Miles City
Travel
Montana
Miles
City Directory Listings
A view from 1939:
MILES CITY, (2,364 alt., 7,175 pop.), named in honor
of Gen. Nelson A. Miles, commander of the Fifth U. S. Infantry
at Fort Keogh for several eventful years, is the seat of Custer
County.
Much of Custer County is still devoted to grazing. Although
fences have reduced the range and brought changes in the operation
of large cow outfits, the ten-gallon hats and high-heeled boots
of puncher tradition are often seen on Miles City streets.
The town, whose name was once synonymous with the "wild
and woolly," has lost much of its old "toughness." Many
of the riders and wearers of spurs are mounted farmhands who
hope to be mistaken for the punchers they admire. But the town
nevertheless retains something of the color of the days when
a long Texas cattle trail ended here. A rodeo is held every
year, usually on or near July 4th. A cow-country flavor is
noticeable also in the Eastern Montana Fair, held in September.
In the old rough days, the south side of Main St. was a solid
block of saloons, gambling dens, and brothels, while the "decent" element
(composed of buffalo buyers, bankers, and pawnshop keepers)
lived on the north side. On one occasion, it is said, a member
of the respectable group hit a gambler on the head with a
singletree, and killed him. To save the good man embarrassment,
his friends hastily hanged the dead man as a dangerous character.
The town, once part of the hunting and camping grounds of the
Crow, is visited occasionally by Cheyenne from the Tongue River
Reservation.
The city is a livestock market, and has a packing plant, as
well as one distinctive cow-country business—the manufacture
of saddles.
The first settlement, Milestown, sprang up on the eastern boundary
of Fort Keogh Military Reservation, south of
the Yellowstone, but was abandoned when the Government gave
up that part of the reservation east of Tongue River. The present
community is on the level bottom land at the confluence of
the Tongue and Yellowstone Rivers.
General Miles arrived at the mouth of Tongue River in August
1876, with instructions to reduce the possibility of war by
compelling the Sioux and Cheyenne to return to their reservations.
He established a cantonment, which the troops occupied during
the winter, and arranged for the building of Fort Keogh at
the mouth of Tongue River in the spring. Miles encountered
Sitting Bull north of Terry in October 1876, and defeated him
in a running battle at Cedar Creek. Early" in January
he defeated Crazy Horse near the present site of Birney. In
May he defeated Lame Deer, and in the fall of 1877 he caught
Chief Joseph near Chinook.
In the days of steam boating on the Missouri, this town was
a river port that received much freight, chiefly during the
June rise of the Yellowstone.
Source: Montana: A State Guide Book; Compiled and Written
by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration
for the State of Montana; September, 1939.
|
