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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 Fort Shaw (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 Fort Shaw. 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.

Name Variations for Fort Shaw ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Fort Shaw: Ft. Shaw

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 northeast 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 north.

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 north 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.

Fort Shaw is located in Cascade 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 Cascade County: Chouteau, Judith Basin, Lewis and Clark, Meagher & Teton.

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

  • Cascade County     (The home county of Fort Shaw)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Shaw, with the one closest to Fort Shaw listed first.
    • Sun River
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Simms
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Simms have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Simms
      • Simms is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Simms <2>
    • Vaughn
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Sun Prairie
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sun Prairie have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sun Prairie
      • Sun Prairie is located in Cascade County
    • Ulm
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ulm have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ulm
      • Ulm is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ulm <2>
    • Manchester
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Cascade
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Black Eagle
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Black Eagle have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Black Eagle
      • Black Eagle is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Black Eagle <2>
    • Countryside Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Countryside Village have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Countryside Village
      • Countryside Village is located in Cascade County
    • Great Falls
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Mid Canon
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Eden
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Sand Coulee
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Lewis and Clark County
  • Teton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Shaw, with the one closest to Fort Shaw listed first.
    • Greenfield
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Fairfield
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fairfield have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairfield
      • Fairfield is located in Teton County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 734 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fairfield <2>
    • Power
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Power have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Power
      • Power is located in Teton County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Power <2>
    • Dutton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dutton have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dutton
      • Dutton is located in Teton County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 325 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dutton <2>
    • Choteau
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Collins
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Fort Shaw ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fort Shaw.

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 Fort Shaw covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

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.<6>

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

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

  • Sun River
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Vaughn
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Saint Peter
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saint Peter have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Peter
    • Saint Peter is located in Cascade County
  • Ulm
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ulm have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ulm
    • Ulm is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ulm <2>
  • Cascade
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Saint Clair ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saint Clair have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Clair
    • Saint Clair is located in Cascade County
  • Truly
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Truly have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Truly
    • Truly is located in Cascade County
  • Dearborn Crossing ‑ Historic
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Dearborn Crossing. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dearborn Crossing
    • Dearborn Crossing is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Dearborn Crossing has also been known as:
    • Dearborn City
    • Dearborn
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Dearborn Crossing
    • From Fort Shaw to Dearborn Crossing
  • Great Falls
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Mid Canon
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • North Great Falls ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for North Great Falls have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Great Falls
      • North Great Falls is located in Cascade County
    • Watson ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Watson have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Watson
      • Watson is located in Cascade County
    • Choteau
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Augusta
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Collins
      (29 miles [46.7 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 Fort Shaw. See our List of 1890's Communities around Fort Shaw.

Newspapers Published in Fort Shaw ...

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 59 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fort Shaw.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fort Shaw, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fort Shaw.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Fort Shaw:

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

The official website for Cascade County: www.co.cascade.mt.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Fort Shaw) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Fort Shaw. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.5058, Longitude: -111.8105    
<5>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.
<6>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 Fort Shaw, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025