Thursday, May 7, 2009

Maudlow school ...

My favorite part of Gallatin County is the remote Sixteen Mile Canyon area, an hour or so north of Bozeman. The landscape is beautiful and little-visited, and there's lots of history: the abandoned Milwaukee Road railway line, old cabins and ranches, and the nearly-abandoned townsite of Maudlow.

This is a shot I took back in 2007 of the long-disused schoolhouse in Maudlow, one of the county's more iconic historic sites.

13 comments:

  1. Pretty big schoolhouse for a tiny town!

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  2. Ha! I don't recall for sure, but I think the thing had four classrooms, at the most.

    Maudlow was a homestead area back in the day, so there might have been a couple hundred people within a few miles of there. But the small farms mostly failed, and now the area's owned by just a couple of very large ranches. There are only two or three year-round families now, I think, and whatever kids are up in that end of the county go to a one-room school about ten miles away.

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  3. Mark, my folks worked for the Anderson's Climbing Arrow ranch [Maudlow area} for many years and we traveled by the Maudlow school lots. If the road is dry and your vechile has good tires you can get clear to Ringling. One night some of the hands at the CA ranch raced from the ranch to Ringling,,,,{it was free beer and burgers for the winners],,,,,,one groug by rough road and the other up the adbandoned tracks on a home made section car. The ones by rail won by quite a ways and the truck was never the same. Don't recall how they got home. Might have been the next day. Great site you have going.!!!

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  4. Heh ... that was a great story! Completely made my day. Many thanks for sharing it.

    I finally landed in Bozeman in '83, though I'd been in Montana for a few years by then ... to I missed the Milwaukee Road days down there. I would have given one of my body parts to have been able to ride a train through Sixteen Mile. I did get up to Frances once, and then on to the Eagle Nest Tunnel and the big bridge, and I'd love to do that again someday. It's a great area ... you were lucky to have experienced it back in the day!!

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  5. rode through maudlow into sixteen mile and out onto the old homesteads one evening in 1995, one of the most intriguing drives - enchanting.
    facebook.com/roadagent1

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  6. I own land ajecent to Maudlow and to have taken this picture of the school house means that you were trespassing. If you are ever caught trespassing, you will be prosecuted. The land owners appreciate their privacy. Thank you.

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  7. Heh ... if you were actually as familiar with that spot as you claim, you'd realize that I took that photo from the middle of the Dry Creek Road, a public right-of-way. I don't trespass, and I'm well aware of how sadly misanthropic some of the folks up that way are.

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  8. Yeah "Anonymous" take it easy!! We stopped to take pictures from the road and a couple guys from the house just west of the school, jump out of their truck and yelled at us for being there. Guess what Dudes?, you DON'T own the road! If THE OWNER of the school house property was so worried about trespassers, he would have explicit no trespassing signs and maybe he wouldn't let the place rot into the ground! I can't believe "Anonymous" has nothing else to do out in Maudlow besides give nice LOCAL people taking pictures a hard time. Visitors; Be prepared to encounter "Anonymous" if you're in Maudlow.

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  9. My mother worked at the mill in the late 60's and early 70's. My sister and I went to school there. Road on a bus from the mill to there. Mrs Emerson was our teacher. Was up to the fourth grade. Upsatirs and down. Was a neat experiance

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  10. I would like to drive to madlow next year how would I get permission my cousins went to school there and my dad built some of the railroad where my uncle was killed at montana elevators

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    1. Mary, there's still a good, gravel county road all the way to Maudlow, and it's open to the public. You'll have no trouble getting to the old town, but should stay on the public roadway to avoid incurring the wrath of the locals.

      The old school is still there, but is pretty sadly neglected these days. I wish the folks up there appreciated their history a bit more.

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  11. Does anyone know who owns the Maudlow school? I would like to take some pictures of the school yard adjacent with permission and some money avail. Please reply asap to warrenkommers@gmail.com

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