US 93, Mile Post 48, at Hamilton

In earlier, days, Rocky Mountain spotted fever was a dreaded malady in the West. The first case of spotted fever was recorded in ten Bitterroot Valley in 1873. Neither cause nor cure was known and mortality was high.

Through efforts of the Montanan State Board of Health and Entomology, scientists were brought in to solve the mystery. By 1906 they had proved that the bite of a wood tick was the cause of the disease, which was found later to exist throughout the United States. A preventive vaccine was finally developed in this remote laboratory. Yearly vaccination of those who may have become exposed to tick bite an effectual treatment methods have solved the problem.

A modern laboratory, now operated by ten US Public Health Service, has replaced the tents, log cabins, wood-sheds and abandoned schoolhouses that served the first handful of workers. Research has been expanded to include many infectious diseases that are problems in the West.

Buy the e-book of all Montana Historical Highway Markers: https://mhs.mt.gov/pubs/Publications/montanas-historical-highway-markers

Credits and Sources:

Sign text.

Montana's Historical Highway Markers, Jon Axline, Montana Historical Society Press. 2008.

This sign is no longer in place.