Alexander Glover, a native of Scotland, came to ranch in the Deer Lodge Valley in 1865. The first to settle in the Warm Springs Creek drainage, he built this cabin of saddle- notched hewn logs. On April 12, 1868, Glover, at thirty, married twenty-year-old Mary James. Mary’s father, William M. James, had come with his family from Wales to the Deer Lodge Valley where he established one of the early ranches. The marriage of Alexander and Mary was the first at Warm Springs Creek. The Glovers’ son, Thomas, eldest of their seven children, was born on March 14, 1870, reputedly the first white child born at the Creek. The Glovers ranched and farmed until 1883 when Marcus Daly commissioned local rancher Morgan Evans to purchase lands for a townsite and smelter. The Glover family sold the ranch, Alexander eventually turned to mining, and the family cabin became headquarters for the Anaconda townsite surveying crew. The quaint little cabin remained on its original site near Elm Street for another thirty years. In 1916, annexation of the First Western Addition, which included most of the original Glover ranch, prompted removal of the cabin to Washoe Park about a mile away. Here in its new setting, the historic cabin long served as park headquarters. Today the Glover Cabin, unique to the area for its single-pen linear form, is Anaconda’s oldest surviving building and a tribute to the first settlers at Warm Springs Creek.

Images

Glover Cabin, streetview
Glover Cabin, streetview Still image capture of the Glover Cabin at the corner of Washoe Park in Anaconda view to northwest. Image information recorded on print verso. b&w print. Source: Official records of the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, Helena, Montana Creator: Kate Hampton Date: August 2000

Location

Washoe Park, Anaconda, Montana | Public

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “Glover Cabin,” Historic Montana, accessed April 24, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/3.