Ovando, Montana

Episode 14 / 19 April 2017 / 59 min / full

One Drifter, Two Murders

"James says the town this week is Ovando, Montana, in the western central part of the state, in Powell County, 75 miles northwest of Helena." about 0:04:26

The case: Murders of Ned and Selene Blackwood (July 1988); Murder of a prisoner in the 1991 Deer Lodge riot (Fall 1991). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2017

Population

80

Median age

56.5

Median household income

$24,000

Two-bedroom rent

$658

Cost of living

91

Religious

24%

Property crime

▲ slightly above average

Violent crime

▲ just a touch above average

History, in brief

• The area has been inhabited by people for over 14,000 years. about 0:08:02
• It is thought to have been first populated by the Cutonade peoples. about 0:08:28
• It was eventually heavily populated by the native tribes of the area, and the Nez Perce held on to it. about 0:08:42
• It was a buffalo hunting area, and so was always a source of fighting between local tribes. about 0:08:55
• Meriwether Lewis stopped here on his return journey overland from the Pacific, and the Nez Perce took care of him. about 0:09:10
• An important Indian trail came up the Blackfoot River from Missoula into the area, through a gorge called Hellgate. about 0:10:17
• The first non-natives, the first white settlers, came into the area in the 1870s. about 0:10:44
• In 1883, six years before Montana became a state, the first post office was built and run by a man named Ovando Hoyt. about 0:11:30
• The Blackfoot Telephone Company, still operating today, was founded in 1882 when Charles Jackways strung wire from fence post to fence post, then tree to tree. about 0:11:42
• The name Ovando was a compromise; the town originally wanted to call itself something else. about 0:12:13
• The town was once bustling, with stores, saloons, a barber shop, a drug store and a hotel, all waiting for the railroad. about 0:12:42
• In 1919 there was still no railroad, and a large fire in one of the stores burned the entire town to the ground apart from a few buildings. about 0:13:06
• Between the fire and the lack of a railroad, most of the people left. about 0:13:12
• Several hundred-year-old buildings that survived the fire are still standing, including a trading post. about 0:13:24

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