Rosebud County, Montana 1921
Correctly speaking, the Old West is
of the past. There are some still remaining who recall the days
of Indian fighting, miles of cattle ranges, daily privations and
primitive conditions, but for the most part the ever increasing
influx of settlers from the more eastern communities, has put
the stamp of an advanced civilization upon even the most
remotely situated sections and day by day the old customs are
passing further into the background of memory. However, in
several isolated cases there are to be found localities which
have clung tenaciously to the long past, who have refused to
accept in full the refinements of the twentieth century and who
therefore retain some of the glamour of the Old West. One of
these localities lies in Rosebud County, where, in the southern
part, is situated the Tongue River Northern Cheyenne Indian
Reservation. Owing to the fact that this reservation is located
far from any railroad, the Government's wards on this
reservation have not had the opportunity of becoming spoiled by
coming into contact with the pleasures and vices of their white
brothers of the cities, and are more like the Indians of forty
or more years ago than almost any other reservation Indians.
Also, in the southern end of the county are to be found a number
of typical old-time western cattle ranches, whose owners have
fought stubbornly to continue their operations along the old
lines and who have been successful in their determined stand
because of their remoteness from railroad connections.
Natural and Acquired Features
Rosebud County, which is situated in the southeastern part of
Montana, was created February 1 1, 1901, being formed from the
western part of Custer County, and derives its name from Rosebud
Creek, an important tributary of the Yellowstone River. The land
area of the county is 4,993 square miles, making it the sixth
largest county in the state, and it also ranks well as to
wealth, its assessed valuation in 1920 being $35,475,463,
although its population, according to the 1920 census was only
8,002. Sixty miles of the fertile Yellowstone Valley extends
through its central part from east to west, and the county is
irregular in shape, with a maximum length from east to west of
114 miles and a maximum breadth of eighty-four miles north and
south.
Agricultural and Other Natural Wealth
Rosebud County is well watered by
good-sized streams. In addition to the Yellowstone River, there
are the Tongue and Big Horn rivers and Rosebud, Sunday, Sand,
Horse, Little Porcupine, Froze to Death, Alkali, Tullocks,
Sarpy, Armells and Sweeney creeks. The geographical nomenclature
will suggest much to the modernist who is endeavoring to
visualize the country as it was when the first settlers took up
their abode in this region. There are three important irrigation
projects in the county. On the south side of the Yellowstone
River and just west of Forsyth, is the Yellowstone Irrigation
Project of 5,000 acres. East of Forsyth on the north side of the
Yellowstone is the Carterville Project of 10,000 acres, and on
the same side of the river west of Forsyth is the Hammond
Project of 5,000 acres. Many minor projects are found on smaller
streams, but the entire matter of irrigation is covered
elsewhere in this work and it is not necessary to go into it
fully here. It may be stated, however, that there are about
30,000 acres of irrigated land in the county and 60,000 acres
that are irrigable, nearly 2,000,000 acres of tillable land and
1,200,-000 acres of grazing land. Naturally, in a county in
which conditions are so favorable, agriculture and stock raising
are the principal industries. Wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn,
alfalfa, alfalfa seed and sugar beets are the chief crops. While
the soil varies, the prevailing type is chocolate loam with a
clay sub-soil. In some of the northern parts of the county, a
heavy clay predominates but with proper cultivation gives good
yields. Rosebud is considered a big corn county, has yielded
banner crops of Turkey Red wheat, particularly in recent years,
and also is a good county for various vegetables.
Improved irrigated lands in Rosebud
County will average $125 an acre in value, improved
non-irrigable lands $30 an acre, unimproved tillable lands $15,
and grazing lands $7 an acre.
For the most part, the stock raising
industry in Rosebud County centers about the Tongue and Big Horn
rivers and on Rosebud Creek, although this vocation is followed
to some extent in almost all portions of the county. Some timber
of commercial value is found in the county there being 104,000
acres of the county included within the Custer National Forest.
Until recently, Rosebud County had not been considered as
possessing minerals of any great value, but it is reported that
the Northern Pacific Railway has completed a survey into the
southern end of the county to tap a field that is estimated to
contain 2,000,000 tons of bituminous coal. Lignite is also
plentiful. One of the largest potential oil domes in the state
is in the northern part of Rosebud County and development work
is now being conducted on it. Two transcontinental railways
traverse the county from east to west, the Northern Pacific and
the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and a fifty-mile stretch of
the Yellowstone Highway is in Rosebud County.
Educational Matters
The educational advantages provided
for the children of Rosebud County include 100 schoolhouses, in
which, in 1920, there were 1,938 pupils undergoing instruction.
There are likewise five high schools, two of them accredited for
a four-year term, with 122 pupils enrolled.
Forsyth, Rosebud and Other Towns
The county seat of Rosebud County is
Forsyth, a community accredited with a population of 1,838, by
the 1920 census report. Located forty-five miles west of Miles
City, Forsyth is on the Northern Pacific and Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Paul Railways, and, as a Northern Pacific freight division
point, is a trade center for the Yellowstone, Porcupine and
Rosebud Valleys. It is a distributing point for an area 150
miles north and south and forty miles east and west, and gains
importance through handling the product of a large wool country.
Forsyth is a modern little city with three banks, two large,
up-to-date hotels, two newspapers, three churches and thirty-two
retail stores. Six miles to the east of Forsyth is the local
sub-station of the Montana Agricultural Station, where recent
experiments have proven that Turkey red wheat can be produced in
bountiful quantities in this county.
Rosebud, the second largest town in
the county, is the commercial center for the eastern part.
Vananda, Sumatra and Ingomar are live towns in the northwestern
part, the last-named being the headquarters of the sheep
industry of Rosebud County and the site of a shearing plant
which has a capacity of 6,000 head daily.
Montana Counties 1921
Return to
Montana AHGP
Source: Montana its Story and Biography,
by Tom Strout, Volume 1, The American Historical Society, 1921
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