Pub. 7 2019 Issue 4

7 The Community Banker CITIZENS BANK & TRUST COMPANY BIG TIMBER, MONTANA Featured Member Bank C itizens Bank & Trust Company, a $118 Million institution headquartered in Big Timber, Montana, has deep roots in its rural community. Big Timber began as a construction camp in 1882 when the Northern Pacific Railroad came up the Yellowstone Valley. The town was laid out on the bench above the Yellowstone River, and a railroad official named it Big Timber after nearby Big Timber Creek. The history of the bank involves an interesting trail of name changes and mergers. The bank traces its roots back to the first financial institution in Big Timber. In 1890 William Shanks and Thomas Lee placed some private funds in an office safe and for a while did a loan business. On June 29, 1891, Shanks and a group of investors obtained a banking charter from the Comptroller of the Currency for First National Bank of Big Timber. On December 31, 1893, they received a new charter as Big Timber National Bank. In 1913 Big Timber National was reorganized as Commercial Bank and Trust Company. Somewhere along the way, Anthony Arneson became President and principal stockholder of the Commercial Bank. Arneson, a second-generation American of Norwegian descent, got off the train in Big Timber in the 1880s. At first, he worked as a hod carrier during the construction of the Grand Hotel. Then, using borrowed money, he bought a half interest in a small ranch on Swamp Creek north of town. Eventually, he became one of the largest landown- ers in the area. Citizens State Bank was incorporated in 1906. Its principal founder was an Irish immigrant named Charles McDonnell. Mc- Donnell arrived in Sweet Grass County with a band of sheep in the 1880s. He became a prosperous rancher, businessman and state Senator. He sold the ranch and started the bank. In 1927, Citizen State Bank and Commercial Bank & Trust Compa- ny merged into Citizens Bank & Trust Company as a state bank. This was a fortunate move just two years before the beginning of the Great Depression. Since the other bank in town at that time closed during the depression, the merger was likely key to the bank’s survival. Descendants of both Arneson and the McDonnell are still active in the bank. From its earliest days, Citizens Bank and Trust Company has been an agricultural bank. Its principal founders were ranchers, and the main economic activities around early day Big Timber were sheep and cattle ranching. There was significant gold mining up the Boulder Valley (River) from the early 1890s through the early 1900s but slowed dramatically by 1906. Those mines worked again during the 1930s before World War II. Since the late 1980s, Stillwater Mine, now Sibanye Stillwater, has operated a platinum and palladium mine up the East Boulder, south of Big Timber, and has become the major employer in the area, making the business- es and the bank less dependent on agriculture. In the summer of 2008, the stockholders of Citizens Bank and Trust Company in Big Timber purchased all the stock of the Conti- nental National Bank in Harlowton, Montana, and merged the two banks. The Harlowton office became the Continental Branch. Citizens Bank’s Continental branch, in Harlowton, Montana, traces its roots back to 1905 when Benjamin Urner started a pri- vate bank, three years before the railroad arrived. In 1906 Urner’s bank was chartered as the State Bank of Harlowton and he built the two-story building where the bank’s offices are still located. In 1917 the bank was purchased by Weyburn Security Banking Company and renamed Continental Bank and Trust Company. C. A. Johnson became the manager. Norwest Bancorporation purchased the bank in 1930 and renamed it Continental National Bank. A month later, they absorbed Farmers National Bank of Harlowton. In 1947 a group of local investors bought the bank and operated it as an independent bank for over 60 years. Historically, Continental National served ranchers in the area. But, Harlowton’s other major economic force was the Milwaukee Road, which had purchased the local railroad in 1909. Harlowton became an important maintenance center for the railroad. The Milwaukee Road was the major employer in the area until the early 1980s when the railroad shut down. Current Citizens Bank & Trust Company President, Clint Rech, sees a bright future for Big Timber and the Bank. “We are centrally located on the main traffic corridor in Montana,” he said. “The area is beautiful with the Crazy Mountains on the north, the Absaroka Mountains to the south and the Yellowstone and Boulder Rivers both skirting the town. As long as the grass grows, we will have ranch customers and the Stillwater Mine will provide employment, as long as there contin- ues to be a market for the precious metals they mine. (use platinum in catalytic converters on vehicles.) If banking regulation doesn’t get too wild, we will continue to adapt and prosper.”