Victor A. S. Blake and his Shoshone wife came to the Bitterroot in the 1860s and were among the founders of the town of Victor. Blake later became the first elected state legislator from Missoula County, out of which Ravalli County was later carved. Victor was originally named Garfield, after President James Garfield. It was later renamed after Chief Victor of the Salish tribe, whom the whites called the Flathead.
101 Things to do in the Bitterroot Valley, May 2011 - 75
Blake organized the Farmers State Bank in 1907. Soon thereafter, the town saw a business boom, and the bank helped support businesses in lumbering, mining, agriculture and education. Victor school had the county’s best school system, and became the first consolidated school district in Montana. The bank survived five robberies, the 1929 stock market crash and the Depression. When other banks were closing their doors, Farmers State Bank continued in business, making loans sometimes based merely on faith and reputation, and kept the local economy going when much of the national economy dried up. It stared out in a corner of the St. John’s Drug Store and now serves two counties while providing a colorful and distinctive visual accent to downtown Victor. Corvallis In 1853 and 1854, John Mullan established a winter base from which to make observations towards creation of an overland route to the Columbia River. His party built four cabins at a large
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% 86 +LJKZD\ 6 +DPLOWRQ 07 Stay at the Alta Ranch on 150 acres in the Bitterroot Valley. The largest cabin accommodates 12 people.
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