Kelly's Camp Historic District, Historic district near Lake McDonald, Montana, United States.
Kelly's Camp is a historic district of twelve log buildings on the west shore of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, Montana. Most cabins are small log structures with gables facing the lake; the Big House, built in 1910, was the largest, set back in the trees at the northern end. Cabins 1 through 8 line the beach, and an open chapel dates from about 1945.
Frank Kelly established this homestead in 1894 and later developed it into a summer resort with rental cabins. The property was expanded with infrastructure like a generator house to provide power for the growing operation.
The camp's name comes from Frank Kelly, who claimed the land in March 1894; his wife Emmeline "Liney" Haworth gave her name to his 35-foot motor launch, hired out to lake visitors from 1906. From 1964 the cabins were sold to long-standing camp patrons, and after the 2018 Howe Ridge Fire descendants of the original and new owners rebuilt several of them.
The cabins stand on the west shore of Lake McDonald, reached by the road grade Horace Chadbourne and Frank Kelly cleared from the Lake McDonald Ranger Station in 1933. The Howe Ridge Fire of August 2018 left only one cabin standing, and several cabins have since been rebuilt by descendants of the original owners and by new owners. Cabins 1 through 4 and 7 and 8 remain contributing structures; cabins 5 and 6 were altered and are no longer counted as such.
The property includes an original 1927 generator house with a working hydroelectric system from the settlement era. This power plant is one of the few remaining examples of how remote mountain locations generated electricity during that time period.
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