ROSS HOLE, SULA
 

    Sula is the post office. It is not a city or even a town or group of buildings. Literally it is the post office in Ross Hole. All the years since the first settlers, Sula Post Office has been the heart of cow country that is Ross Hole. Sula post office is in the old neighborhood or Ross Hole with Sula Peak and the Sula Range guarding it. The Sula post office could be called the "Capital of Ross Hole."
    In the early days, Jack and Will Kerlee drove the stage from Darby all the way up the East Fork to deliver mail at stage stops and finally to the Scott Sherrill ranch house where the Sula post office was located. Mail sacks were distributed to homes along the 20-mile stretch of country road. The historic name of Ross Hole continued to be the name of the area, but the first post office got its name, Sula, to honor Sula Thompson, as the first white child born in Ross Hole. Her father was known as "Longhair Thompson." He was the second Sula postmaster. Will Wetzsteon was the first.
    Jim Lord and his brother came to Ross Hole in 1882, bringing Bertie Lord, Jim's son, with them. After the hard winter of 1886-1887, the worst for Montana Territory, they were discouraged and had to sell out to Longhair Thompson.
    Scott Sherrill and his two children, Forrest and Mira, with his second wife and her child, Eva Helt, moved to Ross Hole in 1890. They bought the Thompson place for $1,000. After Thompson left, Scott Sherrill was the postmaster until he died in 1901. Two sons, Theo and Archie, were born to Scott Sherrill and his wife in Ross Hole. Mrs. Sherrill gave up the post office job then and once more it was Will Wetzsteon's job as Sula postmaster.
    Sherrill tried to have the name changed from Sula to Sherrill, but was not successful in doing so. Scott Sherrill's father, Jacob Sherrill, was a Corvallis pioneer.