Yellowstone County, Montana 1921
Lying in the southeastern part of
Montana, and bordered by the counties of Musselshell,
Stillwater, Carbon, Bighorn and Rosebud, is Yellowstone County,
which was created February 26, 1883 and which is one of the best
developed sections, agriculturally, in the state. The county was
named after the Yellowstone River, which enters the county in
its southwestern corner and traverses its entire width in a
northeasterly direction, forming the principal source of supply
for the irrigation ditches which contribute materially to the
development that has brought about the agricultural prestige of
the county. The Yellowstone valley, in which much stock is fed
each year during the winter period; is broad and level, while
sandstone bluffs are a characteristic of its boundaries and
above them begin rolling bench lands that extend for miles. In
the southeastern part of the county rise the Pryor Mountains.
Although Yellowstone is primarily an agricultural and
stock-growing county, within its boundaries are to be found
industries of a varied character which establish its title as an
important business center of the great Midland Empire, these for
the most part located at the county seat of Billings.
Population, Transportation and Farming
While Yellowstone County is not one
of the larger counties as to area, containing only 2,708 square
miles, in point of population it ranks fourth, according to the
figures given by the 1920 United States census, which placed the
total at 29,600. For the most part this population is Native
American, many being direct descendants of the sturdy pioneers
from the East who listed to the call of the West during the days
of early settlement and began ranching operations in a country
which repaid them well for their labors. The early settlers
found the grazing lands of the Yellowstone valley well adapted
for the feeding of livestock and this formed the principal
industry for some years, the settlers who subsequently came
leaning more and more toward agriculture as they realized the
fertility of the chocolate colored loam soil. With the
settlement of the county came the necessity of a central point
of transportation, and this brought into being the little
community of Billings which has grown to important proportions
as the natural trade center of a wide territory in Montana and
Northern Wyoming. An important factor in the development of the
county is the intersection of the Great Northern, Northern
Pacific and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroads. As to the
highways, the Yellowstone Trail, the Custer Battlefield Highway
and the Billings-Cody Way are among the important automobile
roads in the county, and considerable hard surfaced highway has
been built.
Both irrigated and non-irrigated
farming is followed, alfalfa, sugar beets, beans, potatoes and
grains being the chief crops on the irrigated lands, and grains,
flax, beans and alfalfa seed on the non-irrigated. The county
has no developed mineral resources; some drilling for oil has
been done in the county, but thus far this is largely a matter
of speculation, although oil fields have been developed within
100 miles of Billings. Yellowstone County does not abound in
timber either, although cottonwood is found along the streams
and there is some pine in the Pryor Mountains. There are upwards
of 100,000 acres of irrigated land in the county which sells at
from $50 to $250 an acre, while unimproved and non-irrigated
lands adapted to grazing and general farming range in price from
$15 to $50 an acre.
Progress and Present Status of
Billings
The gently sloping plain, on the
north side of the Yellowstone known as Clark's fork bottom, was
the site of Billings. The origin of the place dates from the
winter of 1876-77. At that time P. W. McAdow, J. J. Alderson,
Joseph Cochran, Henry Colwell, Clinton Dills, Milton Summer and
others settled at a locality two miles down the Yellowstone,
about where the Northern Pacific Bridge spans the river, and
founded the little village of Coulson around Mr. McAdow's store.
A saw mill was built in 1878 and the town enterprise looked so
encouraging that the Minnesota & Montana Improvement Company
attempted to purchase the site for a more ambitious project. As
no satisfactory arrangement could be made with the Coulson
people, Billings was laid out a short distance up the river. It
soon outdistanced Coulson, although the older town was not wiped
out, but continued to somewhat more than exist for several
years. Billings was named after Frederick Billings, president of
the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, in 1879-81. The original
townsite was platted in March, 1882. On May 1st, its first
building was completed, a structure to accommodate the locating
engineers, and a few days afterward a store for the townsite
company; and other business houses and a number of residences
appeared. By June, Billings contained 500 people and was
enthusiastically called the Magic City. In 1882, was organized
the Billings Street Railway Company, and the horse line was
completed in the summer of the following year-the first street
railway in the territory. The Improvement Company erected a
depot for the Northern Pacific in 1883, which the railroad
refused to accept. In the fall, the voters defeated the proposed
incorporation of Billings, but did have the satisfaction of
seeing the completion of its first public school. The population
of the place was then 1,500, and it had reached the position of
the primary shipping point for livestock in Montana. In 1884,
Billings had a large fire entailing a loss of $50,000, and in
the following year a more destructive conflagration. In 1885 it
was incorporated and John Tully was elected its first mayor.
Other events of prime importance: Establishment of a system of
water works, in 1886; introduction of electric lights in 1887
and the organization of the first effective fire department;
reincorporation as a city of the second class, in 1893, and the
construction of the Parmly Billings Memorial Library, in 1900.

Billings Twenty-five Years
Ago (now 94 years)
The location of the City of Billings
in the center of the so-called Midland Empire, makes it the
logical distributing point for practically 150 smaller
communities. ' During the '80s, Billings was a trading post; the
latest United States Census figures, 1920, credit the city with
a population of 15,000. Its growth has been the outcome of the
needs of agriculture and commerce in a district as large as
three-fourths of New England, and it forms the chief financial,
commercial and manufacturing center for a radius of more than
200 miles. Its strategic location as a railroad center may be
deduced when it is considered that the city is situated midway
between the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota,
and Spokane, Washington, at the intersection of the Great
Northern, Northern Pacific and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
lines, with railroads in seven different directions. It is
difficult for the visitor from the far east or from other
communities to realize that this is the same Billings which was
the scene of so much Indian fighting during the early days of
its career and the exploits of whose citizens during frontier
times are still within the memory of the oldest inhabitants.
While the war-whoop of the savage and
the crack of the frontiersman's rifle are to be heard no more,
there are many things still to be seen by the tourist to
visualize for him what conditions may have been in the early
days. The city is located less than a day's automobile ride, 150
miles, from Yellowstone National Park, where are to be found
elk, deer and grizzly bears in their natural surroundings. Much
of the country is still in its original condition. It is a land
of green valleys, each with a ribbon of shining river winding
through it. Rolling prairies and green, pine-clad hills greet
the tourist, and in the distance the blue mountains with their
snowy peaks lend a certain and definite charm. The mountain
streams of the locality abound in trout and the fisherman is
always sure of a good day's catch.
The city is famed for its climate.
Situated on the Yellowstone River, at an altitude of 3,117 feet,
the mean annual temperature is 47.2 degrees, the average summer
temperature being 69 degrees and the average winter temperature
29.2 degrees. The mountain ranges to the north, west and south
protect the city and country surrounding from severe winds and
moderate the temperature both in the summer and winter. These
climatic conditions make the locality a particularly attractive
one to tourists, and for their convenience the City of Billings
maintains a park for the accommodation of the travelers, and
during the season of 1920 15,000 tourists were entertained. The
Billings plan of conducting this park has been commended by the
management of leading trans-continental automobile trails and
cited as an example for other cities to emulate. The city is the
gateway to the Beartooth Mountains in Carbon County, east of the
Yellowstone Park, where besides unusually good hunting and
fishing the scenery is unrivaled.
Modern Institutions of the City
In striking contrast to the natural
beauties and primitive surroundings of the city are the modern
structures and institutions of the twentieth century, the
creations of a progressive people always restless to reach the
pinnacle of achievement. Where, in the early days of the city's
history, the eagle was king of the air, the areophane now wings
its way, and progressive Billings has installed on the outskirts
of the city an aerial landing field, marked and laid off
according to government regulations and affording flying pilots
a safe landing and "jump-off" place. The Billings airport is
being favorably considered by the United States Government as
one of the federal landing fields of the Forestry service. The
honk-a-tonk and dance hall of the early days have given way to
one of the largest auditoriums in the Northwest, with a seating
capacity of 10,000 people; the Billings Coliseum, second in
seating capacity to that of the Midland Empire Fair Auditorium,
seating 2,500 people, having a perfect dance floor and being
equipped for large conventions and gatherings; and six modern
theaters which present the best of entertainment furnished by
high-class road shows and traveling companies from the large
eastern cities. In the way of entertainment also, the city owns
and maintains a public swimming pool, tennis courts, shady parks
and skating rinks. The grounds and buildings of the Midland
Empire Fair Association are recognized as being second to none
in the Northwest, and this exposition caters to the education
and entertainment of a population of 125,000 within the Midland
Empire territory. Where at one time the denizens of lake and
stream were allowed to follow their own ways of life
undisturbed, a Government fish hatchery is now in course of
construction. Nature also, as it pertains to growing things, is
being assisted in its course by the Government irrigation
projects, where, and on the irrigated lands near Billings, truck
gardening is growing to be quite an industry. Celery is proving
to be one of the best money crops and is being shipped to many
parts of the United States, and asparagus, tomatoes, cabbage,
sweet corn, cantaloupes, potatoes, squash, pumpkins, egg plant,
onions and all garden produce grow luxuriantly.
Business Houses and Industries
It is a far cry from the little
frontier hamlet and trading post, with its few ambitious but
ramshackle stores, to the beautiful and prosperous city of today
with its sixty-eight manufacturing, wholesale and jobbing
houses. Four hundred retail stores in the city enjoy a
substantial, steady patronage and are recognized as on a sound
financial basis. The Billings market is credited with buying
over $6,000,000 monthly. Among its big industries is a
$2,000,000 sugar factory, the plant of the Great Western Sugar
Company being the second largest in the world. The city has an
independent packing company, handling a large number of cattle,
hogs and sheep and turning out a product of high standard, the
Billings Stock Yards Company having in the past handled more
livestock than any similar organization in the Midland Empire.
Another large industry is the Midland Iron Works, a thoroughly
equipped establishment, capable of handling every kind of
manufacturing and repair work. In addition, the plants at
Billings manufacture flour, cereals, pickles, alcohol, many
forms of galvanized iron products, sash and doors, gas, brick,
mattresses, foundry products, bakery and packing-house products,
dairy products, optical goods, candies, etc.
The city has four national banks, one
state bank and one private banking institution, and bank
clearings have increased over 500 per cent in the last ten
years. The city supports, through its people as subscribers and
its merchants and professional men as advertisers, a large
newspaper, the Billings Gazette, which issues five editions
daily and carries the full Associated Press reports and special
telegraphic news service. In the Western Newspaper Union, the
city has the only house north of Denver, between the Twin Cities
and Spokane, supplying paper, type, presses, printed and plate
newspaper service, dealing exclusively with printers. The city
affords excellent hotel accommodations. Two first class hotels
are equipped to accommodate 500 guests and the daily average of
transients visiting the city is placed at 1,000 persons. There
are sixty-five hotels and rooming-houses in the city.
Like all well governed communities,
Billings has given much attention to its appearance, its
municipal conditions, its civic accommodations and its public
service. As to its streets, they are well-kept and several miles
are paved, and the thoroughfares are wide and straight and lined
with long rows of ornamental light posts, the street lighting
service being of municipal ownership and the system being second
to none of a city of this size in the Northwest. Cement walks
have been installed throughout the city, and Billings has the
second piece of concrete highway outside a city limits in the
state, known as the Polytechnic road, extending two miles in a
northwesterly direction from the city and completed at a cost of
$86,899.42. The city has a municipal baud, several orchestras,
high school musical organizations and Polytechnic Glee Club. Its
educational facilities are of a high order, there being eleven
school buildings, a high school and a parochial school, as well
as a manual-training school, all equipped with every modern
appliance for instruction of the most up-to date sort.
Schoolhouses throughout this part of the country have been given
first consideration with the development of the section, and
there is no child either at Billings or in the Midland Empire
who is not conveniently situated near a schoolhouse. In the
Polytechnic Institute, the city has a college catering to young
men and women desirous of fitting themselves for advanced
college work. This institute occupies commodious grounds, with
modern and well-equipped buildings and a faculty made up of
well-qualified and earnest educators. Among other buildings, the
city boasts of two modern hospitals, one under the direction of
the Sisters of Charity and the other under the direction of the
Deaconess Association, and there is another in the course of
construction at this time, in addition to which there are
several institutions of a private character.
As a municipality, Billings is
decidedly moral in tone. Perhaps some of the stories that come
down from the old days as to the lawlessness of the little
trading post have been embellished by the glamour which time is
apt to bring; but it can be said beyond peradventure that
conditions have changed since the '80s, due to the excellent
work of the forces which have labored for higher standards of
education, morality and good citizenship. The city now supports
churches of every denomination and the houses of worship in the
city are of modern architecture and construction, tastefully and
reverently decorated and pointed to with pride by the people of
the community. A modern Young Men's Christian Association
building testifies to the standing of that organization in the
city, and the community likewise has a well-conducted Young
Women's Christian Association, the interests of the young women
being given careful attention by well-trained women in this line
of community endeavor. Billings is the headquarters of the state
secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association. For the
younger lads of the city, there is a thrifty and ably conducted
Boy Scout Patrol, which made plans to entertain in 1921 large
delegations of Boy Scouts from several large cities of the
South. The Billings Public Library contains over 25,000 volumes
and is conducted under the supervision of a paid librarian and
staff.
One of the principal contributing
factors to the prosperity and welfare of Billings has been the
Billings Commercial Club. This body, organized some fifteen or
sixteen years ago, has now a membership of approximately 400,
including the leading merchants, bankers and business and
professional men of the city. In January, 1919, it purchased the
fine property known as the Elks' Club House, and is comfortably,
even luxuriously, installed for its work. The officers are as
follows: W. E. Dowlin, president; W. P. Hogarty, vice president;
Fred T. Lincoln, secretary-manager; H. W. Rowley, Roy J. Covert
and Charles Spear, honorary vice presidents; E. L. Coleman,
traffic director, and O. G. Brown, financial secretary. The
building and equipment of this strong commercial organization
represents an investment of $100,000, forming one of the finest
community centers in the Northwest. The organization was
successively known as the Billings Chamber of Commerce, and the
Midland Club, before adopting its present name. Through this
body, Billings cooperates with the farming interests of
Yellowstone County and the Midland Empire, and the club has
successfully fathered practical activities in the interest of
the citizens of Billings and the farmers of the section.
Billings is a city of substantial and
attractive buildings. The Masonic Temple, as well as the home of
the Commercial Club, is a handsome structure. In the residential
sections, there are numerous beautiful homes, where reside the
progressive citizens who have found the opportunity to gain
independence, and who have assisted the community to reach a
position upon which it bases its claim of being the "next great
city of the Northwest."

Broadview School, Terry
District
Towns Outside of Billings
Aside from Billings, the county seat,
which is the most important town in the county, as well as in
Eastern Montana, the principal town in Yellowstone County is
Laurel, in the extreme southwestern corner, an important
railroad town because of the junction there of the Great
Northern and Northern Pacific, as well as a good agricultural
market for the surrounding territory. Other good smaller towns
are Huntley, Worden, Ballantine, Comanche, Pompey's Pillar,
Broadview, Custer and Shepherd. All of these communities have
good educational facilities, for Yellowstone County has a modern
public school system, with an accredited high school at Billings
and the Billings Polytechnic Institute, an institution of higher
learning which also offers inducements to pupils wishing a
business college course.
Irrigated and Non-Irrigated Lands
In 1917 the Billings Chamber of
Commerce issued an interesting booklet, containing much
information regarding Billings and the surrounding territory in
Yellowstone County, and much of the data contained has been used
in the statements already made and form the basis for others
which follow. Two types of farming are carried on in the
Billings country, these being the irrigated and non-irrigated
methods. On the highlands there are approximately 5,000,000
acres of productive lands suitable for farming without
irrigation, while along the streams, the various creeks which
form the tributaries of the Yellowstone, such as Buffalo,
Pompey's Pillar, Razor, Crooked, Butter, Canyon and Pryor, there
lie about 1,000,000 acres of fertile lands which are irrigated.
On the latter, farming is of an intensive nature, and all sorts
of crops which require large amounts of moisture are grown
thereon. More than 250,-000 tons of sugar beets are produced
each year for the factory at Billings, and the growing of seed
beans and peas for eastern markets has become an important
industry. In the older parts of the Yellowstone Valley the farms
are of considerable size and the beet growers are
proportionately prosperous. While large amounts of labor are
necessary the crops pay commensurately.
Above the ditches, methods are
entirely different, fields of many acres being the ordinary
custom and huge tractors and heavy farming machinery being used
on the rolling prairies to prepare the land for wheat or oats or
similar crops. Some thirteen years ago the Billings Chamber of
Commerce brought the Dry Farming Congress to Billings, and after
this body had inculcated the idea that successful dry land
farming could be conducted in the Billings country, the movement
gained headway, experiments were made and the results were
decidedly gratifying. When the homesteaders began their influx
into the county, the railroads began disposing of their lands,
and in every direction from Billings, the pivotal point, the
uplands are now being cultivated and are producing large
returns. Wheat yields from fifteen to fifty bushels per acre,
oats under favorable conditions sometimes as high as 100
bushels, corn from fifteen to sixty bushels, and flax as a sod
crop from eight to twenty-five bushels. For some years past the
people of the Yellowstone Valley have profited by the experience
of older communities in the preservation of the soil, which is a
natural alfalfa producer. No inoculation or soil treatment is
necessary for the production of this crop, for the raw lands,
plowed up and planted to alfalfa, produce abundantly. This gives
opportunity for crop rotation, grain crops being first grown,
followed by alfalfa, which enriches the land with its deposits
of nitrogen. After a period of two or more years the alfalfa is
turned under and the grain yields are increased.
Live Stock of the Region
At one time in its history, Billings
was the largest inland wool market in the world and was the
metropolis of Montana's stock-raising country. Sheep and cattle
by the thousands were produced on the wide ranges and shipped
east to be marketed, but of recent years stock raising, in a
large measure, has gone hand in hand with farming, either on the
bench or irrigated lands, and this has tended to make Billings a
stock-feeding center. The cattle and sheep of the sugar-beet
raisers are fattened on beet tops, alfalfa and grains, and many
of these growers finish their product on a combination of beet
pulp from the big sugar factory at Billings. As rapidly as
possible, the agriculturists on the uplands have acquired herds
of livestock, and have combined grain farming with stock
raising. Alfalfa, Soudan grass, millets, and sweet clover, and
like forage, furnishes winter provender, and the farmers utilize
the rougher sections of their properties for summer pasture.
In the foothills and near the
mountains, there are still to be found many old-time ranches,
many of these running large bunches of cattle and sheep, and a
goodly majority pasturing their livestock on the forest reserves
in the summer time and bringing them down out of the mountains
for feed in the winter. Of more recent years, however, the
encroachment of smaller stock growers, who have increased
greatly since the passage of the "640 acre homestead act," has
had a tendency to do away with the great ranches of the past and
the stock industry has come more and more into the hands of the
smaller growers. The cattle and sheep "barons" of the olden days
are a thing of the past in this county.
Far from injuring the industry, it
has been found that the net returns to the county have greatly
increased with the change, for the lands under the new system
are producing a total of many more cattle and sheep than
formerly, and the combination of farming, stock growing and home
finishing is sending them to market in a much more valuable
condition.
Dairy Farming
Another industry that in recent years
has been one of growing importance is that of dairy farming. It
was some years before the old-time ranchman, who raised his
animals only for the beef, could be brought to realize the
profit to be derived from this department of farming, but the
newer arrivals, with modernized views, readily discerned the
possibilities and there are numerous farmers in the Yellowstone
Valley who devote at least a part of their efforts to this
branch. There is no branch of farming for which this section is
better adapted, taking into consideration its cool summers,
excellent quality of alfalfa and a ready market at all times for
creamery products. Much importing of pure-bred milk cows from
the East has been done by the more progressive farmers, and the
industry has secured a firm and lasting hold.
General Evidences of City's Prosperity
Necessarily, the city which forms the distributing point for
this large territory and these varied and important industries,
must be equipped not only with capable men and organizations,
but with large financial resources, and public utilities of the
most modern character. The individuals and commercial and trade
organizations of Billings are products of the community's needs.
They have realized the necessity of business-like action and
have grown into their opportunities. As to financial resources,
Billings is accounted a wealthy city, its property valuation,
exclusive of moneys and credits, being estimated at $11,000,000.
As to its public utilities, aside from its comprehensive
railroad system, the Western Union Telegraph Company has sixteen
trunk lines, capable of handling 16,000 messages daily if
extended to the limit, and these have been known to handle as
many as 10,000 messages within twenty-four hours. Billings is
the district headquarters of the Mountain States Telephone and
Telegraph Company, and has direct connections with every large
center in the state, smaller cities and rural districts. The
receipts at the Billings Post Office (which is graded with
cities ranging from 30,000 to 35,000 population) for the year
1920 were $176,807.85, an increase of 243 per cent for a
ten-year period. The receipts of the post office exceed those of
many cities twice the' size of Billings. At the Union depot
during the first nine months of 1920 there were 184,725
passenger tickets sold, representing a cash expenditure of
$1,049,871.43. The total freight and passenger business during
the same period amounted to $3,522,832.54. Taking everything
into consideration, one may appreciate the attitude of the
Billings writer who stated: "Many have been the prophets who
have said that someday Billings would be a city of 50,000 or
100,000 people. With this goal not so far in the distance, those
who have had the city's welfare at heart are bending every
effort to see that Billings becomes, not only a big city, but a
good city as well."
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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