Custer County, Montana 1921
Created February 2, 1865, as one of
the original counties of Montana, Custer County was for many
years known as the center of the stock growing industry in the
Northwest. As has been the case in almost all the other counties
of the state, much of the prestige which it possessed because of
its cattle and sheep has passed away, but in the case of Custer
what it has lost in one direction it has gained in another, for
of recent years agriculture has developed and is becoming more
and more important yearly, and, with numerous favorable
conditions, including the longest growing season of any county
in the state (from 126 to 148 days), it will in all probability
continue its advancement in this direction.
While old-time western cattle ranges
are still operating in the county, in the southern end, and
while the largest remount station operated by the federal
government is situated at Fort Keogh, prominent in the early
history of Montana, the resistless drive of the agriculturist is
gradually sweeping away other industries, and the deep loam
soil, with a clay subsoil that produces abundant crops, is
causing the rolling, broken country, with its pronounced brakes
along the Tongue and Yellowstone rivers, to blossom like the
proverbial rose. In the 3,930 square miles included in the
county, there are 25,000 acres under irrigation and plans at
present are being made to utilize the waters of the rivers to a
much greater extent. The county is a well-watered one, as the
Yellowstone River flows northeasterly through the county and the
Tongue and Powder rivers northerly into the Yellowstone, in
addition to which there are numerous tributaries. A considerable
portion of the land is tillable, and corn has proven an
especially good crop, with more acres being devoted thereto,
primarily to make silage for stock. Also, wheat, oats, alfalfa,
millet and all kinds of root crops and vegetables grow well.
Aside from agriculture and stock
raising, the industries are few, although some manufacturing is
done at Miles City and large railroad shops are located there.
Custer County possesses no commercial timber, although
cottonwood is found along the streams, while about all the
mineral resources which the county boasts are confined to
lignite coal lying under many districts, furnishing an
economical and easily accessible fuel. Irrigated land is held at
$100 an acre up; improved non-irrigated land from $40 to $60 an
acre; non-improved, non-irrigated land from $15 to $35, and
grazing land from $5 to $12 an acre.
Custer County, which is named in
honor of Gen. George Armstrong Custer, the famous Indian fighter
and hero of the Little Big Horn, lies in the southeastern part
of the state, and has excellent railroad facilities, as the
Northern Pacific and Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railways
parallel the Yellowstone River through the county, and the
Yellowstone Trail, from Plymouth Rock to the Puget Sound, also
crosses the county. In all communities, good rural schools are
found, while Miles City has a good graded school and the Custer
County High School, accredited for a four-year term, which in
addition to the regular courses gives commercial, home economics
and manual training work. The State Industrial School for Boys
is also located at Miles City, and what may be regarded also as
an educational institution is the Snow Creek Game Preserve,
which was created through the efforts of W. T. Hornaday of the
New York Zoological Society, and which, although lying in
Garfield County, is best reached from Miles City. Among the live
and growing communities in Custer County may be mentioned Ulmer,
Calabar, Beebe. Shirley, Kinsey and Miles City, the last named
being the county seat and the principal town in either Custer
County or Southeastern Montana.
Sketch of Miles
City
Miles City is situated at the
junction of the Tongue and Yellowstone rivers, and is a division
point for the Northern Pacific and Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
railroads, the latter maintaining large shops at this place. One
of the old cow towns of the state, many wealthy ranchmen make it
their home, and it is a range center for the horse, cattle and
sheep country of the heart of the Yellowstone Valley, and
maintains an important wool market. Situated 2,370 feet above
the sea level, it possesses a fine climate, and its citizens
have added to this attractive feature that of providing numerous
parks and public playgrounds. Riverside Park, located at the
foot of Main Street, is one of the finest public parks in
Montana, combining natural beauty of ancient cottonwoods and
artificial embellishment of winding walks and floral beds.
Wibaux Park, the bequest to the city of the late Pierre Wibaux,
is located in an attractive residence neighborhood. A small
playground known as Triangle Park occupies a fractional block on
Montana Avenue, and another natural grove of forty acres,
bordering the Yellowstone, is being preserved for future
development as a public park.
Municipal Light and Water Systems
The light and water systems of Miles
City are municipal institutions and are profitable features of
its civic affairs. The city is famous for its artesian wells
There are two strata under the city, one at a depth of 100 feet,
from which the water rises to within eight feet of the surface,
whence it is pumped by city water service; while the other is at
a depth of 400 feet, from which come flowing wells. The water is
impregnated with soda, is known as fine boiler water, and
requires hardly any cleaning. Miles City maintains five
newspapers, of which two are dailies.
The Public Library
The Carnegie Library is a public
institution which is supported by the city, the building
occupying a central location on Main Street. The City Hall, a
modest but attractive building of brick and stone, occupies a
corner at Bridge and Eighth streets, and in addition to housing
the city offices and council rooms, furnishes accommodations for
the modern fire department and the city jail. Other public
buildings include the United States Land Office and the United
States Observatory.
The Miles City Hospital was
established and built by Custer County, but after about a year
of operation it was leased to the Sisters of Charity, who have
since been its sponsors. The original building cost $35,000, but
the increase of its patronage has made it necessary that it be
enlarged.
Other Public Buildings and Institutions
Miles City contains some most
attractive buildings. The new county high school is a credit to
the community, and the Washington and Garfield public schools
are likewise handsome and commodious structures, while the
gymnasium and manual training building was erected at a cost of
$13,000, and is a yellow brick and concrete building which
houses the latest gymnasium apparatus and equipment for manual
training. The Ursuline Sisters Convent was founded in 1884 by
Mother Mary Amadeus of the Sacred Heart and occupies a handsome
brick structure just west of the county high school.
The State Industrial School, formerly
known as the Reform School, is one mile east of Miles City, and
has eight large buildings. The wards of this institution are all
given schooling, the 100-acre farm supplies the table, and the
older pupils are given half of each day to learn whatever trade
they are interested in; the manual training department teaching
carpentry, blacksmithing, painting, tailoring, printing,
shoemaking, laundering, etc., while the girls are taught
cooking, housework, sewing and music. The boys have their own
band, baseball and football teams, and their own newspaper, The
Boy's Messenger, and the school is run on the merit system,
whereby the pupils, by good behavior and reasonable diligence in
school work, are eligible for parole within a year.
The Y. M. C. A. of Miles City
The Young Men's Christian Association
at Miles City was organized in 1909, some of the principal
factors in its founding being G. M. Miles, S. Fred Cale, H. B.
Wiley, C. W. Butler, J. B. Collins, J. E. Farnum and Jack Evans.
The two-story-and-basement brick building was erected in 1910 at
a cost of approximately $35,000, and there are twenty-nine
dormitory rooms, a good-sized lobby, a gymnasium, a swimming
pool and locker and banquet rooms. The successive secretaries of
the association have been Messrs. Fox, Percy, Rouse, S. L.
Hedrick and H. L. Ankeny, the last-named being the present
incumbent of the office. At the present time there are
approximately 450 senior and sustaining memberships and about
250 junior memberships, the leader membership being on the
service basis. At the present time the association is entirely
free from debt, is paying its responsibilities promptly and is
growing every day. An interesting feature of the association is
the Boys' Camp, which is one of the best in the Northwest. It is
located on a 360-acre island in the Yellowstone River, owned by
the Government, and the Young Men's Christian Association has
exclusive use of it through the courtesy of the military
authorities. The need for a large public meeting and recreation
hall was met by the erection of the Auditorium, which adjoins
the Young Men's Christian Association building and is a
substantial and dignified structure.
Churches and Fraternities
There are seven churches at Miles
City, including those of the Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran,
Methodist and Presbyterian denominations. Thirteen fraternal
organizations are represented at Miles City, and several of
these have their own homes. The Elks Club building, erected in
1914, is one of the handsomest in the city, costing $68,000 and
is located opposite the Federal building one block from Main
Street. It is used exclusively for lodge and club purposes, and,
as there are numerous members of this fraternity at Miles City,
is the scene of many social gatherings. The Masonic order
occupies an imposing building on Main Street, a structure of
buff sandstone and reinforced concrete. The lower floors are
utilized for business purposes, and the upper for the lodge
rooms and hall. The Knights of Columbus council occupies
comfortable clubrooms in the basement of the post office
building, and the Fraternal Order of Eagles also has its own
home. The Miles City Club, organized in the early '80s, the
oldest club in Montana, occupies the second floor of the Wibaux
Block. Once a year the club holds open house in honor of the
visiting stockmen who attend the annual conventions of the
Montana Stock Growers' Association. This body has entertained
many distinguished visitors during its many years of existence
and has a well-merited reputation for open-handed hospitality.
The various industries carried on in the limits of the
municipality may be estimated when it is known that twenty-eight
unions have members employed in various trades.
Center of Horse Trade
Tourists from the East who are
seeking the real western atmosphere will find it at Miles City
in the Remount Depot, situated at Fort Keogh. Conducted by the
War Department, the Military Reservation, which is now used as a
range for the horses, is ten miles square, being the largest
depot, or concentration horse camp, in the United States. There
are only two other depots of the kind in the country, neither of
which approach the size of the Fort Keogh station. Here western
horses are brought direct from the range and broken and trained
according to the United States Army regulations, although the
only soldiers are the commanding officer and several orderlies,
the employees being civilians and the wranglers all cowboys and
expert riders. Many visitors will also find much of interest in
the annual Miles City Round Up, a frontier exhibition held each
year as a great outdoor pageant, in which contestants from all
over the state compete in feats of skill and daring. Miles City
maintains a large and well-patronized horse market. The original
sales yards were erected by the late A. B. Clark, just south of
the Northern Pacific Railway tracks and occupied some eighteen
acres of land. The business eventually passed into other hands
and the size of the yards was doubled by the construction of new
and more substantial yards and buildings north of the tracks.
During the World's war Miles City furnished thousands of mounts
to the French, Italian and English governments, as well as to
the United States, and the animals from the Miles City Horse
Market proved their worth in the severe test of war.
Horse Market at Miles City
Stage Lines and Highways Three stage
lines operate out of Miles City. The Jordan line, ninety-nine
miles in length, leaves Miles City every Monday morning and
arrives at Jordan Tuesday, at 8 P. M. The Brandenberg line is
eighty-eight miles in length, and the Mizpah line eighty-two
miles long.
The horse, in many ways, has been
succeeded by the automobile, and in this connection the matter
of the automobile highway comes to attention. This was projected
as an association at Miles City in 1912, the idea being
originally conceived by Judge J. E. Prindle, of Ismay. It
started at the Twin Cities and the original project took it to
Yellowstone National Park, but the men behind the movement took
up as their slogan: "A-Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget
Sound," and this has since been realized. The road was
originally called the Twin City-Aberdeen-Yellowstone Park
Highway, but Miles City's suggestion that it be called the
Yellowstone Trail, while originally rejected, was finally
adopted, although it is also known as the Electric Highway.
Thousands of touring parties pass annually over this highway and
appreciate the huge sums of money that Custer County has spent
in developing and improving it.
Banks
As a wealthy city, this community has
three banks, the oldest of which is the First National Bank,
which was organized in 1882, and of which G. M. Miles is
president. The present cashier, H. B. Wiley, has occupied this
post for many years. The State National and Commercial National
Banks were consolidated January 21, 1921, and form a strong
institution operating under the latter name.
Annual County Fair
Custer County holds its annual County Fair at Miles City, and
this is becoming an increasingly popular annual event. It is
thought that Custer County was the first, and perhaps the only,
county in the state to have full control of its own fair. The
fair is conducted and managed by a boardMiles of county fair
commissioners who are appointed each year, and the annual
appropriation and gate receipts afford a good margin for prizes,
purses and special events. Miles City likewise holds an annual
corn show, now known as the Montana State Corn Show. This was
inaugurated in 1914 by M. L. Wilson, identified with the United
States Experiment Station at Bozeman, whose hobby had always
been corn and whose belief it was that this crop could be
successfully grown in Montana. He was given his choice of
locations, and selected Miles City, partly because he felt that
this city was in the center of his theoretical corn belt and
partly because there were many skeptics in this city whom he
wished to bring about to his way of thinking. Through his labors
this event became a decided success and did much to promote the
growing of a crop that is proving annually of more and more
value to the county and its agriculturists. Another result of
his work at Miles City was the establishment of the office known
as the County Agricultural Agent, with headquarters in the
courthouse. This department is maintained jointly by the county,
state and federal governments and is playing an important part
in the prosperity of the county.
Montana Counties 1921
Return to
Montana AHGP
Source: Montana its Story and Biography,
by Tom Strout, Volume 1, The American Historical Society, 1921
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