Belfry

The panel's last line is the town's joke on itself. Belfry took its name from Dr. Oran Merton Belfry, an investor in the railroad, not from any bell tower, and the school teams play as the Belfry Bats. What the line left behind still stands: the Montana, Wyoming & Southern depot, listed on the National Register in 2012, and Kose Hall, which has served as dance hall, restaurant and general store. The school outlasted the coal as well, enrolling 51 students in 2024-25, some from Bearcreek and from Clark, Wyoming.

What the plaque says

Belfry Shortly after this area was removed from the Crow Reservation in 1892, homesteaders settled along the fertile Clarks Fork River to raise wheat. The discovery of rich coal deposits along Bear Creek, seven miles to the west, generated interest among capitalists to commercially mine the resource. In 1905, Frank Hall and a group of Billings and Pennsylvania investors formed the Yellowstone Park Railroad to provide a connection between the coal mines and the Northern Pacific Railways's branch at Bridger. That same year the Belfry Townsite Company began selling lots at the confluence of Bear Creek and the Clarks Fork. The new town was named for Dr. Oran Belfry, a major investor in the railroad and was the headquarters of the railroad. Anchored at the west end by the depot, the community's business district included hotels, lumberyards, grocery stores, and a billiards parlor. In 1909, the railroad reorganized and was renamed the Montana, Wyoming & Southern Railroad. Its fortunes always shaky, the railroad went bankrupt in 1954 and pulled up its tracks after the statewide demand for coal plummeted. Today, Belfry survives as a local trade center and is home to the famed Belfry Bats.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Smith Mine — 8.9 mi
  Rusting buildings beside the highway, all that is left of the mine where Montana's worst coal disaster emptied a valley.
• Beartooth Highway — 21 mi
  A road over the top of the world, built because a coal town's mines closed and it needed tourists instead.

More markers nearby

• Bearcreek — 7.2 mi
• Black Gold — 8.7 mi
• The Smith Mine Disaster — 8.7 mi
• A Trail Woefully Hard to Travel: The Bridger Cut-Off — 10 mi