Yellowstone County Boundaries
Sunday, October 28, 2012 (added creation
information)
The political county boundaries
were controlled by Montana
State legislature. They identify population segments of the
state where voting jurisdiction will occur. Records were maintained as to the
political representation for each voting year. The boundaries of Yellowstone County during the pre-statehood date, up
to 1899 and later shifted as more people arrived into the state. In the
beginning these were generally simple straight lines and some contouring to
reflect a county. The mapmakers took these boundaries and converted them into
geographic locations that typically followed a natural route in the area. The sketch
below identifies how the early county limits have shifted over the years from
1883 to the present. (Reference: Montana Politics Since 1864,
Compiled by Ellis Waldron-MSU, undated). Please note: The
Crow Nation in its entirety (not pictured) was attached to Yellowstone County
at the time of Statehood creation.
The survey coordinates are shown in green, with the Baseline passing through
Billings, and
the vertical Coulson Guide intersecting. The Stands and other Guides are shown
for reference. The survey map is approximately to scale. Not shown, but
available are the Stage Coach Routes throughout the area. This map also shows
that the eastern boundary, starting at Big Horn, is the Big Horn River, which passes through the Crow
Reservation. It goes to the 1st Stand South, then west to a location
south of Laurel, and straight north to Laurel. This existed for
several years. (Reference:
Map of Central Montana, the Montana Railroad, by Richard A. Harlow, September
1, 1899)
The northern boundary stage stops (towns) crisscrossed the Musselshell River
several times, and as the local population grew, this boundary area shifted to
other counties, ending up in Musselshell
County in 1911. Creation
of this new boundary was politically flawed from the start:
Originally the Lewis & Clark expedition
discovered the river area on May 20, 1805 naming it “Muscleshell.”
In 1877 a trading post, called “The Crossing” was established
across the river on the opposite side of present day Musselshell.
It included caves cut into the north bank along the river. It was located on
the Fort Custer – Fort Maginnis Road, which ran through “Old
Roundup” located south of the river in 1882. Essentially this was on the
northern border of Yellowstone
County at the time.
Within eight months, Roundup grew from a sage-brush flat on the south side of
the Musselshell River, to a large community of about
1,200 persons. On April 10,1866, Muscleshell
County was created by the second
territorial legislature,
and it covered a vast area, but Roundup was still in Yellowstone County.
Kercheval City was named its county seat. On
November 11, 1866 the third territorial legislature changed the county name to
Vivion, and moved the county seat to Smithton. The name of both new counties,
and their county seats were never published. Through an extraordinary session
in Washington D. C. called by an Act of Congress on March 3, 1867 (ref: 14 U.S.
Statutes 426-427) the transactions of the Montana legislative body were annulled,
leaving the territory county boundary lines unchanged. Roundup later
repositioned itself to the north side of the river when the railroad passed
through. This created at first a great influx of homesteaders, who later
discovered that this was cattle country, not farmland. Coal miners were
employed by the hundreds to feed the train engines, and the population
expanded. The trains shifted from coal to diesel around 1920, and the
population started to drift away. In November 1919, the Van Duzen Oil Company
struck oil at Devil’s Basin. Although it was not commercially profitable,
it did pave the way for the eventual discovery of several oil fields north of
Roundup.
On February 11, 1911 the name Musselshell appeared,
when the new county was created from parts of Fergus, Yellowstone and Meagher Counties. This action moved the northern
boundary of Yellowstone
Valley southward towards
its present location. In 1917 Roundup was designated county seat for Musselshell County,
changing the Rosebud
County line. In 1920, Golden Valley County
was created from Musselshell
County.
The pre-present day boundaries were between the two rivers, (Yellowstone and
Musselshell) with minor extensions as shown to
the west. The portion of Yellowstone County shown south of the Yellowstone River
was added to the maps after 1906, when Crow Reservation land (1,150,000 acres)
was attached for settlers.
ü
1883 GLO. Refers to
the General Land
Office published map of the 1882 formation of Yellowstone
County from Custer and Gallatin Counties.
ü
1895 MT. Refers to Montana State published map.
ü
1899 NPR. Refers to
The Northern Pacific rail map and the Montana
state Map.
There are numerous
other maps published that show identical boundaries. The 109-degree Latitude mark in 1881 is the dividing
line between Big Horn
County (east) and Gallatin County
(west). In 1882 it marked Custer County (east) and Gallatin County
(west). When examining early records it may be necessary to refer to the county
boundaries to find your ancestor. All of the land legal identification in Montana is referenced to
the Baseline and Montana Meridian guide. County information that is
superimposed by the General Land Office on those records refers to the present
day boundaries, not the earlier ones. Continuously, throughout its existence, Yellowstone County boundaries have been changing. A
sample listing of the land area follows: [source
Polk County Directories]
Reported Year - Sample
|
Land Area ~ Square Miles
|
1892
|
Just Under 6,000
|
1912
|
3300
|
1914
|
2232
|
1916
|
2232
|
1918
|
2232
|
1925
|
2232
|
1929
|
2708
|
1930
|
2708
|
1935
|
2607
|
1937
|
2607
|
1954
|
2607
|
1977
|
2635
|
1990 to Present
|
2635 (Plus 31sq. miles
of Water area)
|
Yellowstone County Beginnings
After the county
was established, the businessmen looked for various ways to gain more land.
Initially it was the railroad construction to Red Lodge that offered an
“excuse” to try and get the panhandle area of Park
County added to Yellowstone’s.
Red Lodge was in Park county, and the center for the coal mining district. Park County
fought the measure based on the fact that their mill levy was lower than Yellowstone’s and that a strip of Crow Reservation
land existed between the two counties. The annexation was defeated.
On February 26, 1883. Yellowstone County was created. James Ferguson, the
first sheriff of Yellowstone County, was also a grocer during the early
“tent town” days of Billings.
He became a lobbyist for the segregation of a new county from Custer County.
Jim “persuaded” the Custer
County representative,
Cox, to release his Democratic hold on the votes that were preventing the
measure from proceeding. The measure to create a new county was then approved,
and Jim got the nod to for a Democratic nomination. He then organized a split
in the party that caused the Democrats to lose control in Helena. As a result of the damage inflicted
to the party, he “had” to leave Montana. He first went to Idaho,
but failed to become a politician, and drifted on to Washington where he ended up being a
railroad man. During the Civil War he enlisted in the Union Army, and served
creditably for the country.
In 1890 there were
only 2,065 people (1,242 males) in the county, and this didn’t look good.
The county had about 3,420 acres of land. In 1891 there was an attempt to
change the boundary lines and enlarge the land holdings. This happed through Red Lodge
& Park County.
Red Lodge citizens requested that a new county be created for the. This failed
and they then asked that they be annexed to Yellowstone.
A bill to do just that was introduced to the legislature, but before it could
be acted upon a new treaty with the Crow Nation was created, and this action
stopped all annexation.
On March 3rd,
1891, Congress approved the Crow Indian Treaty that was made on December 8,
1890. This opened for settlement part of the Crow Reservation lying west of the
divide between Pryor Creek and Clark’s
Fork. After this bill was ratified by Congress only two days remained before it
would be required that the Montana Legislature adjourn. A bill was immediately
introduced in the senate dividing the Indian land between Yellowstone and Park Counties.
Most of the land went to Yellowstone
County. The measure was
passed the same day with a vote of 10 to 4. The bill was sent to the house, and
they amended I on March 4th by giving the greater portion of land to
Park County. The dividing line was run due
south from the junction of the Yellowstone
River with the west boundary line of Park County
to the Wyoming
border. A motion to stop the action was introduced, but lost out. The bill
passed and was forwarded to the senate. They refused the amendment, and asked
the house to recede. They wouldn’t, and the bill itself was lost.
Earlier, in the legislature meeting of 1885, they passed an act
“providing that part of the Crow Lands lying west of the Big Horn River should become part of the Yellowstone County
when it was opened for settlement.” By having the 1891 legislature
stalemate the bill to separate the Crow Reservation into two parcels,
automatically placed all of these lands into Yellowstone County.
In 1892 President Harrison proclaimed that 1,800,000 acres of the reservation lands were opened for
settlement, it became attached to Yellowstone
County. This gave the
county a total acreage of 3,988,000 (6,232 square miles.) In addition, over
one-half of the land was on the south side of the Yellowstone River.
In 1892, during the next legislature meeting, an attempt was made to form
a new county [Sweetgrass] from these lands. The attempt failed, and Yellowstone County held onto the land mass until
1895, when it lost all of its gains from the 1891 fiasco.
1893 was considered “hard times” for Montana residents. Prices fell, but the
banking industry held firm. A railroad line extending from Sheridan,
routed through Huntley, and on to Billings
was established the following year. On October 4th, the first train
made the trip. Although business started to pick up, in 1895 Carbon and Sweetgrass Counties
were created from the land acquired by Yellowstone
through the 1865 legislature action. Creation of the new counties created a
small strip of land on Meagher County, and on March 5, 1895 this small piece was
given to Yellowstone
County. This land was
located from the divide between Pryor Creek and Clark’s Fork and the Carbon County
line.
In 1897 on March 5th, all of the Crow reservation land in Montana was made part of Yellowstone County.
This act changed the land size, but not the tax base; therefore it went
un-noticed by most people. Later, when these lands were opened up for
settlement, conditions changed. [The Crow land extended from the mid-channel of
the Big Horn
River, its south boundary, and the Yellowstone River.]
In 1900 Yellowstone
County had about the same
boundary area as in 1890. In 1904 Congress created an act that provided for the
purchase of 1,053,000 acres of Crow Reservation land….
“Beginning at the northeast corner of said
Crow reservation thence running due south to a point lying due east of the
northeast corner of the Fort Custer military reservation; thence running due
west to the northwest corner of said Fort Custer military reservation; thence
due south to the southwest corner of said Fort Custer military reservation;
thence due west to the intersection of the line between sections 10 and 11,
township 2 south, range 28 east of the principal meridian of Montana; thence
due north to the intersection of the Montana Baseline; thence due west to the
intersection of the western boundary of the Crow reservation; thence in a
northeast direction following the present boundary of the reservation to the
point of beginning.”
In 1905 it was reported [April 1905 – Billings Gazette] that the
increase in sheep raising has had an effect on the cattle losses. It was a
former practice to raise sheep on the open ranges for both winter and summer
times. The winters were hard on the sheep, and losses were heavy. This practice
changed, and the sheep were placed on open ranges during summer months, and wintered
in alfalfa pastures during cold weather. Billings City
alone wintered about 250,000 head.
In 1906 Congress opened the land for settlement, and they then became an
official part of the county. In 1907 Senator Annin called for the creation of Roosevelt County,
with the land to come from Yellowstone. The
bill failed to pass.
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