Bridger

In 1863, John Bozeman and John Jacobs blazed a new trail through the buffalo rich Powder River Country to the southwest Montana mining camps. The Bozeman Trail, however, could be deadly for the men and women who traveled it. The Lakota and Northern Cheyenne Indians hotly defended their land, the last great hunting grounds the northern plains. By 1864, travelers ran the risk of being attacked and killed on the Bozeman Trail.

That year, famed mountain man Jim Bridger established a new trail, the Bridger Cut-Off, through the arid Bighorn Basin to the Yellowstone River where it intersected the Bozeman Trail. Bridger's trail was safer than the Bozeman Trail, but much tougher to navigate. Plentiful water and wood, didn't make up for scarcity of grass for the oxen, horses, and cattle here, following the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River north to the confluence of Rock Creek where it turned northwesterly, reaching the Yellowstone near present Big Timber.

Despite the advantage of being 100 miles shorter than the Bozeman Trail and the avoidance of trouble with the Indians, Bridger's Cut-Off never caught on with travelers.

In all, only 129 wagons and maybe 450 people navigated the trail in 1864.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

Jim Bridger arrived in Montana in 1822 as a member of a Rocky Mountain Fur Co. brigade. For years he had no more permanent home than a poker chip. He roamed the entire Rocky Mountain region and often came through this part of the country. A keen observer, a natural geographer and with years of experience amongst the Indians, he became invaluable as a guide and scout for wagon trains and Federal troops following the opening of the Oregon Trail.

He shares honors with John Colter for first discoveries in the Yellowstone Park country. He was prone to elaborate a trifle for the benefit of pilgrims and it was Jim who embroidered his story of the petrified forest by asserting that he had seen “a peetrified bird sitting on a petrified tree singing a peetrified song.”

The Clark Fork of the Yellowstone was named for Capt. Wm. Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Chief Joseph led his band of Nez Perce Indians down this river when he made his famous retreat in the summer of 1877.

Organization of the Bridger Methodist Episcopal Church and the Ladies Aid took place in 1899, pre-dating by one year the founding of the town itself. As in other small Montana communities, itinerant ministers like the Reverend John G. Clark served the early congregation. Services were conducted in the dining room of the Barlow Hotel or in the hall above Hiram Haskin’s hardware store. Land for the church was donated when the townsite of Bridger was platted in 1900, but ground-breaking did not take place until March of 1905. The Ladies Aid raised funds for the building by giving dinners and selling handmade quilts, clothing, and other items. Under the direction of Reverend Clark, stonemason Eric Forsman prepared the foundation, and construction began with donated materials and labor. By December the steeple was ready to receive its 700-pound bell. The community-built Methodist Episcopal Church was dedicated on May 27, 1906, the first in the Clarks Fork Valley. The Bridger landmark is a fine example of Methodist Church design, typified by the L-shaped plan, corner bell tower, and simplified Gothic windows. Fretwork in the open bell tower, decorative shingles, and stained glass enrich the basic plan. The adjacent gable- roofed parsonage, now detached from this property, was finished in 1914. Three congregations merged in 1939 to form the Methodist Church, and in 1949 an addition was completed to accommodate growing membership. Renamed the United Methodist Church in 1968, the church today represents the valley’s early religious development, and its continued use is a fitting tribute to the pioneer congregation responsible for its construction.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

known as the Pillsbury House

Built 1907 has been placed on the

National Register Of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior

The Pryor Mountains to the east cover roughly 300,000 acres. Once entirely Crow Indian territory, now only the north end of the range is on the Crow Reservation. The south end is in the Custer National Forest. The range is bound on the east by Bighorn Reservoir and on the south by the Pryor Mountain National Wild Horse Range. The mountains came by their name indirectly for Pryor Creek, which Captain William Clark named for Lewis and Clark Expedition member Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor.

The Pryors hold many intriguing features, including ice caves, sinks, and caverns, and archeological finds, such as Clovis Points indicating human occupation as long ago as 10,000 years ago. In the south end of the range, remains of log and frame houses and barns attest to the homesteads staked after passage of the Forest Homestead Act in 1906. Most of the settlers come from this area. Though they cultivated some crops, for many homesteading was a pretense for mountain grazing on adjacent forest and reservation ranges. One forest ranger observed that some claimants had applied for places where it would be impossible to winter over, though to hear them talk "one would think that Pryor Mountain contained the biggest part of the Banana Belt and that pineapples grew wild."

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

The Pryor Mountains are located on the horizon to the southeast. The prominent cliffs and dip slopes are Madison Limestone, which was deposited in shallow seas over 300 million years ago. Along the margins of the mountains, younger tan-colored Tensleep sandstone and brick-red Chugwater Formation crop out. Canyons in the range expose older rocks, including Precambrian basement rock more than two billion yeas old. Crustal blocks that form the Pryor Mountains were uplifted along reverse faults about 65-55 million years ago.

Over millions of years, water dissolved deep caves in the limestone. Some open vertically to the surface, allowing cold dense air to sink down into the cave. The rocks acts as an insulator, trapping the dense air and moisture underground, resulting in spectacular ice caves, such as Big Ice Cave. Other caves in the mountains have fantastic formations of stalagmites and stalactites.

About 115 million years ago, a 10-foot long dinosaur with razor-sharp claws and teeth and retractable slashing talons on its hind feet hunted in pacts in this area. Lightly-built, agile and quick, this intelligent carnivore could run at speeds up to 25 miles per hour and was the perfect killing machine of its time. In 1964 on a wind-swept hill in the badlands near here, Yale professor John Ostrom discovered the fossil remains of just such a creature. Called Deinonychus ("Terrible Claw"), the discovery of this animal revolutionized the study of paleontology and changed our understanding of dinosaurs. Because of its unique skeletal structure, Deinonychus had more in common with birds that it did reptiles. The great amount of energy needed for it to survive has also led some to believe that it was warm-blooded rather than cold-blooded like its reptilian cousins. Because of Deinonychus, paleontologists now consider dinosaurs to have been agile, smart, and social animals rather than slow-moving and dull-witted. Fortunately for us, Deinonychus died out millions of yeas ago and no longer scour these hills for prey.

Geo-Facts:

• The Pryor Mountains are named for Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expediton (1804-1806).

• The Chugwater Formation is named for the town in Wyoming and is easily recognizable by it brick-red color, which is caused by the oxidation of iron minerals in the rock.

• The Velociraptos in the Jurassic Park movies are a close relative of Deinonychus.

Geo-Activity:

• Imagine you are back in time when Deinonychus hunted in packs in this area. Can you spot any places where you might be able to hide? This dinosaur could run as speeds up to 25 miles per hour. What are some animals that are alive today that can run this fast?