Here is the first page/cover sheet for the 1893 Sanborn Map of Miles - I had to break into two images to make it manageable. The detail / scale is not ideal, but it gives a sense of the size and layout of Miles back then. The other sheets give specific details of given blocks, businesses, and structures - similar to what is linked to in the Bricks & the Stack thread - but, it's not feasible to copy and post the entire map set.

Miles City, MT, 1893, Index Sheet
http://i221.photobucket.c...-1893a.jpg

Miles City, MT, 1893, Cover Map
http://i221.photobucket.c...-1893b.jpg

I have the 1928-49 Sanborn book at my office. It is mondo cool. There was a web site for Sanborn maps but you had to pay to belong and my budget barely covers toilet paper.

Amorette,

If you want a password to the online Montana collection of Sanborn's contact me privately through the link here or through the Montana history group (messages through the link here seem to end up in the spam bin, so going through the group might be better).

The collection contains the Miles' maps from 1883 to 1948. I know you can put the maps to good use.

I assumed you had access to the collection or I would have made the offer much, much sooner . . . sorry about that
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Sorry I can't share it with everyone here . . . but if I could, I would.

[This message has been edited by Hal Neumann (edited 8/29/2007).]

I recently discovered, in the basement of my store, a very well preserved linen scroll map of Miles City. The exact date is unknown at this time, but I think we have it narrowed down to sometime between 1913 and WWI.

I will have it Xeroxed (it is at least 50 feet long) and break it into the sections for display. I can try to photograph the sections to post online too! It is very interesting.

I am surprised, from the maps Hal posted here, that so much of the city was platted out already in 1893! WOW! I wonder at what point they decided to make the street run North/South instead of off angle. I wonder why they were off angle to begin with?

By looking at the map, I see that the river used to run directly in front of my parent's house at Eagle and S 4th (in front of the golf course.) I knew it did, but didn't realize how close to the street. Looks like it ran right up the #5 fairway. It's also interesting that the area that Todd Steadman is developing was plotted. I don't think that there were ever houses there. Even streets named out there that I don't think were ever really there.

There used to be an old indian woman that lived in a little house that is no longer there just east of my parent's. She used to tell me stories about the buffalo, the indians, how her house was on the river, when the army came. She lived to be over 100 and lived in the house most of her life. I can't remember her name for anything though.

Blanche Ethel Whitemoon. Lake Street is named after the "lake" at the end of it, which was part of the south side slough.

I hope to get over to see the drawing today!!!

>>It's also interesting that the area that Todd Steadman is developing was plotted. I don't think that there were ever houses there. Even streets named out there that I don't think were ever really there.

Yeah some of those streets shown on the fringes of town are nothing more than lines on the map laid out on paper when the surveyors plotted that section of town. I've learned over the years that maps can sometimes be pretty misleading - they don't always actually show what's on the ground.

The Native American woman you remember telling stories of the old days may have been Ethel Whitemoon (White Moon?). I think she is discussed in a thread or two here. **Oops - I see Amorette provided her correct name while I was typing this**
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Eric, the slant streets south of the tracks were laid out by the railroad - I bet there's a thread here that discusses the why's and when's of how that came about.

[This message has been edited by Hal Neumann (edited 8/30/2007).]

Hey Amorette, I have a question for you...

My father's old shop sits at 5th and Bridge. There was an opera house where the "Cutt and Curl" is (Cutt after my dad). The shop at 18 S 5th was, I believe, the original Miles City Saddlery. I know that my grandfather built the aparments. I am wondering if you have any more info? My grandfather's original shop was next to the alley across from the Olive where the blue caboose used to sit. I do not know what year they moved down the street.

BUMP to get Amorette's attention.....

Oh, carp. I forgot to check my files. I'll try to remember to pop in to the office tomorrow and dig up the South Fifth folder. Sorry.

Yes, the building at 18 s. 5th was constructed as a 'factory' for the MC saddlery in 1911. The retail outlet was across the alley at 17-19 s. 6th. I'm writing a history column on it, in case the Star runs one again.

apologize for not giving more details. i was ironing the morning and burned a finger.

COOL THANKS! I wish the ol' alzheimer's hadn't gotten to my dad cause he used to know all sorts of things about that building (and a ton of other Miles tidbits). But you can't ask him anything anymore. Amorette, if you would like, I could e-mail you some of the things that I know (mostly info I get from my mother).

Cory, I believe that when the army first came to the area, they did not survey from stone marker or bench mark as nothing else existed in the valley. The army merely surveyed a military road from Barrs landing (sp) below the rocky ledge on the Yellowsone, (this was as far as the steamships could come up the river unless it was at the peak of high water in June) to Fort Keogh. This established a road for the military to carry goods on into the fort by wagon (probably a matter of about ten miles). Since the military road was established when people began to settle in the valley, all property lines were established off of that. More than likely all of the merchants, whiskey traders and so forth in old Milestown lined up along that same military road. No one bothered to check for accuracy. This could be the reason true north-south lines do not exist. In addition, when the railroads came to the area the government used free land as an incentive for them to bring their rail lines in this area. The railroads were granted every other section either north or south of the railroad for fifty miles. This was not done on an accurate survey, but merely roughly. When the the USGS tried to survey the area in the early sixties they took some readings and everything in this end of the valley was off, They weren't going to try to rectify a mistake that had endured that long. I could be wrong, but check with someone who has surveyed land in this area for a long time, and he will probably have some version of the story.

Having just read Mom's note re: survey of early MC, I can add that a survey done for us in the Yellowstone Valley adjacent to the Muggli property was based on a point tied to the original NP railroad survey. It was deemed to be the most reliable and accurate at that time - 1975. Hope this is useful.

[This message has been edited by Bill Zook (edited 9/8/2007).]

I stumbled into three of these, mis-listed ("Mils City")