HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Marcus Daly's 1910 Bitterroot Valley Estate, Now a Museum With Reports of Lingering Staff
251 Eastside Highway, Hamilton, MT 59840
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Adult admission is around $15 in peak season ($10 for holiday tours); see dalymansion.org for current pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Historic 24,000-square-foot mansion across multiple floors; grounds include over 40 acres of lawns and gardens.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1910 · Copper King Era Montana History · Georgian Revival Architecture · Bitterroot Stock Farm
Marcus Daly, the Irish-immigrant mining magnate known as one of Montana's three 'copper kings,' began buying land in the Bitterroot Valley in 1886, purchasing the Anthony Chaffin homestead as the start of what became a 22,000-acre operation called the Bitterroot Stock Farm. Daly used the property to breed thoroughbred racehorses and run a working ranch, and an earlier, smaller house stood on the site before his death in 1900.
His widow, Margaret Daly, commissioned Missoula architect A.J. Gibson to design a new house on the property, completed in 1910 and known as Riverside for its position along the Bitterroot River. Gibson's design, in the Georgian Revival style, produced a 24,000-square-foot summer home with roughly 50 rooms, set apart from the more common mining-era Victorian mansions elsewhere in Montana. Margaret Daly returned to Riverside every summer until her death there in 1941, continuing to manage the family's business interests from the estate.
After passing through later private ownership, the house and its surrounding grounds were preserved and opened to the public, and the property is now managed by the Daly Mansion Preservation Trust. Visitors can tour the mansion's furnished rooms, most of which reflect the family's early-20th-century use of the home, and walk over 40 acres of lawns, gardens, and an arboretum. The estate remains one of the more complete surviving examples of Gilded Age wealth on display in Montana.
Sources
The Daly Mansion's paranormal reputation is modest compared with its architectural one. Visitors and staff describe a sense of being watched in the upstairs hallways and bedrooms, along with footsteps in empty rooms — activity local accounts most often connect to former household staff who worked at Riverside during the Daly family's decades there, and to Margaret Daly, who returned to the house every summer for more than thirty years until her death in 1941.
In 2015, the mansion hosted an evening paranormal investigation with the Preservation Trust's permission, drawing regional media coverage. Participants reported unexplained audio during the event and described the experience as consistent with the mansion's local reputation. Beyond that general activity, some paranormal-tourism accounts have circulated more specific claims about the cause of death of individual Daly family members; those claims are not corroborated in the family's documented history and are omitted here.
Notable Entities
A docent-led tour through the Daly family's 24,000-square-foot Georgian Revival summer home, covering the family's history and the estate's role in Marcus Daly's Bitterroot Stock Farm. Offered Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., subject to volunteer guide availability.
Tour the mansion at your own pace with an included self-guide booklet. Offered Tuesday through Saturday at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and all day Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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