History of Circle Montana and McCone County
Museum-Page
McCone County at one time was part of a sea floor, later covered with ice, and is now part of the vast prairie of the Great Plains. Marine fossils, dinosaur excavations, lignite coal deposits, and oil discoveries link McCone County to the ancient past. An Eden Point arrowhead estimated at 8,000 years old was found on Prairie Elk Creek indicating the presence of Indians since early times. Several buffalo jumps, teepee rings, and other Indian artifacts indicate that McCone County, between the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, was hunting ground for several Indian tribes. Buffalo and beaver were plentiful.
The Redwater River, flowing north through McCone County,and emptying into the Missouri River, was part of the Fort. Buford/Fort Keogh trail.
In December 1876, southern McCone County was the site of a minor skirmish between the U.S. Army and Sitting Bull and his Sioux warriors. This was shortly after the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Approximately 122 lodges and over 500 horses were captured. A monument marks this site today.
Because of the success of many buffalo hunters who came in the early 1880's, the prairies buffalo were wiped out; with their demise, wealthy individuals from the East were then able to set up large ranches. Huge herds of cattle were herded along dusty trails from Texas to Montana, and then tried to survive harsh winter conditions. Along the Redwater River, the XIT Ranch introduced the Texas Longhorn. The N-N Ranch, headquartered in the northern part of the county, ran as many as 100,000 cattle.
Charlie Russell, the famous Montana artist, supposedly worked on the HS Ranch along the Redwater. The Mabry Cattle Corporation was also headquartered on the Redwater, one mile south of the present town of Circle. Their brand was a plain 0, their ranch was known as the Circle Ranch. This is how the town of Circle acquired its name.
The Homestead Law of 1862 gave squatters the right to file a claim on land they occupied. Thousands of people came west; some filed on homesteads in McCone County and lived in tarpaper shacks, sod houses, or dugouts. They farmed with horses. Pete Rorvik, settling on the old Circle Ranch, began a store and post office called Circle in 1905. Later, the town of Circle moved from its original site to the present site when the Great Northern Railroad planned to build a track from Sidney, Montana to Lewistown, Montana. However, World War One ended this project.
Finally, in 1928, the Northern Pacific Railroad came to Circle. This provided another means for more homesteaders to come, some bringing their modern farming equipment. Agriculture is still the major industry in McCone County, with cattle, sheep, wheat, barley and other crops also produced.
McCone County was formed in 1919. Circle became the county seat.
During the 1930's, known as "the dirty thirties," many homesteaders gave up and moved on.
The construction of Fort Peck Dam, the first of the great Missouri Rivers dams, employed hundreds of workers in the northern part of the county. For years, and to this day, Fort Peck Dam has been utilized to generate electricity. It is also a tremendous resource for boating and fishing recreation.
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My name is Jo Ann Boyd Scott and as your host I try to post as much data online online as possible in order to make it freely available to all. We gratefully accept contributions of raw data such as census information, marriage,/birth/death records, obituaries, county histories, biographies, old newspaper items, maps, anything that would help someone build their family tree!!
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Your data is owned by you not the web site. SEND DATA to this e-mail. All data on this website is © Copyright 2007-2008 by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.
Your data is owned by you not the web site. SEND DATA to this e-mail.
All data on this website is © Copyright 2007-2008 by Genealogy Trails
with full rights reserved for original submitters
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