Peerless
The Town Named After A Beer

Peerless Beer sign.

One of the more colorful towns in Montana is the little town of Peerless, named after Peerless Beer around 1912. The story goes that during a meeting in a local saloon to pick a name for the new post office, a traveling salesman was drinking a bottle of Peerless Beer and suggested that as a name for the new town. The name stuck.

In its early days, the town was known for its moonshiners and boozerunners. It even had a house of ill repute. The town was full of colorful characters. In the early days “Whitey the Gambler” shot and killed a man and was given 30 days to leave town. Then there’s the mysterious local farmer, John Brown. No one knew where he came from or anything about his past. In the late 50s, they found him dead with quite a sum of money, a .38 strapped to his chest, and another alongside his bed.