Haugan (also Waugan) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in Mineral County,

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

, United States. Haugan is situated east of the

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

border and west of

Missoula Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot River, Bitterroot and Blackfoot River (Montana), ...

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

at the Haugan Exit #16. The

St. Regis River The St. Regis River (or rivière Saint-Régis in Quebec) is an river in northern New York (state), New York in the United States. It flows into the Saint Lawrence River at the hamlet of Saint Regis, New York, Saint Regis in the St. Regis Moha ...

flows through the community. As of the 2020 census, the population of Haugan was 58.

Demographics

History

Haugan was named for H. G. Haugan, Land Commissioner of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. Haugan was established and maintained to serve as a pusher station for the Milwaukee Road railroad trains ascending the

Bitterroot Range The Bitterroot Range is a mountain range and a subrange of the Rocky Mountains that runs along the border of Montana and Idaho in the northwestern United States. The range spans an area of and is named after the bitterroot (''Lewisia rediviva ...

of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

. Haugan was one of several area towns to be destroyed during the

Great Fire of 1910 The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup, the Big Burn, or the Devil's Broom fire) was a wildfire in the Inland Northwest region of the United States that in the summer of 1910 burned three million acres (4,700 sq mi ...

. Haugan had a post office for nearly seventy years in the twentieth century. Opened on March 25, 1911, the post office closed on August 31, 1944, only to reopen four years later. This second post office operated from June 16, 1948, to July 22, 1983.

Geography

Nearby

Haugan is surrounded by the

Lolo National Forest __NOTOC__ Lolo National Forest is a national forest located in western Montana, United States with the western boundary being the state of Idaho. The forest spans 2 million acres (8,000 km2) and includes four wilderness areas; the Scapegoat ...

and is the site of the

Savenac Nursery Historic District Savenac Nursery Historic District is located near Haugan, Montana, Haugan in Mineral County, Montana, Mineral County, Montana. It is 15 miles from St. Regis, Montana. Savenac was once one of the largest and oldest USDA Forest Service tree nurs ...

. The nearby Haugan/Randolph Creek Loop Snowmobile Trail offers cross-country skiing, snowmobiling and other winter sport. Also nearby is the summit of Haugan Mountain. The community is most commonly known for its Silver Dollars tourist area.

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

s and signs telling drivers the distance are seen on Interstate 90 around

western Montana Western Montana is the western region of the U.S. state of Montana. The most restrictive definition limits western Montana only to the parts of the state west of the Continental Divide. Other common definitions add in the mountainous areas east o ...

and

northern Idaho The Idaho panhandle—locally known as North Idaho, Northern Idaho, or simply the Panhandle—is a salient region of the U.S. state of Idaho encompassing the state's 10 northernmost counties: Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Idaho, K ...

.Lincoln's Silver Dollar: 46,785 and growing
, Montana Gaming Group, November 2006. Accessed 2009-03-14.

Climate

References

External links

Milwaukee Road Historical AssociationAbout Beautiful Haugan, MTCMSP&P Haugan, MT
Unincorporated communities in Mineral County, Montana Unincorporated communities in Montana {{MineralCountyMT-geo-stub