Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-02-14

Wooilco uuU III
vaded the range country to a much larg-
er extent by early 1888 than most ac-
counts of the pioneer days would indi-
cate. The open range was also begin
ming to go If the report Of seeing nu-
merous wire fences in the Judith basin
is correct.
Ihe four Adventures into the north
ern country were F. H. Foster, H.. w
Rowley, George w. Hume and Jules
Breauchaud, all men who were promi-
nent In the early history OF Billings and
Yellowstone county. A Mr.. Crippen was
also along as the driver OF a team be
longing to John Tinker. who combined
the Jobs of deputy clerk of The court
n land commissioner with a livery
stable business.
MOST OF the men were connected with
the Minnesota and Montana Land I'm
provement company which had laid out
the toWnsite of Billings. Fred Foster
was an energetic real estate dealer, at
forwards prominent as q county official
mayor Of Billings. INC register OF the
land office. Jules Beauchaud, who was
shortly afterWard made county treasurer
after taking the leadership in creating
the new county of Yellowstone, had been
a subcontractor for Heman Clark on the
Northern Pacific. He afterwards won
engineering fame as the builder Of the
New Croton dam for supplying New York
with water n as the inventor of the
modern system of underpinning for sky
scrapers. An article concerning his life
work was recently published in the
American magazine.
George w. Hume, who was older than
the other men, was the secretary Of the
~ company and In direct charge
OF most of its enterprises. II. w. Row
ly, also a Northern Pacific engineer, was
then in charge of the construction OF
the irrigation canal in the Clark's Fork
bottom which the townsite company was
building. and has been a inancial lead
er IN the community up to the present
time.
The men started out we'll supplied
with guns n ammunition to kill buff
falo and other big game but they were
also looking over the country for likely
Investments n to get an diea of pos
sible future developments. They planned
also a visit to the Barker mining district
on the trip.
Several days out, the weather which
had been accompanied by chinook winds,
suddenly changed and a period Of bitter
cold followed. Although the account OF
the trip says but little OF their battle
with the elements, an item in the two
Dt1AAiS PoRSio " SAitAl 4StdAll lNSOldo.
IF. H. Foster, j. Breauchaud, George r.
Hulme and H. w. Rowley and Mr.. Grip
pen have returned from their trip to the
Judith country. They encountered some
of the most severe weather of the sea-
son and were all more or less seriously
frost bitten. Crippen and Hume were
the greatest sufferers. Crippen may lose
some fingers which were badly frosted
and Hulme's arm is seriously injured
Other items OF about the same date in
dictate that the thermometer had been
for several days around 80 below zero.
According to Mr.. Rowley, they had a
long fight through snow and blizzards
until they reached shelter at the Olden
ranch on the Musselshell. Al Olden, its
proprietor, was a s%tockinan, who accom-
odated travellers n kept a post office
store. Here several other men from
Billings, who had also been tempted into
the open country by the mild weather,
joined them after almost equal diff
culties. Mr.. Hume did not recover en-
tirely from the effects of the exposure
for several years,
The count Of the trip, which was
written probably by Mr.. Breauchaud, is
In condensed form as follows.
"On January 10 we started out behind
John Thinkers high steppers, Sorrel Fox
and Grey Billy, leading Pinto and Nelly,
the saddle horses. We were armed and
equipped with an arsenal of rifles. and
guns TO kill elk, buffalo, black tail deer,
Or whatever might come to hand. We
stopped at the stage ranch at Rocky
Butte and then through the Lake Basin
to Cold Springs ranch. Mr.. Drumming
ton keeps the stage line there and it is
the first point where horses are changed.
We then went out to Walter Burke's
ranch (Lavina), passing through Lavina
and other places of note. Although we