Alzada, Montana

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Alzada is an unincorporated community in Carter County in the southeast corner of Montana, United States. It is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 212; and Montana Secondary Highways 323, and 326 near the Wyoming and South Dakota borders. It is in the Mountain Time Zone. The business activity in Alzada today consists mainly of two bars, a mechanic shop, a gas station and a post office. Most of the residents of the community are ranchers, and live outside of the town itself.

[edit] History

It was first settled as a military telegraph relay station, and was called Stoneville, after the local bartender Lou Stone. It was the site of a famous gun battle in 1884 between local authorities and rustlers known as the Exelby gang. The name of the town was changed because of confusion with another similarly-named community. The name Alzada came from an early settler named Alzada Sheldon. Later settlers were largely homesteaders. Peter Thompson moved to Alzada from Lead, Dakota Territory, in 1890, with his brother William and homesteaded north of town on the Little Missouri River at Nine Mile Creek.

Alzada was briefly in the news in September 1997 when a B-1 bomber crashed nearby.