Conference enters 25th year
MINERAL COUNTY – The 25th annual Mullan Conference celebrating the construction of Mullan Road in Superior will be held in Missoula, May 2-4.
There will be speakers on the road building itself, the impact on local native populations, military uses, persons involved and other topics relating to the construction of the road.
The dinner speaker will be Keith Peterson of the Idaho Historical Society. On Sunday, May 4 there will be a bus transporting conference members to east of Missoula for several related events.
“It’s the first road built by engineering principles west of the Mississippi River,” said Kay Strombo of the Mineral County Historical Museum.
Lt. John Mullan and his crew built the first wagon road in western Montana, which is now known as Mullan Road.
“They were able to build a wagon road, not a trail,” Strombo said. “A trail is a single lane path, while a road is a two-track.”
Some of the weekend’s activities include tracing the Mullan Road corridor from the site of historic Hellgate Village east through Missoula and 35 miles beyond, which will include an opportunity to walk a portion of the original 1862 Mullan Road.
“Usually an average of 75-100 people attend the event on average,” Strombo said.
The second destination includes a portion of the Clark Fork River Valley.
Participants will stop at the Milltown Bluff Overlook, while watching the history of early and modern Montana pass by against the panorama of a key site along the historical Mullan Road, which will require a 250-yard walk along the paved trail to the overlook. Shuttles will also be provided for those who can’t walk that distance.
Another stop will include the Three Mile Grade, which is east of Bonner and Turah.
Those in attendance will climb the remnants of the mountainside portion of the road, where Mullan and his crews constructed in the winter and spring of 1862 to avoid having to go over two river crossings
Other points that the trip will involve include Beavertail Hill and Medicine Tree Hill.
“We honor John Mullan and the fact that he was in charge of construction of this road,” Strombo said. “He spent $30,000 and received an additional $100,000 to complete the project.”
Even though there is an ample amount of people signed up and interested in going, Strombo always hopes there will be more in attendance.
“We would love to see people more involved,” Strombo said. “A lot of new material has come out in the past year about Mullan.”
As Mineral County’s first road, Strombo thinks more people should stop and take the time to appreciate what Mullan did for the county.
“We really encourage people to become involved and learn about the first road to span the length of the present Mineral County,” Strombo said.
Even if people can’t attend this year, the historical society would like to see more people take in interest and learn about county history as a whole, which is important to the community.
For more information contact Kay Strombo, at 822-4626.