Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-05-23
(By w. III. BANFILL)

railway through southern Montana
was a welcome bit OF news to q
group Of cattlemen who had located
around 1880 in the northern part of
Wyoming. The new railroad would
come within 100 miles of their places
when at that time their nearest ship
ping station was at Rawlins. Wyo.,
more than 200 miles south on the
Union Pacific.
For years afterwards, until the Bur-
lington built into that region, Billings
was the shipping point and trade GEN.
ter for what was known Is the Stink
ing Water country, now more generally
known as the Big Horn basin country.
Sinking Water river is the modern
Shoshone, a tributary OF the Big Horn
river. Sinking Water was hardly
%euphonious enough for recent genera
lions and hence the change. Some of
the pioneers. it is said. would now like
to have the old name restored because
of its historical associations.
Efforts were started soon after the
establishment of Billings to get closer
communications with the country to
the south. The Billings board of trade,
ranchers in the district and the North
ern Pacific railway made contributions
to a fund of several thousand dollars
which was expended in building roads
and bridges along the route to the
Sinking Water and Greybull rivers.
Within less than two year, Billings
merchants were selling orders running
up as high as a thousand dollars each
to some of the big cattlemen Of the
Sinking Water. After considerable eff
fort, also by enterprising Billings citi-
zens, a mail route was established from
ntl1,V-r Into fba yIyuArNy~ ltctryof
Under the title "Greybull cores
p%ondence," a writer from Meeteetse,
Wyo.. then the principal town in the
Big Horn basin country, gives some
idea of the situation. The writer un-
der date of Dec. 81, 1883, the letter be-
ing published more than three weeks
later, expresses himself under the nom
de plume Of Cowboy al follows.
1T would appear that neither Mon
tana, Billings nor the Northern Pacific
has much influence in Washington or
the semi-weekly mail from Fort Wash
ike near Lander on the Arapahoe res
ervation) would long since have been
continued through to Billings. All the
Greybull country is interested IN is the
shortening Of communication with the
outside world. We are now well sup
piled by registered mail with all we
lltGQ VI llOtlllliS, ttd dil0 OtiiS " 49,
eras from Fort Washable, Chicago, ST.
Louis and farther east.
Our mail rider, Josh, sometimes
comes in with 200 to 300 pounds OF
registered mail. 1t is said that Josh
does not relish packing SO large a
quantity of registered mail and occa-
sionally amuses himself by dancing
Fishers hornpipe on the bags by way
of discouraging this form OF interstate
commerce. If Meadow would put on
the five-cents-a-pound express wagon
that he once talked of, a majority OF
our trade would go to Billings. Mrs.
N. B. Wilson, III new postmistress,
performs her duties quite efficiently"
If there was any criticism OF the mail
carrier implied in the letter, it was
more than made up in another letter
appearing several months later.
I'VE have received no mail lately"
the writer says, "as u mail carrier
is three days behind his time and it is
feared that some mishap has befallen
him. The probability is that he lost
the road in one of the snoWstorms that
are numerous around Owl mountain
and wandered God knows where until
he fell exhausted to perish miserably
in the storm. He Is a new man and
not we'll acquainted with the roads,
our old friend Josh Deane, having re-
signed his post and settled down to
ranching on Woods river where, accord
ing to his own account, he has the fin
est ranch in the country. Well we
wish him success, as a more Obliging
and punctual carrier we never had. The
coolest weather last winter, and we had
days that were 40 and As degrees below
zero, never caused Josh and his two
Indian rats to miss a mail. If the
mail is not heard from in a day or two,
a relief party will be sent out to find
the cause for the delay"
Presumably the writer's fears as to
the safety of the carrier were ground
less for there is nothing in later COM
munications to indicate that the TRACE
dy he had pictured came to pass.
AS to Josh Deane, he is now Mayor
John w. Deane of Meeteetse, a town
of 300 inhabitants in the heart OF a
still unspoiled COW country, some 30
road point. The name of Josh" was
bestowed on him by General Miles
when he was a scout in the days when
everyone went by a nickname. Mr.
Deane was confined at the Billings
Deaconess hospital for a month or
more last winter and while ~cOnvaleSc-
ing told the writer some of the incl
dents of his early mail carrier exper-
fences.
The mail line which he served ran
from Fort Washable to the old Grow
agency on Rosebud creek in what is
now Saltwater county, near the present
town of Absarokee. The trip was made
with a saddle horse and a pack animal,
usually a mule, which was usually well
laden with the heavier packages sent
by mail while letters were carried in
saddle-bags. The round trip usually
took a week, depending IN the weather.
From Fort Washable, the route al
across the Wind river section, through
the Owl mountains and down Owl
creek to the ranch of Ben Anderson
and j. D. Woodruff where the cooking
of Dad" Aldrich was a welcome Incl
dent of the trip. From there, the route
continued north past Meeteetse and the
present site Of Cody and then on by
where Red Lodge in Montana now