Editing Bearcreek, Montana (section)

===Events after the Smith Mine Disaster===
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, there was a marked trend away from coal consumption in the American economy, due to utilization of [[natural gas]] or fuel oil for heating and the increasing use of [[diesel fuel|diesel]] to power locomotives.  Bearcreek's coal production went into a steady decline.

After the abrupt closure of the Smith Mine, and as the demand for coal declined so did the financial health of the Montana, Wyoming and Southern, which had always been precarious.  The railroad ceased to operate in 1953.  When the railroad ceased to function so did most of mining activity in and around Bearcreek, since the railroad was the only efficient way for mines to ship their coal to market.  Some mines struggled on, but the last mine closed in the 1970s.   After the closure of the railroad followed by most of the mines the town's population rapidly dwindled, eventually declining to under 100 people.  The rails and ties were removed from the railroad bed and over time the many empty miners houses that once filled the coulees along Bear Creek were sold and moved, or they simply sat vacant and deteriorated until they were torn down.

Today, the many surrounding communities that made up Bearceek are almost completely gone, with only a few houses marking Washoe, currently the largest of them.<ref name="baker1">{{cite book |last=Baker |first=Don |title=Ghost Towns of the Montana Prairie |publisher=Fred Pruett Books |location=Golden, Colorado |year=1997 |pages=20–21 |isbn=0-87108-050-8}}</ref>  In the last decades there is some growth of the tiny remaining community of Bearcreek thanks to its proximity to [[Red Lodge, Montana|Red Lodge]] which has developed an economy to serve tourists who come to ski, or to use summer cabins, or to pass through to Yellowstone Park.<ref>Aarstad, Rich, Ellie Arguimbau, Ellen Baumler, Charlene Porsild, and Brian Shovers. [http://mhs.mt.gov/pub/press/reference.asp#PlaceNames Montana Place Names from Alzada to Zortman] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091008060633/http://mhs.mt.gov/pub/press/reference.asp#PlaceNames |date=October 8, 2009 }}. Montana Historical Society Press.</ref>