Bruce T Gourley

Manhattan, Belgrade, Amsterdam, and Churchill Bruce T Gourley

To Gallatin County they came, entrepreneurs and immigrant families alike, lured by new opportunities and abundant land west of Bozeman. Belgrade emerged along the railway in the 1880s, named after the Serbian hometown of some of the railroad's European investors. Further to the west, fertile cropland beckoned. An early settlement morphed into Manhattan, a company town of the Manhattan Malting Company. The business purchased land upon which to grow barley and recruited Hollanders to the area. Soon, a Holland Settlement developed amidst prime farmland south of Manhattan, comprised of the communities of Amsterdam and Churchill. Belgrade emerged as a small business hub, while Manhattan, Amsterdam, and Churchill remained largely Dutch agricultural communities.