Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1936-08-06
INSTALLMENT THREE
~PALEONTOLOGY

$50. Aside from the very distinct
plant structures found in Ignite coal
veins, not many fossil remains have
been found in the county. Fragments
of petrifed wood have been picked up
in the fields, and ponderous, loglike,
slightly flattened bodies, locally be-
lieved to be petrified trees or even SER
penis (F), but probably nothing more
than concretions of some sort, are
found in badlands areas. Southeast OF
Redstone are signs Of fossil beds which
however, have not yet been examined
by experts (M,F). Some wholly o.
partly petrifed bones have been found
but have not been identified. In the
badlands and near veins Of coal many
shells, and shell and leaf sions,
have been found (F,G,K,M), and in
vestigatcrs have expressed the belief
that valuable specimens may be dis
covered there in the future.
References
A. Producers News, Sodbusters' Edition,
unpublished
B. Montana, Its Story and Biography,
by Tom Stout. American Historical
Society, 1921.
C. Consultant: George E.. Bolster, Old
time Postmaster.
Early Settlements
230. There is no reason to suppose
that any of the famous explorers who
followed the Missouri westward ever
entered what is now Sheridan County.
The first white men here were I'M
doubtedly trappers and hunters who
travelled up the Big Muddy, just as
they Travelled up the other tributaries
of the Missouri, looking for furs.
Settlement of the county began late;
it is likely that even the temporary
use of the grasslands by large nomadic
cattle outfits was delayed longer, and
then amounted to less, than other parts
Of the state. The entire county was
somewhat inconvenient of eccess, lying
outside the lane of travel which dew
eloped along the Missouri River, and
beyond the Fort Peck Reservation.
But there was some such exploitation
in the eighteen-nineties by the Dia-
mond ranch and others with head
quarters north of the Missouri CA, c..
In 1859 David J. Bedford settled at
Medicine Lake, having driven his
stock overland from Lewistown. The
county as he found it was a great
empty plain. Years later someone
asked him what was here when he
came. Mosquitoes" sad Bedford. (B)
However, squatters had alreaiy come
to the Plentywood region in 1897; Gay
and Guy Moody and a man named
Christy or Christian had laid the
foundation of a permanent settlement
by taking land within three miles Of
what is now the county seat. The first
log house was built by Moodys on what
later became the Peter Marion ranch
two miles east Of town &C.. In 1895
George Mccoy, G. N. Ator and Buck
Ellis arrived, and were soon followed
by others. AT about the sans time Ed
Sherman settled north of Medicine
Lake. S. and Jack Bennett established
themselves in the Redstone territory
about 1900, as did Henry Gray and
Carlton Bull. In the next five years
widely separated ranch houses appear
ed along the whole length of the Big
Muddy, and IN several places at some
distsnce from it(B C).
These early settlements were all
stock-raising communities, some of the
ranchers, such as the Bsnnetts at Red
stone, raising cattle; some, such as
Buck Ellis, running sheep camps;
others raising horses err both cattle and
horses. Some of them lived in log
houses, the logs having been hauled
incredible distances; some in sod
houses or in dugouts; and a few, who
could afford it, hauld lumber from
Culbertson and built small frame
houses. For fuel, they gathered coulee
brush and buffalo CHIPS" until lig-
mite coal was found. Fences, at first,
were so few that they were shown on