Homestead Acts
Cheever-Cain Ranch is a historic ranch located at 8 Trails End Road in Powder River County, Montana, near the community of Volborg. George and Martha Cheever, along with their daughter Lucretia and her husband Ernest Shy, claimed the land under the Homestead Acts in 1905. George died in 1908, but the rest of the family built a farmhouse and established a ranching operation on the land. The ranch was one of many established in the Pumpkin Creek valley under the Homestead Acts; it also bordered the Custer National Forest, an early attempt to preserve land from overgrazing caused by the multitude of new ranches. After Martha Cheever died, Lucretia and Ernest ran the ranch; Ernest later sold the property to the Cain family, with whom he was close friends.