This is a  panoramic collage of the 2004 Mullan Pass meeting held on top of the Continental Divide about 20 miles N. W. of Helena Montana. It is about a 200 degree view from the Jr. Warden's station, and was taken just before the M. W. Grand Master, Dave Prewett (Center left in red shirt), convened a special communication of the Grand Lodge of Montana to consecrate this meeting site as Mullan Pass Historic Lodge No. 1862, AF & AM of Montana, and present the charter on July 24, 2004.

Mullan Pass is at the top of the Continental Divide, the elevation is about 6,000 feet above sea level (approx. 1830 meters). The Lodge has been granted a Special Use Permit by the Helena Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service allowing it to maintain a monument area consisting of three fieldstone officer's stations and fieldstone rock altar with bronze commemorative plaques, and several wooden benches. The permit covers 2.75 acres: Latitude 46-39-16, Longitude 112-19-04, NW ¼ Sec. 2, T.10N, R.6.W. P.M. Montana.

All Master Masons are eligible to become Life Members for only US$55.00.   (You must be a Master Mason and member of a Montana Lodge, or of any lodge chartered by ANY Grand Lodge recognized by the Grand Lodge of Montana). Membership includes a limited edition lapel pin, Certificate of Membership and membership card.  More information and a downloadable petition can be accessed by clicking on the banner above!

Important Points about this Historic Lodge:
1. The purpose of Mullan Pass Historic Lodge No. 1862 is to preserve the history of the earliest known Masonic Meeting Site in Montana.  All net proceeds from Life Memberships, promotional items and donations will be used for this purpose.
2. This Historic Lodge will not confer degrees.
3. A life membership in Mullan Pass Historic Lodge No. 1862 shall remain in effect so long as he remains a Master Mason in good standing in a duly chartered Lodge under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Montana or of any Grand Lodge recognized by the Grand Lodge of Montana. Membership may be voluntarily severed at any time by resignation. Upon resignation, no demit will be issued. (Sec 20070 A and D, Montana Code of Statutes)
4. The Lodge holds only one communication and business meeting per year, Usually in August.

The first meeting of Mullan Pass Historic Lodge will be on August 20, 2005 at 2:00 p.m.

HISTORY

The beginning of Masonry in Montana provides some of the most colorful pages in all the history of the craft. Its highlights included significant events which influenced and supported the establishment of civil government in the Territory and later the State of Montana.

The first of these events was the first meeting of Masons in Montana on September 23, 1862, when three brethren with the first Fisk expedition, then camped on the Mullan road at the summit of the Rockies, went through the ritual of opening and closing a lodge. They were Nathaniel P. Langford, David Charlton and George Gere, all members of Minnesota lodges.

The record of this first meeting of Masons in Montana is recorded in the Grand Lodge Proceedings of 1867 and was recounted by Nathaniel P. Langford, Grand Historian (and later Grand Master).

"I esteem myself fortunate in having been one of the early settlers of Montana---more fortunate in having, before I left the abodes of civilization, been raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason.  When the company, of which I was one, entered what is now Montana---then Dakota---a single settlement, known by the name of Grasshopper (now Bannack), was the only abode of the white man in the southern part of the Territory.  Our journey from Minnesota, of fourteen hundred miles, by a route never before traveled, and with the slow conveyance of ox trains, was of long duration, and tedious.  It was a clear September twilight when we camped on the western side of the range of the Rocky Mountains, where it is crossed by the Mullan road.  The labors of the day over, three of our number---a brother named Charlton, another whose name I have forgotten, and myself---the only three Master Masons in the company, impressed with the grandeur of the mountain scenery and the mild beauty of the evening, ascended the mountain to its summit, and there, in imitation of our ancient brethren, opened and closed an informal Lodge of Master Masons.  I had listened to the solemn ritual of Masonry a hundred times, but never when it impressed me so seriously as upon this occasion; such also was the experience of my companions.  Our long journey, and its undeviating round of daily employments, had, until this occasion, been wholly unalleviated by any circumstance calculated to soften or mellow the feelings subjected to such discipline.  We felt it a relief to know each other in the light of Masonry.  Never was the fraternal clasp more cordial than when in the glory of that beautiful autumnal evening, we opened and closed the first Lodge ever assembled in Montana.

Contemplating this early incident in the history of our Order, from our present stand-point, and including in the contemplation what Masonry has since done for the Territory, and the Territory for Masonry, it seems to have been invested with a kind of prophetic interest; especially as at that time it could hardly have been possible for the few Masons in the Territory to have known each other, except as mere adventurers.  As a manifestation of the all-pervading affections of Masons for the Lodge, it is worthy of enduring record in our archives.  It is one of those facts that will reach forward into our history, and seize upon those undying elements which shall transmit it to posterity.  The fact will render the spot sacred---and once known among Masons, it will never be forgotten, that the first Lodge in the Territory was opened and closed upon the summit of the Rocky Mountains.

I might dilate upon the beauty of the evening upon which we met; the calm radiance of the moon and stars; the grandeur of the surrounding scenery.  We exchanged fraternal greetings, spoke kind words one to another, and gave ourselves up to the enjoyment of that elevation of spirit which Masonry, under such circumstances, alone could evoke; and when we left the summit of that glorious range of mountains, to descend to our camp, each felt that he had been made better and happier for this confidential interchange of Masonic sentiment. "