Laurin is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Madison County,

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

, United States. The community is on

Montana Highway 287 Montana Highway 287 (MT 287) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Montana. The highway runs from MT 41 in Twin Bridges east to U.S. Route 287 (US 287) in Ennis. MT 287 is the primary east–west highway of Madison County. The highway con ...

north of

Alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

History

Laurin is named for Jean Baptiste Laurin, who founded a trading post in the mid-19th century that became the site of the community. The nearby Alder Gulch

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

of the 1860s brought thousands of miners to the area, and while most left by the end of the decade, Jean Baptiste Laurin became rich by selling general merchandise to the miners. He used his new wealth to develop the town; one of the buildings he commissioned, St. Mary of the Assumption Church, is still standing and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. In 1983, Laurin was described as "a small hamlet with less than twenty buildings".

References

Unincorporated communities in Madison County, Montana Unincorporated communities in Montana {{MadisonCountyMT-geo-stub