The "Mud Wagon" Comes Home

After many, many years. And many, many hours of hard work and careful restoration, the Malta-Zortman Stagecoach is back home.

At a ceremony at the Modes of Transportation Museum on Thursday, October 28, the stagecoach was unveiled. Jane Ereaux, a spokesperson for the museum, and one of the driving forces behind getting the stagecoach done welcomed everyone to the museum.

Mayor John Demarais welcomed everyone to Malta and thanked everyone for coming out to the event. The mayor was dressed in period garb for the day, as he would be riding shotgun for the rides to be given after the ceremony.

The man that did all of the work on the stagecoach is Harlan Olsen at his shop in Bozeman, MT. He said he was introduced to the stagecoach many times over the years by his good friend Doc Curtis.

"Doc had shown me the coach just about every time I came up here. Finally one day, he called me and asked if I wanted to restore it. I said of course I did. The next week he brought it down to my shop. All he said was he wanted it drivable and that they'll pay you. He said talk to Jane, they'll pay you."

Olsen put between 500-600 hours of work in on refurbishing the coach. He said there were at least nine coats of paint on it.

"I'm pretty sure that we have it back to the original colors," said Olsen. "Most stagecoaches had red bodies and yellow undercarriages. This one was the opposite. A yellow body with a red underbelly."

Orvin Solberg spoke about the history of this stagecoach.

"It truly is a treat to do research on history like this. To realize that when we're searching, we look for little gems. I found one, hopefully, you'll catch it at the end of my presentation," said Solberg.

Solberg said that Louis Gosland purchased the stagecoach known as the "Mud Wagon" in 1890.

Some of the drivers of the stagecoach were Ruel Horner. He drove it from Zortman to Malta and back for seven years.

Art Warren drove it.

Ray Campbell drove the coach before becoming the Sheriff in Phillips County for 18 years. The coach was donated to Ray and it sat down in Trafton Park for years.

Harry Glover was another that drove the coach. He drove it in 1904 and got tired of the cold weather, which led to Horner driving it.

Solberg said, "Others that need mentioning for keeping this stagecoach project going are Anker Hansen, Bud Hasler, Craig Mangis, Dale Freetag, Doc Curtis, and now Jane Ereaux. Because of these people that have an eye for the future, we have this here with us today."

Solberg said that the stagecoach was built in Helena, MT by the Weisenhorn Carriage Manufacturing Company in 1890.

"As we stand here today in 2021, we think, what's the use of the stagecoach? We'd think that passenger travel was the driving force. That was important, but not the driving force. You have to realize the cash flow and the number one priority of a stagecoach was to deliver the U.S. mail. You had a contract with the government and a paycheck on a regular basis. That was very important," said Solberg. "But beyond that, realize that the Ruby Gulch Mine in Zortman was in its heyday in 1904. They were putting out 40 pounds of gold a day. That had to get to the railroad somehow. It was carried on the stagecoach."

Solberg said that the Malta-Zortman line had three different coaches. Two of them were larger ones than the one that we have now, but this one was used often because it could navigate the mud easier. Its low center of gravity made it better on mountain trails because it wouldn't tip over.

Solberg went on about the history, "So they brought the gold back to Malta and had to take the payroll back to Zortman. Tons of gold were transported in the history of the stagecoach and hundreds of thousands of dollars delivered from Malta out to Zortman. Here's the little gem I told you about at the beginning. In over a decade of operation, the Malta-Zortman stagecoach was never robbed once. This was the time of Kid Curry, and it was never robbed once."

At the end of the ceremony, Jane Ereaux thanked some of the key players that made the stagecoach possible.

She thanked Jim Curtis, John Demarais, Kay Hould, David Rummel, and Dennis Broadbrooks for keeping the stagecoach project going.

Ereaux said it took seven years to raise the money to get it fixed.

Many of the major donations were from the following; Triangle Telephone, PhillCo Community Fund, and the Tourism Fund for Montana were the three grants that had been received. Big Flat Electric Coop, Montana Ag Credit, American Prairie Reserve, First State Bank, Bank of Malta, Scout Energy, the VFW, and a final push from the City of Malta along with many individual donations made getting this stagecoach refurbished and back to Malta where it belongs.