The barn was built in the late 1800’s by the Parrot Silver and Copper Mining Co. as part of the Parrot Smelter Mine, in the town of Gaylord. There were high hopes for the new mine that brought prosperity to the little town of Gaylord and it quickly grew and eventually was the home of a general store, lumber yard, 2 saloons, post office, a hall, wagon and carriage shop and a school that was completed in 1897. There were a total of 4 big barns that matched what is now the Copper K Barn. These barns were used as, a reverbatory, and calciner, a blacksmith shop, machine shop, and store house. There was also a big brick building that sat just above the barns, built to be used as an office and a smaller brick barn that sat down the hill from the big barns that was used as the horse barn.  The smelter never ran and in August 1900 they started tearing everything down, moving the smelter to Anaconda. Some of the houses were moved to Whitehall. The smokestack was dynamited on the second try on December 3, 1907. Thus in September 1908 when the depot was moved to Three Forks it was stated that the Parrot was dead. The office was later used as a home and came to be known as the “Parrott Castle”, which hosted many dances back in its day but sadly had to be torn down in the 1960’s. There is only one big barn (storage house) remaining today... It has withstood the test of time and is now known as the Copper K Barn. The brick horse barn is also still standing and both barns were used throughout the years as sheep & livestock barns for the family ranch.

 

 

The Copper K barn is located 8 miles south of Whitehall, Montana at the base of the Tobacco Root Mountains. The Barn is set above the Jefferson River on the Point of Rocks.

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