Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-12-30

| Miles City, Mont, Dec. lion the
10Th day Of June, 1876, Custer and his
gallant troopers rode down into the
valley Of death to return no more for
ever. Upon the sickening tragedy en-
aCteQ that day alorg the banks OF the
| Little Big Horn the curtain had scarce
!iy fallen el e it arose again upon the
more prosaic drama of the civil occu-
patton OF that vast territory drained
| by the Yellowstone and it's tributaries
and designated upon the maps today
as the Yellowstone valley. Though
this land of wonderful possibilities had
been penetrated from time to time by
adventurous Writes, it was only as in
cidental to a journey from the hither-
to to the beyond" and with no thought
Of remaining a moment longer than
necessary in this domain Of the savage
Sioux, the most numerous and muir
derous Of any CT the great tribes which
have ever infested our western from
tiers. The projected advance west
| ward of the Northern Pacific railroad
had made the opening of this great
valley a future probability; but the
massacre Of Clusters command made it
an immediate military necessity-one
that admitted of neither doubt nor de-
lay, and, accordingly, the autumn of
the centennial year witnessed the To-
cation, at the confluence of the Tongue
river with the Yellowstone, and upon
the spot where now stands this thirty
ing city, of the environments and their
occupation by the troops of that grim
Indian fighter, Gen. Nelson A. Miles
the Nemesis of all those fierce hordes
which roamed these mighty plains,
Eurrowed from sight like fox Or coyote
amid it's endless maze Of hills and
Crags, and caves, and despoiled and
murdered at their own sweet will.
These savage clans ran up against
no West Point tenderfoot when they
encountered Miles. When he had fin
ished the hundreds of log huts which
he erected here, winter had fallen. The
| semi-human beasts whom he had
come to settle with for past misdeeds,
supposed that Miles and all that stall
|
| to the shelter of those comfortable
buts until spring. They supposed this
because they didn't know Miles. With
, in a few short months they were des-
tined to know him better and despise
him less. The first blizzard from Man
itoha had scarcely kissed the waters of
the Yellowstone before Miles was after
| oh of bat
pitiless winter he chased them with
the relentless fury of an avenging
angel His daredevil cavalry men
hung upon their moccasin heels, days,
nights, and Sundays. Nothing stopped
them. When the fleeing wretches, fam
ished and frozen with hunger and cold,
essayed to hide where horses could not
penetrate, the fur-clad minions Of
Miles Qismounted from their horses,
unslung those murderous carbines and
kept after them on foot. Warfare so
persistent could have but one ending:
The savage foe gladly embraced an op-
pCrtunity to surrender, and while in
cUrsions by wandering bands were fire.
quent during the two years following,
as a great nation the glory of the
Sioux and their power for serious dev-
iltry had departed with the close OF
that winters memorable campaign
Forts Keogh and Custer were built the
fall following the actual settle
ment of the valley then began.
Beneath the protecting guns of Fort
Keogh Miles City was born. 1t was a
lusty child of the plains and wonder
fully it grew and throve in those stir
ring times. This was the era Of the
bull-whacker and the buffalo hunter
The new town became the Mecca of as
hard lot CT American citizens as ever
congregated On a given spot. It was
the real outpost Ct the nOrthwest ern
frontier, for here the human wave from
the east met the undertOw from the
Pacific slope that was bearing back
toward the rising sun the flotsam and
ietsam OF the '49ers-curious, battered
old wrecks, who had left eastern homes
for the golden sands of California and
Oregon in the flush Of youth and
health, and now, after thirty years Of
!; buffeting with adverse fortune were
Idrifting helplessly back, twisted
SCARED and scanned with little ambi-
ton beyond a bare sustenance, regu-
lar rations of 'red-likker" and occa-
slonally CHANGING the tickle fortunes Of
draw poker. There was money to
: burn" in Miles City then, and it
burned, too. Men were scarce, work
/ abundant and wages high.
! Money came very easily, and never
did profigate millionaire dispense it
with generosity more royal than did
the adventurous spirits who nightly
held high carnival in its gambling
halls, its saloons and it's dance houses.
| Those were the times when any man
who could use a rifle had no trouble
in getting staked" to buffalo out
tit, consisting Of team, wagon, guns
grub, etc., with no other security than
promise to turn in certain number
of hides in the spring as payment.
The method Of killing these poor
brutes was as shameful as it was indie
feasible. Concealed in some spot
where the animals came for water, the
hunters would open fire upon the herd
with repeating rifles, often killing from
so to 100 in a single day The hides
were taken off, bundled up, and left
On the ground until spring. Many
rotted and spoiled, yet, notwithstand-
ing this shrinkage there was shinnad