Welcome to Dutton, Montana

The development of the railroad in Montana gave birth to many of the small towns in the state, including Dutton, located just off Interstate 15 about 34 miles north of Great Falls. Railroad crews building the track across the Montana prairies paused every few miles to build a siding and a one-room station. The siding was often the site of a future town, as was the case with Dutton, which was named for a little-known railroad freight and passenger agent.

The first permanent settlers in the Dutton area located along the river and came in the late 1880s. The Homestead Act was passed by the federal government in 1862. Thousands of homesteaders flocked to Montana in those days, coming in boxcars with all their worldly possessions on the newly established Great Northern Railway. The people who settled in Dutton came to serve the homesteaders who were living in the area.

This is a wheat-producing area began with a cowboy-turned-homesteader named "Sinker Bill" Frixel, who made final proof on his homestead in September 1909-Dutton now stands on what was his property. Bill's nickname came from his days as a cook for roundup crews, who described his biscuits as "sinkers."

George Sollid had the idea of getting people to locate in this area, even though land was free and open in all directions. Sollid set up shop near the old Frixel ranch and an old reservoir and began locating homesteaders sent to him by his brother at Conrad. According to the Dutton Jubilee booklet, newcomers were told: "Just go down to the depot and sit around looking like a sucker. It won't be long before George will show up." "Brother Van," the famous frontier Methodist minister, promoted the building of a church here and dedicated it 1913. (from Cheney's Names on the Face of Montana, Mountain Press Publishing Company) The town incorporated in 1935.

Dutton remains firmly grounded as an agricultural community surrounded by some of the best wheat-growing ground in the state.