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Dusting Off the Old Ones

Continuing With Montana Names

These stories are usually dated during that period when the only woman one would see smoking was one who had come from the south and would be puffing away on a clay or a corn cob pipe. We have been publishing the manner in which Montana communities, rivers, etc., obtained their names. Continuing along that line--we will start with our neighboring town of Broadus--Broadus was named for the Broaddus family, early day settlers on Powder River--one of the Ds was omitted by mistake by the postoffice department in Washington in establishing the name of the postoffice, as the original family name is spelled BROADDUS. Circle, the county seat of McCone county, was named for a brand that was used by an early day cow outfit. Anyone who has been in the little town of Colstrip, south of Forsyth, would readily understand how it derived its name--it is a contraction of coal-strip, derived from the strip-mining of coal in that area. The Montana Almanac makes the following statement concerning the naming of Jordan, the county seat of Garfield county, and some eighty miles northwest of Miles City: "Jordan: county seat of Garfield county; named either for the Jordan family of Glendive, W. B. Jordan of Miles City, or A. A. Jordan, first postmaster." However, information supplied by some of the oldest settlers in that community is to the effect the town was named for the first postmaster. And finally for this article, the naming of Lodge Grass, the town and creek in Big Horn county. The Crow Indians originally called the stream "Greasy Grass," but through misinterpretation it has been called "Lodge Grass."