History

While the western part of the state of Montana was driven by the development of mining which produced a lot quick riches when discovered, the eastern part of the state has traditionally had an economy based upon agriculture. Beef cattle were the main crop. Sheep and wheat being second and third...not necessarily well received by the cattlemen. Miles City is a town in the south eastern part of Montana. Except at the very founding and in the present agriculture was the main industry of the area.

The antecedent to the town was Fort Keogh on the west side of the mouth of the Tongue River. It was established in 22 July, 1876 by Col. Nelson Miles after the defeat of Col. George Custer at the Little Big Horn on 6 June. (It was named after Captain Myles Keogh. He was an Irish immigrant, who had been a mercenary serving originally in the Papal army and then the Union Army durning the Civil War. He was killed with Custer at the Little Big Horn.) Miles used the fort as a base to pacify the plains; it was from here that he lead a detachment that defeated the Nez Perces in northern Montana near the Bear Paw Mountains on 5 October 1877.

As with most military instillation, there was a rapid establishment of businesses for the entertainment of the soldiers. Col. Miles was somewhat puritanical on these matters, and did not want them anywhere near the fort. He was able to force them to stay 10 miles from the east side of the Tongue River. Their response to this attitude was to name the town that developed after him---Milestown. Only later when he reduced the size of the military reservation did a town establish itself on the east bank of the Tongue. For a while there where two Milestowns.

As the Native Americans were forced onto the the reservations, the importance of the Fort slowly became less. In World War I in was a remount station supplying horses for the war effort. After that it was slowly turned into a agricultural experiment station, where they try to improve livestock production through breeding and feeding methods.

As the Native Americans were being removed from the plains, they were being replaced by big cattle ranches. This was the age of the open range, where big cattle outfits ran their cattle on large tracts of unfenced land. These outfits needed two things of a town. First, as with the military fort, their men need a place to have a good time. The other was a way to get their cattle to market, and soon there were two railroads passing through town. The Northern Pacific was complete in 1883. It was joined by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific in the 1906 where it established a division headquarters in the town. It added a round house in town later.

Since the high point of the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's the town has been in a slow decline. With the coming of the corporate farm, many of the farms and ranches in the area have been combined into large businesses, which do not need the employees they used to have, and the population has been in decline.

The only recent addition to the economy has been mining. While it had been gasping its final breaths in the western part of the state, coal mining has become a major part of the economy in the east. While it is not going to produce a lot of money, it has been a stabilizing force.

Miles City has seen little growth in the past 40 years. In the 1980's and the 1990's there were a series of arson fires that destroyed several of the historic buildings on Main Street.

PLACES OF INTEREST

The Range Riders Museum

City Park

Spotted Eagle Recreation Area

OTHER