Big Horn City: Part One, From the Crow to O.P. Hanna

Big Horn City, around 1885, a diorama in the Bozeman Trail Museum

The Big Horn area is rich in history. When the Europeans came to the Big Horn area, the Crow Tribe was already here.

In a talk about the Crow migration, Bill Yellowtail, member of the Crow Tribe, said that the Crow left their homeland in the Midwest and followed a vision of a scared plant. After traveling through much of the Western U.S., they came to the Goose Creek Valley.

Their leader, No Vitals, told them to rest, while he climbed Cloud Peak to wait for another vision. He was told that this was the “Center of the Earth” for the Crow People. “Any way you look, and as far as you can see in any direction, that is to be your place.” The spirit said.

No Vitals told him people that to the North it is cold; to the south it is too hot; To the east are our ancient enemies, and too the west is inhabitable territory. As long as you stay here, you will fare well.

The spirits told him that the scared tobacco they had been searching for was right along Goose Creek. The spirit said they must propagate and care for this sacred tobacco and to protect the land.

Yellowtail said that the migration happened, as near as they could piece together through the stories and archaeology, about 1450 A.D. or so. The Crow have lived here ever since.

Except for occasional raids and skirmishes with the Sioux and other tribes, the Crow lived well. There was clear, sparkling water, berries, plants, and wildlife for the taking. Then the whitemen began pushing west in search of gold and virgin land.

The Bozeman Trail through the area opened in 1863, and even though the Crow often allied with the whites in hopes of keeping the Sioux out of their traditional hunting country, they saw their homeland shrinking.

Indian troubles along the Bozeman brought in soldiers to protect the settler’s roads from the tribes that were trying to protect their hunting territories. General Crook lead several of these expeditions to protect the settlers using the trail.

General Crook camped not far from what is now Big Horn in June of 1876, right after the Battle of the Rosebud and before the Custer Battle. Years later, ranchers in Big Horn digging irrigation ditches unearthed a stone with the words, “Camp Cloud’s Peak, Goose Creek, June 23, 1876, F. Grouard and B. Pourrier” carved on it. Frank Grouard and “Big Bat” Pourrier, were scouts for Crook.

The stone was found on the Hilman ranch in Little Goose Canyon. One of the names carved on the back of the rock is Jim Bridger. The stone is now on display in the Bozeman Trail Museum in Big Horn.

In the years following Crook’s Expedition and the Indian battles, ranchers and outlaws and stage lines were also a part of Big Horn City.

The first homesteader was Oliver Perry (O.P.) Hanna, who started work on his cabin in August of 1878. He was also the first permanent settler in what would later become Sheridan County. Hanna married Dora Myers in June of 1885, and they lived in that cabin until 1891.

The Sheridan Post Industrial Edition, October 1921, there is a long story by Hanna about the early years in and around Big Horn City.

One segment of the story was about the mail stage. Mail Route Established: In the fore part of the winter there was a mail route established from Rock Station, on the Union Pacific Railroad, by the way of Fort McKinney (Buffalo) and Fort Custer to Junction Station on the Yellowstone. a distance of five hundred miles.

It was weekly, and Charlie Ferguson and I took the sub-contract to carry the mail from Fort McKinney to Fort Custer. As mail pouches were scarce, Ferguson generally carried the mail in his pockets. The weekly gathering of mail usually consisted of four or five letters. He would bring it in when he reached the ranch, lay it on the mantle shelf, and go off with me for a hunt for two or three days.

A man by the name of Fisher took the original contract too cheap and went broke. So Ferguson and I never got anything for our work. Ferguson was held up several times by road agents. They would examine the letters and if there was nothing of any value they would threaten to “shoot his lights out.”

The Spring of ’79 the Patrick Brothers secured the contract tor the mail and increased it to a daily, and on buck boards they went flying through the country, although all the mail could have been carried in a man’s pocket. They got about $90,000.00 per year. (That is what the paper said. It was probably a misprint. More likely it was $9,000 per year, which would be more in keeping with what the other mail stages were paid in those days) However, it was good thing for the country as it helped to develop it.

A blacksmith shop that was built in the early 1880s to serve the Patrick Brothers stage line and local ranchers in the valley still stands. Today, it is the Bozeman Trail Museum with memorabilia from local residents.

In the above-mentioned article Hanna said this about Big Horn: County Rapidly Settled, During the summer of ’80 the country settled up rapidly, over 15,000 head of cattle were driven in during the summer. In the spring of ‘81, I with Ed Jackson and Jimmie Lobban, organized and laid out the town of Big Horn City. It was the first town laid out in northern Wyoming. We also tooksteps toward organizing Johnson County. I was foreman of the first grand jury in Johnson county. We were in session six days.

Buffalo was founded in 1879, but perhaps it wasn’t ‘laid out’ like Big Horn City was. Buffalo was incorporated as a town in 1884.

Even as the country was becoming settled, there were still some outbreaks of Indian trouble.

From the Laramie Sentinel, March 20, 1880: Sioux and Crows.—Word comes from General Miles, at Fort Custer, that the Crows and Sioux have made treaty, and will unite forces in hostility to the whites. Great excitement prevails around McKinney and Big Horn City, the settlers flocking into those places, for protection. There are but two companies of troops at McKinney.

After that, Big Horn City continued to thrive, and many businesses were established, including the Big Horn Mercantile, which is still in operation today as a restaurant with a post office attached, and the Oriental Hotel, started by O.P. Hanna.

Still, it seemed as if not everyone was pleased with the frontier atmosphere of the new city. From The Enterprise, March 1890

A Slander: The following is taken from the Pittsburg Dispatch. We don’t know who Mr. McNeal is, but one thing is certain, he has a vivid imagination. There is no more orderly town in Wyoming than Big Horn!

James McNeal, Formerly of the Southside, has returned to the city after five years residence in Big Horn City, Wyoming Territory, to which place he intends returning in the spring, Mr. McNeal says that in spite of the fact that Big Horn calls itself “city,” it is, nevertheless, a small place of about 15O houses, every one of which contains saloon of some kind or other.

It lies at the foot of the Big Horn range of mountains, and its principal business is ranching and gambling, although some few government teamsters have their main places of residence in the town. Gambling is carried on openly and entirely above board. If party feels disposed to have little game, generally what is known as “stud” poker, they need only take a box and place, it outside on the pavement in front of one of the stores or anywhere if they have no house to go to and play for stakes often running up into the thousands. No objection will be raised so long as they do not interfere with the egress or ingress of patrons of the house.

Very little is lost, in gambling, as the town is so isolated that the money usually travels in a circle back to the party from whom it was won first. So long as it is not paid over to hotel or saloon keeper, who may invest it in goods not obtainable in the vicinity it is not likely to leave the town. They have beer which commands 25 cents glass; cigars at. the same price -in fact, very little of anything can be purchased below that price. Sunday is the great gala day in this city. The saloons keep open house, in many cases the doors being taken from the hinges and locked up in rear room until the great feast day is over. Notwithstanding the high price of everything obtainable everybody seems to always have plenty of money.

By what species of financeering (sic) this is accomplished is not explainable, but it is nevertheless fact. The climate is simply wonderful, very little sickness of any kind being known.

Big Horn City shortened the name to Big Horn, and it is a small, thriving community of around 500 people today.

Part Two of this story will take a look at the outlaws who harassed the mail stages and robbed area stores, including some of the infamous James Gang. It will look at the English settlers who brought polo to the area, which is still played each summer, among other interesting history bits about the area.