Captain Joel Rude of the Montana National Guard crashed his F-106 into a grain elevator and died during a Labor Day Parade on September 3, 1979. A circus elephant named Old Pitt was struck by lightning in 1943 and is buried at the Dillon fairgrounds. The Montana Normal College was established as a teaching college in 1892, and is still functioning today, renowned for its Education program. Dillon was once the largest exporter of sheep wool in Montana. The agriculturally rich Beaverhead Valley became an ideal location for sheep ranching, introduced in 1869. A cattle industry was established in 1865. While many of the gold mining towns around Dillon died, Dillon was able to thrive due to the railroad and talc mining in the area. In 1884, Dillon became an incorporated town and began building sidewalks and permanent dwellings for the residents. The first brick building in Dillon was built in 1882.
In 1881, Dillon became part of a contentious battle with Bannack to become the county seat of Beaverhead County. The last real gold rush in the area occurred near Argenta in 1920 and lasted for 30 years.ĭillon served as a central location for transporting goods to nearby boomtowns such as Bannack, Argenta, Glen, and Virginia City. Gold was first discovered at Grasshopper Creek in 1862, precipitating a flood of immigration to the area. The first ore discovered in the Dillon area was silver. The town's location was selected by the railroad in part because of its proximity to gold mines in the area. Originally named “Terminus” as it was temporarily the northernmost stop on the Utah and Northern Railway while it was under construction, in 1881, the community was renamed for Union Pacific Railroad President Sidney Dillon, who had directed the project of bringing the railroad through to Butte, Montana. The photo was taken by Russell Lee, and the site today contains a much smaller structure.ĭillon was founded in the Beaverhead Valley as a railroad town in 1880. History Southeast Corner of the intersection of Bannack and Montana Streets, in 1942. The city was named for Sidney Dillon (1812–1892), president of Union Pacific Railroad. The population was 3,880 at the 2020 census. Dillon is a city in and the county seat of Beaverhead County, Montana, United States.
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