E. H. Johnson, state legislator and Miles City’s first mayor, built this impressive modified Queen Anne style home in 1887. Attributed to Miles City architect Byron Vreeland, the irregular plan originally featured an elaborate arched porch and an elliptical bay capped by a conical roof. Rancher William Harmon, the home’s second owner, built the carriage house in 1891. Third owner Senator Kenneth McLean, following current architectural trends, added Neo-classical details and a wraparound veranda between 1903 and 1910. Ella M. and David G. Rivenes purchased the property in 1962.

High maintenance steam engines required railroads to locate large repair shops every two hundred miles. After the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad chose Miles City for a division point in 1907, the town grew rapidly. Population increased to 4,697 in 1910, a 140 percent increase over the 1900 population of 1,938. With an influx of well-paid railroad workers and new businesses, residential construction boomed, and a comfortable subdivision emerged on Main. Built between 1908 and 1912, possibly for Jasper Brenizer, the home’s first known resident, this two-story house combines Queen Anne and Colonial Revival elements. Its cross-gable plan, leaded- glass windows, and fish scale shingles are associated with the Queen Anne style; the enclosed cornice returns, overall simplicity, and classical porch supports reflect Colonial Revival. The current wraparound porch replaced the original full-length front porch between 1916 and 1928. Milwaukee Road conductor Newman Fuller lived here in 1913. Promoted to trainmaster by 1920, Newman resided here with his wife Ellen, their daughter Margaret, and boarder Sarah Riley, who supported herself as a dressmaker.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Nannie Alderson came to Montana from Kansas with her husband Walt in 1883. They operated a cattle ranch for a decade but moved to Miles City in 1893 so their children could attend school. In 1895, Walt died from head injuries after he was kicked by a horse. Left with four children between the ages of two and eleven, Nannie built this home for her family. She scraped by, selling home-baked bread and milk from the family’s cow and catering meals. She also took in boarders. Nannie moved the family to Birney in 1902. Later in her life, Nannie earned wide acclaim for her pioneer reminiscence, A Bride Goes West, published in 1942. Her quaint wood-frame home retains its Greek Revival style footprint, once common in Miles City, but rarely preserved. Changes, including alteration of the front porch and the addition of side entry canopies in the 1910s, add an interesting layer. These reflect changing tastes and the growing popularity of the bungalow style in the early twentieth century.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Real estate speculation abounded in the East Main district when carpenter Ernest Anderson built this lovely one- and-a-half-story bungalow in 1916. Its large front porch, supported by heavy, tapered columns, and its low- pitched roofs with overhanging eaves and triangular braces clearly mark this house as a Craftsman style bungalow, one of the most fashionable house styles during this period. Anderson probably never intended this house for his own home; rather, he saw it as an investment and an advertisement of his carpentering skills. From 1918 to 1928 the bungalow was used as rental property. Its tenants included Charles D. Jones, general manager of the Yellowstone Lumber Company. Some time before 1928, when it was sold to Harmon Bright, then vice president of First National Bank, and his wife Mary, the bungalow’s characteristic open front and side porches,

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

This gracious, historic residential neighborhood illustrates Miles City's prosperity as it evolved from a frontier town into the livestock, transportation, commercial, and governmental hub of eastern Montana. Businessmen and community leaders built most of these homes between 1880 and 1890 and again from 1900 to 1915— prosperous years sparked by the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1881 and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad in 1908. The neighborhood took shape before automobiles became common. Carriage houses reflect construction during a pre-car era and distinguish it from other neighborhoods. Residents often sought design assistance from architects, including Charles S. Haire, David and Brynjulf Rivenes, and Byron Vreeland. Owners wanted stylish homes that conveyed a sense of culture, beauty, and community stability. Queen Anne towers, stained glass, spindlework, and shingles are common in many early structures. Later, more restrained symmetrical Colonial Revival and Renaissance elements, as well as Craftsman style features, were used. At the height of Montana's homestead boom in the teens, Miles City was bulging with people. Allied in style and origin, the homes of the Carriage House Historic District reflect the community pride and optimism present during one of Miles City's most confident periods of growth.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The transformation of Miles City in the early 1900s into the economic, social, and governmental center of the valley precipitated the decision to build a permanent city hall. Ed Arnold, tailor and businessman, became one of the motivating forces behind the project to erect the new facility. Arriving in Miles City in 1885, Arnold served as city treasurer for two terms and achieved the position of secretary in the Custer County building. Designed by Grover C. Pruett, one of Miles City’s most successful engineer/architects in the early twentieth century, this structure is Pruett’s greatest landmark in the city. The two-story concrete Renaissance Revival style building faced in Hebron brick is a good example of the new “academically correct” Renaissance styling and is a symbol of Miles City as a progressive and cosmopolitan town. The words “City Hall” are carved into the sandstone frieze above the portal as a permanent reminder of the building’s continued public service since 1914.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The steamer Far West carried Irish immigrant James Coleman to Fort Keogh in 1876. After working for the army sutler, Coleman moved into Miles City, where he managed a saloon frequented by army regulars. In 1882, he married his Irish bride, Margaret Golden. The couple had ten children. By 1912, Coleman owned his own saloon, the New Stand, had invested in a coal mine and ranchland, and had helped found the Miles City Chamber of Commerce. That year, the Colemans decided to build a new home, which reflected their rise in status. Fashion at the time dictated clean lines, a trend this elegant residence personifies. Its two-and-one-half stories, simple box shape, low-hipped roof, and large central dormer mark it as a foursquare. One of the most popular styles in America during the 1910s, foursquares offered a dignified home for a relatively economical price. Members of the Coleman family continued to live here into the 1950s. In later years, the porch was enclosed and the house was converted into apartments. In the 1990s, the long process of restoring the home began.

Erected by Montana Historical Society

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The I. Orschel and Brothers clothing firm first located on this site in 1878 in a small wood-frame building. Following a disastrous fire that leveled much of the block, local businessmen formed a syndicate to build this four-part commercial building designed by Byron Vreeland, Miles City’s first resident architect. Completed in the fall of 1885, John Carter’s Saloon (509), I. Orschel and Brothers Clothing Store (511), Miles and Strevell’s Hardware (513), and Basinski Brothers (515) were the original occupants. The combination of Romanesque, Gothic Revival, and Queen Anne style detailing carries Vreeland’s architectural signature. Although the parapets and towers that originally graced the roofline have long been removed, the brownstone windowsills, polychrome tile, soft brick, and cast iron columns survive. The Orschels’ landmark business catered to local cowboys at this location until 1940. The brothers let cowboys keep their trunks on the upper floor until they came to town to change clothes. Inside, the original tin ceiling remains intact.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Custer's first encounter with the Lakota occurred on August 4, 1873 near the confluence of themTongue River, At this time, the Seventh Cavalry was assigned to Colonel David Stanley's command to protect Northern Pacific railroad surveyors operating on the north side of the Yellowstone River.

The "Battle of Tongue River", was dubbed by the New York Herald at the time, was the first of several engagements between Custer's Seventh and the Lakota in August 1873. At the onset of the skirmish, Custer rode out in front of his two companies to determine the strength of the Indians. When he realized that large numbers of Lakota warriors were waiting in ambush in a grove of cottonwood, he ordered his column to take defensive positions in a dry channel of the river. Indians and troopers exchanged gunfire but casualties in the three-hour standoff were light.

Meanwhile, a few miles downriver, three men, including John Honsinger (some say Holzinger), the cavalry's civilian veterinarian, were caught by Indians away from Colonel Stanley's main body of soldiers and killed.

A little over a year later, a Hunkpapa warrior named Rain-in-the-Face was arrested at the Standing Rock Reservation after boasting about the 1873 killings. He was imprison at Fort Abraham Lincoln by Captain Tom Custer and interrogated by older brother George but escaped after a few months of captivity, supposedly vowing revenge against the Custer brothers.

One of the lurid stories in the aftermath of the Custer disaster named Rain-in-the-Face as the killer of Custer - probably a spurious claim connected to the events of 1873-74. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow even wrote a poem, "The Revenge of Rain-in-the Face" about a year after the battle. By this time, Rain-in-the-Face was already in Canada with Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa lodges, not to return until 1880. Rain-in-the-Face, about 70 years old, died at the Standing Rock Reservation in the fall of 1905.

Erected by Custer Circle Project 2017 and Waterworks Art Museum.

A sophisticated blend of Classical elements characterizes this intimately elegant residence that, despite its modest size, easily rivals the district’s grander “high style” homes. Built in 1907, the residence was then “out in the country,” its urbane design foreshadowing the district’s impending growth. Renowned Montana architect Charles S. Haire drew the plans for prominent local physician Dr. Francis Gray, who was a charter staff member of Holy Rosary Hospital and served as county coroner. A pedimented porch with simple Tuscan columns and paneled balustrade defines the Classical Revival style. Exquisite oak trim, windowseats, and a columned archway grace the well-appointed interior.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Dr. Robert G. Redd served as an army surgeon at Fort Keogh in the 1870s. Redd resigned in 1881 to assume a private practice. He served as county physician, coroner, and surgeon for the Northern Pacific Railroad as well as mayor from 1889 to 1900. He commissioned architect Byron Vreeland to design a two-story permanent building for his drug store. Henry C. Smith—mayor from 1911 to 1913—purchased the edifice in 1908 and contracted with city engineer Grover C. Pruett to remodel the façade in 1915. The marble and terra cotta Renaissance Revival style of the building was rare in Miles City and Smith used it to advertise the city’s cosmopolitan attributes in the early twentieth century. “1915” adorns a terra cotta rectangle above the windows and the entrance bears a polychrome mosaic tile floor arranged in the image of a pocket watch. Although remodeling obliterated the original façade, the original 1883 corbelling remains on the east side.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

By late 1880s breeders in the Miles City area produced cow ponies, saddle horses, cavalry mounts, carriage horses, draft animals for farming and freighting, some polo ponies, and race horses.

In 1883, the Custer County Assessor estimated that the Rosebud and Tongue River Valleys alone were carrying 300,000 cattle and 12,000 horses

March 7, 1885 from Miles City Stockgrowers Journal: "With the demand from cattlemen for cow ponies, Miles City is likely to become quite a horse market.

1889: The Green Mountain Livestock Company ran 2,250 horses on rangeland near Forsyth.

1890: The Horse Sales and Fair Association held its first auctions of local stock. By the mid-1890s, local stockman, A.B. Clark, moved the yards closer to the Tongue River. Between 1895 and 1907, Clark managed the sales of hundreds of thousands of Montana horses. Miles City gained a reputation as "The largest horse-sales center in the world" after providing mounts for the Spanish-American War (1898) and the Boer War (1899-1902).

1902: The Cross Brothers on Pumpkin Creek ran 3,000 horses.

WW I (1914-1918) - Miles City stockyard sales peaked during World War I. In June of 1916 they sold at auction four thousand horses in four days. June 10, 1916 Miles City Star ad: "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 spent an estimated $20 million in Miles city for stock during World War I, and the Allies reportedly matched that figure.

1910-1922: Fort Keogh Cavalry Remount Depot "The government hired over one hundred civilian horsemen to break an endless supply of Army-purchase mounts. Each day the fort's corrals offered up a rodeo. From 1910 to 1918, the Fort Keogh Remount Depot was called "Uncle Sam's largest horse ranch." It processed over 100,000 head of horses as replacement stock for the army. It closed in 1922 when motorized vehicles would likely replace the horse.

Wealthy Miles City residents looked to the undeveloped area east of the Northern Pacific tracks to build their homes in the early twentieth century. Among them were Ed and Doris Love who had this Prairie Style home constructed in 1916. Its bands of door height windows, wide overhanging eaves, low-pitched hipped roof, asymmetrical design, and overall horizontal emphasis reflect the influence of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, father of the Prairie style. According to the blueprints, St. Louis architect George L. Wageley designed this home; like many architects, Wageley produced standardized house plans (this was #187) that local contractors then adapted to specific sites. Interestingly, an advertisement in the March 1916 Ladies Home Journal featured a residence with a very similar design to this one. The Loves lived here until 1926 when they moved kitty-corner into Doris’s family home. Later owners made very few changes to the residence. The home’s interior still boasts its original built-ins, massive fireplace, hardwood floors, light fixtures, and beveled glass French doors.

Erected by Montana Historical

Society.

An eclectic blend of Romanesque, Gothic, and Queen Anne architectural styles, this 1886 church survives as designer Byron Vreeland’s most significant building in Montana. Vreeland blended these styles as his architectural signature in many of his structures. The church features a barrel-vaulted wood ceiling trimmed with California redwood, a large Gothic style stained glass rose window in the entry gable above the canopy, and decorative brick work in a mouse-toothed pattern along the end elevations. The only alteration has been the removal of the bell tower. The interior features a walnut altar created from the salvaged hardwood finish of a steamboat that wrecked on the Buffalo Rapids below town about 1880. The altar is a rare survivor of steamboat architecture in Montana, the principal component of the “Wooden City” phase of building between 1878 and the early 1880s in Miles City. As the only known church designed by Vreeland, the Episcopal Church has continuously served the city for over a century and remains a unique work.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Charter members George and Helen Miles bestowed this land on the church in 1882. Since that time the First Presbyterian Church has occupied this space. Church trustees met in 1911 to discuss the construction of a larger $30,000-$40,000 church. Pastor Reverend J. Forsythe Smith reasoned that a new house of worship would “provide better social advantages, better intellectual advantages, and better moral and spiritual advantages.” In addition to a larger worship space, the modern facility would include a Sunday school and choir room. Architect Brynjulf Rivenes designed the concrete and brick edifice on the same site as the old church, which was sold and relocated to face North Prairie. Western Granite and Marble Works of Miles City donated the cornerstone, laid on November 26, 1914. C. N. Strevell gifted the main stained glass window fronting Montana Avenue. The oak finished, 871-pipe Estry organ was specially designed to fit the organ chamber. Dedicated in 1917, this impressive Gothic Revival Style church conveys a sense of stability and permanence.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Following the defeat of General Custer and the Seventh Cavalry at Little High Horn on June 25, 1876, Congress appropriated $200,000 to establish two forts in Montana Territory. The U.S. Army selected one site along the Tongue River, a mile and a half from this location, fro a preliminary cantonment. Construction of the permanent post began at this site in the spring of 1877. Until the advent of the railroad in 1881, building supplies arrived by steamboat. The fort, named for Custer's adjutant general Captain Myles Keogh, was under the command of General Nelson Miles. Miles City, named for General Nelson Miles, grew with the fort to become the county seat of Custer County in 1879. The fort's construction exceeded the $200,000 allocation. It was the largest fort in the territory, housing about 1,500 soldiers and their families. Sixty buildings once surrounded the unique diamond-shaped parade grounds. The military withdrew its infantry troops in 1908 and in 1909 the fort became the Fort Keogh Remount Depot, the largest of the U.S. Army's three remount stations. Civilian cowboys and wranglers trained the horses according to military rules before shipping thousands of them worldwide, especially during World War I. In 1924, the army withdrew and transferred more than 55,000 acres of land to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Husbandry, for research purposes. Originally the U.S. Range Livestock Experiment Station, it is now the Fort Keogh Livestock & Range Research Laboratory, a USDA Agriculture Research facility.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

This American foursquare style home appears to have been designed by prominent architect Brynjulf Rivenes. Built between 1910 and 1914 for businessman George Foster, its compact simplicity is an elegant, individual statement of the prosperity Miles City enjoyed in the early twentieth century. The home features a blending of the newest Craftsman and Prairie styles then originating in Chicago and was included in Buchanan’s 1911 booster book, Seeing Miles City.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Born in Wisconsin, Al Furstnow settled permanently in Miles City in 1894 and became the major saddler in the northwest. In 1895, Furstnow commissioned Byron Vreeland to build this Queen Anne style home, unusual because the architect usually designed in brick. The previous year Furstnow opened Al Furstnow’s Saddle Shop on Main Street in a Vreeland-designed building. Credited with making the first flower hand-stamped saddles in Miles City for Britain’s Lord Sidney Paget, Furstnow outfitted Leigh Remington of Remington Arms and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show for their Paris exhibition. The bay window heads are embellished with carved medallions in a motif that is continued throughout the interior. The residence retains the original tall ceilings and detailing, including a fan-trimmed arch and four brass and stained-glass chandeliers, one being in the form of a British Crown. Remodeling in 1910 modernized the house with Craftsman details to reflect Miles City’s financial status during the homestead boom. The home remained in the Furstnow family until the late 1980s.

Erected by Montana Historical Society

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Cabinet and furniture makers also made caskets, and so the two businesses often went hand in hand. Furniture dealer James E. Graves purchased H. C. Plimpton’s long-established furniture and undertaking business in the 1920s. In 1929, Graves moved the mortuary end of his business to this newly constructed facility. Casper Strom, a prolific architect then new to the community, designed the striking Mission style building. Graves likely chose the style. Although unusual for Strom, it is one of his most successful accomplishments. The balanced façade features arches, porticos, curved parapets, and a decorative urn and pendants. These elements, reminiscent of a mission church, are visually appropriate for the building’s function. The combination funeral home and upstairs apartments also blends well with the character of the neighborhood. The spacious, formally landscaped lawn, then as now, adds to the residential ambience. The upstairs apartments accommodated nine households including the owners, their employees, and in 1930, county superintendent of schools Jessie McCoy. The business has changed hands several times since the 1930s, but the building retains its historic integrity and associated use.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The stylistic versatility of architect Brynjulf Rivenes is well demonstrated in this distinguished home built for Miles City businessman Harry J. Horton. The simple foursquare plan combines wide eaves, a low hipped roof, and massive brick pillars, characteristic of the Prairie and Craftsman styles, with Renaissance Revival style arched windows and pedimented porch. Elegant beveled glass windows draw attention to the home’s horizontal lines. Built in 1911 on land purchased from neighbor George Foster, the Horton’s splendid new residence appeared that same year in the booster brochure, Seeing Miles City.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

In the 1880, railroad company promotional campaigns lured farmers to Eastern Montana. They arrived with the idea of transforming the planes into rich fields of grain. However big wheat yields did not last long. The drought and dust storms of 1919 seared the fields, and in the 1920s farms began to disappear as rapidly as they had sprung up.

In subsequent years, vigorous measures were taken to aid agriculture and by the late 1940s, federal dam and irrigation projects opened many acres to cultivation. The open area before you was seeded to create wheatgrass and smooth brome after the flood in 1978. Alfalfa hay and corn were also raised here. Attempts to farm the island were eventually abandoned because of the unpredictable nature of the ever-changing river levels.

Erected by Montana State Parks.

You stand about 500 miles from where the Yellowstone's 670-mile journey begins from its headwater in Yellowstone National Park to the confluence with the Missouri River. The last of America's free flowing rivers, the Yellowstone drains 70,100 square miles of land, an area the size of North Dakota.

Floods are a natural part of the river ecosystem; they carve out new habitats, maintain biodiversity, and improve water quality. How can you tell this area has been flooded?

Look at the base of the cottonwood trees beyond this sign. Can you find where the bark has been peeled away? "Ice Scars" form as large ice jams break up, slamming ice chunks into trees.

Ice scars record a river's history. By looking at a tree's growth rings and its scarred surface, a pattern of flooding events can be pieced together. For example these scars were formed during a flood in 1978 and this information can be used to help determine soil movements overtime.

Erected by Montana State Parks.

A converted two-story house served as the county hospital in 1907, a year before the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad arrived in Miles City. With encouragement from the railroad, which needed a place to treat injured workers, the county decided to build a larger facility. The architectural firm of Link and Haire designed the thirty-five-bed hospital circa 1910. The building's trussed porticos reflect the era's popular Craftsman style. Its hipped roof and distinctive curvilinear parapet evoke the Mission style. Inspired by the Spanish missions, which were an important source of medical care in the early Southwest, the style was a popular choice for hospitals. Other Mission style hospital buildings include ones built in Helena and Missoula during the same era. The Presentation Sisters of Aberdeen, South Dakota, assumed management of the hospital shortly after its completion. Originally a teaching order, the Presentation Sisters entered nursing after a 1900 diphtheria epidemic, establishing hospitals in Aberdeen, Mitchell, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as well as in Miles City. As did other Presentation hospitals, Holy Rosary offered a nursing certificate within a year of its opening. The 1918 influenza epidemic increased support for the hospital, allowing the sisters, who had purchased the building from the county in 1919, to expand their operation. Link and Haire designed the compatible, flat-roofed annex. Built in 1922, it boasted modern medical and surgical units and increased the number of available beds to eighty-five. The Presentation Sisters managed the hospital through drought, depression, and war, before constructing a new hospital in 1948.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The New Deal’s National Recovery Administration provided funds for the construction of several significant buildings at the fort in the 1930s. These included a dairy barn, milk house, cattle sheds, and this large horse barn. Designed and built in 1934 by the U.S. Bureau of Animal Husbandry at a cost of more than $13,000, the sprawling frame building featured a clerestory roof with overhead storage loft, seven box stalls, and twenty-five double-tie stalls. The barn served the Morgan, Belgian, and Thoroughbred horse-breeding research program, which included studies on feeding, breeding, and reproduction. Early equine research at Fort Keogh helped develop successful semen collection procedures and modern artificial insemination techniques for horses. The horse research program ended in 1964. The barn has since accommodated beef cattle research programs focusing on reproductive physiology studies. Although the interior has undergone considerable renovation, it has always served as the Fort Keogh working cowboys’ headquarters. The first lights turned on in the early morning are almost always those in the “horse” barn as the cowboys arrive for work.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The Jackson Block’s spare façade bears witness to those watchwords of modern architecture, “form follows function.” The two-story building suggests ways that urban architectural trends were translated and adapted in small communities. Its main decoration derives from the pattern created by its windows; in this, the 1909 commercial block echoes the emphasis found in turn-of-the-century “Chicago-style” skyscrapers on “light, space, air, and strength” rather than ornamentation. Miles City architect Brynjulf Rivenes designed the surprisingly modern building for entrepreneur W. C. Jackson, a confectioner who owned a shop at 613 Main. With fellow Miles City businessman Ed Arnold, Jackson also invested in the next-door Arnold Block. Built in 1913, it matched the lines of the Jackson Block, and doorways connected the buildings on the second floor. From Jackson Block storefronts merchants sold pianos, office equipment, clothing, and dry goods. Second-floor tenants included Brynjulf Rivenes and the Montana Institute, a private school that offered both day and night classes in automobile engineering, bookkeeping, stenography, and penmanship.

Erected by

Montana Historical Society.

Complex rooflines and decorative details define this wood-frame residence. Particularly noteworthy are the ornamental bargeboards fastened to the roofline and the unique bull’s-eye pattern decorating the front gable. Other details include windows decorated by wooden sashes (muntins) laid in a diamond pattern and fish scale shingles in the porch roof pediment. The elegant residence was built between 1894 and 1904, possibly by John and Anna Gibb, who purchased the lot in 1903 from sheepman J. W. Pope. The Gibbs arrived in Miles City in 1882. A lawyer, coal merchant, insurance agent, and real estate and livestock salesman, John Gibbs also served as Custer County sheriff and Justice of the Peace. Originally, the deed to the home was in Anna’s name. Under certain circumstances, married women’s property was protected from their husbands’ creditors, and families used this fact to protect their assets. Anna transferred the title to John in 1909, and in 1915, they hired builder Mel Paddock to construct an addition on the residence’s east side. The couple remained in residence in 1920. John died at age seventy-seven in 1921; Anna died two years later.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Sometimes called “labor’s aristocracy,” locomotive engineers were the highest paid workers on the railroad. That fact gave William Kelly, an engineer for the Milwaukee Road, the means to purchase this one-story home. In 1920 he lived here with his wife, Nellie, their three-year-old son, and his wife’s sister. Building contractor Carl Anderson constructed the residence in 1917; he almost certainly took the design from a pattern book. These books of architectural plans allowed local builders to bring the latest fashions to relatively isolated communities like Miles City. A classic Craftsman style bungalow, the Kelly residence features a low-pitched roof; exposed rafter tails; wide, overhanging eaves; and a full-length front porch (now enclosed). Japanese architecture inspired its distinctive roofline. Japan widely promoted its art and architecture through the 1893 Columbian Exposition and the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Architects responded, incorporating Japanese elements into their residential designs. Anderson must have liked the exotic flavor of the flared eaves and molded gable peaks; he built several other bungalows in Miles City that sported similar “pagoda-style” roofs.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

This popular gathering place, one of Miles City’s oldest established businesses, has been proclaimed by connoisseurs the perfect bar. Originally a saloon (1893), then a fine saddlery (1900-1907), businessman James Kenney purchased the property in 1908 to house his Montana Saloon. Architect Brynjulf Rivenes designed the 1913 Renaissance Revival style façade and the double structure was renamed the Kenney Block. The spacious saloon, occupying half the ground-floor space, features one of the state’s best preserved historic interiors. The original pressed tin ceiling, three-pillared back bar, mosaic floor tiles, paddle fans, leather booths, wooden cooler, and leaded glass (with vintage bullet hole) invite a journey into Montana’s colorful past.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The end of the 1880s witnessed development of Miles City’s north side, with expensive homes being built on generous tracts of land. As land became scarce, parcels were carved from spacious lawns and working families became the neighbors of prominent residents. This charming Queen Anne style cottage, built on land once part of the property to the north, illustrates the trend. Constructed circa 1901, the home also foreshadows changing architectural tastes. Its symmetry reflects the newer Colonial Revival style while wide eaves suggest the Prairie style. Lovely stained glass transoms—a classic Queen Anne element—are, however, a dominant feature. The Craftsman style garage, constructed a little later to replace a barn, further chronicles neighborhood changes as transportation shifted from horse to automobile. Maud B. and Albert W. Kennie, later the longtime proprietors of the Olive Hotel, sold the home to rancher John S. Howe in 1904. The residence likely served as winter quarters so the Howe children could attend nearby Washington School.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Built for C. N. and Louise E. Lukes in 1911, the home is also known as the Ed Love House. Lukes was cashier of the Commercial State Bank and after the deaths of C. N. and Louise in 1929, ownership passed to their daughter, Doris Lukes Love, and her husband, Ed Love. Ed Love was a prominent businessman involved in nearly every aspect of Miles City life. From the Horse Sales Company to homestead real estate ventures and the Love Ford Motor Company, Love contributed to the city’s early development. However, several bankruptcies forced Love to put the home in his wife’s name. Doris retained ownership until her death in 1967. Their daughters, Margaret and Dorie Lou, sold the home in 1972 upon Love’s death. Typical of Main Street homes from 1910 to 1920, the house is a high style Craftsman type, with expensive departures from the norm that make the home stand out. Later remodeling efforts produced the enclosed porch.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Nestled amidst grand Queen Anne style houses is this early folk residence. The wooden home, constructed for Scottish immigrant John McAusland, appears on an 1883 bird’s-eye map of Miles City. A steeply pitched side-gable roof and a small dormer dominate the home’s façade. Originally, the dormer likely framed a door that led to the roof of a full-length front porch. The main part of the house is one-and-one-half stories; the kitchen is under a separate, one-story roof. This plan was common in the 1800s. Placing the kitchen under separate roof minimized fire risk. Bucket brigades could more easily reach a one-story roof, perhaps saving the rest of the house in case of a kitchen fire. The design also provided good ventilation, a boon during hot summers. McAusland arrived in Miles City from Deadwood, Dakota Territory, in 1882. In 1886, he was named postmaster, an appointment that reflects political connections. The plum patronage position paid $1,800 annually (equivalent to approximately $37,000 today). In later years, he worked as a clerk. He still lived here with his daughter in 1914.

In 1910, the Methodists hired a New York fundraising firm to raise funds for a new, larger church to replace the 1883 building. The growing congregation raised $14,000 and neighbor C. J. Wagenbreth donated the needed capital to complete the project, providing that no bell be hung in the belfry. Wagenbreth, not wanting to be awoken by bells, offered this deal, a steeple but no bells. Designed by the architectural firm of Woodruff and McGulpin in 1912, the Methodist Church stands as a visual reminder of the growth of Miles City and is an important neighborhood anchor. The building exhibits eclectic architectural influences, including Romanesque Revival windows, crenellated Gothic battlements, and early Christian or Tudor massing. Decorative round-arched Romanesque openings complement the bell tower and the design carries over to the main level windows. Each opening is highlighted with painted wood mullions and cusps that form a pair of arches with circular openings surrounded by brick. The only structure in Miles City designed by the firm, the design bears similarities to Brynjulf Rivenes’ Presbyterian Church on Main Street.

Erected by

Montana Historical Society.

The development of this elegant residential neighborhood reflects Miles City's second growth spurt in the early twentieth century. Although the population of this "cowtown" waned between 1890 and 1905, the advent of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad in 1908 and the 1909 Enlarged Homestead Act brought a resurgence of energy and an influx of new residents. The need for more housing generated a construction boom, lasting into the 1920s, which focused upon this heretofore unimproved area. Speculators, contractors, and homebuilders favored this quieter area where individualism could be expressed through architecture. Sweeping lawns and streets lined with elm, cottonwood, and green ash trees complement the cottages and foursquares in Craftsman, Prairie, Mission, and Classical Revival styles that unify this dignified neighborhood. Occasional Queen Anne, Dutch Colonial Revival, and other styles add a pleasing diversity. Plan books offered contractors and builders like Carl Anderson, O. M. Lanphear, and N. P. Nelson stylish and less expensive designs for potential homeowners. Even so, the district embraces many of the area's most architecturally significant homes, revealing the talents of such prominent architects as Charles S. Haire, Brynjulf Rivenes, and Casper Strom. It is this unique blending of styles and craftsmen that conveys the prosperity, optimism, and importance of Miles City during this period of expansion.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The Main Street historic district reveals Miles City’s major growth periods of 1882-1887, 1905-1920, and 1935- 1940. The first of these began with the arrival of the Northern Pacific in 1881, when imposing brick business blocks began to replace the wooden, false-front buildings of the town’s beginnings. Architect Byron Vreeland designed many of these buildings, favoring the late-Victorian period vertical lines. This boom ended with the “Hard Winter of 1886-1887" that decimated range cattle herds, ruining stockmen and the businesses that served them. The second growth period was spurred by the arrival of the Chicago, St. Paul and Milwaukee Railroad in 1907 and by the homestead boom of the region, for which Miles City served as social and business center. Local architects Brynjulf and David Rivenes, and Charles S. Haire and John G. Link of Helena, now shaped downtown Miles City’s appearance, with light-colored, formal, and symmetrical designs. This growth period ended with the 1920's agricultural depression. As the subsequent Great Depression began to lift, Main Street again began to see new construction, with Art Deco and Moderne enriching the mixture of architectural styles.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

In 1889 Evelyn Cameron (1886-1928) and husband, Ewen came from England and a privileged life to settle on various ranches near Terry, Montana. Evelyn documented life in eastern Montana both in her diaries and in her photographs. She photographed wild animals in their natural habitat and took photos of the landscape "of curious rock formations". Cameron photographed XIT cowboys roping and branding on the open range, the immigrants who laid track for the railroad which led to the influx of homesteaders. The newcomers hired her to photograph them at work and at play. An adept horsewoman, Cameron traveled miles on horseback packing her photographic equipment to photograph her subjects.

L.A. Huffman (1854-1931) arrived at Fort Keogh, Montana Territory in 1879 to work as the post photographer. He documented the close of the Indian campaigns following Custer's defeat and photographed the demise of the last great herds of American bison. Like Cameron, he photographed the impact of the building of the railroads. Cameron and Huffman both left a visual legacy in their photographs, capturing the relationship between the people, the animals and the landscape of eastern Montana as the country entered the 20th Century.

A low-pitched hipped roof, an asymmetrical open front porch with massive square porch supports, clean lines, and wide overhanging eaves mark the two-story Pope residence as a classic example of the Prairie style. Builder Thomas Burton clad the residence in a new product called “Flex-O-Tile,” a substance that resembled stucco, but was said to be “more lasting … practically indestructible—and fireproof.” Rancher G. B. Pope had the home built in 1917, and in 1920 his twenty-two-year-old son James, James’s twenty-three-year-old wife Helen, and James’s nineteen-year-old sister Frances all shared the residence. Banker and businessman Karl Johnson purchased the home from the Popes, but by 1930 he had sold it to John Johnson. An auto dealer and mechanic, Johnson strategically located his business on the Yellowstone Trail (the tourist route from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Yellowstone National Park). Not surprisingly, John was responsible for construction of the two-car garage behind the house. He and his wife Jacqueline lived here into the 1970s.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Breaking and training thousands of horses at Fort Keogh for the U.S. military and Allied French and British forces was crucial during World War I because of the military’s reliance on horse-drawn transportation. This two-story mess hall served employees and civilian cowboys who worked on the ranch. Constructed in 1920 near the end of Fort Keogh’s days as a Remount Station at a cost of $15,000, the wood-frame building featured many windows, high ceilings, hot water, steam heat, and electric lights. The main floor originally had five rooms and the basement three rooms. Records show that the basement housed the heating plant and storage for coal and the commissary. In 1924, ownership of the fort transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Husbandry, by an act of Congress. The mess hall was subsequently remodeled to serve as the USDA administrative headquarters. It served in that capacity until the construction of a new administrative building in 1970. Today, the building serves as a storage area and carpenter’s shop.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Nature, comfort, simplicity, honesty, and integrity were ideals incorporated into early-twentieth-century architecture. This Craftsman style bungalow is an exceptional expression of those ideals. Its compact floorplan and modestly adorned exterior facilitated comfort and ease while a spacious porch with solid supports was considered essential to provide a visual link between nature and the manmade environment. The home features an unusual cross-gabled roof and blending of Craftsman style details with Federal style door and window surrounds that are unique to Main Street. Constructed in 1913 for Dr. Curtis N. Rinehart, a prominent Miles City dentist, the home reflects the town’s second growth spurt and initial development of this residential neighborhood. Premier stone and cement mason Chris Arneberg laid the foundation and the sidewalk, where the first owner’s name, “C. N. Rinehart,” is incised at the front entry.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Determined to bring the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad to Miles City, land developer, cattleman, and banker Lorenzo Stacy organized his fellow businessmen to secure and donate property for the railroad’s right-of- way. In 1908, the Milwaukee Road arrived, rewarding their efforts; that same year Stacy hired local architect Brynjulf Rivenes to design an elegant, if isolated home on the eighty acres he owned at the edge of Miles City. Rivenes’ eclectic design featured such classical details as a monumental, two-story back porch (enclosed in the 1920s) and a balustraded front porch with a central one-story portico; its hipped dormers, wide eaves, and Spanish roof tiles reflected the newly fashionable Prairie style. The “commodious and attractive residence of modern architectural design” did not remain isolated for long. The Milwaukee Railroad delivered the predicted boom, and Stacy found a ready market for lots. By 1915, when Stacy sold land to the city for Wibaux Park, his house had been joined by many others, and East Main Street had become home to Miles City’s most fashionable residences.

Erected by

Montana Historical Society.

By the 1920s the horse industry was thriving in eastern Montana. "There were horses on every knoll and hill in sight." In the 1930s the Great Depression combined with drought drove people to abandon their farms and ranches, turning lose their stock on the public domain. Draft horses were no longer needed as mechanized equipment replaced them. As a result, there were more horses on the range than it could support. Only worth 2 cents a pound with no place to ship them, the horse market collapsed. Seeing opportunity on the open range, two brothers who ran a cannery in Illinois, moved to Miles City where they could set up their office headquarters on Main Street.

From 1928 to 1939 the Chappel Brothers Corporation (CBC) referred to by some as 'Corn Beef and Cabbage') used grazing land from Hardin to Fort Belknap and Miles City to Wolf Point. Their western ranch headquarters was at Sunday Creek on the Kinsey Road. In 1935 60,000 head of horses ranged over 10,000 square miles in eastern Montana.

The CBC outfit provided well-paying jobs to young men who knew horses and could endure long hours of hard and fast riding, rounding up free-range horses and driving the dry mares, old horses and those not fit to work to shipping points bound for the Illinois based packing plant. A day herd of horses gathered for slaughter numbered more than 5,000 head. Once shipped to the cannery, the horses became chicken feed, fertilizer, cat and dog food, and glue. The CBC expanded when the Russian government signed an agreement to receive tons of horse meat for food.

The cowboys who worked for the CBC earned $40 to $45 a month, premium wages during those days of hardship where the work was strenuous and dangerous. Hands were in the saddle from 3 a.m. until 8 or 9 p.m., seven days a week. After the CBC closed down, several former CBC hands were instrumental in raising stock and putting on most of the rodeos in eastern Montana. If you could say you rode for the CBC you wore a badge of honor.

The modern day horse found its way to the Americas on Spanish ships around 1680, landing on Mexican shores. Some horses escaped the Conquistadors, and Native Americans quickly discovered the utility of the horse. The Plains Indians became experts at horse riding. By the late 1700s, every tribe in the West was mounted. The Horse Nation formed spiritual bonds with the Native Peoples who embraced them as a brother in the spirit. The images of horses on ceremonial objects of Native Peoples signify beauty, energy, and healing powers, and represent this spiritual connection and deep respect for the horse.

The Tsehtsehstaheso (Cheyenne) ancestral land was in Ontario, Canada. They were forced out by the Assiniboine, Ojibwa and Cree who were already in possession of guns. The Cheyenne tribe eventually made their way to North Dakota. By ca. 1710 horses had first reached the Arapaho and then the Tsehtsehstaheso in 1730. The Tsehtsehstaheso were still in North Dakota at their village - the Biesterfeldt Site - during this time. Another tribe called the Sotae'eo'o were coming in from southern Canada and met the Tsehtsehstaheso. These two tribes were strangers to the others, but their language was identical with some slight differences in dialect. Together these two tribes moved onto the Great Plains and soon became a single tribe, "The Cheyenne Tribe." The Tsehtsehstaheso were already becoming a horse culture. In 1819 a small band of young Blackfeet men met with the Cheyenne on their way to steal horses from the Comanche in which the raid was successful. They returned to the Cheyenne camp and told great stories of the horse herds with the Southern Tribes. Immediately Cheyenne men gathered and headed south. They raided the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache tribes and drove the horse herds north.

The horse soon became a symbol of wealth for the Cheyenne, often giving away the horses as gifts. The more horses a man had, he was considered rich. In Battle, the Cheyenne would decorate the horses with charms and designs so that the rider would come out of battle victorious. The horse became a part of the Cheyenne and helped them win many battles with their enemies. In Cheyenne as we call the horse mo'éhno'ha: horse. This term derives from Algonquian 'elk' - wemaškoosw - plus a noun, the final meaning 'dog'-a'Oemwa. In Cheyenne, historical development of the final o'ha(m) extended to mean 'domesticated animal'. Apparently to the Cheyenne, a horse looked something like and elk, but the horse was a domesticated animal and so we might say that the literal meaning (at a late stage of etymology) for mo'éhno'ha is '\domesticated elk'.

Christian Barthelmess, Fort Keogh Post Photographer

Christian Barthelmess (1854-1906) was a soldier, musician, and photographer. Barthelmess developed a keen interest in the customs and lifestyle of the Indians living on the Western Frontier. He documented Native Americans at many of the Western posts where he took hundreds of photographs, some of them commissioned by the government. In 1888 he was stationed at Fort Keogh, Montana and was the post photographed, continuing with the job after his retirement in 1903 and until his death in 1906. Although he has a studio at Fort Keogh, most of his photographs were framed with his subjects in their natural environment. This was unusual for that time, and it made Barthelmess one of the most important chroniclers of the way people and life looked along the Frontier in the last quarter of the 19th Century. Today his pictures are an important part of collections at the National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution, the Montana Historical Society and the Range Riders Museum in Miles City, Montana. The Range Riders Museum was established by his son and was run for many years by his grandson, Bob Bartheless. As of 2020 the museum is still in the family, operated by his great-granddaughter,

Bunnu Miller, and her husband Gary.

Credit to National Museum of the American Indian, exhibit 2011: A Song for the Horse Nation: Horses in Native American Culture.

Erected by Range Riders Museum.

Since the 1880s, Miles City has been the trade, service, and social center for Eastern Montana ranchers. After its famed McQueen House burned down, town booster Joseph Leighton built the Leighton, 1898-1899, which became an area landmark. Within a few years his son Alvin took over and renamed it the Olive Hotel. When the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway arrived here in 1908, the thriving economy called for expansion of the Olive, including a three-story addition to the rear. Architect Brynjulf Rivenes designed the new façade, lobby, and the east addition. Now the Olive also housed a cafe, barber shop, cigar and curio stand, buffet, and sample rooms, where ranchers and commercial travelers met. Two fireproof, poured concrete garages built in 1908 and 1912 demonstrate the rising importance of the automobile. The Olive Hotel stands as a symbol of the effects of post- World War I depression on this region. When thousands of homesteaders lost their lands because of drought and falling grain prices, the Olive’s business declined noticeably by the mid-1920s.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Captain Wm. Clark and ten others camped near the mouth of the Tongue River on July 29, 1806. Clark noted the great number of buffalo in the area and reported that the river was so muddy and warm that it was "very disagreeable to drink." Clark referred to the river by its Mandan and Hidatsa name, "Lazeka."

Construction of Fort Keogh, named for one of Custer's captains killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn, began in 1877. That knob off to the south is Signal Butte. During the Indian wars the army flashed sun mirror messages to a post in the Black Hills 175 miles away. A cloudy day sure threw a lot of static into that pioneer wireless system.

Miles City, named after General Nelson A. Miles, started in 1877 as a shack and tent town with a population running largely to prospectors and miners from the Black Hills, buffalo hunters, traders, and gamblers. She was wild for a while. When the cattle days of the 1880s arrived many a Texas trail herd came through here and the city soon acquired a national reputation as the cattle and horse market which it has never relinquished.

Erected by Montana

Department of Transportation.

Armed with a degree from the Ontario Business College, Canadian-born Thomas Shore arrived in Miles City in 1896. He and former cowboy Wirt Newcom formed a partnership and opened a department store on Main Street in 1900. The store flourished, selling everything from men’s clothing, phonographs, washing machines, and even hay to ranchers, homesteaders, and city dwellers alike. Shore hired Beulah Chartrand as a store clerk in 1910. She must have made a good impression since the couple married in 1914. Shore purchased this property, in what was then a sparsely populated neighborhood, as a wedding gift. Soon after their marriage, Beulah and Miles City contractor Fred Clearman collaborated to design and construct this beautiful Bungalow style home. Bungalows gained popularity in the early twentieth century based on the idea that “simplicity and artistry could harmonize in one affordable house.” Features such as a simple floor plan without hallways, interior built-in cabinetry and bookcases, and a natural exterior made bungalows affordable and appealing to middle-class home buyers. Stylistic details include clipped gable dormers, ribbons of windows with multi-light upper panes, and flared eaves and exposed rafters with scrolled ends. Landscaping with trees and shrubs reinforced the “back-to-nature” dictum of the Bungalow style. The house was an appropriate symbol of Shore’s continued status and success. In 1923, he bought out Newcom’s interest, reorganized the store to sell clothing, and renamed it Shore’s. This residence remained in the Shore family until 1972.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The elegance of this magnificent Neoclassical style mansion belies the humble roots of its first owner, George H. Ulmer, the Pennsylvania-born son of a German immigrant. Ulmer came to Miles City in 1883, and by 1889 partners George Miles and Charles Strevell had added Ulmer’s name to their pioneer hardware firm. It became the largest hardware company in southeastern Montana. Helena-based architect Charles S. Haire designed the home for Ulmer and his wife, Flora, in 1902. Haire, whose talents contributed much to the local streetscape, was at that time frequently in Miles City supervising the design and construction of the Carnegie Library and the Ursuline Convent. These and the Ulmer residence showcase the architect’s fluency in the Neoclassical style. Haire’s design of this residence helped inspire a new trend in Miles City’s domestic architecture. A grand semicircular entry porch, Ionic columns, Palladian windows, and a central pediment with an inset lunette are elements characteristic of the style. Very fine detailing includes molded pilasters, a carved wreath above the main entry, paneled oak doors, and beveled glass.

Erected by

Montana Historical Society.

Log cabins and canvas tents lined Miles City’s Main Street when Walrond Snell and William Ladd opened their crockery business in the late 1870s. Snell sold his interests in 1883, returning to his native England to marry his sweetheart, Elizabeth Carter. Meanwhile, Ladd commissioned Miles City’s only architect, Bryon Vreeland, to build this home on Lake Street. The original T-shaped dwelling, the first brick home east of the railroad tracks, stood in the empty prairie. While Ladd continued in business, Snell returned with his bride to take up sheep ranching. He became a prominent stockman and contributor to Montana’s wool industry. In 1891, Snell purchased his former partner’s home. The Snells moved to town so their six children could attend school. Elizabeth Snell was the first local music and piano teacher, and the family moved in the most elite social circles. Snell served the community in a variety of civic capacities. He was director of the First National Bank, a county commissioner, and a founder of the Custer County Building Association. In the 1910s, the Snells expanded their home with an addition at the rear, which featured newly available plate glass windows and a stylish wraparound porch. A central Gothic pavilion, French Second Empire arched windows, and stepped triangle brickwork in the gable are distinctive hallmarks of Vreeland’s original plans. Significant for its association with the prominent Snell family, this charming home is equally important as the last surviving example of Vreeland’s once-popular central pavilion design.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Hundreds of military and civilian residents at Fort Keogh made the fort’s water supply a primary concern. By 1879, two thousand feet of pipe had been laid and seven cisterns installed. A converted boiler pumped water from the Yellowstone River for the fort’s domestic use. After the initial building period from 1877 to 1880, frame and brick buildings began to replace the original log structures. This hipped-roof brick shed, constructed during the second building phase in October 1883, is the fort’s oldest surviving building. Its arched window openings and lack of ornamentation reflect the fort’s early architecture and the building’s utilitarian function: to house the heavy water wagon. A team of three mules pulled the wagon that delivered water, stored in wooden barrels, to Fort Keogh residents two or three times each week. Several days’ water supply was then stored in individual oak barrels. In 1934, New Deal monies were used to convert the shed to a truck garage. Later, the building housed firefighting and fencing equipment. The building was completely restored in 2004 in accordance with Federal Historical Preservation guidelines at a cost of $125,000.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.