Slow Death of Gildford, Montana

This was a week of lasts for one Hi-Line community: last matches of pinochle around tables in the Gildford Merc, the last chance to browse for candy.

On Friday, the Gildford Merc closed. The Merc was the last grocery store on the Hi-Line on the 60-mile stretch of Highway 2 between Chester and Havre.

Tax records date the business to 1915, though some argue it’s at least as old as the town, founded in 1910 to serve a wave of homesteaders.

John Campbell, who owned the merc for 35 years, remembers when Gildford had two stores, and so did nearby Kremlin, Rudyard and Hingham. Chester had four. Then farms got bigger and farmers got older, with the average farmer now 59 years old and the average farm more than 2,100 acres, according to the latest USDA ag census.

“This town was a going place. We had a hardware store, oil stations, elevators,” Campbell, 86, said. “When this goes, it ends the only active business. The post office is it.”

Campbell traced the history of renovations, additions and his family through yellowing photos of the store. One showed a crowd for a pancake open house. Another showed concrete forms ready for an addition. The storefront changed; so did his parents. The photos are on display with paintings of the town.

Now, with better cars and better roads, it’s easier than ever to go to Havre or Great Falls to shop in a big-box store.

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