Established in 1905 as a coal-mining town, Bearcreek developed quickly, and after just one year it had telephones, city water, and electric streetlights. Bert Vaill, a cashier with the Carbon County Bank of Red Lodge, bought this lot from the townsite company for $800, and in 1906 he hired John Russell to build a one-story Romanesque style bank from native sandstone quarried just north of town. The bank’s thick stone walls symbolized Vaill’s faith in Bearcreek’s future and were meant to reassure customers that their money was safe from theft and bank failure before Federal Deposit Insurance. As part of a vibrant commercial district, the bank, owned for a time by Butte copper magnate William A. Clark, helped shape Bearcreek’s development through loans, investments, and currency exchange for immigrant miners. After the International Coal Company defaulted on a $170,000 loan in 1921, the bank went into receivership. Former mine foreman Tom Frasure bought the property and reopened it as Miner’s State Bank in 1922, but it also closed in 1928. The building then housed a restaurant until 1943, when an explosion at the Smith Mine killed 74 miners and triggered an exodus from Bearcreek that caused the restaurant and many other businesses to close. Later used for storage, the building was rehabilitated in 1967 for use as Bearcreek City Hall, a role it has served ever since.