Early Horse History

By editor

Miles City, Custer County, Montana

The arrival of the horse in North America was not a simple matter of an animal’s return; it was a moment that altered the lives of many peoples across the Great Plains. Though horses originally evolved on this continent millions of years ago, they disappeared about 10,000 years ago, only to be reintroduced by Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century. Hernán Cortés and his men brought horses to Mexico in 1519, and from there, these animals spread northward with the movements of tribes, traders, and settlers. By the eighteenth century, the horse had become indispensable to the peoples of the northern plains--among them the Apsáalooke (Crow), Teton Lakota, Tsitsistas (Cheyenne), and Numʉnʉʉ (Comanche).

The horse did not simply add speed or convenience; it redefined the very structure of life. The Crow, whose homeland included the valleys of the Yellowstone and Tongue Rivers near what is now Miles City, became renowned horse breeders and warriors. Their oral histories speak of how the horse allowed them to follow the migratory buffalo herds with greater efficiency and to defend their territory against rival tribes. The Lakota Sioux, moving westward onto the plains during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, developed a warrior culture centered on horsemanship. The Cheyenne adapted quickly to mounted hunting, while the Comanche, originally from the southern plains, became among the most skilled horsemen in all of North America.

The horse enabled the tribes to conduct long-distance travel, to pursue buffalo herds across vast distances, and to engage in raids that were both tactical and symbolic. The horse was, in many ways, the lifeblood of the plains. As Chief White Bull of the Lakota once said in recounting his people’s relationship to the horse, "The horse was not just an animal to us; it was a means to live, to fight, and to be free." This statement reflects a deep, practical understanding, grounded in the realities of survival and sovereignty.

By the late nineteenth century, the landscape near the Tongue River had become a center for horse breeding and sales. Miles City, founded in 1876 as a military and trading post near the confluence of the Tongue and Yellowstone Rivers, grew alongside the horse industry. Local ranchers and stockmen bred horses for various purposes: cow ponies for cattle work, saddle horses for riding, cavalry mounts for the army, carriage horses for transport, draft animals for farming and freight, and even race and polo ponies. The diversity of horses bred here reflected the needs of a region still shaping its economy and identity.

In 1883, the Custer County Assessor estimated that the Rosebud and Tongue River Valleys alone carried 300,000 head of cattle and 12,000 horses. This large equine population supported the growing livestock industry and the military’s needs. An article from the March 7, 1885, issue of the Miles City Stockgrowers Journal observed, "With the demand from cattlemen for cow ponies, Miles City is likely to become quite a horse market." This prediction came true as the town's stockyards expanded.

By 1889, the Green Mountain Livestock Company was running 2,250 horses on rangeland near Forsyth, a testament to the scale of horse operations in the region. In 1890, the Horse Sales and Fair Association held its first auctions of local stock, further formalizing the industry. A key figure in this development was A.B. Clark, a local stockman who by the mid-1890s moved the horse yards closer to the Tongue River. Clark oversaw the sales of hundreds of thousands of Montana horses between 1895 and 1907, helping Miles City earn the reputation as the largest horse-sales center in the world.

The horses bred and sold here were not only crucial to local ranchers but also played important roles in international conflicts. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, and later the Boer War from 1899 to 1902, horses from Miles City were shipped overseas as cavalry mounts and draft animals. The demand for horses during these conflicts was immense, and Montana’s herds provided a significant portion of the animals used by the United States and its allies.

World War I marked the peak of this horse trade. Between 1914 and 1918, the military’s need for horses surged. In June 1916, the stockyards in Miles City sold four thousand horses at auction over just four days. An advertisement in the June 10, 1916, issue of the Miles City Star proclaimed, "All grades, types, and kinds. 2,000 War Horse--English, French, and Italian specifications. Large Draft Mares in foal; others with colts by side. Large, medium, and small-sized range horses and mares of all descriptions, with lots of fat and quality." The U.S. government alone spent an estimated $20 million in Miles City for horses during the war, and the Allies reportedly matched that figure.

At the heart of this effort was Fort Keogh, established in 1876 near the Tongue River. From 1910 to 1918, the fort's Cavalry Remount Depot earned the nickname "Uncle Sam’s largest horse ranch." Over 100,000 horses were processed there as replacement stock for the army. This facility symbolized the close relationship between the military and the region’s horse industry. Yet, as mechanized vehicles became more reliable and widespread, the role of the horse in warfare diminished. Fort Keogh’s remount depot closed in 1922, marking the end of an era.

The story of the horse in Montana is inseparable from the stories of the people who lived here--the Native nations whose cultures were transformed by the animal, the settlers and ranchers who built their livelihoods around it, and the soldiers who rode it into battle. The horse shaped the economy, the conflicts, and the very geography of the plains. As the Teton Lakota leader Sitting Bull once reflected on the changes brought by horses and settlers alike, "Our lives are like the rivers that run through this land--sometimes swift, sometimes slow, but always moving forward."

In the valleys and prairies around Miles City, where the Tongue River winds northeast into the Yellowstone, the horse’s imprint remains. It was the vehicle of transformation, enabling both survival and change in a land that continues to witness the blending of histories and peoples.

See also

• Early Horse History at Miles City, Custer County
• Thunder Horses at Three Forks, Gallatin County
• Natural Travel Corridor at Dillon, Beaverhead County