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The Commemorative Quarter for Montana







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 Clearwater (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 Clearwater. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Clearwater is located in Missoula County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Missoula County: Clearwater (ID), Idaho (ID), Flathead, Granite, Lake, Mineral, Powell, Ravalli & Sanders.

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

  • Missoula County     (The home county of Clearwater)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clearwater, with the one closest to Clearwater listed first.
    • Greenough
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Seeley Lake
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Clinton
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clinton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clinton
      • Clinton is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clinton <1>
    • Piltzville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piltzville
      • Piltzville is located in Missoula County
    • Bonner
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Milltown
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • East Missoula
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Missoula
      • East Missoula is located in Missoula County
  • Granite County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clearwater, with the one closest to Clearwater listed first.
    • Stump Town ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stump Town have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stump Town
      • Stump Town is located in Granite County
    • Garnet ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garnet
      • Garnet is located in Granite County
    • Beartown ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Beartown have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beartown
      • Beartown is located in Granite County
    • Bearmouth ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bearmouth have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bearmouth
      • Bearmouth is located in Granite County
    • Drummond
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Hall
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Powell County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clearwater, with the one closest to Clearwater listed first.
    • Ovando
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Reynolds City
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Reynolds City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reynolds City
      • Reynolds City is located in Powell County
    • Helmville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Clearwater ...

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 6 newspapers that have been published in the area around Clearwater.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Clearwater, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Clearwater.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Clearwater:

Cemeteries Near Clearwater ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Clearwater.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Seeley Lake Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Sand Park Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • The Sand Park Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Coloma Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sand Park Cemetery
  • Ovando Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Beartown Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Beartown Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Beartown Cemetery
  • Helmville Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Helmville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Helmville Cemetery
  • St. Thomas Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Thomas Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Thomas Cemetery
  • Valley Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Valley Cemetery
  • Lincoln Gulch Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lincoln Gulch Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lincoln Gulch Cemetery

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.<5>

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

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

  • Ovando
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Potomac
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Potomac have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Potomac
    • Potomac is located in Missoula County
  • Beartown ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Beartown have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beartown
    • Beartown is located in Granite County
  • Helmville
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Clinton
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clinton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clinton
    • Clinton is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clinton <1>
  • Bonner
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Drummond
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)

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

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Clearwater. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Missoula County: www.co.missoula.mt.us/

The official website for State of Montana: https://mt.gov/

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 location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<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 drawn from Point A (ie- Clearwater) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Clearwater. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.0002, Longitude: -113.3779       In this case, the coordinates for Clearwater have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<5>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 Clearwater, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 10 Mar 2024