If you search for the town of "Verona, MT" on Google Maps, you will discover that the small town sits 5.4 miles southwest of Big Sandy on Highway 87. Whether you blink or not as you drive by, you are likely to miss it. Years ago there was a picnic table sitting at the pull off at Verona, but that is gone now. At one time, there was a train station (of sorts), stores, two grain elevators, and other businesses. The strange little town was nestled so close to our community, but now gone without a trace has always fascinated me. The following is the results of my early research.
According to the Gathering of Memories history of Big Sandy, the Verona townsite was surveyed by Frank Worstell in 1914. During the homestead days, it was quite the bustling little community. Located on the Great Northern Railroad Line, the train depot in Verona was a simple box car with the undercarriage removed.
I asked Jimmy Griffin, who is the co-owner/operator of the Virgelle Mercantile shop, about the town. He explained that the steam engine locomotives required water stops every 10 miles. "So, if water was available, the railroad set up water towers at or near those 10 mile intervals. The original railway did not come to Virgelle, but stayed up on top, all the way to near Loma (Chappel). There's another townsite just north of Highway 87 at the Gardiner Rd turn off called Inga."
Jimmy went on to explain that, "In that day it was difficult for farmers to haul their grain very far. So they pooled resources and built those elevators along the railway." The two elevators in Verona were operated by a pair of gasoline engines, as the town didn't have electricity at the time. Grain delivered to the elevators by teams of horses hauling carts kept the elevators busy.
Farmers on the prairie Southwest of town found the elevators to be a great convenience, as well as anyone who needed to run to town. In the era of horse drawn buggies, the shorter trip was very convenient and quickly resulted in a town sprouting and growing up around the elevators and makeshift train depot.
At Verona's peak, it had a school, a general store with a pool table and a miniature bowling alley in the back, a restaurant, livery stable, lumber yard, blacksmith, repair shop, as well as a number of residences. The town also had its own post office. Frank Worstell was the first of three postmasters, all of whom ran the general store as well.
With the elevators, businesses, and homes, it struck me as odd that the town has been reduced to memories and a dot on Google maps. According to the green book, Verona's end came as a result of the paved highway running through town in 1935. The post office closed the same year, and the rest of the businesses followed. For a town that existed based on how difficult it was to travel long distances, the ease of travel was essentially the end of the road.
