SCLT Explore History: A House Full of History

On Tuesday, December 17, at the Tongue River Valley Community Center in Dayton, Kevin Knapp and Tom Balding gave a program about how SCLT helped Balding list his house and property on the National Register of Historic Places. Around 20 people attended the program.

Balding said that in 2000 he purchased his house and 45 acres. He said he had heard rumors that Bozeman Trail running through his property. He said he didn’t think much about it at the time until he was at an event at Fort Phil Kearny.

He said it was a long process, about a couple years of researching and documenting. SCLT submitted that information to the state, and they sent it to the National Register. He said he appreciated the land trust for their help.

He said the barn was close to falling down, it was built by what they call dry-stacking of the stones, and a lot of them had fallen down. He stabilized the barn and sand-blasted off the white paint. He said before he bought it there were other interested parties, but they wanted to tear down the house. Balding re-furbished it and now lives in it.

Homesteaded in 1885, it was the third homestead in Sheridan County. Due to historic significant it qualifies on two of the four Criterion, one being Criterion A, because of its association with homesteading in the state of Wyoming, as well as the significance of the architecture of the brick house. It was homesteaded by an Englishman, Stephen George, and he build the house right along the Bozeman Trail. By 1891 George had over 800 acres and was listed in the 1907 Sheridan Directory as a cattle rancher.

Balding said that his boys were walking in the creek one time, and they found an old rusty bridle bit, horseshoes and several piece of metal. He said that he thought it was an old wagon that had went into the creek. He said in his research they found that a few miles upstream there was a skirmish with the Indians and there was a wagon runaway. Perhaps those artifices came from that wagon wreck.

Wildlife abounds on the property, the local Audubon Society did a bird count and found 82 different species of birds. He does not graze the property, it is all natural “I am real careful with my weed control, and native plants. I planted hundreds of trees, willows, and the beaver are thriving.”

Balding said there a three mile long, well maintained walking trail on the property, which the public can access with permission.