Origin of the Montana Place Name Wallace

In Don Bert Omundson's 1961 thesis "Study of place names in Missoula County, Montana," his entry for Wallace simply said, "(See Clinton)." However, he did include an entry for Wallace Creek:

T12N Rl7W. Empties into the Clark Fork River from the e. near Clinton. Named for Lieutenant Wallace who captured some warring Blackfeet Indians there in 1878. (L. Custer Keim)

Previous Names: Camas Trail Creek. This name existed as late as 1886, the year in which water rights were taken out on this stream. At that time this name was in concurrent usage with the name which later succeeded it, Wallace Creek. (Forest Swartz)

Omundson's source, Lawrence Custer Keim, misidentified the tribe but correctly identified the origin of the place name Wallace. And he should know. His father, Frank M. Keim, was one of the three men who founded the Wallace Mining District.

It looks like Omundson was well on his way to finding the truth. His thesis included a three-page supplement/appendix that he titled, "Miscellaneous information from Missoula Courthouse records about some of the places and men mentioned in the following thesis." In it, he wrote this about the place name Wallace:

July 1878 Missoulians have stories of band of Nez Perce who had accompanied Chief Joseph preceding year and spent winter in Canada and were on their way back to Idaho. There were fights near Bear Mouth and again on Rock Creek during which several white miners were killed. Fort Missoula detached Lt Thomas S Walla[ce] and 12 soldiers to chase Indians; they caught up with Indians on Clearwater, killed six, killed or captured all the horses.

Aug 2, 1878 when a new mining district was being organized, the men voted to name the district "Wallace"

Wallace post office was established 1883; Wallace election precinct 1886; post office name was changed to Clinton in 1892 and election precinct name changed in 1894.

The proximity (in place and time) of Lt. Wallace's altercation with the Nez Perce and the naming of the mining district provides strong support for Keim's claim, but Omundson falls short of providing the proof.

I found the proof.

In a tidbit about the Wallace Mining District in an article titled "Round-Up Papers" in the October 17, 1878 issue of the Helena Weekly Herald (see below), it stated, "The new mining section has been christened "Wallace District," in honor of the gallant leader who so thoroughly chastised the raiding Nez Perces on the Lo-Lo trail in August."

This is how the incident was reported in the August 2, 1878 issue of the Weekly Missoulian:

Less than two months after the Wallace Mining District was named after him, Lt. Wallace died near Missoula.

Here is the account of his disappearance, as reported in the December 13, 1878 issue of the Weekly Missoulian:

...and here are two notices that appeared in the December 20, 1878 issue of the New North-West,  announcing the discovery of Lt. Wallace's body:

Finally, here is the obituary that appeared in the December 20, 1878 issue of the Weekly Missoulian:

If you want to learn more about Lt. Thomas S. Wallace, The Arizona Historical Society has some handwritten military reports from him in their collection, including "General Orders expressing appreciation for good conduct of Thomas S. Wallace and his company for their participating in an engagement with the Nez Perce at the middle fork of Clearwater River, Idaho and two reports on the campaign against the Nez Perce in July 1878."

Final Thoughts

So we know the origination of the place name Wallace, but what came first? It appears that the mining district was named Wallace first, in 1878, and once people began referring to the area as Wallace, everything else was named after the place. As Omundson notes, the Wallace post office was established in 1883, and the Wallace election precinct in 1886. The Wallace Station on the NPRR was likely named between 1883 and 1885. Omundson notes the timing of Camas Trail Creek becoming Wallace Creek.