Phillipsburg, Granite Couty, Montana, August 21, 2014
Phillipsburg
Wikipedia
Accessed August 17, 2022
Philipsburg is a town in and the county seat of Granite County, Montana, United States. The population was 841 at the 2020 census. The town was named after the famous mining engineer Philip Deidesheimer, who designed and supervised the construction of the ore smelter around which the town originally formed. He platted the townsite in 1867.
Since the closure of local mines and sawmills in the 1980s the town’s future was uncertain. The surrounding county is home to more than 24 ghost towns of former mining and timber towns. However, the 1990s saw a wave of newcomers purchasing and restoring the numerous buildings in the town’s historic district. These included several retailers who expanded on the popularity of sapphire hunting in gravel from the nearby Sapphire Mountain range. The Sweet Palace candy store opened in 1998 and became a regional tourist destination. In 2003 the historic Broadway Hotel was reopened by filmmaker Jim Jenner and numerous other lodging operations followed. Jenner’s award-winning 2017 film, “Saving the Burg” captured the story of the town’s rebirth and aired on PBS more than a dozen times.
