Earliest source referencing Betters' Station now 1961
Today, on a rare visit to the Renne Library at Montana State University, I picked up a book on the "free" rack, titled "Montana's Benton Road." While Benton Road does not pass through Clinton, it was part of the Mullan Road, and I thought it might contain clues to what was going on along the Mullan Road in the Hellgate Valley about the same time. So far, I haven't found anything directly relevant in the book, but it renewed my interest in researching Better's Station, which led to tonight's breakthrough discovery... Thanks to the University of Montana digitizing all of their theses, dissertations and professional papers, tonight I found the earliest reference to Better's Station that I have found. Here is what Don Bert Omundson's 1961 thesis "Study of place names in Missoula County, Montana" says about Clinton: Clinton T12N R17W. Small community 15 miles e. of Missoula on the N.P.R.R. and C.M. & St.P. Named in November, 1