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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Big Stone Colony (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Big Stone Colony. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Big Stone Colony is located in Cascade County.

To see how the shape of Montana's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Cascade County: Chouteau, Judith Basin, Lewis and Clark, Meagher & Teton.

Below are the counties that are near Big Stone Colony. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Big Stone Colony:

  • Cascade County     (The home county of Big Stone Colony)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Big Stone Colony, with the one closest to Big Stone Colony listed first.
    • Sand Coulee
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Stockett
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Great Falls
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Black Eagle
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Eden
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Eden is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eden
    • Countryside Village
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Countryside Village is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Countryside Village
    • Belt
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Belt is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belt
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 568 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Belt <1>
    • Ulm
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Armington
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Armington is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armington
    • Armington Junction
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Armington Junction is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armington Junction
    • Manchester
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Manchester is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manchester
    • Sun Prairie
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Sun Prairie is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sun Prairie
    • Vaughn
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Chouteau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Big Stone Colony, with the one closest to Big Stone Colony listed first.
    • Highwood
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Floweree
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Big Sag
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Big Sag is located in Chouteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Sag
    • Carter
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Judith Basin County
  • Teton County

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Big Stone Colony, see our County-by-County Page for Big Stone Colony.

Cemeteries Near Big Stone Colony ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Big Stone Colony.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Big Stone Colony - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Big Stone Colony covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Big Stone Colony, with the one closest to Big Stone Colony listed first.

  • Big Stone Colony Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Sand Coulee Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Hebrew Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calvary Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Calvary Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the south of Great Falls.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20799 <2>
  • Highland Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Highland Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located outside and to the south of Great Falls.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20910 <2>
  • Red Butte Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Mt. Olivet Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Hillcrest Lawn Memorial Association
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Cottonwood Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Pleasant Valley Colony Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Tiger Butte Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Pleasant View Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (22 more) ...
    • Sunset Memorial Gardens
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset Memorial Gardens
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Sunset Memorial Gardens is a large cemetery that is located 7 miles [11.3 km]<3> to the west of Great Falls.
      • The Sunset Memorial Gardens has also been known as:
      • Sunset Memorial Gardens
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2133894 <2>
    • Ulm Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Castner Falls Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<4>

While we didn't find Big Stone Colony in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Big Stone Colony.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Big Stone Colony, with the one closest to Big Stone Colony listed first.

  • Sand Coulee
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Great Falls
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • North Great Falls ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • North Great Falls is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Great Falls
  • Truly
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Truly is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Truly
  • Watson ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Watson is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Watson
  • Belt
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Belt is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belt
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 568 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Belt <1>
  • Ulm
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Armington
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Armington is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armington
  • Evans
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Evans is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evans
  • Portage
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Portage is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Portage
  • Vaughn
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Saint Clair ‑ Historic
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Saint Clair is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Clair
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Highwood
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Cascade
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Floweree
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Big Stone Colony. See our List of 1890's Communities around Big Stone Colony.

Newspapers Published in Big Stone Colony ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 54 newspapers that have been published in the area around Big Stone Colony.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Big Stone Colony, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Big Stone Colony.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Big Stone Colony:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Big Stone Colony) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Big Stone Colony, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.