Absarokee

October 10, 9:44 AMBillings Sightseeing ExaminerGregan Wortmann

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Awaiting the opening of reservation land to homesteading, Siver T. Simonsen showed up on 4 October 1892 at the border to the Crow Agency with his wife, two children, one team and wagon, and one horse and buggy and tented out until 15 October 1892 when the Crow land would be legally available to them.  The Crow Agency was once all the land now surrounding Absarokee.  The Agency building was on the ranch owned by Jack Pearson.  On the 15th, Simonsen and his wife put up stakes and moved their tent to their homesteader stakes.  Thus, Simonsen became the founder of Absarokee, Montana.    

http://www.absarokeearea.com/             http://www.montanapictures.net/absarokee_montana_pictures.htm  http://www.thebigyellowhouse.biz/guesthouse.htm                 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absarokee,_Montana

Simonsen built a log cabin at his stakes and this building became the old log cabin hotel, the first building in Absarokee.  The post office opened 13 January 1893.  Simonsen added a store, hotel and livery stable, a blacksmith shop and later a saloon.  By 23 September 1893 the survey of the townsite was completed.  In 1900, Simonsen leased the entire town to the company of Ross & Runner for six years.  When the lease expired the store was sold to the Absarokee Co-operative Trading Company and other people bought the other businesses.  In 1908, Simonsen sold his entire ranch (the Simonsens moved to Joliet, Montana) to P. H. Hawkins and Hawkins divided the property and then built his own residence, platted lots, designed Main Street parallel to the Rosebud Creek, and planned the school grounds.  On 7 September 1912 Hawkins laid out Hawkins Second sub-division, a year later added Hawkins Addition Number 3, and on 19 July 1920 created Riverside Addition with a 4.05 acre public park.  There were others that furnished land for the building of the town: Joe Mason, Harry Ellis, Lee Davidson, the Lehners, and Jerry Weast.                         http://fwp.mt.gov/fishing/guide/waters_a_z.aspx  http://fwp.mt.gov/fishing/guide/q_Rosebud_Creek__1094378455341.aspx 

Absarokee is 14 miles south of Columbus, Montana on Montana Route 78.  Columbus, Montana began as a stage coach station on the Yellowstone Trail.  There are large cattle and sheep ranches to the south of Columbus and wheat farms to the north so Columbus became a trade center and shipping point.  Today, Columbus has the closest railroad station to the mountains at the headwaters of the Stillwater River.  As Columbus grew and prospered so, likewise, did Absarokee, the "Inland Town of Yellowstone Valley."  Absarokee may be off the well worn path so summer country dances and social clubs have always been very popular there.  In the early years some of the social businesses in Absarokee were the Jay Hotel, the Elk Cafe, Ogden's eatery and Alex Mentch's boarding and eating house.                                                                         http://www.beartooth.org/Columbus/columbus_profile.htm

In 1905 people in the town gave money from their own pockets and hired Gladys Kelly (Beasley), who had just arrived in Montana from Verndale, Minnesota, to teach one term of school in a small log cabin owned by Simonsen.  There were 18 students.  In 1964 the old school house building was still in use as a paint shop on Grove Street and was the oldest building in town.  So many homesteaders came into the area that by the second year the school was too small for all the new children.  A new stone school was built in the summer of 1910.  The entire cost of the building was done with donated labor, money and land.  People gave from $1 to $500.  The high school was established in 1913 and more money was given for that.                                                                                             http://www.verndalemn.com/ 

Absarokee 1924

There is good trout fishing in the Stillwater River and in the mountain streams near Absarokee.  There are plenty of FAS (fishing access sites) and camping in the area.  Absarokee town (pronounced Ab-zor-kee) and Absaroka Range (pronounced Ab-zor-ka) bear the Crow name which may be the product of early French traders making a mistake when they translated the Crow word Apsaruke to mean gens de corbeaux (the raven people).  Crow Elders in the early 20th Century still maintained that the name "Crow" was given to them by their enemy the Sioux.             http://fwp.mt.gov/lands/searchfas.aspx  http://www.plwa.org/montana_fishing_access.php                           http://visitmt.com/experiences/                                                                                     http://www.examiner.com/x-10832-Billings-Sightseeing-Examiner~y2009m8d3-Stillwater-River-Montana                                  http://www.crowtribe.com/                                                                                                             http://www.native-languages.org/crow.htm                                                                          http://fwp.mt.gov/lands/site_283293.aspx

Gregan Wortmann

kruzndog@imt.net

Some of the source for this travel blog article is from the book They Gazed on the Beartooths by Jim Annin; Reporter Printing and Supply Company, Billings (1964).