Carl Dallman
Rich Lake Basin Wheat
Revised 20 June 2001c
Carl Dallman, age 92, stands beside his cabin home in Rapelje. [Story
line by E. Stanley Swenson & Mrs. John
Leuthold]
The Lake Basin,
north of Billings
has thousands of acres of rich wheat land under cultivation, and vast land
areas for sheep and cattle grazing. In the early days
the farmers would pull a two or three-bottom plow with a team of seven-horses,
and barely working 12 acres a day. On September 13, 1877, Chief Joseph’s
Nez Perce Indians, fleeing from federal troops commanded by Col. Sturgis, attempted
to reach Canada
by passing through this area. An Indian scout, Pawnee Tom, spotted them at the
mouth of Canyon Creek west of Billings.
After a short and bloody battle, the tribe escaped by going through the Lake Basin
area, and into the Musselshell
River area (Rygate).
Another Indian skirmish took place in February 1884 at Hailstone
Basin (north edge of Lake Basin).
Piegan Indians, associated with the Blackfeet Tribe, crossed the Yellowstone River
near Park City and stole 60 Crow Indian horses,
and some from settlers in the area. Chief Plenty Coups
men and some settlers followed their tracks in the snow and ambushed them at Hailstone Basin. Joe Tate and Chauncey Ames, Park City
settlers were killed, as well as a number of un-named
Indians. The horses were recaptured, and Chief Plenty
Coups added one more scalp to his collection.
In the late 1880’s John T. Murphy formed the “79 Ranch” on
the western edge of Lake
Basin, comprising 120,000
acres. It was normally thought to be one huge ranch, but in fact
it was three ranches acting as one. Most of the acreage was really public
domain! In 1908
he sold part of his holding in the basin to D. J. McMahon (manager of the
McMahon Land Co of St. Paul.)
He in turn sold small tracts of land to new settlers, and larger ones to
adjoining farmers. Tom Busteed bought a large area on the west edge of the
basin to create his own ranch. He had worked for the 79 Ranch, was its
Postmaster. His wife was cook there. Cab
and Al Thomas started operations on the “Thomas Ranch.” Their
holdings eventually included the R. J. Martin sheep ranch, (southwest of Molt);
the Ten Springs Ranch; and a large slice of the original 79 Ranch. The Martins
moved to Billings
and built their home on the northwest corner of 3rd Ave N and 28th St.
(site of the Albert Bair Theater-Fox Theater). The Lake Basin
area (near Molt) was being settled starting in the
early 1900’s. One of the first was J. L. Keefer, who started to plough
the land in 1908. He built a small home there. The first post office in the area
was at Stickley, established in 1909. Mrs. Jake Kraft was postmistress. The
little cabin was moved to Stickley and was located on
the John Leuthold wheat farm east of Molt.
In 1910, Carl Dallman, considered to be the first
settler, brought his family from Sheboygan,
WI to the area just east of what
was to become Rapelje. The railroad, built some seven years later, went through
the middle of his farm, only a few yards from his house.
Rudolph Molt was one of these early ranchers. He purchased large amounts of
land and started a large sheep business. In 1912 he
had 38,172 acres in the Broadview-Molt area. The government granted NPR a
considerable amount of public domain land in exchange for constructing a spur
line from Hester northwest through Canyon Creek canyon, and on to the Sweet Grass
River. NPR used the Great
Northern track between Mossmain and Hesper for a while. In 1916
the right-of-way was surveyed and purchased. The railroad announced plans to
start construction. With the railroad’s assurance about the construction,
towns were laid out along the planned route. Towns were built before the track was laid. Rudolph Molt sold some
land for the construction of Molt (named in his honor.) The Stickley post office was
then moved to Molt. Nora was started 12 miles up
on the right-of-way. E. J. Riopel built a store building there, and several
other businesses started. Part of Nora was owned by William
(Tuck) Crawford, and he surveyed the townsite, platted it and graded the
streets in anticipation of home builders. Rudolph Molt did the same for his
town. Nora’s name was changed to Wheat Basin
by the Postal department when Mrs. Riopel became postmistress. The railroad
then announced that they would only build 35 miles of track the first year. At
that time, another town (platted in 1917) called Rapelje was established. This
was the most populas town in the area for some time, until a fire destroyed a
large part of it. The railroad ended construction at Rapelje, but had completed
the route survey for another 35 miles to a point known as Melville. The route
was to extend through the Six Shooter (west of Big Coulee), Gibson (renamed
Eagle Point by the railroad), and on to sweet Grass River.
This portion was never built. Plans to build a large
city at the Big Coulee and the north edge of the Lake Basin,
but wasn’t built. It was to be
named “79”, in honor of the Murphy’s “79
Ranch”, on whose former property it was to be built.
Email
me:
Katy Hestand
Yellowstone County Coordinator
