Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1904-10-19
PIONEER OF
FERGUSCOUNTY
Peter Koch, Of Bozeman, Who Was
the First White Man in Judith Bs.
sin, Tells Experiences.
TRADING POST ON LITTLE CASINO
Names Of Streams Derived From Card
Game Played by Party Who Built
the Post-Fight With Sioux.

Peter Koch, of Bozeman, cashier of
the Bozeman National Bank, was in
the city last week in attendance on
the synodical meeting of the Presby-
terrain church. Mr.. Koch has probab-
ly the earliest knowledge of the Judith
Basin of any white man now Twins,
for he came here as early as 1873, ana
at that time it is highly probable that
there was not another white ma in
the whole area of what Is now Fergus
county, outside of the party of men
who accompanied Mr.. Koch. Mr.. Koch
does not look like the typical old-tim-
er. for he is a remarkably young man
In appearance. The story OF his eA-
p~eriences in this part of the country,
in the early days, would make as in
teresting reading, however, as any
thing that has been written along
such lines.
In speaking Of this country, and par
ticularly the place where L~ewistown
now stands, Mr.. Koch said: Il came
west to Montana in the year 1869 and
in November, 1873, Major Pease made
a treaty with the Crow Indians, by
which the old Crow reservation on the
Yellowstone river was to be given up
and the Judith Basin to be accepted in
its stead. This treaty, of course, was
yet to be ratified by the United States
senate, but it was thought that this
would surely be done.
In the fall of 1873 Nelson Story and
c. w. Hoffman decided to establish a
trading post in the Judith Basin and
| was sent over here together with a
representative from the Crow Indian
agency on the Yellowstone and a small
party, with the object in view of Sc
iecting a site for a trading post. We
arrived here in November. 1873, and
camped at the mouth of what is now
called Big Casino creek. We waited
here for two weeks for the wagon
train bearing the supplies and mater
ials for constructing the post. AS time
hung heavily on our hands the men
employed themselves in playing casino
N their idle moments around camp.
The names of big casino and little
casino were heard so often in the
course of the two weeks card playing
that the stream OF which we were
camped was named Big Casino and
the smaller stream to the west OF ii
was named Little Casino.
when the wagon train finally ar
rived the work of building the trad
ing post vas begun and the site pick
ed out was almost exactly where
the little log p~ostoffice on Frank
Days ranch now stands. We
got our water from the small stream.
After bdilding the post | was left III
charge and four or five others remain
ed with me. The Crow tribe was di
vided into what were called the Noun
tain Crows and the River Crows. the
former being located on the Yellow.
stone river and the latter on the Mis-
souri,. We saw many of the River
clONS anu uIoS Nthtits, uut tuN Hlotii
tain Crows did not get this far.
while we were camped ut this
place. and before the post was com.
pleted, we were sleeping in the snow
with no shelter, and for a week the
thermometer did not rise above the
zero mark, and ranged all the way
from zero to 40' below. After the
post was built we stayed there all
winter. II was while We were living
at this trading post that we had d
slight brush with the Sioux Indians.
There had been numerous bands OF
war parties out on horse stealing raids
and one morning as we were eating
breakfast we noticed a cOmmotion out
side and heard the Crow Indians, who
were staying around the post for the
winter, yelling Sioux. Sioux We i'm
mediately ran out to see what all the
trouble was and I happened to be the
only one to snatch up a gun as we LETT
the room. On gaining the outside OF
the stockade we saw the horses be.
longing to the Crows being driven
down from the hills on the west side
of the creek and three Indians in he
midst of the herd urging the horses
on. The Crows cried TO me to shoot