Welcome To Whitlash Montana

Whitlash Elementary School (Closed 2014)

North Of Whitlash Montana

April View Of Gold Butte

East Butte - The View From The East Side

Jessie Rowe's Grave

Welcome to the Whitlash Montana Picture Tour

In Montana we have small towns, tiny towns and down right “iddy biddy” towns. The community of Whitlash, Montana located in the heart of the Sweet Grass Hills definitely falls in the latter category. As of 2014 you can find thirty-five full time residents, a US Post Office ( zip code 59545) and the Community Presbyterian Church. The old hotel was converted into a private residence and the old dance hall (pictured) still sees occasional use. There was a grade school (pictured) but it was closed in 2014. Student enrollment at the time was two. Whitlash, Montana looks a little sleepy now compared it’s heyday in the 1920’s. During Prohibition (January 16, 1920 -February 6, 1933) this area was one of the main entry point of “bootleggers” into Montana.

Heart of the Sweet Grass Hills

The Sweet Grass Hills are a loosely connected island range of small volcanic mountains rising some 3000 feet above the prairie below, and offer fantastic views for hundreds of miles. Whitlash, Montana has the iconic Gold Butte to the west of town and on the opposite direction is East Butte, a sacred landmark for Native Americans. To get a better idea of this unique Montana location, we included a picture tour of the hike up East Butte as well as April sunset views of Gold Butte.

Gold Butte

Gold Butte towers above a former Gold Camp established after gold was first discovered by Rodney Bames in 1888. The mining town once boasted 500 people, a school, hotel, and saloon. Once operations closed in the 1940’s, all the Gold Butte buildings have been either burned to ashes or bulldozed to the ground. A survivor

Jessie Rowe’s Grave on Gold Butte

Jessie Rowe and her sister came from Kansas to Gold Butte with the hopes the dry air would help Rowe’s tuberculosis. The sisters went to Whitlash School, but Rowe didn’t recover. She died in 1902 and was buried in the Gold Butte Cemetery, her grave was later moved to it’s present location because of an underground spring. If you look carefully, you will find five unmarked graves were near Rowe’s, including one for a schoolteacher named a Miss Naifus, who died on her wedding day in 1897.