Though now somewhat overshadowed by a later grain elevator, the northernmost section of this complex was originally a wool warehouse, built by the Northern Pacific Railroad. The Northern Pacific was the major transporter of sheep's wool from the rangelands of Montana and as such built several wool warehouses alongside their tracks in areas where sheep were raised. This warehouse was built in 1900, but by the 1920s, with the decline in wool exports, had been sold and repurposed as a bean cleaning plant. While we know that there is still a considerable acreage in Southwest Montana given over to growing dried beans, it appears that this may now be a grain elevator as grain seems to be the major local crop today.
While the wool warehouse may not have been used as such for many years, it was not cast aside but, instead, recycled and reused used first for bean cleaning and storage, then for grain storage. While there is faded lettering on the east side of the elevator, they're now illegible. We have been unable to find further information on the elevator, its age or its owners, past and present. We assume that the actual elevator. The wool warehouse section, now clad in grey metal siding, has been substantially altered since its entry in the National Register in 1987. At that time it still had loading docks around several sides and the metal siding had not been applied. Today a small sliver of the original wood siding, painted white, is all that shows.
Wool Warehouse
AKA Glidden Mercantile Warehouse
The Red Lodge Picket, May 4, 1900, noted that two new warehouses were being built by the station in Bridger. One (this one) built by the Northern Pacific Railway Company as a wool warehouse, and the other by Hiram Haskins. Glidden Mercantile bought the Haskins one and moved it to Main Street in 1903, then began using this one. Reference is made to Glidden in this one in the Free Press May 13, 1904, when sparks from the train set fire to hay on the platform, but no damage occurred to the building.
In 1899, the year prior to the construction of the wool warehouse, a million pounds of wool were shipped from Carbon County. Montana was the world's leading producer of wool during the first decade of the twentieth century, and Carbon ranked ninth in contribution. In 1904 fully one-half of the assessed value of Carbon County was in cattle and sheep, and the sheep continued to out number cattle at least through the 1920s.
In the 1920s this warehouse was converted into a bean cleaning plant, and the elevated portion was added on. Appears to be original condition, but the elevated portion was added on in the 1920s.
From the NRHP Architectural Inventory Form