On January 7, 1918, the Northern Montana Bank opened a brand new building in Big Sandy. The new building was erected on the site currently occupied by the Glacier Bank in Big Sandy. There has been a bank on the corner of Main Street in Big Sandy for 108 years last week.
The bank itself predated the new building by several years. In 1910, Big Sandy was growing rapidly, aided by land grant programs for homesteaders. In addition, a number of businesses had sprouted up in town. CJ McNamara and other locals recognized that with all of the new life in the community, Big Sandy would need a bank of its own. They established the Northern Montana State Bank, with its first board of directors comprised of locals: Walter Brown, VF Blankenbaker, Ed Newhall, Sam Miller, and McNamara, who served as president.
The bank itself proved to be quite resilient. It was one of the few banks in the country that did not go broke during the Great Depression. The bank survived Black Friday and years of struggle through the Great Depression.
One story that has filtered down through the years involves an incident in which the bank expected a run on deposits from locals. McNamara traveled to Helena, where he gathered $75,000 in cash. That's a great deal of money today, but it's the equivalent of $1.46 million when you include inflation and other factors. He returned to Big Sandy with the cash in a suitcase. McNamara took the money to the tellers, instructing them: "Let 'em come and get it." The expected run never happened.
In 1933, FDR closed every bank in the country and called on Congress to act in what has become known as the "bank holiday." The Emergency Banking Act was the answer from the legislature. Banks that the Secretary of the Treasury deemed appropriately solvent and healthy were reopened and the Northern Montana Bank was among the first in this part of Montana to open its doors again.
The local bank building has been renovated over the years. The Northern Montana Bank has changed ownership and names several times over the years. According to Gloria Godfrey and Demra Brown, who started working at the bank within a few months of each other in 1999, the institution was known as the Northern Bank of Montana at the time. Later that year, it merged with Wells Fargo and took their name. Wells Fargo remained in Big Sandy until the summer of 2020. Shortly thereafter, First Bank of Montana moved into Big Sandy. It occupies the same location as Northern Montana Bank.
The bank has many artifacts from its history on site, including pictures of the building under construction and early layouts of the building. They also have stock certificates from the original bank stockholders. The vault has lock inspection stickers from over the years going back to 1919. They indicated that there was no evidence supporting the long running rumors about a tunnel running from the bank to the department store across the street, where the bakery currently operates. Gloria suggested, "If there was, it was closed when they did the highway. I've heard that story many times..." There is no evidence of a connecting tunnel now. According to Demra, when the First Bank of Montana moved into the building, there were stipulations in the paperwork or building codes that prohibited the building from ever being converted into a brewery.
The Northern Bank of Montana was instrumental in building our little community. It could be argued that having a local bank played a big part in making Big Sandy the community it is and helping to keep it from drying up over the years. The community that grew up around that little bank continues to thrive and produce people of character and excellence.
