Harry J. Kelly
1869 - 1950

Inducted October 10, 1959

Harry J. Kelly, the man whose vision and faith were largely responsible for the Hungry Horse Dam near Columbia Falls, was born Oct. 6, 1869, in Prairie du Chien, Wis. While still a child he moved with his parents to Omaha, Neb. He attended Creighton University, served an apprenticeship as a printer in Omaha, and in 1888 came to Montana.

He established a weekly paper in Missoula and later worked on the Butte Miner and helped put out the first issue of the Anaconda Standard. In 1895 he became publisher of the Bitter Root Times during the fight over the location of Montana’s capital. He was sergeant at arms in the State Legislature during the famous Sixth Session when the “War of the Copper Kings” was at its height. In 1896 he married Mary See, a native of the Bitterroot Valley, and to that union four children were born.

In 1905 he and Tom Stout started the weekly Fergus County Democrat at Lewistown. Later they purchased the Daily News and launched what is now the daily paper in that city. He was appointed registrar for the U.S. Land Office at Lewistown in 1913 and served until after World War I.

Kelly sold his interest in the Lewistown paper and went to Kalispell, where he became editor and publisher of the Flathead Monitor. Convinced of the feasibility of a multi-purpose dam on the South Fork of the Flathead River, he devoted more than two decades to a campaign to achieve the project. He used the editorial columns of his newspaper and made speeches to promote the idea, but the plan generally was considered to have only a remote possibility for success. Undaunted, Kelly continued the campaign, which was climaxed by a groundbreaking ceremony in which he rode as grand marshal to the site of Hungry Horse Dam, fourth highest concrete dam in the world, in 1948.

It was while publishing this weekly that he gained the nickname “Hungry Horse Harry” and the title “Father of the Hungry Horse Dam.”

When Kelly retired in 1944, six years before his death on Aug. 7, 1950, he marked the end of 56 years as a newspaperman in the state. He was a longtime member of the Montana Press Association and served as its president in 1937-1938. His two sons and two daughters have played an active part in the political and civic affairs of the state.

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