The Beaverslide

Patented in 1910 in the Big Hole Valley, this device stacks hay for outside storage in a wind-proof loaf-shaped stack that could rise 30 feet high and contain up to 20 tons of hay. Horse-drawn buckrakes pushed cut hay to the beaver slide. A steel cable or heavy rope, tethered to horses, fed through a pulley to raise the hay basket on the stacker, dropping the hay onto a stack. This stacker decreased the time it took to build a haystack.

Erected by Montana History Foundation & Gallatin Canyon Women's Club.