Galata is virtually a ghost town, but at one time it was a booming railroad center. David R. McGinnis, a Great Northern executive, thought the area was so beautiful that he filed a claim for the land near where the small Galata Creek ran down from the Sweet Grass Hills.
He built a ten-room hotel and a number of commercial buildings, but nobody showed up. His dream of building a town had failed. He later recalled, “Cowboys, jam-full of life, coming there to ship stock, in their excess of the joy of living would playfully shoot the doorknobs off the vacant buildings.” He closed up and moved to Kalispell. He later received a check in the mail marked “back rent”. A cowhand had moved into the deserted store and had done a fair amount of business with dryland farmers who were settling the area.
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