Square Butte Jail

MONTANA MADE - LOCALLY SOURCED MATERIALS

The shonkinite beneath Square Butte extends toward Geraldine for a mile or more, to a depth of 100 feet. An extremely rare intrusive igneous stone slightly softer than other granites, the shonkinite deposit yields “just about the best [granite] ever ... [that] will take a high polish and is first-class every way” (Geraldine Review, 1914). The quarry, founded in 1914, provided stone for buildings and markers across Montana and the West throughout the twentieth century.

Bill Jaynes photo

SQUARE BUTTE | CHOUTEAU COUNTY

The sturdy Square Butte jail rises near the Shonkin Sag, just north of the Square Butte townsite in Central Montana. One of several small jails constructed in Chouteau County in the mid-1910s, its utilitarian design offered temporary housing for prisoners awaiting transport to Fort Benton for trial. Built of thick, dressed shonkinite, its blocks rest in a roughly coursed pattern and provide a fireproof, secure, and uncomfortable facility. Local legend tells of a prisoner who froze to death within one of its unheated cells. Rarely engaged for its original purpose, the jail served local residents in many ways – as a clubhouse, granary, and even a bachelor’s residence. Its owners Dean and Donna Strand donated the jail to the Geraldine Historical Committee in 1997.

Learn more about this card and others in the Celebrate Montana Preservation series: https://mhs.mt.gov/Shpo/celebrate-preservation