Books
Dusting Off the Old Ones was published in 1961 by W. B. Clarke, Miles City, Montana.
More Montana Place Names
Our stories are usually dated about the time that the Miles City Weather Bureau was located on one of the buildings on Main Street in Miles City instead of being tucked away at the Billings Airport. Recently, we told you readers of the place names of some of our neighboring towns and counties, as taken from the Montana Almanac, a publication just off the Montana State University Press. We did not nearly cover the neighborhood, so we will continue to recount as to how some of these places and streams obtained their names. Dawson County was named for Major Andrew Dawson, an official of the American Fur Company, although one of the guides in the capitol building at Helena tells that it was named for a trapper. The name of Captain Keogh, who fell with Custer, has been perpetuated by having Fort Keogh named for him. The county seat of Rosebud County is named for General James W. Forsyth, the first United States Army officer to land by steamer at the site of the present town. Powder river is so called because of the gunpowder-colored sand on its banks. The Indians and Lewis and Clark called the river "Red Stone" because of the color of the rocks along its course. Ismay is a contraction of the first parts of the names of the two daughters of George W. Peck--Isabell and Mary. Peck was an official of the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway when the Milwaukee built into Montana. An early day cattleman, Charles Hysham, who operated to the west of us, had the county seat of Treasure county named for him. And even a name of one of the cities in Europe has been transferred to our neighborhood. Plevna being named for Plevna, Bulgaria. We'll have more of this information in later stories.