Open Range Era
By Sarah Juster
Edited by Wendy Beye
Open Range era
In the United States, open grazing preceded almost every advancement of settlers west of the Alleghenies. This is what played out in Montana and in the Musselshell Valley, including the region of the Milton Ranch. Much of Central Montana, as described in the previous section, was uninhabitable because of huge migrating herds of bison, distance from supplies, and danger from warring Native American tribes. Once these threats were removed, cattlemen moved in.
The policy for these new tracts of government land was “until settlement is made, there is no objection to grazing cattle or cutting hay on government land, provided the lands are left open to all alike.” In 1877 there was a law of customary, recognizing the “squatters right.” Similar to many other areas, the huge increase in cattle on the Musselshell and lack of control on the land led to overgrazing. Riparian vegetation was especially vulnerable. The ranchers had fortunate weather during this time and could make a large profit.
Background of Cattle Grazing:
Cattle were brought into North America by boat from the Old World by governments and settlers establishing colonies. The first cattle were Andalusians brought by Spaniards in 1521. They were various colors, long-horned, and accustomed to grazing on thin forage. They grew in numbers in the regions south of the range of bison herds, in Florida, south Texas, and Mexico. These early cattle on western ranges were handled primitively. Large die-ups were common. Herds were building in other parts of the country, especially on the north Atlantic seaboard, since the early 1600s. Well-bred eastern cattle had been driven to Oregon over a period of time and there was a large reservoir of cattle that became acclimated to the west. These were eventually used to dilute the Texas Longhorn population. (Pound).
The very first cattle in Montana were brought in by Jesuit missionaries and early traders in the west of the state. Travelers on the Oregon Trail found that bringing their cattle north to graze in Montana, then back to the trail to trade was profitable. By the time the first miners arrived, there were already cattle grazing in Southwestern Montana. Among these were the Grant Ranch in Deer Lodge Valley and the Morgan Ranch in the Prickly Pear Valley. When Gold was found 1862-1864 at Bannack, Virginia City, and Last Chance Gulch, these ranches were well situated to provide beef for the mining rush, military forts, and Indian agencies. Prospector Conrad Kohrs bought the Grant ranch in 1865 and became the leading stockman in Montana. Outside men began to bring in cattle also. In 1864 William Orr brought a herd to the Beaverhead Valley for wintering, Dan Floweree brought in a herd from Missouri in 1865, and in 1866 Nelson Story drove the first Texas longhorns into Montana to the Gallatin Valley. These early cattlemen let the cattle roam freely and cut little hay. Cattlemen seeking new markets in the 1870s had to trail their cattle to Union Pacific rail heads in Wyoming and northwards into Canada.
Cattle industry in Central Montana and Musselshell Valley:
In the 1870s Montana cattlemen began looking to expand into central Montana due to overcrowded western ranges. East-central Montana had abundant and free grass, a mixture of blue gramma, needle grasses, buffalo grass, and western wheatgrass (Malone). 1870s central Montana from the Little Belts and Snowies to the Musselshell River was a no-man’s land filled with bison and Indians. Even after Custer’s battle, there were more bison than cattle. After the campaign of Little Horn, the conquest and expulsion of Sioux Indians allowed for an influx into the region of cattle owners, driving their herds to the Smith and Musselshell rivers (3/16/1893 Big Timber Pioneer newspaper). The Sun River Valley was the main portal for this movement. Robert Ford and Conrad Kohrs were the first ranchers to settle on the Sun River in the early 1870s.
The first ranchers on the Musselshell were William Gordon and Perry, Sanford, and John Moore. William Gordon had been successful in mining at White’s Gulch and in 1869 made his first venture into the cattle industry. Hearing that grazing was open on the Musselshell, he brought a small group of cattle to the Upper Musselshell in 1870 to winter there because of the good range. The Musselshell country was often called the “long grass country” by early cowboys to distinguish it from shortgrass country of other ranges. He left his cattle by themselves and returned in the spring. In 1871 he settled eight miles west of Martinsdale and had 1200 cattle by 1885 (Philipsburg Mail).
The next years saw an increasing number of cattle in the Musselshell Valley, brought in for winter grazing, and back out before the summer influx of Indians and bison. In 1877, the Musselshell Crossing, located by the current town of Musselshell, was established as a last bedding place for longhorns and other breeds driven up the old Texas Trail before the herds were divided out to different Montana ranches. This place was also the point of crossing between Fort Custer and Fort Maginnis.
Granville Stuart travelled through Martinsdale in the spring of 1880. He had contracts for four thousand head of calves and cows from Montana and Oregon and needed a place to fatten them up. What he found was “no grass here, eaten into the ground. I wonder that the cattle here did not all die last winter.” The north and south forks of the Musselshell were high, but “all the streams along here are muddy. I certainly would not select this for cattle range but I presume there are five thousand cattle in here now.” (Malone)
Lower Musselshell
It took another few years for the Lower Musselshell to reach comparable settlement due to the remaining herds of bison and small bands of Sioux and Blackfeet Indians. In 1880 Stuart reached the lower Musselshell by Melstone, heading north from the Yellowstone. There he saw large bands of antelope and bison: “the country is black with buffalo.” He observed cabins with piles of dead bison, wolves, and dogs around them, evidence of bison slaughter. The country was “rough . . . broken by ridges and coulees and all covered with stunted sage and greasewood and very little grass and ten thousand buffalo busily engaged in eating up what little there is.”
By 1883, the difference in the range from Granville Stuarts’ first visit was immense. There were no bison. The mass slaughter of buffalo across Montana had concluded. Antelope, elk and deer were scarce. Also, by 1880, the last group of Blackfeet to hunt in the Valley were forcibly removed by the government, after accusations by cattlemen of theft. (Amskapi Pikuni).
The 1880s were a boom decade for open range ranchers. Contributing to this was higher beef demand in the U.S. and Europe, refrigerator cars in railroads, and resumption of rail building throughout the West. Large cattle ranches were entering Judith Basin, including Stuart’s DHS Ranch north of Flatwillow Creek, the Circle C Ranch, T.C. Power, Davis, and Fergus. 12,000 cattle were trailed in from Nebraska to form the later N Bar Ranch.
The only two operations on the lower Musselshell in 1880 were the VVV Northwestern Ranch and the Joe Simms horse ranch at Ryegate. The VVV moved from Lewis and Clark County to the Upper Musselshell, picking up cows along the way. They ran cows on Cottonwood Creek, but moved for more elbow space on the lower Musselshell by Old Lavina. They ranged up into the North Country, where bison were still abundant. One roundup was abandoned because there were more bison than cattle. Like most of the early ranches, the VVV never took title to land, it only “squatted.” There was little the ranch could do legally other than publish warnings. It later was incorporated in the 79 ranch (Pound).
John Murphy started the 79 Ranch and built his herds by trailing cattle from Texas and grazing them between the Yellowstone River and the Missouri Breaks. In 1881, Murphy drove out 600 elk and brought between seven and eight thousand Hereford and shorthorn cattle. The ranch area was 17 miles long and eight to ten miles wide, or about 105 full sections. There was bluestem growing 3-4 feet high, good water, and thick cottonwoods along the Musselshell River. The home ranches were at Big Coulee, just south of Ryegate, and on the Musselshell a mile east of Barber. The 79 had 10,000 head of cattle in 1883.
Settlement by Roundup
In August 1881, James Hightower and G. Hill trailed 1200 short horn cattle and 60 saddle horses from the Missouri River east of Helena to the lower Musselshell, just east of what is now Roundup. There they located the Northfield Ranch Company on the north side of the river at the mouth of South Willow Creek. This is the closest location to the Milton Ranch of any of the early ranches. James Hart, a buffalo hunter, also established his ranch in 1881, bringing a carload of shorthorn cattle from Iowa and settling 20 miles up the river from the NF. He had as many as 700 head and 8,350 acres. His old friend James Schnall helped to finance the cattle. His brand was TI. His cattle often roamed twenty miles. (Bachman)
Old Roundup, tucked in next to Half Breed Creek south of present day Roundup, existed for 26 years. When the town first started in 1882, it was just a saloon and a log store. The town served as entertainment for cow punchers looking for strays, and was a gathering place for cowboys. Hightower and early settler and bison hunter James McMillan petitioned for a post office and mail route in 1883 and that same year a post office was started in one of the McMillan ranch buildings. (Roundup on the Musselshell).
The area settled thick 1882-1883. John Newton arrived from Iowa in 1883 with his brother A. C. Newton. They trailed a herd from Nebraska to Miles City and from there continued to one mile east of present Roundup. John Newton described the area as a “stockman’s paradise – with grass ‘belly deep to a horse.’” (Roundup on the Musselshell) The Willard Cattle Company located in 1882 with 3,000 head of cattle and 2,000 horses. Goulding settled at Goulding Creek and ran 200 horses. John Ramsey settled and ran 800 horses. Bacon and Balch of the Block Ranch ran 5000 head of cattle and 150 saddle horses near Delphia, brought in from Wyoming. James Schnall from Beaverhead settled and ran 1100 head of cattle. The Dude E Ranch was formed with 3,000 head of cattle brought in from New Mexico. The Dude E was operated near Elso, 7 miles west of Roundup, and was owned by eastern capitalists and the Remington Fire Arms Company. It was also known as the New York Cattle Company. William Strait brought in cattle to Half Breed Creek in 1883. In 1883 F. M. Dennis and Robert Carpenter settled by Old Absher. F. M. “Pomp” Dennis was among the first miners of Alder gulch. In 1868 he travelled to the mouth of the Musselshell where he camped for the winter. With his friend R. H. Carpenter, he had many fights with Indians there. They settled on the Musselshell and lived there devoting time to cattle raising and doing well financially. He died in 1898 (Helena Independent, Feb. 7, 1898)
The HX, owned by Samuel Coffman, brought 1500 head the same year down Fattig Creek. Elmer Carter located in 1884, a member of Carter Allen Company. Barrell Cattle Company also incorporated that year, at peak had 1,000 head. Archibald Edminston located with 800 horses in 1884. Ives and Handel came in 1885 and went into the livestock and mercantile business at the Musselshell Crossing. McGavic Johnston Cattle Company came in 1885 with 900 cows and 300 calves. Later the company had 2,000 head of cattle. James Milner organized the Bull Mountain Cattle Company in 1885 on Fattig Creek. The Box W horse ranch was located in 1885 and later run by Leo Hart. Interestingly, the cattle market went down in 1885 and horses were a more profitable business (Miracle on Musselshell). The Poweshkiek Cattle Company had 700 head in 1887. The Merridan or Wilcox Company on Fattig Creek was run by college students from the east. It had between 4-500 hundred head of cattle in the late 1880s.
The Ryan Brothers, Jepp, Tom, Matt, and Ethan from Leavenworth, Kansas brought 26,000 head from Oregon to the Big Bend of the Musselshell in 1883. Theirs was an archetypal Texas outfit which ran yearlings brought up from Texas for maturation. They were part of a large wave of Texas outfits entering Eastern Montana in the early 1880s which ran larger herds and were more speculative. Texans were pushing for a national cattle trail from the federal government, which Montana ranchers opposed because of the overstocking of the ranges. Older Montana ranchers used the range for breeding purposes. (Malone).
The Ryan brothers also had a blooded racing strain of horses and produced “Montana,” which was a world winner in its class. They ran several thousand horses, the prettiest, fastest, and hardest bucking horses in Central Montana. (A Sketch of History). A description of their last trail herd says the Ryan Brothers received their herds at Fort Custer and trailed them down the Big Horn Valley, which was open reservation at the time. The operation spread over many miles of country near the present town of Melstone. Ryan brothers delivered 1700 steers, 200 per month, to a reservation on Poplar River which were purchased by the government for Indians. The last allotment was delivered in 1888.
Overstocking of Range
In 1883, a number of the very first cattlemen in the Musselshell Valley printed this notice in the Helena Herald:
At a meeting of the stockmen, owners of stock on the Musselshell Range, said range being defined as follows to wit: Beginning at the mouth of Box Elder Creek, on the Musselshell River; thence up the Box Elder to Flat Willow Creek; thence up Flat Willow to the head of the same; thence westerly along the divide to Judith Gap; thence westerly along the divide to Copperopolis; thence southerly along the divide to the divide between Fish Creek and Sweet Grass Creek; thence easterly along the divide, between the waters of the Yellowstone and Musselshell Rivers, to a point opposite or south of the mouth of Box Elder Creek; thence north of the mouth of Box Elder Creek.
We, the undersigned, stock growers of the above-described range, hereby give notice that we consider said range already overstocked; therefore we positively decline allowing any outside parties or any parties locating herds upon this range the use of corrals, nor will they be permitted to join us in any round-up on said range from and after this date.
Signed by the Montana Cattle Company, Northwestern Cattle Company, A. Lincoln, James Schnall, McGaric & Johnston, George W. Wilson, F. M. Dennis, John H. Freeser, Thomas Linton, Martin Miller, D. Blacker, W. Corkill, Andrew Cooper, R. C. Quaintance, R. W. Quaile, M. J. Settle, Hill & Hightower, Balch & Bacon, William Gordon, Collins & Klein
Most of the first cattlemen by Roundup are in this list (Hightower and Hill, Shnall, McGaric and Johnston, F. M. Dennis, Balch and Bacon).
There were two responses to the letter from GLO Special Agents. The first from James Tullis In 1883 sees the notice as an example of “the manner in which large stock growers control the public land for their own use and benefit to the exclusion of their less wealthy neighbors and small stock-graziers.” He is particularly put off by the refusal to allow any outsiders to join in the Roundup, and where outsiders cattle found on the range would be confiscated. He wrote that cowboys picket the line to insure the notice is not violated
Agent Harrison went to the range to assess the conditions in 1884. He visited White Sulphur Springs, Copperopolis, and Martinsdale where none of the ranchers he talked with (none of whom were signors) had been deterred from settlement or threatened. This led him to believe that the notice was a means of preventing large herd drives from Dakota and Wyoming. He found no evidence of cowboys picketing boundaries. He did not continue on to investigate the lower Musselshell because it was too thinly populated.
A newspaper article from Billings in 1883 suggests that early ranchers were not secure in their land holdings. “Demand made for a survey of Musselshell Valley as owners only had squatters rights and did not dare leave their property as it was liable to be jumped by some enterprising rustler, who might wish to reap what he had not sowed. Survey to be made by the Murphy party.” (Horizons).
Roundups
The influx of both cattle and sheep ranchers meant that there had to be ways for ranchers to organize themselves and their areas. Since the early 1870s, ranchers had been trying to create a single territory-wide organization. Early in 1879 some meeting were held in Helena, organized by James Fergus, under the name of the Montana Stockgrower Association. In 1884, it reorganized and began to cooperate with the Eastern Montana Livestock Association. In 1885, the groups merged to create a territory-wide Montana Stockgrowers Association.
Cattle roundups were held among neighboring ranchers to try and sort out whose cattle were whose. Spring roundups gathered the cattle for branding and to tally the calves. Branding was developed as a means of determining ownership of cattle property. As early as 1865 the Montana Territory legislature enacted the first law requiring the branding of cattle and the territorial government from the start was critical for regulation of the industry. The legislature kept brand book records, as did the Montana Stockgrowers Association. At the roundup, cattle companies would send in their representatives to collect cattle marked with their brand.
In those days, outfits were very cooperative, otherwise none of this would have worked. T.C. Power is an example of someone who tried to take over range, but ended up getting driven out of the Judith Roundup association. Based on the general range boundaries decided, each outfit sent out hired hands to ride a circle around one side, maybe 20 miles a day. They would go and check watering holes and creeks and try to keep count of where cattle were.
The “Pumpkin Rollers” of Roundup included the N-F Ranch, the Block Ranch, the HX, the Dude E and ranches from the upper Musselshell. The term “Pumpkin Roller” may have come from Barrows. Describing the Judith roundup, he wrote it was “a tame affair. . . It was dominated by eastern cattlemen and . . . the roundup as a whole was characterized as a bunch of ‘Pumpkin Rollers,’ or ‘Corn Huskers,’ or ‘straight legs,’ and the use of cots and mattresses by some of the elders, caused the roundup to be called a ‘feather bed roundup.’” (James B. Rankin papers, Montana Historical Society)
The early NF outfit included Lew Fisco, James Gyre, and Ed Creekbum. The NF outfit rode down to the Brockway Crossing, on the Musselshell west of Melstone, all the way to Martinsdale picking up cattle.
The day has dawned and the boys are off for camp, some to guard, others to make the circle and the rest to drive. The order for the day is to make the crossing at Musselshell where the branding is to be done. The destination reached, the outfit prepares for the branding of the calves and cattle unfit for shipment. Fires are kindled and the branding irons heated red. On the signal from the foreman a steer is roped and thrown by some practical hand with the lariat or lasso, riding a horse that knows more about cutting out cattle than most riders. The brand is pressed to the quivering critter’s side and when lifted, there stands out as plain as the letters of the alphabet could be printed, the NF, Box, IH, Two Dot, Horseshoe, the 79, RL, HX, Dude E or any other brand that might be required.
The “Forty Thieves” group congregated in the area by present-day Roundup. It is unclear which ranches participated in this, and when. There is only a brief mention of it in an account from an NF ranch cowhand. The Ryan Brothers held their own roundup at Alkali Creek. There were two roundups each year.
Whatever cattle they wanted sold were trailed down to Billings, where the Northern Pacific Railroad provided the nearest shipping point in those days. Cattle were shipped in the fall to either Omaha or Chicago. A helper could travel along with the cattle, free of charge. Animals were prodded at every stop to keep them upright, so none were trampled. The branded cattle were set lose on the range to be picked up for the market the next year. Once the herd was sent off, the cowboys had a break until the next morning, when they headed back towards the range for another drive. When cattle were brought into the stockyards in Billings, a check was given to the cowboys based on the brands of the cattle. More often than not the checks reached the correct owners.
Early rancher Jim Hart remembers,
There was usually a bed wagon, a cook wagon and a cook. The remuda was made up of saddle horses not being ridden that day. Then the punchers themselves and, of course, the ram rod or captain who ran the outfit; and I must not omit the wrangler, who rounded up the horses and rustled wood for the cook. Each rancher usually sent out one or two reps who brought their boss’s calves, and drove his cattle back to the home ranch. Each morning the captain lined the riders out as to the territory they were supposed to cover. At night the cattle brought in were guarded by ‘night herders’.”
As more and more ranches sprang up along the valley, the range rights and herding problems became more complex. (Rhoden). Stockmen were always on the lookout for the most advantageous locations for spring roundups. The pocket where Roundup now lies was the best, with good feed, water, and easy to bunch cattle in the terrain. Since there was so much activity at that point, the foundation for a thriving community was laid (Miracle on Musselshell).
Wolves were one of the threats to early ranchers (horizons). The Montana Stockgrowers Association Convention in 1894 adopted a resolution to employ wolfers on wages for six months each year. Wolfers were using stag hounds and bulldogs rather than poison to kill wolves. Wolves were troublesome in the 1890s. In 1905, 1000-1200 calves were reported killed by wolves in the Musselshell Valley
Sheep
The first 2,000 head of sheep came into Montana in the 1860s and 1870s. By 1900, there were 3,500,000 (HWH). Unlike Wyoming and other places, breeders of sheep and horses got along reasonably well with cattlemen in Montana, with many operators raising sheep, cattle, and horses all together (Malone).
Sheep appeared as early as cattle in Montana. Jesuit priests raised them at St. Ignatius Mission in the 1850s and they accompanied herds of cattle on the southwestern ranges of Montana in the 1860s. In the 1880s, the sheep industry followed the same expansion as cattle, north and east. William and John Smith led flocks onto the Upper Musselshell country in 1877. By early 1879, 15,000 sheep were on the Smith River and 60,000 were on the Musselshell. The sheep industry attracted more small investors, as sheep required lower original investments and provided wool as extra profit. Investors took advantage of the potential as well. Cruse, locator of the N Bar Ranch, and Murphy of the 79 Ranch both ran cattle and sheep, for example (Malone).
Early Lower Musselshell Sheep Ranches
The Musselshell Valley sheep population was growing quickly 1882-1883. The earliest sheep ranchers were William and John Cooley from Wisconsin. They located and obtained sheep on shares. One of the Cooley brothers was later shot after he fenced in a railroad section, one of the first descriptions of barbed wire being used. The sheep ranchers were Lee Jacobs, Dan Tressler, and Rufus Thompson, all of whom settled on South Willow Creek. South Willow Creek runs closest to the southern and western edges of Milton Ranch, with its mouth at the Musselshell directly to the south of the ranch, and its headwaters flowing out of the little snowy mountains. Back then, it was a live and clear stream. It remained that way until 1912.
James Hightower remembered seeing Rufus Thompson for the first time in 1882, unloading wood by Willow Creek. Thompson obtained 2,000 head of sheep from the Smith Brothers at Martinsdale, and set up a cabin and corral. He lost his team of oxen that winter and Hightower, still running the NF ranch in 1883, found them in their roundup on Currant Creek. By 1890, Thompson had 35,000 sheep. Thompson did not have extensive holdings. He only owned 2,700 acres. The practice then was to own land where water was available and hay could be raised. There was no fencing and no irrigation.
Running sheep on shares meant that Thompson took care of sheep for one half of the increase, half the wool, and he paid half of the taxes for three years. At the end of three years, he gave back as near he could the same age sheep that he had started with. Two percent was allowed for loss and the rest had to be made up.
Lee Jacobs worked on early sheep ranches. He took sheep as part of his wages, enabling him to get started on his own at Willow Creek in 1882. His sister married Rufus Thompson. James Elliot from Scotland started herding for Lee Jacobs in 1882, and later partnered with Rufus Thompson. He bought a band of 1,800 ewes from Dr. Parberry in White Sulphur Springs in 1886. Elliot was known as one of the best sheep men in the area. He made a land trade and was able to run his sheep on Cameron Creek since he saw locations farther from the mountains were better for sheep. (Rhoden).
In 1883, Joseph Asbridge arrived on Willow Creek. Asbridge was born into an old and prominent British family. Asbridge increased his herd quickly. William Cooley brought in 2,000 head from White Sulphur Springs in 1882. He owned land on Willow Creek and used it as summer range for his sheep. Naderman from Dakota and Woolfolk were also among the sheepmen in 1883. Woolfolk ran 30,000 sheep on 600 acres at peak (Rhoden).
In 1885 Louis Lefheldt arrived with his brother and his father and began to run sheep at Broadview. Their family owned a major feedlot in Iowa and sent their lambs there. They expanded and bought the sheep place that Charlie Bair had put together in 1896 along the Musselshell in Lavina.
In 1886, James Hightower took up a partnership with Joseph Asbridge and Clair Battams to formed the Lazy X Ranch, located in the foothills of the little Snowies. The ranch had extensive cattle and sheep herds. James Hightower was the first water right on Willow Creek. He applied in 1887, and his right was filed in 1889. It was one of the largest water rights granted on the creek: 500 miner’s inches.
Like cattlemen, sheepmen trailed their bands to Billings, at the time the nearest railhead. At shearing time, crews were hired and great loads of wool sacks were hauled to Billings for shipment. Freight wagons returning brought supplies. Willis Sanderson and his father settled by South Willow Creek in 1886. For early settlers and ranchers, Willis became a lifeline, hauling freight from Lewistown and Billings. He had an incredible memory and could bring back almost anything anyone ordered.
The introduction of sheep into the land was an impetus for growing organization of roundups, pushing for regulation laws and grazing districts. In the Big Snowy Mountains, for instance, ranchers were in favor of creating a grazing district in which they could acquire set leases for land (Pound).
Winter of 1886-87
The impact of the overstocking of ranges in Montana was felt the most in the winter of 1886-1887. The winter of 1885-1886 was warm with little snow. The next summer was hot and dry, so the range was already bare. There was a market glut in beef prices so ranches were holding over more steers than they usually did. These factors and the continued overstocking of cattle and sheep set up the cattle industry for disaster in a bad winter (Malone).
Temperatures of 63 below zero were recorded. Huge numbers of cattle were trapped by barbed wire fences and caught in snow drifts because they couldn’t move with the storm. By 1887 in Montana 250,000 acres were illegally closed by barbed wire. It is estimated 362,000, or 60%, of cattle were lost in the Montana Territory (Malone).
Early Musselshell rancher John Newton recalls that the winter of 1886-7, the weather started in November with snow, followed by a Chinook that melted much of the snow, then a second cold spell freezing the earlier snow and adding more layers. He writes that it was “agonizing impossibility to even scantily care for the livestock, which, besides suffering with the bitter cold, were unable to dig through the ice and snow to feed. They were starving and freezing to death!” Making a desperate effort to save the animals, the Newtons fed them potato peelings and young cottonwood bark. For the Newtons, the winter exacted a heavy toll, leaving only two cows and a few horses. Cree Indians stole all of the surviving horses in the spring.
Other lower Musselshell ranches were hit. Hightower, still in partnership with Asbridge and Battams, says he “lost 150 of the best shorthorn cows in the state,” and that “everyone lost about the same.” This was a big loss for Hightower who did not have many cattle. The McGavic Johnston Cattle Company only had 68 head left after the winter, and sold out soon after to the Neace Cattle Company. Farther west, the 79 Ranch lost half of their herd that winter. The Merridan Cattle Company, started by a group of Eastern college students on Fattig Creek, went broke that winter, though they came back in the spring. The Block Ranch was running 4,000 head of cattle in 1885-1886, half of which were lost in the winter of 1886-1887. The HX suffered a 50% loss that winter. Ryan Brothers lost half their herd.
Sheepmen were not spared. Rufus Thompson lost between five and six hundred head of sheep. He stayed with his sheep through a terrific blizzard where icicles formed on his mouth and eyes, and he had to force himself to stay awake to avoid freezing to death. James Elliot camped out with his sheep under a cloth thrown over willows, and fed them hay. Due to all of this work, he only had a 3% loss (Rhoden). Overall, sheep survived the winter with much more success than cattle, and a growth in the sheep industry followed the winter. William and John Cooley had high losses in the winter of 1886-1887.
Barbed wire was being strung increasingly. John Wesley Powell warned against fencing livestock, arguing that it would lead to overgrazing and erosion. He argued that the West is a landscape of motion, its humans and animals are nomadic for a reason. Fences would trap animals in disasters (this was before the die-up of the 1880s), and are only a visible expression of our idea of private property.
The Musselshell Range late 1880s - 1908:
Michael Malone sees the winter of 1886-1887 as “the beginning of the end of the open range system.” For the cattle industry, the boom atmosphere and investment evaporated.
Many big outfits went to Assiniboine reservation, Fort Peck, and Blackfeet reservations. Simms went to Alaska (Schaff).
Larger companies on the Lower Musselshell were going out. The Willard cattle company and the Barrel Cattle Company both went broke in the 1890s. The Dude E, or New York Cattle Company, went out of existence in 1890 (Rhoden). The McGavic Mason Ranch was sold after 1887.
These ranches were often bought up by cowboys who had worked for the companies, and newcomers were setting up smaller outfits. The HX consolidated with the Meridan Cattle Company and was bought by John Chandler, who had ridden for the Ryan Brothers, in 1898. The Block Ranch was sold to its foreman James Spendiff in 1897. Goulding and Ramsey ranches changed hands in the late 1890s. The Box W Horse Ranch was bought by Leo Hart. In 1890 the Dude E was sold to Texas cowboy Ed Roberts.
(Left to Right): Leo Hart, future owner of the Box W Ranch, Nick Raths, who bought the Dude E and New York Cattle Company ranches in 1908 from Ed Roberts, early buffalo hunter and rancher Jim Hart, friend Bert Miller, unknown, Ed Roberts of Roberts Loan and Cattle Company, and Bill Spidel. They are located north of the confluence of Pole Creek and Cameron Creek.
In the United States, open grazing preceded almost every advancement of settlers west of the Alleghenies. This is what played out in Montana and in the Musselshell Valley, including the region of the Milton Ranch. Much of Central Montana, as described in the previous section, was uninhabitable because of huge migrating herds of bison, distance from supplies, and danger from warring Native American tribes. Once these threats were removed, cattlemen moved in.
The policy for these new tracts of government land was “until settlement is made, there is no objection to grazing cattle or cutting hay on government land, provided the lands are left open to all alike.” In 1877 there was a law of customary, recognizing the “squatters right.” Similar to many other areas, the huge increase in cattle on the Musselshell and lack of control on the land led to overgrazing. Riparian vegetation was especially vulnerable. The ranchers had fortunate weather during this time and could make a large profit.
Background of Cattle Grazing:
Cattle were brought into North America by boat from the Old World by governments and settlers establishing colonies. The first cattle were Andalusians brought by Spaniards in 1521. They were various colors, long-horned, and accustomed to grazing on thin forage. They grew in numbers in the regions south of the range of bison herds, in Florida, south Texas, and Mexico. These early cattle on western ranges were handled primitively. Large die-ups were common. Herds were building in other parts of the country, especially on the north Atlantic seaboard, since the early 1600s. Well-bred eastern cattle had been driven to Oregon over a period of time and there was a large reservoir of cattle that became acclimated to the west. These were eventually used to dilute the Texas Longhorn population. (Pound).
The very first cattle in Montana were brought in by Jesuit missionaries and early traders in the west of the state. Travelers on the Oregon Trail found that bringing their cattle north to graze in Montana, then back to the trail to trade was profitable. By the time the first miners arrived, there were already cattle grazing in Southwestern Montana. Among these were the Grant Ranch in Deer Lodge Valley and the Morgan Ranch in the Prickly Pear Valley. When Gold was found 1862-1864 at Bannack, Virginia City, and Last Chance Gulch, these ranches were well situated to provide beef for the mining rush, military forts, and Indian agencies. Prospector Conrad Kohrs bought the Grant ranch in 1865 and became the leading stockman in Montana. Outside men began to bring in cattle also. In 1864 William Orr brought a herd to the Beaverhead Valley for wintering, Dan Floweree brought in a herd from Missouri in 1865, and in 1866 Nelson Story drove the first Texas longhorns into Montana to the Gallatin Valley. These early cattlemen let the cattle roam freely and cut little hay. Cattlemen seeking new markets in the 1870s had to trail their cattle to Union Pacific rail heads in Wyoming and northwards into Canada.
Cattle industry in Central Montana and Musselshell Valley:
In the 1870s Montana cattlemen began looking to expand into central Montana due to overcrowded western ranges. East-central Montana had abundant and free grass, a mixture of blue gramma, needle grasses, buffalo grass, and western wheatgrass (Malone). 1870s central Montana from the Little Belts and Snowies to the Musselshell River was a no-man’s land filled with bison and Indians. Even after Custer’s battle, there were more bison than cattle. After the campaign of Little Horn, the conquest and expulsion of Sioux Indians allowed for an influx into the region of cattle owners, driving their herds to the Smith and Musselshell rivers (3/16/1893 Big Timber Pioneer newspaper). The Sun River Valley was the main portal for this movement. Robert Ford and Conrad Kohrs were the first ranchers to settle on the Sun River in the early 1870s.
The first ranchers on the Musselshell were William Gordon and Perry, Sanford, and John Moore. William Gordon had been successful in mining at White’s Gulch and in 1869 made his first venture into the cattle industry. Hearing that grazing was open on the Musselshell, he brought a small group of cattle to the Upper Musselshell in 1870 to winter there because of the good range. The Musselshell country was often called the “long grass country” by early cowboys to distinguish it from shortgrass country of other ranges. He left his cattle by themselves and returned in the spring. In 1871 he settled eight miles west of Martinsdale and had 1200 cattle by 1885 (Philipsburg Mail).
The next years saw an increasing number of cattle in the Musselshell Valley, brought in for winter grazing, and back out before the summer influx of Indians and bison. In 1877, the Musselshell Crossing, located by the current town of Musselshell, was established as a last bedding place for longhorns and other breeds driven up the old Texas Trail before the herds were divided out to different Montana ranches. This place was also the point of crossing between Fort Custer and Fort Maginnis.
Granville Stuart travelled through Martinsdale in the spring of 1880. He had contracts for four thousand head of calves and cows from Montana and Oregon and needed a place to fatten them up. What he found was “no grass here, eaten into the ground. I wonder that the cattle here did not all die last winter.” The north and south forks of the Musselshell were high, but “all the streams along here are muddy. I certainly would not select this for cattle range but I presume there are five thousand cattle in here now.” (Malone)
Lower Musselshell
It took another few years for the Lower Musselshell to reach comparable settlement due to the remaining herds of bison and small bands of Sioux and Blackfeet Indians. In 1880 Stuart reached the lower Musselshell by Melstone, heading north from the Yellowstone. There he saw large bands of antelope and bison: “the country is black with buffalo.” He observed cabins with piles of dead bison, wolves, and dogs around them, evidence of bison slaughter. The country was “rough . . . broken by ridges and coulees and all covered with stunted sage and greasewood and very little grass and ten thousand buffalo busily engaged in eating up what little there is.”
By 1883, the difference in the range from Granville Stuarts’ first visit was immense. There were no bison. The mass slaughter of buffalo across Montana had concluded. Antelope, elk and deer were scarce. Also, by 1880, the last group of Blackfeet to hunt in the Valley were forcibly removed by the government, after accusations by cattlemen of theft. (Amskapi Pikuni).
The 1880s were a boom decade for open range ranchers. Contributing to this was higher beef demand in the U.S. and Europe, refrigerator cars in railroads, and resumption of rail building throughout the West. Large cattle ranches were entering Judith Basin, including Stuart’s DHS Ranch north of Flatwillow Creek, the Circle C Ranch, T.C. Power, Davis, and Fergus. 12,000 cattle were trailed in from Nebraska to form the later N Bar Ranch.
The only two operations on the lower Musselshell in 1880 were the VVV Northwestern Ranch and the Joe Simms horse ranch at Ryegate. The VVV moved from Lewis and Clark County to the Upper Musselshell, picking up cows along the way. They ran cows on Cottonwood Creek, but moved for more elbow space on the lower Musselshell by Old Lavina. They ranged up into the North Country, where bison were still abundant. One roundup was abandoned because there were more bison than cattle. Like most of the early ranches, the VVV never took title to land, it only “squatted.” There was little the ranch could do legally other than publish warnings. It later was incorporated in the 79 ranch (Pound).
John Murphy started the 79 Ranch and built his herds by trailing cattle from Texas and grazing them between the Yellowstone River and the Missouri Breaks. In 1881, Murphy drove out 600 elk and brought between seven and eight thousand Hereford and shorthorn cattle. The ranch area was 17 miles long and eight to ten miles wide, or about 105 full sections. There was bluestem growing 3-4 feet high, good water, and thick cottonwoods along the Musselshell River. The home ranches were at Big Coulee, just south of Ryegate, and on the Musselshell a mile east of Barber. The 79 had 10,000 head of cattle in 1883.
Settlement by Roundup
In August 1881, James Hightower and G. Hill trailed 1200 short horn cattle and 60 saddle horses from the Missouri River east of Helena to the lower Musselshell, just east of what is now Roundup. There they located the Northfield Ranch Company on the north side of the river at the mouth of South Willow Creek. This is the closest location to the Milton Ranch of any of the early ranches. James Hart, a buffalo hunter, also established his ranch in 1881, bringing a carload of shorthorn cattle from Iowa and settling 20 miles up the river from the NF. He had as many as 700 head and 8,350 acres. His old friend James Schnall helped to finance the cattle. His brand was TI. His cattle often roamed twenty miles. (Bachman)
Old Roundup, tucked in next to Half Breed Creek south of present day Roundup, existed for 26 years. When the town first started in 1882, it was just a saloon and a log store. The town served as entertainment for cow punchers looking for strays, and was a gathering place for cowboys. Hightower and early settler and bison hunter James McMillan petitioned for a post office and mail route in 1883 and that same year a post office was started in one of the McMillan ranch buildings. (Roundup on the Musselshell).
The area settled thick 1882-1883. John Newton arrived from Iowa in 1883 with his brother A. C. Newton. They trailed a herd from Nebraska to Miles City and from there continued to one mile east of present Roundup. John Newton described the area as a “stockman’s paradise – with grass ‘belly deep to a horse.’” (Roundup on the Musselshell) The Willard Cattle Company located in 1882 with 3,000 head of cattle and 2,000 horses. Goulding settled at Goulding Creek and ran 200 horses. John Ramsey settled and ran 800 horses. Bacon and Balch of the Block Ranch ran 5000 head of cattle and 150 saddle horses near Delphia, brought in from Wyoming. James Schnall from Beaverhead settled and ran 1100 head of cattle. The Dude E Ranch was formed with 3,000 head of cattle brought in from New Mexico. The Dude E was operated near Elso, 7 miles west of Roundup, and was owned by eastern capitalists and the Remington Fire Arms Company. It was also known as the New York Cattle Company. William Strait brought in cattle to Half Breed Creek in 1883. In 1883 F. M. Dennis and Robert Carpenter settled by Old Absher. F. M. “Pomp” Dennis was among the first miners of Alder gulch. In 1868 he travelled to the mouth of the Musselshell where he camped for the winter. With his friend R. H. Carpenter, he had many fights with Indians there. They settled on the Musselshell and lived there devoting time to cattle raising and doing well financially. He died in 1898 (Helena Independent, Feb. 7, 1898)
The HX, owned by Samuel Coffman, brought 1500 head the same year down Fattig Creek. Elmer Carter located in 1884, a member of Carter Allen Company. Barrell Cattle Company also incorporated that year, at peak had 1,000 head. Archibald Edminston located with 800 horses in 1884. Ives and Handel came in 1885 and went into the livestock and mercantile business at the Musselshell Crossing. McGavic Johnston Cattle Company came in 1885 with 900 cows and 300 calves. Later the company had 2,000 head of cattle. James Milner organized the Bull Mountain Cattle Company in 1885 on Fattig Creek. The Box W horse ranch was located in 1885 and later run by Leo Hart. Interestingly, the cattle market went down in 1885 and horses were a more profitable business (Miracle on Musselshell). The Poweshkiek Cattle Company had 700 head in 1887. The Merridan or Wilcox Company on Fattig Creek was run by college students from the east. It had between 4-500 hundred head of cattle in the late 1880s.
The Ryan Brothers, Jepp, Tom, Matt, and Ethan from Leavenworth, Kansas brought 26,000 head from Oregon to the Big Bend of the Musselshell in 1883. Theirs was an archetypal Texas outfit which ran yearlings brought up from Texas for maturation. They were part of a large wave of Texas outfits entering Eastern Montana in the early 1880s which ran larger herds and were more speculative. Texans were pushing for a national cattle trail from the federal government, which Montana ranchers opposed because of the overstocking of the ranges. Older Montana ranchers used the range for breeding purposes. (Malone).
The Ryan brothers also had a blooded racing strain of horses and produced “Montana,” which was a world winner in its class. They ran several thousand horses, the prettiest, fastest, and hardest bucking horses in Central Montana. (A Sketch of History). A description of their last trail herd says the Ryan Brothers received their herds at Fort Custer and trailed them down the Big Horn Valley, which was open reservation at the time. The operation spread over many miles of country near the present town of Melstone. Ryan brothers delivered 1700 steers, 200 per month, to a reservation on Poplar River which were purchased by the government for Indians. The last allotment was delivered in 1888.
Overstocking of Range
In 1883, a number of the very first cattlemen in the Musselshell Valley printed this notice in the Helena Herald:
At a meeting of the stockmen, owners of stock on the Musselshell Range, said range being defined as follows to wit: Beginning at the mouth of Box Elder Creek, on the Musselshell River; thence up the Box Elder to Flat Willow Creek; thence up Flat Willow to the head of the same; thence westerly along the divide to Judith Gap; thence westerly along the divide to Copperopolis; thence southerly along the divide to the divide between Fish Creek and Sweet Grass Creek; thence easterly along the divide, between the waters of the Yellowstone and Musselshell Rivers, to a point opposite or south of the mouth of Box Elder Creek; thence north of the mouth of Box Elder Creek.
We, the undersigned, stock growers of the above-described range, hereby give notice that we consider said range already overstocked; therefore we positively decline allowing any outside parties or any parties locating herds upon this range the use of corrals, nor will they be permitted to join us in any round-up on said range from and after this date.
Signed by the Montana Cattle Company, Northwestern Cattle Company, A. Lincoln, James Schnall, McGaric & Johnston, George W. Wilson, F. M. Dennis, John H. Freeser, Thomas Linton, Martin Miller, D. Blacker, W. Corkill, Andrew Cooper, R. C. Quaintance, R. W. Quaile, M. J. Settle, Hill & Hightower, Balch & Bacon, William Gordon, Collins & Klein
Most of the first cattlemen by Roundup are in this list (Hightower and Hill, Shnall, McGaric and Johnston, F. M. Dennis, Balch and Bacon).
There were two responses to the letter from GLO Special Agents. The first from James Tullis In 1883 sees the notice as an example of “the manner in which large stock growers control the public land for their own use and benefit to the exclusion of their less wealthy neighbors and small stock-graziers.” He is particularly put off by the refusal to allow any outsiders to join in the Roundup, and where outsiders cattle found on the range would be confiscated. He wrote that cowboys picket the line to insure the notice is not violated
Agent Harrison went to the range to assess the conditions in 1884. He visited White Sulphur Springs, Copperopolis, and Martinsdale where none of the ranchers he talked with (none of whom were signors) had been deterred from settlement or threatened. This led him to believe that the notice was a means of preventing large herd drives from Dakota and Wyoming. He found no evidence of cowboys picketing boundaries. He did not continue on to investigate the lower Musselshell because it was too thinly populated.
A newspaper article from Billings in 1883 suggests that early ranchers were not secure in their land holdings. “Demand made for a survey of Musselshell Valley as owners only had squatters rights and did not dare leave their property as it was liable to be jumped by some enterprising rustler, who might wish to reap what he had not sowed. Survey to be made by the Murphy party.” (Horizons).
Roundups
The influx of both cattle and sheep ranchers meant that there had to be ways for ranchers to organize themselves and their areas. Since the early 1870s, ranchers had been trying to create a single territory-wide organization. Early in 1879 some meeting were held in Helena, organized by James Fergus, under the name of the Montana Stockgrower Association. In 1884, it reorganized and began to cooperate with the Eastern Montana Livestock Association. In 1885, the groups merged to create a territory-wide Montana Stockgrowers Association.
Cattle roundups were held among neighboring ranchers to try and sort out whose cattle were whose. Spring roundups gathered the cattle for branding and to tally the calves. Branding was developed as a means of determining ownership of cattle property. As early as 1865 the Montana Territory legislature enacted the first law requiring the branding of cattle and the territorial government from the start was critical for regulation of the industry. The legislature kept brand book records, as did the Montana Stockgrowers Association. At the roundup, cattle companies would send in their representatives to collect cattle marked with their brand.
In those days, outfits were very cooperative, otherwise none of this would have worked. T.C. Power is an example of someone who tried to take over range, but ended up getting driven out of the Judith Roundup association. Based on the general range boundaries decided, each outfit sent out hired hands to ride a circle around one side, maybe 20 miles a day. They would go and check watering holes and creeks and try to keep count of where cattle were.
The “Pumpkin Rollers” of Roundup included the N-F Ranch, the Block Ranch, the HX, the Dude E and ranches from the upper Musselshell. The term “Pumpkin Roller” may have come from Barrows. Describing the Judith roundup, he wrote it was “a tame affair. . . It was dominated by eastern cattlemen and . . . the roundup as a whole was characterized as a bunch of ‘Pumpkin Rollers,’ or ‘Corn Huskers,’ or ‘straight legs,’ and the use of cots and mattresses by some of the elders, caused the roundup to be called a ‘feather bed roundup.’” (James B. Rankin papers, Montana Historical Society)
The early NF outfit included Lew Fisco, James Gyre, and Ed Creekbum. The NF outfit rode down to the Brockway Crossing, on the Musselshell west of Melstone, all the way to Martinsdale picking up cattle.
The day has dawned and the boys are off for camp, some to guard, others to make the circle and the rest to drive. The order for the day is to make the crossing at Musselshell where the branding is to be done. The destination reached, the outfit prepares for the branding of the calves and cattle unfit for shipment. Fires are kindled and the branding irons heated red. On the signal from the foreman a steer is roped and thrown by some practical hand with the lariat or lasso, riding a horse that knows more about cutting out cattle than most riders. The brand is pressed to the quivering critter’s side and when lifted, there stands out as plain as the letters of the alphabet could be printed, the NF, Box, IH, Two Dot, Horseshoe, the 79, RL, HX, Dude E or any other brand that might be required.
The “Forty Thieves” group congregated in the area by present-day Roundup. It is unclear which ranches participated in this, and when. There is only a brief mention of it in an account from an NF ranch cowhand. The Ryan Brothers held their own roundup at Alkali Creek. There were two roundups each year.
Whatever cattle they wanted sold were trailed down to Billings, where the Northern Pacific Railroad provided the nearest shipping point in those days. Cattle were shipped in the fall to either Omaha or Chicago. A helper could travel along with the cattle, free of charge. Animals were prodded at every stop to keep them upright, so none were trampled. The branded cattle were set lose on the range to be picked up for the market the next year. Once the herd was sent off, the cowboys had a break until the next morning, when they headed back towards the range for another drive. When cattle were brought into the stockyards in Billings, a check was given to the cowboys based on the brands of the cattle. More often than not the checks reached the correct owners.
Early rancher Jim Hart remembers,
There was usually a bed wagon, a cook wagon and a cook. The remuda was made up of saddle horses not being ridden that day. Then the punchers themselves and, of course, the ram rod or captain who ran the outfit; and I must not omit the wrangler, who rounded up the horses and rustled wood for the cook. Each rancher usually sent out one or two reps who brought their boss’s calves, and drove his cattle back to the home ranch. Each morning the captain lined the riders out as to the territory they were supposed to cover. At night the cattle brought in were guarded by ‘night herders’.”
As more and more ranches sprang up along the valley, the range rights and herding problems became more complex. (Rhoden). Stockmen were always on the lookout for the most advantageous locations for spring roundups. The pocket where Roundup now lies was the best, with good feed, water, and easy to bunch cattle in the terrain. Since there was so much activity at that point, the foundation for a thriving community was laid (Miracle on Musselshell).
Wolves were one of the threats to early ranchers (horizons). The Montana Stockgrowers Association Convention in 1894 adopted a resolution to employ wolfers on wages for six months each year. Wolfers were using stag hounds and bulldogs rather than poison to kill wolves. Wolves were troublesome in the 1890s. In 1905, 1000-1200 calves were reported killed by wolves in the Musselshell Valley
Sheep
The first 2,000 head of sheep came into Montana in the 1860s and 1870s. By 1900, there were 3,500,000 (HWH). Unlike Wyoming and other places, breeders of sheep and horses got along reasonably well with cattlemen in Montana, with many operators raising sheep, cattle, and horses all together (Malone).
Sheep appeared as early as cattle in Montana. Jesuit priests raised them at St. Ignatius Mission in the 1850s and they accompanied herds of cattle on the southwestern ranges of Montana in the 1860s. In the 1880s, the sheep industry followed the same expansion as cattle, north and east. William and John Smith led flocks onto the Upper Musselshell country in 1877. By early 1879, 15,000 sheep were on the Smith River and 60,000 were on the Musselshell. The sheep industry attracted more small investors, as sheep required lower original investments and provided wool as extra profit. Investors took advantage of the potential as well. Cruse, locator of the N Bar Ranch, and Murphy of the 79 Ranch both ran cattle and sheep, for example (Malone).
Early Lower Musselshell Sheep Ranches
The Musselshell Valley sheep population was growing quickly 1882-1883. The earliest sheep ranchers were William and John Cooley from Wisconsin. They located and obtained sheep on shares. One of the Cooley brothers was later shot after he fenced in a railroad section, one of the first descriptions of barbed wire being used. The sheep ranchers were Lee Jacobs, Dan Tressler, and Rufus Thompson, all of whom settled on South Willow Creek. South Willow Creek runs closest to the southern and western edges of Milton Ranch, with its mouth at the Musselshell directly to the south of the ranch, and its headwaters flowing out of the little snowy mountains. Back then, it was a live and clear stream. It remained that way until 1912.
James Hightower remembered seeing Rufus Thompson for the first time in 1882, unloading wood by Willow Creek. Thompson obtained 2,000 head of sheep from the Smith Brothers at Martinsdale, and set up a cabin and corral. He lost his team of oxen that winter and Hightower, still running the NF ranch in 1883, found them in their roundup on Currant Creek. By 1890, Thompson had 35,000 sheep. Thompson did not have extensive holdings. He only owned 2,700 acres. The practice then was to own land where water was available and hay could be raised. There was no fencing and no irrigation.
Running sheep on shares meant that Thompson took care of sheep for one half of the increase, half the wool, and he paid half of the taxes for three years. At the end of three years, he gave back as near he could the same age sheep that he had started with. Two percent was allowed for loss and the rest had to be made up.
Lee Jacobs worked on early sheep ranches. He took sheep as part of his wages, enabling him to get started on his own at Willow Creek in 1882. His sister married Rufus Thompson. James Elliot from Scotland started herding for Lee Jacobs in 1882, and later partnered with Rufus Thompson. He bought a band of 1,800 ewes from Dr. Parberry in White Sulphur Springs in 1886. Elliot was known as one of the best sheep men in the area. He made a land trade and was able to run his sheep on Cameron Creek since he saw locations farther from the mountains were better for sheep. (Rhoden).
In 1883, Joseph Asbridge arrived on Willow Creek. Asbridge was born into an old and prominent British family. Asbridge increased his herd quickly. William Cooley brought in 2,000 head from White Sulphur Springs in 1882. He owned land on Willow Creek and used it as summer range for his sheep. Naderman from Dakota and Woolfolk were also among the sheepmen in 1883. Woolfolk ran 30,000 sheep on 600 acres at peak (Rhoden).
In 1885 Louis Lefheldt arrived with his brother and his father and began to run sheep at Broadview. Their family owned a major feedlot in Iowa and sent their lambs there. They expanded and bought the sheep place that Charlie Bair had put together in 1896 along the Musselshell in Lavina.
In 1886, James Hightower took up a partnership with Joseph Asbridge and Clair Battams to formed the Lazy X Ranch, located in the foothills of the little Snowies. The ranch had extensive cattle and sheep herds. James Hightower was the first water right on Willow Creek. He applied in 1887, and his right was filed in 1889. It was one of the largest water rights granted on the creek: 500 miner’s inches.
Like cattlemen, sheepmen trailed their bands to Billings, at the time the nearest railhead. At shearing time, crews were hired and great loads of wool sacks were hauled to Billings for shipment. Freight wagons returning brought supplies. Willis Sanderson and his father settled by South Willow Creek in 1886. For early settlers and ranchers, Willis became a lifeline, hauling freight from Lewistown and Billings. He had an incredible memory and could bring back almost anything anyone ordered.
The introduction of sheep into the land was an impetus for growing organization of roundups, pushing for regulation laws and grazing districts. In the Big Snowy Mountains, for instance, ranchers were in favor of creating a grazing district in which they could acquire set leases for land (Pound).
Winter of 1886-87
The impact of the overstocking of ranges in Montana was felt the most in the winter of 1886-1887. The winter of 1885-1886 was warm with little snow. The next summer was hot and dry, so the range was already bare. There was a market glut in beef prices so ranches were holding over more steers than they usually did. These factors and the continued overstocking of cattle and sheep set up the cattle industry for disaster in a bad winter (Malone).
Temperatures of 63 below zero were recorded. Huge numbers of cattle were trapped by barbed wire fences and caught in snow drifts because they couldn’t move with the storm. By 1887 in Montana 250,000 acres were illegally closed by barbed wire. It is estimated 362,000, or 60%, of cattle were lost in the Montana Territory (Malone).
Early Musselshell rancher John Newton recalls that the winter of 1886-7, the weather started in November with snow, followed by a Chinook that melted much of the snow, then a second cold spell freezing the earlier snow and adding more layers. He writes that it was “agonizing impossibility to even scantily care for the livestock, which, besides suffering with the bitter cold, were unable to dig through the ice and snow to feed. They were starving and freezing to death!” Making a desperate effort to save the animals, the Newtons fed them potato peelings and young cottonwood bark. For the Newtons, the winter exacted a heavy toll, leaving only two cows and a few horses. Cree Indians stole all of the surviving horses in the spring.
Other lower Musselshell ranches were hit. Hightower, still in partnership with Asbridge and Battams, says he “lost 150 of the best shorthorn cows in the state,” and that “everyone lost about the same.” This was a big loss for Hightower who did not have many cattle. The McGavic Johnston Cattle Company only had 68 head left after the winter, and sold out soon after to the Neace Cattle Company. Farther west, the 79 Ranch lost half of their herd that winter. The Merridan Cattle Company, started by a group of Eastern college students on Fattig Creek, went broke that winter, though they came back in the spring. The Block Ranch was running 4,000 head of cattle in 1885-1886, half of which were lost in the winter of 1886-1887. The HX suffered a 50% loss that winter. Ryan Brothers lost half their herd.
Sheepmen were not spared. Rufus Thompson lost between five and six hundred head of sheep. He stayed with his sheep through a terrific blizzard where icicles formed on his mouth and eyes, and he had to force himself to stay awake to avoid freezing to death. James Elliot camped out with his sheep under a cloth thrown over willows, and fed them hay. Due to all of this work, he only had a 3% loss (Rhoden). Overall, sheep survived the winter with much more success than cattle, and a growth in the sheep industry followed the winter. William and John Cooley had high losses in the winter of 1886-1887.
Barbed wire was being strung increasingly. John Wesley Powell warned against fencing livestock, arguing that it would lead to overgrazing and erosion. He argued that the West is a landscape of motion, its humans and animals are nomadic for a reason. Fences would trap animals in disasters (this was before the die-up of the 1880s), and are only a visible expression of our idea of private property.
The Musselshell Range late 1880s - 1908:
Michael Malone sees the winter of 1886-1887 as “the beginning of the end of the open range system.” For the cattle industry, the boom atmosphere and investment evaporated.
Many big outfits went to Assiniboine reservation, Fort Peck, and Blackfeet reservations. Simms went to Alaska (Schaff).
Larger companies on the Lower Musselshell were going out. The Willard cattle company and the Barrel Cattle Company both went broke in the 1890s. The Dude E, or New York Cattle Company, went out of existence in 1890 (Rhoden). The McGavic Mason Ranch was sold after 1887.
These ranches were often bought up by cowboys who had worked for the companies, and newcomers were setting up smaller outfits. The HX consolidated with the Meridan Cattle Company and was bought by John Chandler, who had ridden for the Ryan Brothers, in 1898. The Block Ranch was sold to its foreman James Spendiff in 1897. Goulding and Ramsey ranches changed hands in the late 1890s. The Box W Horse Ranch was bought by Leo Hart. In 1890 the Dude E was sold to Texas cowboy Ed Roberts.
(Left to Right): Leo Hart, future owner of the Box W Ranch, Nick Raths, who bought the Dude E and New York Cattle Company ranches in 1908 from Ed Roberts, early buffalo hunter and rancher Jim Hart, friend Bert Miller, unknown, Ed Roberts of Roberts Loan and Cattle Company, and Bill Spidel. They are located north of the confluence of Pole Creek and Cameron Creek.
The Ryan Brothers continued to run cattle and horses in the Big Bend until 1901. That was the last year they brought in a trail herd, 3,000 Texas yearling steers. In spring of 1902, forty roundup wagons congregated on Alkali Creek for the last annual roundup to lay out the territory each was to round up, brand the calves, etc. Among the big outfits represented were Two Dot, N Bar, the Two Bar, the 79, the 7-7.
Sheep became huge in these years. Rufus Thompson had many camp tenders and herders and 30,000 sheep in 1890 that he was running on the open range. In 1898, he had 50,000 sheep, and still owned only 2,700 acres on Willow Creek. “There were no fences, no irrigation, and no quarrels.” In 1900-1904 he cut down to only 1,000 to 1,200 sheep (Rhoden).
Lefheldt ran 40-60,000 sheep between Lavina and Miles City, as far north of the river as the Snowy Mountains. With hundreds of thousands of acres of open range, his herders had the freedom to move bands where they wanted and when they wanted. “Wherever they could find water and range they’d stay there until it was time to move and go someplace else.” Usually there were two men with a band. One was a herder and the other rode a buggy into the closest towns to get provisions. The herder had a herd of wolf hounds to chase coyotes and wolves. Dogs also kept bands separate. In those years the real profit came from wool, and his is why they ran dry bands of wethers. (The Lefheldt family still trails sheep from Lavina to the Snowies every summer.)
The late 1880s were wetter years. Louis Lefheldt remarked that the country seemed to get drier over his lifetime, beginning with moist conditions. En route to Broadview, ranchers had to ride high up on ridges surrounding what was then a big basin filled with water.
The winter of 1886-87 had reinforced the importance of winter feed. The Desert Land Act of 1877 allowed ranchers to gain ownership of 640 acres of hayland by establishing canals for irrigation from creeks and rivers. Hightower received the first patent of land through the 1862 Homestead Act in Musselshell County in 1889 at the NF headquarters, and his second up by the Lazy X at Willow Creek. Looking at a map of all the early ranch settlements, they are almost entirely sitting next to a river or creek. Often sheep herders would take up claims on land on water and then turn the land over to the boss (Lefheldt).
Milton Ranch by 1908
The Milton Ranch sits directly in what was described above as the Musselshell Range. It is likely during those years that cattle from surrounding ranches roamed the present ranch property. Jim Hart said cattle from his ranch sometimes travelled 20 miles away from headquarters. Nearby ranches such as the NF, McGavic Mason, Cooleys, and Block Ranch are most probable. The NF Ranch was the closest of the early-day ranches to the Milton property. By 1884, the NF was a smaller ranch run by two Englishmen, Cecil Clifton and Harold Lowther.
The British were especially interested in American meat because of the amount being imported during those years to the British Isles. The Royal Agricultural Commission even did a study on the western cattle industry, extolling the potential profit of the plains. This persuaded capitalists such as Lowther and Clifton to invest in livestock (Manning).
Clifton and Lowther lived at the ranch headquarters on the Musselshell not far from the Milton Ranch. They owned the only piano in the valley, had a Chinese cook, perfumed their dogs with soaps, and they had a chicken house with birds from all over the world (Miracle). The company was known for high grade cattle but “was not a big spread for its time, nor could it have been much of a money maker. As was the custom in the 1890’s, they owned the bottom land along the Musselshell and ran their cattle on the open range.”
The Northern Pacific
In 1895, several sections of land on Milton Ranch and across Montana were granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad. The Northern Pacific was the second transcontinental railroad built in the U.S. The first, the Union-Pacific, was authorized when the South seceded. Before, there were too many arguments over routes for a railroad to be authorized.
The Northern Pacific was built from Lake Superior to the northern Pacific Coast. Unlike the Union-Pacific, the Northern Pacific received no government loans. Instead the railroad was compensated with the largest land grant in the history of American railroads. The final land grant included twenty sections of land for each mile of track in Oregon and Minnesota and forty sections per mile in all of the other territories, including Montana. The land was in alternate, checkerboarded, odd sections along the right of way, a grand total of 44 million acres. 17 million was in Montana Territory, making the railroad the largest landowner in Montana.
Because the Crow Reservation cut off the land grant south of the Musselshell, the N. P. was given more land to the north. This is why sections on the Milton Ranch, a far distance from the Northern Pacific, were included in the land grant. (Pound).
After the Civil War, finding enough money for construction was a challenge for the N.P. It would not count on immediate profits because the territory had so little settlement. In 1870, the Philadelphia banking house Jay Cooke and Company agreed to finance the railroad and railroad crews continued to build, reaching Bismarck in 1873. Jay Cooke’s bank, however, could not handle the construction expenses after all. When the bank failed, it set off the nationwide Panic of 1873. The Northern Pacific was stuck in Bismarck until 1879.
By 1881, with reorganization by Frederick Billings, the railroad reached the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana and the Clark Fork in the west. By 1882 the Northern Pacific Railroad reached Billings and a stage line was put in to Fort Benton. The Northern Pacific provided Musselshell Valley ranchers with access to Chicago beef markets.
The Northern Pacific had financial troubles due to direct competition from the Great Northern. Great Northern owner Jim Hill virtually controlled the Northern Pacific after 1895 (Milwaukee).
Sheep became huge in these years. Rufus Thompson had many camp tenders and herders and 30,000 sheep in 1890 that he was running on the open range. In 1898, he had 50,000 sheep, and still owned only 2,700 acres on Willow Creek. “There were no fences, no irrigation, and no quarrels.” In 1900-1904 he cut down to only 1,000 to 1,200 sheep (Rhoden).
Lefheldt ran 40-60,000 sheep between Lavina and Miles City, as far north of the river as the Snowy Mountains. With hundreds of thousands of acres of open range, his herders had the freedom to move bands where they wanted and when they wanted. “Wherever they could find water and range they’d stay there until it was time to move and go someplace else.” Usually there were two men with a band. One was a herder and the other rode a buggy into the closest towns to get provisions. The herder had a herd of wolf hounds to chase coyotes and wolves. Dogs also kept bands separate. In those years the real profit came from wool, and his is why they ran dry bands of wethers. (The Lefheldt family still trails sheep from Lavina to the Snowies every summer.)
The late 1880s were wetter years. Louis Lefheldt remarked that the country seemed to get drier over his lifetime, beginning with moist conditions. En route to Broadview, ranchers had to ride high up on ridges surrounding what was then a big basin filled with water.
The winter of 1886-87 had reinforced the importance of winter feed. The Desert Land Act of 1877 allowed ranchers to gain ownership of 640 acres of hayland by establishing canals for irrigation from creeks and rivers. Hightower received the first patent of land through the 1862 Homestead Act in Musselshell County in 1889 at the NF headquarters, and his second up by the Lazy X at Willow Creek. Looking at a map of all the early ranch settlements, they are almost entirely sitting next to a river or creek. Often sheep herders would take up claims on land on water and then turn the land over to the boss (Lefheldt).
Milton Ranch by 1908
The Milton Ranch sits directly in what was described above as the Musselshell Range. It is likely during those years that cattle from surrounding ranches roamed the present ranch property. Jim Hart said cattle from his ranch sometimes travelled 20 miles away from headquarters. Nearby ranches such as the NF, McGavic Mason, Cooleys, and Block Ranch are most probable. The NF Ranch was the closest of the early-day ranches to the Milton property. By 1884, the NF was a smaller ranch run by two Englishmen, Cecil Clifton and Harold Lowther.
The British were especially interested in American meat because of the amount being imported during those years to the British Isles. The Royal Agricultural Commission even did a study on the western cattle industry, extolling the potential profit of the plains. This persuaded capitalists such as Lowther and Clifton to invest in livestock (Manning).
Clifton and Lowther lived at the ranch headquarters on the Musselshell not far from the Milton Ranch. They owned the only piano in the valley, had a Chinese cook, perfumed their dogs with soaps, and they had a chicken house with birds from all over the world (Miracle). The company was known for high grade cattle but “was not a big spread for its time, nor could it have been much of a money maker. As was the custom in the 1890’s, they owned the bottom land along the Musselshell and ran their cattle on the open range.”
The Northern Pacific
In 1895, several sections of land on Milton Ranch and across Montana were granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad. The Northern Pacific was the second transcontinental railroad built in the U.S. The first, the Union-Pacific, was authorized when the South seceded. Before, there were too many arguments over routes for a railroad to be authorized.
The Northern Pacific was built from Lake Superior to the northern Pacific Coast. Unlike the Union-Pacific, the Northern Pacific received no government loans. Instead the railroad was compensated with the largest land grant in the history of American railroads. The final land grant included twenty sections of land for each mile of track in Oregon and Minnesota and forty sections per mile in all of the other territories, including Montana. The land was in alternate, checkerboarded, odd sections along the right of way, a grand total of 44 million acres. 17 million was in Montana Territory, making the railroad the largest landowner in Montana.
Because the Crow Reservation cut off the land grant south of the Musselshell, the N. P. was given more land to the north. This is why sections on the Milton Ranch, a far distance from the Northern Pacific, were included in the land grant. (Pound).
After the Civil War, finding enough money for construction was a challenge for the N.P. It would not count on immediate profits because the territory had so little settlement. In 1870, the Philadelphia banking house Jay Cooke and Company agreed to finance the railroad and railroad crews continued to build, reaching Bismarck in 1873. Jay Cooke’s bank, however, could not handle the construction expenses after all. When the bank failed, it set off the nationwide Panic of 1873. The Northern Pacific was stuck in Bismarck until 1879.
By 1881, with reorganization by Frederick Billings, the railroad reached the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana and the Clark Fork in the west. By 1882 the Northern Pacific Railroad reached Billings and a stage line was put in to Fort Benton. The Northern Pacific provided Musselshell Valley ranchers with access to Chicago beef markets.
The Northern Pacific had financial troubles due to direct competition from the Great Northern. Great Northern owner Jim Hill virtually controlled the Northern Pacific after 1895 (Milwaukee).