2020: It Could Always Be Worse

Published: 2020
By Dave Brink

Orville Grant Willett, the first Senator elected to represent the newly-formed Mineral County in 1915 was also responsible for suggesting the name of the new county in 1914 when citizens voted on the matter. During Senator Willett’s second term in Helena in 1917, he was diagnosed with Hansen’s Disease, commonly known as leprosy, having been exposed to the disease during the Spanish-American War. Living in Alberton, MT, at the time, local residents were concerned but also appreciative of his service to Mineral County. In February 1918, County Commissioners voted to lease a parcel of land from the State of Montana for a period of five years and construct a home on the property for the benefit of Senator Willett and his wife, Elsie. The Willett’s moved to the property two and a half miles west of Alberton and by the end of the summer had a new home in which they were quarantined until 1927. An article from The Missoulian in 1923 states that, “…the Willetts are not lonely, as they had been given a radio that would receive broadcasts from distances of up to 2,000 miles.” Mrs. Willett also had a piano and a Victrola and they gardened and did as much as the weakened Willett could do. You can visit that very site today along I-90 eastbound at the St. Johns Rest Area, west of Alberton. Suddenly, 2020 doesn’t seem quite so bad.