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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 Smelter Hill (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 Smelter Hill. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Smelter Hill 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 Smelter Hill. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Smelter Hill:

  • Cascade County     (The home county of Smelter Hill)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Smelter Hill, with the one closest to Smelter Hill listed first.
    • Black Eagle
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Countryside Village
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Countryside Village is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Countryside Village
    • Great Falls
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Sand Coulee
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Manchester
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Manchester is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manchester
    • Sun Prairie
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Sun Prairie is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sun Prairie
    • Stockett
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Ulm
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Vaughn
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Eden
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Eden is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eden
    • Belt
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • 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>
    • Armington
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Armington is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armington
  • Chouteau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Smelter Hill, with the one closest to Smelter Hill listed first.
    • Floweree
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Highwood
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Carter
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Big Sag
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Big Sag is located in Chouteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Sag
    • Tunis
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Tunis is located in Chouteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tunis
  • Judith Basin County
  • Teton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Smelter Hill, with the one closest to Smelter Hill listed first.
    • Power
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Greenfield
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Greenfield is located in Teton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenfield
    • Dutton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Smelter Hill ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Smelter Hill.

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 Smelter Hill - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Hillcrest Lawn Memorial Association
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Mt. Olivet Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Highland Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • 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>
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • 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>
  • Hebrew Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Big Stone Colony Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Sand Coulee Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • 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
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Vaughn Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Red Butte Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Cottonwood Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (21 more) ...
    • Pleasant Valley Colony Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Lower Belt Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Fair Haven Colony Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fair Haven Colony Cemetery
      • The Fair Haven Colony Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Fairhaven Colony 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.<4>

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

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

  • North Great Falls ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • North Great Falls is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Great Falls
  • Great Falls
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Watson ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Watson is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Watson
  • Sand Coulee
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Portage
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Portage is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Portage
  • Ulm
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Truly
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Truly is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Truly
  • Vaughn
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Belt
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • 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>
  • Floweree
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Armington
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Armington is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armington
  • Sun River
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Highwood
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Saint Clair ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Saint Clair is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Clair
    • Evans
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Evans is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evans

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

Newspapers Published in Smelter Hill ...

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 Smelter Hill.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Smelter Hill, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Smelter Hill.

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 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 Smelter Hill:

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- Smelter Hill) 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 Smelter Hill, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.