Evening star., 1923-05-07

Not since Jack Johnson took the
heavyweight title from Jim Jeffres
at Reno. New, in July, 1910, has a
championship battle of the magn-
@ @tude Of the proposed Dempsey-Gib-
bons bout been held in the far west
or in town as small Shelby.
which today has a population of
ZOO people, including the hundreds
now there because of the northern
Montana oil boom. A year ago its
population was 900.
Shelby was designated as a possible
townsite back in 1891, when the
Great Northern railway extended its
transcontinental lines from Havre
Paclf1c coast. 1t was named by ]. J.
Hin. president of the railway, for
+. z. Shelby, manager of the Great
Northern lines in Montana.
Something of the blessings" which
may be gathered from the statement
made to Shelby after he became a
Cleveland, Ohio, flnancier by friends
who had visisted the place. that he
should not feel complimented by such
a namesake, for it is a lonesomehurst
"a wind-swept, sun-blistered and
Winter-pestered crossroads"
This description tallies with that
given by homesteaders who settled III
that section between 1906 and 1915
and who. between 1916 and 1920. were
driven out by droughts and pests
Old stockmen, whose profitable bus-
ness of ranging cattle over these
same prairies have been supplanted
by the newcomers, believe the tender ,
coming to them
From 1917 until March II, 1922.
when oil was discovered thirty miles
from Shelby, hundreds of thousands
written on Toole county's book be-
cause of the great exodus Of would
be farmers. In the last year more
than 100000 of these delinquencies
have been paid so that clear title
might be had to the land for leasing
purposes.
One of the Largest OIL Fields.
The proved oil field adjacent to-
Shelby is twenty miles long and
in the United States, though it's pres
ent production from the thirty three
wells already drilled is only about
1900 barrels daily. There are six
ing 20,000.000 feet of gas in day.
The boom a Shelby started last fall,
when it was made headquarters for
drillers and field men employed by
the Standard Oil and its subsidiaries
as we'll as several independent com
panies. All through the winter the
building of homes, business blocks.
warehouses and hotels has been
pushed. Ninety city blocks Of side
walks are now under way. Every
thing about the town is typical of
the overnight town.
Shelby business men admit that
their bid for the Dempsey-Gibbons
battle originally was made more for
Mont" in the newspapers than be +,
cause they believed they could get
Dempsey to come there. But Great
Falls business men took the propose,
seriously. particularly after. St. Paul
scheme feasible and offered cooper
alton.
Molumby Convincex Kearns.
At this juncture 10y J. Molumby,
state commander of the American Le-
gion, who was an aviator In the Army
during the late war, jumped into an
airplane and flew to Salt Lake City.
where he convinced Jack Kearns.
Dempsey's manager. that the proposal
was made in good faith. Later he
took another airplane trip from Great
Falls to Chicago, where negotiations
were concluded with Kearns Great
Falls and Shelby business men have
put up $4,000 cash guarantee for
Dempsey and have taken options on
rlngsfde seats at $50 piece to equal
the amount of their subscriptions.
Both Dempsey and Gibbons are to
train for five weeks previous to the
fight in Great Falls.
Under Montana'S' boxing law one
half Of the net receipts from all box
ing bouts go to the state, to be used
in the erection of hospital for world
war veterans. In his work as state
commander Molumby has been i'm
pressed with the great need for such
an institution here and it is for this
reason that he has put up such a
tough battle to get the fight
Shelby, in addition to being a boom
town. is one of the last frontier vii
lagos of the northwest, being only d
few miles from the Blackfeet Indian
reservation and Glacier National
Park.
When the Dempsey-Gibbons contest
takes place there the next 4th Of July
as planned it will be amid the scenes
of the old west with enough cowboys
and Indians to give every easterner
who attends a thrill.