Early Pioneers

• In 1805, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led their famous expedition through the area that is now the site of St. Regis. It took several years, however, before settlers penetrated into the rugged landscape and made their homes there. Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Jesuit missionary to the Flathead tribe in the 1840s, named the St. Regis River after another Jesuit priest, Saint Regis DeBorgia. The river later gave its name to the town that grew up along its banks.
  
  

The Mullan Trail

• Between 1859 and 1862, U.S. Army Captain John Mullan supervised the development of a road from Ft. Benton (Montana) to Ft. Walla Walla (Washington), which helped make the region accessible. Prior to this point, not even native Indian tribes had explored the area to any great degree because of its rough terrain. After years of hard labor by the army engineers, the trail was completed and prospectors, lumberjacks, fur traders and settlers began populating the St. Regis valley.
  
  

Gold Rush Years

• In 1869, gold was discovered along Cedar Creek near St. Regis and the valley was stampeded by miners. The 1870 census showed that 1,700 people lived in and around the town in Mineral County. Within just a few years, however, the gold began to run out and many of the new settlers left the area. Most of those that remained made their living by cutting timber or raising sheep and cattle.
  
  

Fire of 1910

• The spring and summer of 1910 were especially dry in western Montana and northern Idaho. The fire season that year was the worst on record. An article in the archives of the New York Times dated August 22, 1910 chronicles the misery of the men who fought the blazes that covered miles of forestland. Trains evacuated people from the area and the Times reported that 250 women and children from St. Regis arrived in Missoula that month in order to escape the flames. Most of the town burned in the disaster, and much of it was never rebuilt.
  
  

Recent History

• St. Regis now has a reputation as a tourist center and provides a first-rate golf course for visitors. It is the site of the largest flea market in Montana each Memorial Day. The beauty of the area and the abundance of wildlife make St. Regis popular with skiers, hunters, hikers, rafters, fishermen, snowmobilers and campers.