Books

Dusting Off the Old Ones

Lansing Flat

We wonder whether there is anyone who has lived in Miles City twenty-five years who could correctly answer the question: "Where was Lansing Flat?" Most folks who have lived here thirty years or more will remember. In the late eighties, a party by the name of Charles H. Lansing filed a homestead claim on the land which lies directly north, across the Hiway No. 22 from the Miles City Municipal Airport. He obtained title to the land in 1894. About the same time that Lansing filed on that quarter section, Thomas H. Deckert made a filing in the United States Land Office under the three Acts of Congress which were passed to "Encourage the Growth of Timber on the Western Prairies." This filing covered 160 acres just south of the Lansing claim. Residence on the land filed on under the terms of these "tree claim acts" was not required as it was under the homestead laws. A patent was issued to Deckert in 1894, and about eight years later Deckert conveyed the land to Mr. Lansing. Lansing and his family lived on the land for many years and the entire tract was known to everyone as "Lansing Flat." In 1913, Lansing sold the entire tract to a party by the name of George H. Brown. And with this conveyance to Brown, was started the long and rugged road whereby Lansing Flat became the property of Miles City and was converted into Montana's finest natural airfield.