Pineland, Montana

In this 1883 map of the Montana Territory from the Department of the Interior, General Land Office, Pineland is the only city or town between Missoula and Bears Mouth (now called Bearmouth) on the Mullan Road. As a point of reference, Stony Creek is what's known as Rock Creek today.

From the November 23, 1882 edition of the Helena Weekly Herald:

A new post-office has recently been established some miles below, which is very appropriately called Pine Land. A fine two story public house has been erected, which will be of great convenience to the traveling public. The proprietor, Mr. L. W. Frank, has had much experience as a landlord, and is well adapted for the business.

The Pineland post office only existed from July 28, 1882 to April 2, 1883. In the Western Territories in the 1880s, getting the Post Office Department to approve a new post office was easy (Probably too easy) but the Pineland post office made some sense, being halfway between existing post offices in Missoula and Bear's Mouth on (Mail) Route 36123.

Why the Pineland post office was discontinued less than a year later is unclear, but its proximity to the Wallace Mining Camp, where a post office was established the following month (on May 7, 1883) makes it appear that this may have been more of a name change than a closure. Yes, it was also a location change, but in the Western U.S. in those days, small, rural post offices were located in the home or business of the postmaster (who did the job part-time), so the location of the post office changed nearly every time the postmaster changed.

Believe it or not, the Pineland post office had two postmasters in its brief existence: Edward Frank from July 28, 1882 to October 30, 1882, and L.W. Frank from October 30, 1882 to April 2, 1883. While I haven't been able to confirm it, my assumption is that the Franks were related and both lived in the Pine Grove House, which Austin Betters and Charles Harris bought from L.W. Frank on April 14, 1883.

Was Pineland a town, or simply a post office? In Michael A. Leeson's History of Montana 1739-1885, Pineland is identified as a "settlement" in a description of Stony Creek (now called Rock Creek):

Stony creek is a rapid stream, 20 to 25 yards wide, flowing in a tortuous course northwest to Hellgate river, which it enters opposite the settlement called Pineland.

Was it considered a settlement because of the post office? Did area residents call this place Pineland before the post office was established?

Other than references to the post office in newspapers of the time and the solitary mention in Leeson's book, I have only found one other mention of Pineland as a place name near present-day Clinton, and that was in a newspaper article about a man named Johnnie Baker who was shot and killed by the wife of Hon. W.J. Stephens as he was purportedly trying to break into her house:

The dead man turns out to be one who was in town Wednesday. He came from Pineland, and is known as Johnnie Baker. He brought in two saddle horses Wednesday, and left them at the feed stable of C. F. Hawks & Co. He is said to be a hardened sinner and was ordered out of Deer Lodge not a great while ago.

I have found a couple of other maps that feature Pineland (including the 1885 version of Grant's Township And Rail Road Map Of Montana Ter.), but in both instances, it was identified as a post office in the key, so its existence on the maps doesn't give it any greater significance than that.

If anyone knows anything more about Pineland, please leave me a comment.