Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-07-10

There was a beaver dam in the slough
n the rising water brought the pea
yer out Of their houses. Eight or nine
beaver, knocked over the head n
skinned, out-balanced wet feet. After
an hour or two the jam broke and the
water receded.
When Mr.. Young came to the yell
loWStone, there were no settlements
worthy Of the name along its entire
length with the exception of the army
environments at the functions of the
Big Horn and of Tongue river with the
main stream. There were a few trad
ing posts such as that of the Country
mans across from the Saltwater. Oc-
~caslonally several trappers built tenn
poraryN quarters together for protec-
ton. When the stage line was estab-
lshed, little settlements sprung up
around some Of these.
In 1877, P. w. Meadow, sensing the
Importance OF the point, located at
CoulSOn. There had been a trapper's
cabln there previously. In the summer
and fall of 1877, Meadow started
cutting logs at several points up the
Yellowstone. He built a boom in the
Yellowstone TO catch the logs and
throw them into a slough. The next
spring he brought in a steam Sawmiu
which had originally been brought into
Montana from Ogden. Meadow had
a store with a saloon in the rear. He
was in effect the banker for settlers
up and down the river. Other enter
prises in which he was interested were
the ferry and the mail contract be-
tween Fort Custer and Fort Maginnis.
At n time Mr.. Young looked after
the horses which were used on the
mail route and then he kept a hotel
at Coulson. When the graders for the
Northern Pacific came to Coulson in
the fall of 1881, the boom began which
Meadow had anticipated, and tents and
all kinds of temporary structures be-
gan going up right and left. Hay that
fall was SOS a ton. Coulson for the
rest of It's brief career was a wild place
to which whisky vendors, faro dealers
and poker players and wild ONE
fastened.
AL Olden, who had a ranch on the
MuSSelshel, had charge of the mail
route.
One of the first men to come into
the district around CoulsOn was John
Hare, a trader and trapper, who was
probably in the region even before
CoulSOn was established. Once when
Hare had been north Of the MusSel-
shell, trading for furs and buffalo robes
with hunters and rowing Indians, he
decided to bring them in from his camp
on the Musselshell to Huntley on the
Yellowstone, which was the head OF
river navigation.
A mar named McDonough had been
with him for a few days at the camp,
and he got him to drive n OF the
four-hOrse teams with which he
planned to bring in the furs. They
loaded up their furs and started out
with Haire's outfit in the lead. They
had decided to camp at a point about
halfway between the Musselshel and
Coulson. HARE reached the camp
toward evening and made preparations
to camp. But McDonough did not
show up.
When morning came and still no
McDonough, Hare went to look for
him. He found that McDonough had
taken the horses with such of the
robes as he could conveniently carry
and had skipped out with them. AL
though Hare and officers made a long
search, they could find no trace Of
horses or men. McDonough was never
seen again in his old haunts. Several
years later, however, when cowboys
made a roundup Of the cattle and
horse thieves of the lower MuSselshell
and Missouri, McDonough was among
the 25 or 80 ruStlerS who were hanged.