By Dave Dodge & Cleve Kimmel

Yellowstone County – Your Ancestral Past Trail Series

Out in the Boonies (Trip # 21)

Fort Maginnis – Junction City - 1882

Junction City - Train Station and Post Office on the NPR 53 miles northeast of Billings and located on the north bank of the Yellowstone River, under a high bluff that protects the town from northern winds in the winter. It is across from the Big Horn River outflow. In the summer of 1877 General Sherman established a supply depot there for the army on the south side of the river. He named it Cantonment Terry, in honor of General Terry. In June 1877, William Taylor opened a small trading store at the site of future Junction. His patrons were Crow Indians and soldiers. It was named Terry’s Landing. When the stage line was created, it became one of the stops. Until 1880, it was of little importance. At that time, there were 41 residents resided in the surrounding countryside called Sage Brush. When NPR passed through, things did not change very much. It was considered to be a “typical” western town. People there traded with Fort Maginnis, Fort Custer, and the local mines. Junction City was platted and approved by the Custer County commissioners on March 8, 1883. Property ownerships for most of the town are located in the Yellowstone County Courthouse.  On April 5, 1883, a large portion of the business section of the new town was destroyed by fire, entailing a loss of $10,000. In 1888 the population was 200.  Historical remarks compiled in pdf, 12 pages. Pictures of some of the town can be found in Paul McCormick’s bio and related entries.

 “In 1882, June 24^th, Second Lt LM Brett, 2^nd Cavalry, along with one interpreter, one non-commissioned officer, and four privates from Troop A, 2^nd Cavalry, was ordered to proceed from Fort Maginnis on June 25^th to Terry’s Landing, for the purpose of selecting the best and most direct route to that point, to be used for supplying Fort Maginnis.” The mileages determined from the journey were:

In retracing his ‘footprint’ as recorded in the land surveys at or close to that time, I find some minor discrepancies in the distances, but the route is quite well marked. About 80% is presently located on private or government land areas. Portions, if not all, of the route was also used for mail & stage deliveries. The route from Junction City northward has a small segment that wasn’t noted on the land survey records, but the interconnection is quite apparent. There are two trails departing from Junction City that were used to support this road, and both depart from the Salsbury Stage line, one to the northwest (Five Mile Creek) aand to SPRINGS as noted above, and one to the northeast. These trails can be seen on today’s maps; but in slightly different positions as land owners started to arrive and the counties took over management of the surveys. Current highway route 310 mileage between Junction and Musselshell is 31 miles. The GLO land survey records do not cover all townships for the 1882 time frame.

Note: The town of Junction City extends between R33E & R34E T5N on the north side of the
River. The PO will be the starting point for the trail. Itand the other trail segments will be denoted by a ® symbol.

1)      The GLO 1906 land survey plat shows where the Junction City Post Office was located. This was also the stage stop location. The ‘dashed’ line on the Yellowstone river depicts where the local ferry operated. From this location – south – it connected with Fort Custer, located on the east side of the Big Horn River (Basically across from Hardin). The Signal Corps established heliograph operations for transmittal of information between many of the military posts in Montana. They called upon volunteers for that duty, and extensive training was conducted using generally a 2”-diameter glass mirror. Messages from Fort Keogh were transmitted via relay stations between Signal Butte, Maginnis Butte, Junction City and Fort Custer. The location at Maginnis Butte hosts a square rock cairn, that appears to be coordinated directionally between Signal Hill (Fort Keogh) and Junction City. In 1879 the Postal Service established a mail route from Rock Springs, WY (junction point with the Union Pacific RR) connecting with John C Guy’s PO, now called Eschetah. This route connected with the military forts north of Rock Springs, Fort Custer, and the Eschetah, the terminus. This now meant that mail was being delivered in parallel between Junction City and Eschetah, a direct violation of the law. Besides that, the mail arriving at Junction City from the Rock Springs line was being sorted at that PO, and Junction City wasn’t a legal postal stop for that line. This and several other fraudulent lines caused the Postmaster General to be removed from office. The next mail delivery stop on the Yellowstone Stage line heading east was restricted to Froze to Death Station (26-miles distant). None of the mail arriving at Junction City from the south was to be off-loaded or sorted there. The trail to Fort Maginnis goes north from Junction City through Sections 26 & 23.

2)     

Junction City to Springs (Good Water) Page 1 Details

The 14-mile segment trail follows closely along Five Mile Creek, and HWY 310 leading into Musselshell. The topo map section defines the start of the route as seen today. Page 1 defines the actual layout of the route.

Springs to Musselshell Part 1 (Town south of river) Page 2 Details

The river crossing has changed since the 1880’s, as noted in the local topo map from Musselshell County.

Springs to Musselshell Part 2 (Town south of river) Page 3 Details

Musselshell crossing to Willow Creek Page 4 Details

Willow Creek to Flat Willow Page 5 Details

Flat Willow to McDonald Creek Crossing Page 6 Details

McDonald Creek Crossing to Chamberlain’s Ranch Page 7 Details

Chamberlain’s Ranch to Fort Maginnis Page 8 Details

Refer to: fergus.mtgenweb.org/mtmaginnis.htm for additional details.

Montana's Historical Highway Markers

 By Jon Axline, Glenda Clay Bradshaw

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