The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-05-18
The Origin of Choteau; First
Kno1un as Old Agency; Indian
Headquarters Were Close BY
By JESSE BLOCKER. ELMER BAIRL

BY JESSE BLOCKER, ELMER BAIRD
There are very few towns in the
United States and Montana that en-
joy the historic and romantic back
ground that may be attributed to
Choteau. Named for the purpose Of
being the county seat of the. then,
largest county in the United States,
il not the world. Choteau bade fair
to become more than a name.
Compared with Coconino county. Cal
ifornia, which is now said to be the
largest county. Choteau lost nothing
except its size by the subdivision. It
is still the center of the great cattle
country" which raises the same type
and quality of cattle that used to draw
a premium on the Chicago and other
eastern markets.
There's a reason for everything and
many people have been heard to re-
mark the unique name and respect
which is always paved to the mention
of Cloteau and the Tetons.
Going back into Montana history We
find a companion of the famous Jim
Bridger named Charles Choquette. who
was of French origin and came to Mon
tana in the interests Of a newly-formed
but cntcrprising trading company op-
Grated by Pierre ChoUteau of st. Louis.
Pierre Chouteau, Sr.. was also a
Frenchnlan. one of that unusual sort
of people who are heard of but rarely
heard from. He performed no mir
aculous feats of finance and other bus
mess noisiness. but his company did
have a firm hold on the region it dealt
with.
Choquette came up from the South
with Jim Bridger and a Thanksgiving
easy-riding band Of free trappers. They
had many narrow scrapes with the IN
dams and finally ended up by staging
a battle on the present site of Great
Falls.
A couple of casualties were inflicted
on the band of whites before they were
allowed to leave the battlefield and
wend their way on westward to the
Tetons and Rockies. Bridger's party
did not remain long anywhere, and so
Choquette found himself a lone strang-
er in a strange and breeding expanse
OF territory where no sign of white
habitation or inhabitants could be eX-
pected to cheer his loneliness. But,
undaunted, he built himself line shacks
n started trapping in a virgin ter
ritory. He made friends with the In
dams and was trusted and liked by
them. His word back to Pierre Chout-
eau in st. Louis, so praised the new ter
ritory that a regular business was es-
tablished with these Indians and white
men who might be willing to trade pelts
Tor guns, powder and groceries.
Although the Hudson's Bay company
and the North American Fur company
were the monopolists of the fur trad
ing industry at that time, the region
lying between the outer boundaries of
what are now Chouteau, Teton, Toole,
Pondera and Glacier counties, was for
the most part in favor of Pierre Chout-
eau's st. Louis company.
Shortly after the first settling of
the new region, Pierre Chouteau, Jr.,
came from the Mississippi town and
personally supervised the activities of
his fathers business. So transformations
wa he that very few local historians
were favored by having him pointed
out to them. However, to the Pierre
Chouteaus and Charles Choquette be-
long the credit for saving the region
from the retarding control of the fur
m~onopolists, who were opposed to all
degrees of civilization, as being de-
%structive to the trapping industry.
TrapperS, such as Choquette, Chout-
eau, and Bridger, and many others,
did not erect permanent dwellings, but
lived in light shacks of boughs, and
often in Indian tepees when fortunate
enough to acquire them. No house was
built in what is now Teton county I'M
til Jimmy Grant constructed a log cab
in near Dupuyer ON the Muddy. It is
still standing and is the oldest ranch
house in Teton county.
Jimmy Grant was slain in a personal
quarrel with some Indian friends, not
more than a hundred yards from the
cabin and was buried nearby, in 1882.
In 1865, Hamilton & Hazelet built a
regular trading post in connection with
their ranching enterprise on the site of
Choteau, and Jack Miller became the
transportation executive, with a string
OF oxen hauling trade goods from Fort
Benton, and Hamilton & Hazelet's trad
ing center.
When the government began its task
of caring for and educating the displac-
ed Indian population, an agency was
built west of the trading center and
called merely The Agency" Before
long the government enterprise was
moved north to Peigan and Agency.
Thereafter. the settlement connected
with them vas naturally included in
the name, "Old Agency" although
Choteau proper was not a part of Old
Agency. However, it retained the
name, "Old Agency" until officially
named Choteau, in 1893.
With the coming of the ranchers, the
fur companies lost their hold on the
territory and " Choquette took up
ranching on a place northwest Of Old
Agency.
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