Farmers Trading Company
New settlers began to farm in the Bridger area as early as 1892. Soon after, Henry Gebo, Thomas P. McDonald and George Town discovered coal along the west rims of present-day Bridger and started the Bridger Coal Company. Butte copper magnate William A. Clark purchased the company and built a Northern Pacific branch line to the mine in 1898. “Stringtowns” developed in the easements along the railroad and coal mine road. Clark platted the Bridger townsite in 1902 and business owners replaced earlier temporary tents and wood-frame buildings with permanent stone and brick commercial buildings. In 1906, James W. Johnston, Harvey Wolfe, William H. Spiers, E. Thomas Prewett, and William Bostic incorporated the Farmers Trading Company. They hired Swedish immigrant Eric Forsman to build this Western Commercial style building from stone quarried in the west Bridger rims. The building featured large plate glass windows, oak trim, a decorative tin ceiling, a loft office, and boasted a refrigerated section in the grocery portion. The full basement held a freight elevator, seed potato storage, a gun firing range, and a coal entrance. The store sold general merchandise, including dry goods, shoes, hats, and caps. In 1926, Morris Levander and Ole Overby (sons-in-laws of Eric Forsman) purchased the Farmers Trading Company and continued to operate it as a general store. The Billings-based Vaughn-Ragsdale department store purchased the building in 1937 and operated a clothing store here until the early 1960s.
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