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 Salmon Prairie (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 Salmon Prairie. 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 Salmon Prairie ...

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 Salmon Prairie: Salmon Pr.

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 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.

Salmon Prairie is located in Lake 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 Lake County: Flathead, Missoula & Sanders.

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

• Lake County     (The home county of Salmon Prairie)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Salmon Prairie, with the one closest to Salmon Prairie listed first.
  • Turtle Lake
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Turtle Lake have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turtle Lake
    • Turtle Lake is located in Lake County
  • Finley Point
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Finley Point have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Finley Point
    • Finley Point is located in Lake County
  • Pablo
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pablo
    • Pablo is located in Lake County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pablo <2>
  • Ronan
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ronan have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ronan
    • Ronan is located in Lake County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,167 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ronan <2>
  • Kicking Horse
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kicking Horse have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kicking Horse
    • Kicking Horse is located in Lake County
  • Polson
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Polson have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Polson
    • Polson is located in Lake County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,181 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Polson <2>
  • Kings Point
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kings Point have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kings Point
    • Kings Point is located in Lake County
  • Jette
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jette
    • Jette is located in Lake County
  • Kerr
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kerr have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kerr
    • Kerr is located in Lake County
  • Rocky Point
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rocky Point have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Point
    • Rocky Point is located in Lake County
  • Swan Lake
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swan Lake
    • Swan Lake is located in Lake County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Swan Lake <2>
  • Bear Dance
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bear Dance
    • Bear Dance is located in Lake County
• Missoula County
  • Condon
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Condon
    • Condon is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Condon <2>

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

Newspapers Published in Salmon Prairie ...

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 14 newspapers that have been published in the area around Salmon Prairie.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Salmon Prairie, 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 Salmon Prairie.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Salmon Prairie:

• Websites specific to Montana
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the Montana Historical Society

• Pages specific to Lake County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Missoula County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Cemetery Information and Directories for Montana
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Montana
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of Montana
  • Cemeteries of Lake County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Montana
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Montana
  • Cemeteries of Lake County

Cemeteries Near Salmon Prairie ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Salmon Prairie.

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 Salmon Prairie covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

• Ronan Cemetery
  (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ronan Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ronan Cemetery
• Lakeview Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • The Lakeview Cemetery has also been known as:
  • Lake View Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lakeview Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20954 <4>
• Polson Catholic Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Polson Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Polson Catholic Cemetery
• Hospital Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hospital Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hospital Cemetery
• St. Ignatius Old Catholic Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Ignatius Old Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Ignatius Old Catholic Cemetery
• St. Ignatius Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Ignatius Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Ignatius Cemetery
• Pleasant View Cemetery
  (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pleasant View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pleasant View Cemetery
• Indian Cemetery
  (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Indian Cemetery is located outside and to the west of Dayton.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Indian Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20940 <4>

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 Salmon Prairie in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Salmon Prairie.

• Saint Ignatius
  (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saint Ignatius have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Ignatius
  • Saint Ignatius is located in Lake County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 842 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Saint Ignatius <2>

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

The official website for Lake County: www.lakecounty-mt.org/

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