A rough and tumble town catering largely to laborers and miners, Saltese practiced a unique blend of “old-fashioned western hospitality” while promising visitors: “Saltese keeps the door of its small jail always open.”

The area was known first as “Packers Meadow,” because it served as an ideal location for gathering supplies before attempting to cross the Bitterroot Mountains into Idaho. Saltese became a primary supply depot when miners discovered copper, silver, and gold in the mountains.

Saltese was first called Silver City, and renamed in 1891 to honor Couer d’Alene Chief Seltice. Seltice shrewdly fostered good relationships with white settlers despite repeated breaches of treaties and agreements. When several area tribes clamored for war, Chief Seltice reportedly allied with the whites, knowing that there was little chance of winning against the United States’ military and government.

Saltese experienced a small boom while laborers built the Milwaukee railroad on a narrow ridge over the city. Once construction was finished and the line electrified in 1917, the town served as an important railroad stop. Saltese survived the horrific fires of August 1910, saved by the railroad men pressed into firefighting service.

Notoriously heavy snowfall plagues the area. During one particularly bad winter, more than 17 feet of snow fell on the city. A visitor remarked, “The snow level was even with the sills of the second-story windows in the [railway] station and the people on the street behind the station had to tunnel through the great bank.” That same year, a large rotary snowplow hurtled around the corner of the Milwaukee railroad and rocketed off the tracks. Its heavy blades left scars on the depot planks nearly 10 feet away from the tracks.

Saltese endured substantial flooding in 1933, 1938, and 1948, due in part to the heavy snowfalls. With determination equaling its grit, Saltese managed to survive every challenge nature threw its way. Today it serves as a trailhead for many of Lolo National Forest’s trails as well as a popular stopping point on the way to nearby Lookout Pass Ski Area.

Credits and Sources:

Albright, Syd. “Chief Andrew Seltice led Coeur d’Alene Indians into the modern age.” The Coeur D’Alene Press, May 25, 2014.

Federal Writer’s Project. Montana, a State Guide Book. New York: The Viking Press, 1939.

Hahn, Margie E. Montana’s Mineral County in Retrospect.Stevensville, MT: Stoneydale Press Publishing Company, 1997.

The Montana Historical Society of Mineral County. 118 Years of History.Superior, MT: The Montana Historical Society of Mineral County, n.d.

Mineral County Historical Society. Mineral County History.Superior, MT: Mineral County Historical Society, 2004.

“Splendid Battle is Waged Against Flames at Saltese.” The Daily Missoulian, August 23, 1910.

Stone, Arthur. Following Old Trails. Missoula, MT: Morton J. Elrod, 1913.

Historic photographs of “Saltese Train Station, ca. 1910,” “De Borgia Baseball Team at Saltese, 1910,” and “Saltese Main Street, ca. 1940” courtesy of Mineral County Historical Museum, Superior, MT.

Contemporary photo of Saltese courtesy of Historical Research Associates, Inc.