History of the Upper Musselshell Valley to 1920
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1966 History of the upper Musselshell Valley to 1920 Harold Joseph Stearns The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Stearns, Harold Joseph, "History of the upper Musselshell Valley to 1920" (1966). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 2575. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/2575 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A HISTORY OF THE UPPER MUSSELSHELL VALLEY TO 1920 By Harold Joseph Stearns B. A. University of Notre Dame, 1962 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 1966 Approved by : Chairman, Board of Examiners / v t- X —-■> Deai!i, Graduate School / M A R 1 e 1966 Date UMI Number; EP35017 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Oissartatlon Publishing UMI EP35017 Published by ProQuest LLC (2012). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code uest ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS................................................ ii A HISTORY OF THE UPPER MUSSELSHELL VALLEY TO 1920 Chapter I. IN THE B E G I N N I N G ............................................ 1 II. CASTLE, AND THE "JAWBONE" RAILROAD ..... .............. 77 III. THE PASSING OF THE PANGE ................................ 107 IV. THE HOMOS TE DERS ........... 137 V. MATURITY AND A TRAGEDY ..................................168 VI. CREATION OF A C O U N T Y ........................................... 196 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................... 263 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Map Page 1. The Musselshell Valley ....................................... i 2. The Carroll Road , . , . ...................... c . 35 3. Map of "Jawbone" Railroad and Other Central Montana Transportation Routes ....................................... 91 4. Ralph Berry's Musselshell Country .......................... 203 5. Montana in 1 9 1 1 .......................... - ................. 213 6. Proposed Merino County in 1911 ................. ............ 214 7. Second Proposed Merino County in l911.... .................... 223 8. Proposed Wheatland County in 1912 . ............ 229 9. Proposed Wheatland County of 1 9 1 3 .......... ............... 238 10. Wheatland County's Final Boundaries ........................ 252 - L l - THE MUSSELSHELL VALLEY -1- CHAPTER I IN THE BEGINNING During the morning of May 21, 1805, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, enroute by land and water to the Pacific Ocean, recorded the first mention of the Musselshell. The Musselshell River was on of the major tributaries which the expedition passed by on their river trip up the Missouri River. Lewis wrote in his journal, the Missouri in it's course downward makes a sudden and extensive bend to receive the Muscle shell river, the point of country thus formed tho' high is still much lower than that surrounding it, thus forming a valley of wavey country which extends itself for a great distance in a Northerly direction; . .^ Clark wrote of the Musselshell in more explicit terms. Muscle Shell River falls in on Lard Side 2270 miles up contains a greater perportion of water than Rivers of its size below, I measured it and find it to be 110 yeards wide, the water of a Greenish Yellow Colour, and appers to be navagable for Snail craft. The Minetarres Inform us that this river heads in the 1st of the rockey Mountains & passes through a broken Countrey, its head at no great distance from the Yellow Stone River . The historic expedition reached the Three Forks in late July, 1805. They reached the Pacific in November of the same year. After wintering at their camp. Fort Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia River, they began the return journey to St. Louis. The company split near the mouth of Lolo Canyon. Captain Lewis went north. Captain Clark. ÏReuben Gold Thwaites (ed.). Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1904) p . 56. ^Ibid., p . 54. proceeded southward back to the Beaverhead for their stored cache of provisions and boats. Clark reached the Three Forks again on July 13, 1806, proceeding across the Gallatin Valley and down the Yellowstone. He passed through the area forty miles south of the Musselshell Valley during that month of July. This was the closest penetration white men had ever made to the Musselshell region. The Lewis and Clark Expedition named a number of locations which they passed during the course of their travels. The Judith Gap and Judith River were named in honor of Miss Judith Hancock of Faircastle, Virginia. She later married Captain Lewis. The Smith River was named for Robert I. Smith, then Secretary of the Navy. The Musselshell itself owes its name to the expedition though the various journals of the expedition do not give a precise reason for the explorers designation of the river, "Muscle Shell." The name probably originates with the Indians. The Minnetaree Indian name for the river was Mahtush-ahzhah. In the Cheyenne tongue, the river was called the Ihko won'iyo'he. One early western traveler, Maximilian, Prince of Wied, said the French-Canadians called the river the Coquille. A French to English translation of the term Coquille shows it to mean shell, husk, egg shell, sea shell and fresh water shell. Indians, and later, the white men, found large number of unios or fresh water mussels in the bed of the river.^ ^Merrill G. Burlingame, The Montana Frontier (Helena, Montana: State Publishing Company, 1942), p. 5; Spiers' & Surenne's French and English Pronouncing Dictionary (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1908), p. 131; Place Name files, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana. In 1904 a letter was written to Robert N. Sutherlin, editor of the Rocky Mountain Husbandman. White Sulphur Springs, Montana, asking whether the term Musselshell came from the word mussel. Editor Sutherlin wrote an explanation which would appear to be tenable. "The Musselshell river takes its name, we think, from the great reef of shells and sand which exists there in the form of a cement. There is all manner of shells in these reefs and extensive. There is no doubt but that the name Musselshell river came from the cement deposits of shell and sand. Rocky Mountain Husbandman, January 14, 1904. -2- Map makers identified and located the river in various ways over the next half century. An 1818 map of the western half of the Northern American continent made the "Museke Shoal" a short, straight-flowing river between the Missouri and an unidenrified larger river to the south, presumable the Yellowstone. This map was referred to in the syllabus as "probably the most correct Map of the Country now extant.Other early maps gave an inadequate description of the river and area of its head waters. Not until the W. W. DeLacy maps of the 1860's to 1880's was the river properly shown through the center of a large open country between mountain ranges and the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. DeLacy spelled the river "Muscleshell.This spelling persisted until November, 1879. From that time on, the river and valley were spelled "Musselshell."^ Few white men would have argued or cared about the spelling of the Musselshell until the 1860's. The Musselshell had been and was exclusively Indian Country until then. The Musselshell drainage is abundant with indications of Indian occupation, prehistoric and historic. An atlatl, or Indian throwing spear, has been found in the Snowy Mountains along the northern border of the Musselshell Valley. In historic times, Indian life and activity have been found in great abundance. Buffalo jumps, pictographs, arrow heads and Indian rings attest to occupation by various tribes. At least ^Rector's & Roberdeau's Compiled Map, 1818, Sketch of the Western Part of the Continent of North America (General Land Office, January) 2w. W. DeLacy was the cartographer of the Montana Territorial Legislative Assembly, expressly hired to draft the official maps of the Montana Territory. ^Rocky Mountain Husbandman. Prior to November, 1879, the Husbandman spelled Musselshell as "Muscleshell." The two final issues of the Husbandman of November, 1879, are not included in the newspaper files of the Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana. Most likely the change in spelling was made by the U. S. Post Office Department. -3— six definite occupation sites have been located within the area of one ranch near the Musselshell River. Tools and chippings give an indication of the Musselshell's use as a hunting and passage area by Plains Indians. Buffalo jumps of the region attest to the Indians' use of natural cliffs and mountainous outcrops as a means to kill the powerful buffalo. In and around the occupation sites and at the foot of the buffalo jumps, arrowheads have been found which have helped to identify the tribes frequenting the Musselshell. Each specific tribe had its own method of construction and distinctive style of patterning arrowheads. The numbers and types of arrowheads and other tools indicate the importance of the Musselshell to the Indian.^ The buffalo was the life blood of the Plains Indian and the Musselshell drainage provided excellent hunting grounds for securing them.