Stateler Memorial Methodist Church

Pioneering Southern Methodist minister Learner Blackman Stateler preached his first sermon in Willow Creek on Christmas Day 1864, in a cabin built by a local farmer. Like many of the area's early residents, Stateler was a Southern sympathizer from Missouri, whose family fled Civil War violence by moving west.

He found a welcoming congregation in Willow Creek, where he organized Montana Territory's first Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1873 the congregation constructed a wood-frame chapel a mile from the present-day church location. In 1908, a town site company associated with the Milwaukee railroad platted the new town of Willow Creek.

By 1910, two railroads served the community, which soon boasted three general stores, a bank, a blacksmith shop, and two MT NATIONAL REGISTER SIGN TEXT 1990 TO APRIL 2019 grain elevators. In 1913, congregants decided to move their church to the center of the promising young town. Members of the Ladies Aid raised much of the money needed to construct the new church building, which the congregation named for its pioneering minister.

Completed in 1915, the Stateler Memorial Methodist Church is an intriguing mix of old and new. Gothic-arched windows and a Norman tower pay homage to an ancient past while the roof's open eaves and exposed rafter tails reflect early twentieth-century taste. Equally modern is the concrete block used in construction.

The Trident Cement Company in nearby Three Forks assured a ready supply of the material, which came into widespread use between 1905 and 1930. Easier to lay than brick, the durable material fulfilled its promise as an affordable and attractive substitute for stone.