Editing Boulder, Montana (section)

==History==
Named for the many large boulders in the vicinity, the town of Boulder Valley was established in the early 1860s as a stagecoach station on the route between [[Fort Benton, Montana|Fort Benton]] and [[Virginia City, Montana|Virginia City]].<ref name="mhs">{{cite web|title=Montana Place Names Companion|url=http://mtplacenames.org/|publisher=Montana Historical Society|access-date=July 25, 2017}}</ref> It later became a trading center for nearby agricultural areas and the Elkhorn, Comet, and Baltimore mining districts. The [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]] branch line from Helena to Butte reached Boulder in 1888. State schools for the deaf, blind, and developmentally disabled were established in the city in 1892. In 1897, the town's name was shortened to Boulder.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cheney |first=Roberta Carkeek |title=Names on the Face of Montana |publisher=Mountain Press Publishing Company |year=1983 |location=Missoula, Montana |pages=29 |isbn=0-87842-150-5}}</ref>

In the 1892 [[Montana capital referendum]]'s first round, Boulder was a candidate city to become the newly-admitted Montana's capital. It faced [[Helena, Montana|Helena]], [[Anaconda, Montana|Anaconda]], [[Butte, Montana|Butte]], [[Bozeman, Montana|Bozeman]], [[Great Falls, Montana|Great Falls]], and [[Deer Lodge, Montana|Deer Lodge]]. As Boulder finished last with only 295 votes, it was not in the second round in 1894, which Helena won.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Humanities |first=National Endowment for the |date=November 29, 1892 |title=The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, November 29, 1892, Morning, Image 1 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025308/1892-11-29/ed-1/seq-1/ |access-date=July 4, 2023 |issn=2326-9588}}</ref>