Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1878-11-28
The Yellowstone, as Seen.
No. 3.


- BY j. Y. BOGERT.
c The. Yellowstone crossed at Baker
9 Battle Ground, the traveller finds himse
upon the Crow Reserve, and, to- all il
S tents and purposes, under military cor
!, troll, the post OF Fort Custer being locate
), within its limits.
v And here we must protest against til
e innovation Ito use no stronger termy tina
g has robbed the historic location Of Baker
: Battle Ground of its honorable name, an
e given it the unneaning title of Huntley
Huntley! Wherefore? The rage whicl
urges Brown. Jones and Robinson t,
| ''sculp'' their obscure name upon ever,
rock, or to scr,wl them in the bark OF ever,
tree, has attacked the Yellowstone unit
we have Huntleys and CoulsOns, and til,
like, at every turn of the stream. SO will
our Legislature-Big Horn must be turn
ed into Custer and the Little Horn mus
follow suit. True, in this case some (ye
not sufficiently reason presents itself, bu
tire name manufacturers, if not curbed
will soon launch their idiotic tinkering up
on every old-time designation in the coun
try. There is but one way to stop it, and
that is for those of us who don't belong
to the gang with names upon the brain to
stick to THAT which is DID,
Passing over hilly country and cross
ing the ice-cold waters of Pryor's Fork
the road traverses an immense expanse Of
chiefly. stock-rangc - bounded upon the
one side by foothills and upon the other
by the Yellowstone and its cloud and
snow-peaked range.
! In the distance loom the Big Horn
Mountains, and numerous pools or ponds
Of standing, but clear, water dot the table
lands even where streams are absent from
the scene However, water is not plenti-
full upon this portion Of the Reserve. and
it is evidently not its most favored section.
Crossing Fly Greek and moving onward,
Fort Custer soon outlines the distant hOri-
Zon-and striking into beautiful wooded
bottom, whose tall cottonwoods shelter
the tents and cabins of the outposts, the
rapid Big Horn presently arrests our prog
ress, making recourse to the ferry neces-
sary. The river crossed. we find ourself
standing at the foot OF the precipitous
bluff upon which Custer is built; and as
cending the steep and winding road soon
enter the precincts of the post-an area of
''magnificent distances" 70 one accus-
toned to the ''pent-up Utica, OF Fort e.
lis the ''expanse" Of Custer seems like
"all-out-of-doors" " while the twO-story
hip-framc quarters, porticoed, front-stoop-
ed and located one hundred feet apart the
large and imposing hospital located upon
the thirty-acre parade; the band playing
morning and night, and the other accom-
paniments of large post presenting them
selves. the denizen of the G;llatin finds
himself in pastures new
At the foot of the blutf upon one side
flows the Big Horn; upon the other the
Little Horn-magnificent views presenting
themselves in all directions. Here again
the climate urges its claims by means Of
melons, tomatoes and corn, and, as we ate
our cantelope at such mornings breakfast,
we felt forced to admit that the Northern
Paciic's much ridiculed banana zone" is,
after all, more founded in prose than in
poetry.
We have spoken in these papers Of the
wondrous change that has come over the
Yellowstone country during the past few
years; but nothing can so impress rcaliza-
ton of it upon ones mind as trip from
Custer through the valley Of the Little |
Horn. This valley is $50 tar as we have
seen the country the gem of Montana
Hs SH e gra sss te Rae9int b9r
growth of cottonwood, ash and box-elder. I
and its vast meadows stretching over foot
hill and bottom and table land into the far
acre 4 farm-its river a
circlct OF wooded parks-one. as
he views it, cannot wonder that the Sioux
nourns for it and that the white covets
Upon the ground occupied by the village
which carried destruction to Custer the
lay-mows Of the Anglo-SaXon now stand
ecure; and the trail of the lodgc-pole is
low the rut of the hay wagon which rum
lies along where the red man not long
ince drove his ponies and thought him
elf master OF all he surveyed.
AS we rOanled over the hills sacred to f:
he blood of Custer and his men, and stop t
ed here and there to count the skeletons S
# their horses, or to ''view the landscape
'er," the clatter OF the mower sounded Z
rom the plain below, and the ''whoa-go- t
ong' OF the driver echoing among the n
tufts sounded the coming of civilization I
nd the death-song of nomadic supremacy.
What change! 1t seems almost a fable n
, even those of us who know how sud- I
emily, how unexpectedly, it has come t
bout.
Returning toward the post, we stopped \
the milk ranch of Mr.. Dana, late of fl
le Dana House, of Helena. Here, locat- Il
upon rich bottom at the foot of a t.
eep bluff and surrounded by trees, this ST
has established the Fort Custer n
liry, and by arrangement with General Il
uel has become permanent settler. Re
lied from the milk house and the melon p
Itch, we move on again; and striking al
'wn an old-fashioned lane "a lane upon Ct
e Sioux preserve!) and guided by the
lrgle of the Little Horn, the post gar re
ms presently receive us to more melons, n,
rn-stalks ten feet high and ears ''full in :
e kernel,' nine, ten, twelve and thirteen
chcs long and big around as a ball club,
cts and turnips and carrots and cabbages
d canlifiOwers from the size respectively
the heal of q nailLau RI that nf n Aonr in