The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-10-08
the road continually at nearly all times


Oh In mt ths s1 faii of 1901 there was recorded
one of the heaviest movements of mer-
chandiSe out Of Great Falls to interior
points in the history of the state. The
value of the goods totalled more than
was consigned to Iewistown than to
any other one point. The shipments
consisted of everything, candy, nuts,
raisins, figs, mincemeat. There was
practically no farming in the region
and with transportation methods so
available. The gardens were few and
small. People lived out of cans.
The shelves of the general store were
stocked with canned meat of all kinds
and they were bought by the merchants
in tremendous quantities.
Hams, bacon, salt pork and lard were
consumed by the population by the
ton. Men operating cattle and sheep
outfits came into the towns and hauled
the four-horse load to feed their hands.
AS late as 1904 one big store in White
Sulphur Springs bought a straight car
load of packing house products ham,
bacon, salt pork. ETC., every six weeks
Those old kitchen necessities, canned
canned goods of that sort, but most
of the other common vegetables were
well represented. Fresh fish, Of course
were unobtainable. Canned oysters,
clans, shr1mps and Holsters were
bought in quantities, and box after
box of the finest preserves, called
glass goods" Dried fruits were sold
the call. Prunes also had big play.
The consumption of many of these
things was increased during the home
stead days when central and northern
and eastern Montana's cattle ranges
were dotted with homesteaders' shacks
who lived for the most part on flap
jacks, bacon and dried fruit.
Dried Apples Not Fruit
story of Frank Knight, who home
steaded on what was known as Bear
Springs flat on the west side Of the
Judith river in Fergus county. Knight
had been reared in Tennessee and was
used to eating fruit fresh off the trees.
Several years of homesteader's. diet
made him good and tired OF dried fruit,
was leaving the country, his parting
shot was:
ITO hell with a country where they
call dried apples fruit"
The attitude of the customers of
those days was that the best was none
too good and it was only the best of
everything that the merchants stocked.
A LeWiStown merchant once placed an
order for 100 twenty-five pound boxes
Of OF Nf% YGzk c fancy dried spP asS da asy
at his store, $3.50 worth of just one
variety of dried fruit, and that was
the smallest part of the order Of goods
that he had freighted in from Great
Falls.
Jars of preserves that sold for as
much as 81 SO each were ordered by
the hundred. Cowpunchers in a thous-
and lonely line camps spread them
upon sour dough hotcakes and smacked
their lips over them.
Large Trade Territory
AS previously stated, Lewistown was
an exceptionally large market. It's re-
tail merchants had as customers large
sheep and cattle outfits, which, when
stocking their line camps and home
ranches for the winter, would haul out
provisions by the wagon load; In I'D ads
wholesaled for the benefit Of merchants
in many Of the smaller towns, they
usually having their own freight outfit
for what were comparatively short
hauls. But that required the Lewistown
merchants to carry stocks that would
have staggered merchants IN towns OF
S1ILldT SIG Ill Ct1otSIA ote1tCo.
Lewistown's trade territory extended
half way to Billings and other towns
on the Northern Pacific to the south,
half way to Great Falls and from a
hundred TO- q hundred and fifty miles
east, where It caught all the trade for
that distance south Of the Missouri
river.
The freight teams which were in
service consisted Of strings Of four,
six, eight, ten and sometimes II head
of horses or mules hitched to from
large and strong With deep boxes and
built specially for the service to which
they. were put. For long trips, the,