Broadus

1900

Broadus post office established, named after the Broaddus family.

1919

Powder River County formed. Frank Kelsey, Moorhead rancher and Custer County state senator, introduced the bill drawn up by A.W. Heidel, Helena attorney, to create Powder River County from the southern half of Custer County.

1920

Broadus named county seat. Margaret Trautman donated 80 acres for the townsite. When the town's streets were made, they were built wide enough for a horse-drawn carriage to turn around.

1939

Works Progress Administration (WPA) expands courthouse.

"One of my most vivid memories is plodding through the gumbo mud to the courthouse in wet weather."

—Winona Lewis Bryan, first County Superintendent of Schools

"After school, my grandmother always asked me to go get her a cold drink of water from the well on the courthouse square. I'd take a little lard pail, climb over the rock wall and get her water."

—I.D. Edwards

Erected by Montana State University, Powder River Extension.

Don't fence me in,

Gimme land, lots'land

Stretching miles across the West.

Don't fence me in,

Let me ride where it's wide

And that's how I like it best.

I want to see the stars,

I want to feel the breeze,

I want to smell the sage

And hear those cottonwood trees.

Just turn me loose,

Let me straddle my old saddle Where the Rocky Mountains rise.

On my cayuse,

I'll go siftin', I'll go driftin'

Underneath those Western skies.

I gotta get where the West commences,

I can't stand hobbles;

I can't stand fences.

Don't fence me in.

Montana's big sky has inspired many poets. The verses above were penned by Bob Fletcher, father of the state's historical highway markers, which were first erected in the 1930s. In 1934, Cole Porter bought this poem from Fletcher, and it became one of Porter's greatest hits. It was not until 1954 that Fletcher got credit for composing the famous lyrics that inspired the hit song, "Don't Fence Me In."

Erected by Montand

Department of Transportation.

1909

The Enlarged Homestead Act brings homesteaders to Eastern Montana.

1922

The Roundup celebrated the agricultural community in this fledgling town. Cars created the arena. Steer riding, bull-dogging, bareback riding, saddle horse racing, honyoker races, foot races, moving picture shows, boxing and airplane rides entertained the crowd.

"Dust boiled up and the horses were off... The whole town turned out to get their first glimpse of a real airplane!"

Echoing Footsteps Powder River County 1967

"Do you remember those old rodeos down on Trautman Flats?"

—Echoing Footsteps Powder River County 1967

Erected by Montana State University, Powder River Extension.

Fur trappers came upriver in the wake of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1806. These visitors left behind them tall tales of their adventures and a few trading posts scattered along the Yellowstone River. Southeastern Montana was Indian and buffalo country until the late nineteenth century. In March 1876, six companies of cavalry under the command of Colonel Joseph Reynolds attacked the village of famed Northern Cheyenne leader Two Moons about 36 miles south of here. During the day-long battle, soldiers captured the Cheyenne pony herd and burned the tepees, many of which were filled with ammunition. Later in the day, the Indians counterattacked, recaptured their horses, and forced the soldiers to retreat. Two warriors and four soldiers were killed in the battle. The skirmish strengthened the alliance between the Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne. It was one of the first battles in the Great Sioux War.

By the early 1880s, the buffalo had disappeared and the Indian Wars were a memory. The grasslands of southeastern Montana, drew the Texas-based Niobrara Cattle Company to the area. Within a generation, though, homesteaders' plows and barbed wire replaced the open range and high-heeled boots of the cowboys.

Erected by Montand Department of Transportation.

About 65 million years ago, the Western Interior Seaway receded as the Rocky Mountains rose, pushing the shoreline further east. Great rivers meandered through the coastal plain in a warm and humid climate, depositing sediment which would later become known as the Hell Creek Formation. The tan sandstones, siltstones, and mudstones are common throughout eastern Montana, but can be best seen in road cuts along the highway, the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge, and in Makoshika State Park. Dinosaur fossils are frequently found in the Hell Creek Formation and include Triceratops, an immense hadrosaur called Edmontosaurus, the thick-skulled Pachycephaosaurus, the armored Ankylosaurus, and the awesome Tyrannosaurus rex to name just a few. The boundary between late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation and the more recent Tertiary Fort Union Formation provides evidence that a gigantic meteorite or asteroid struck the Earth about 65 million years ago. But it is not known if that event caused the extinction of the dinosaurs or just hastened their journey to oblivion. Fossils excavated and studied in Montana from the Hell

Creek Formation have added immeasurably to our knowledge about the dinosaurs and their lives.

Erected by Montand Department of Transportation.

From its source in central Wyoming to its union with the Yellowstone River, the Powder River is 250 miles long, "a mile wide and an inch deep; to thick to drink and to thin to plow." During World War I, Montana's 91st Division gained national notoriety for the river with its war cry of "Powder River let'er buck!" The origin of the river's name, however, is obscure.

In July 1806, Captain William Clark christened it the "Red Stone River" Later renamed the Powder River, historians suppose it took its name from the dark gunpowder-colored soil and sand along its banks. But army scout William Drannan maintained that the river was inadvertently named by Vierres Roubidoux, a French guide, who shouted "Cache la Powder!" (Hide the Powder!) when a group of soldiers he was escorting was attacked by Indians.

Located in the center of Powder River Country, Broadus was once situated 20 miles upstream on the Powder River in 1900. Named for a pioneer family, Broadus was relocated to this site at the beginning of the Homestead Boom in 1907. The community's strategic location at the junction of two important highways made Broadus an important trade center despite its great distance from any railroads. Designated the county seat of the newly created Powder River County in 1919, Broadus was once described as one of the "Biggest Little Towns in the West."

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.