the town, its steamboat landings, and the railway station are now a part of the past. The memory of Jennings is preserved in the few existing photographs and the historical records that document its brief but important role in the development of Lincoln County.

Conclusion

The story of Jennings, Montana, is a microcosm of the larger history of the American West. It illustrates how the forces of transportation, industry, and natural resources shaped and reshaped the landscape. From the ancient paths of the Kootenai people to the thundering of the Great Northern trains and the churning paddles of the steamboats, Jennings was a hub of activity. Its decline was a result of technological progress and shifting economies, culminating in its final submersion beneath the waters of Lake Koocanusa. Today, Jennings is a ghost town, a silent monument to a bygone era of Montana history.

Sources Cited:

Montana Memory Project. "Jennings, Montana." Montana Historical Society. Available at: https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/117437

Wikipedia. "North Star (sternwheeler 1897)." Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Star_(sternwheeler_1897)

Wikipedia. "Steamboats of the upper Columbia and Kootenay Rivers." Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboats_of_the_upper_Columbia_and_Kootenay_Rivers

Kootenai National Forest. "History of the Libby, Montana area." Available at: https://www.libbymt.com/community/history.htm

Kootenai River History. Lincoln County MTGenWeb. "Before the Dam." Available at: https://www.mtgenweb.com/lincoln/history/before-the-dam/

FortWiki. "Kootenai Post (1)." Available at: https://fortwiki.com/Kootenai_Post_(1)