The community of Somers came into being in 1901 when the Great Northern Railway built an 11 mile spur line south from Kalispell to a sawmill on the shore of Flathead Lake. Initially the purpose of the mill was to supply railroad ties to the Great Northern. Originally owned by local businessman John O'Brien, the sawmill was bought outright in 1906 by the Great Northern's J.J. Hill and continued to produce lumber at the rate of 30 million board feet per year. By 1910 it had become the largest sawmill in the Flathead Valley.
John O'Brien built 122 company houses and a general store in Somers for the employees of the sawmill and the railroad. While the sawmill closed and was dismantled in 1949, Somers lives on, the trading centre for an agricultural area, with much fruit growing taking place in the vicinity. The community, unincorporated and remaining a census-designated place, is also a summer resort and vacation spot, situated at the northwest corner of Flathead Lake. The population today stands in the vicinity of 1,200.
Years after the sawmill closed, the Somers - Kalispell Spur Line also closed and has been repurposed as the
Great Northern Historical Trail, AKA the
Sonny Boon Memorial Trail, after Sonny Boone, among many other things a member of the Board of Directors of Rails
to Trails. The trail is available year round for hiking, biking and cross country skiing. The south (Somers) end of the trail is marked by a green painted
0-4-0 Porter switching engine, shown below.
Great Northern Railway magnate James J. Hill contracted with John O’Brien to build a sawmill on the north end of Flathead Lake in 1900, with the provision that the John O’Brien Lumber Company would supply the Great Northern with 600,000 railroad ties per year for 20 years. The lumber company owned 122 homes in this company town and furnished water and electricity to its workers. The company floated logs down the Whitefish, Stillwater, Swan, and Flathead rivers and across Flathead Lake to the mill at Somers, where they were milled into railroad ties and lumber. The mill added a tie treatment plant in 1901, and the railroad purchased the entire operation a few years later. The Great Northern Railway closed the lumber mill in 1948 but continued to operate the tie plant until its closure in 1986 by the Burlington Northern Railroad. The town was named for George O. Somers, a Vice President of the Great Northern Railroad, and the person responsible for overseeing the development of the new lumber town.
From the Montana Place Names Companion
The entry from the American Guide Series book
Montana, A State Guide Book follows.
SOMERS (L), 9.5 m. (2,950 alt., 750 pop.), is a sawmill town by Flathead Lake. The buildings are of the frame type usual in mill towns; the water below is crowded with logs that have been shipped in by rail or driven down the Flathead and Stillwater Rivers and towed in by small steamers.
From Montana, A State Guide Book, Page 295