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The land around Roy, Montana is prairie covered with sage, grass and cactus. In years when there is rain there is yellow clover and prairie primrose too. The plains are broken by rocks, washouts and steep-sided coulees. The nearby Missouri Breaks are badlands where juniper, ponderosa pine and fir grow. Along the many creeks around Roy grow willows, wild fruit trees, chokecherries, service berries, raspberries and currants. http://www.fws.gov/rockymountainarsenal/habitat/native/wildflowers/evening.htm http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/herbaceous/whitesweetclover.html
The two major geological formations of the area are the Judith Mountains and the Bear Paw Mountains. Roy, Montana is 12 miles north and east of the Judith Mountains. The Little Rocky Mountains and the Bear Paw Mountains are to the north of Roy. In the mountains there are poplar trees, birch, ponderosa pine and fir. Cottonwoods grow in the Missouri River bottoms. After gold was discovered in Montana Territory the Missouri River became a busy transportation route. The first steamboat to pass the UL Bend was the Chippewa in 1859. http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-10832-Billings-Sightseeing-Examiner~y2009m10d5-Missouri-River-Montana
The entire region was covered by the Cretaceous Sea 60 to 150 million years ago and the Crooked Creek area north of Roy is rich hunting grounds for fossils, petrified wood and many baculites (60 to 120 million years ago) called buffalo rock that have a significant meaning to Native Americans who believed the rocks brought good luck and good hunting. Arrowheads can be found in the Black Butte area (8.5 miles south out of the town of Roy on the winding Black Butte Road). Black Butte was a favorite look-out hill for the Native Americans. Chief Joseph and the Nez Perces came through this area passing very close to the present day site of Roy, Montana on their way to the Cow Island crossing at the Missouri River in their flight to Canada.
http://www.fossilicious.com/Baculites-c-315.html http://www.bhigr.com/store/product.php?productid=133 http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-10832-Billings-Sightseeing-Examiner~y2009m7d15-Canyon-Creek-Battlefield
Black Butte http://www.blackbuttewebcam.com/
Assiniboines, Crows and Chippewas hunted this region of Montana and Metis hired in the 1830s and 1840s to guide in this area returned in 1879 with their families to live in this area because of the great hunting. The Doneys, LaFountaines, LaRocques, and Gardipees were some of the Metis families that settled around Roy and Lewistown becoming the first permanent settlers of Lewistown, Montana. Later buffalo hunters, trappers and early settlers decimated the wildlife populations in the Roy Valley but the decline of hunting during World War Two allowed the game to recover and move into new areas. http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-10832-Billings-Sightseeing-Examiner~y2009m7d14-Lewistown
Cattlemen brought their herds into this area in the late 1870s -- mostly longhorns driven up from the Texas panhandle. After the autumn roundups the cattle were trailed to Fallon or Custer, Montana to the Northern Railroad lines. In 1884, cattle fattened on the Montana ranges brought the highest prices in the stockyards of Chicago. Huge sheep herds were brought in from Oregon and William Fergus drove a huge sheep flock into the region and joined his brother James Fergus who had arrived a few years earlier with cattle. William kept his sheep flock on Box Elder Creek. By 1886 James Fergus and his son had established their Horse Ranch.
A man named Kies found $10,000 worth of gold along the Missouri River on the west side of the Musselshell River. Kies came into town to hire two men to help him and the three headed back to the claim. On the way they were all killed by Indians and the claim has never been located to this day. In the late 1870s gold mining was booming at Zortman, Landusky, Kendall and in the Judith Mountains. Prospectors also mined Black Butte and coal was discovered at Coal Hill east of Roy. A miner's pay was $8 a day. Laborers made $4 a day and cowboys and sheepherders made $2 a day. Cowboys would work cheap all summer, go broke in the fall and make good miners during the winter.
Walter H. Peck came to Montana from the east in 1881. He established the Roy post office which he wanted to name Ray, after a family member. A mistake in the spelling gave Roy its name. Mail arrived by stage from Fort Maginnis. The first business in Roy was a saloon owned by William P. Coyle. The town was very small until after 1910 and the Homestead Act. The Homesteading Act allowed the head of a family or anyone over 21 years of age to file on 160 acres for a $10 fee and a commission of between $4 to $12. After 5 years of living on the claim the title deed could be earned. The Milwaukee Land Company purchased the town site and surveying was complete on 3 December 1912. John Stevens built the red livery barn in the winter of 1912-13 (the loft of the barn was the town's first rooming house) and this structure is still standing today. In 1913, Nels Christensen built a 2 story, 25 X 140 foot store and by now there were doctors, lawyers, dentists, realtors -- and horse thieves living in the town of Roy. Every time a new business was built a dance was held in the building before the furniture was moved in. On 27 April 1914, the Milwaukee Railroad reached Roy and telephone service arrived in 1916.
On 13 June 1922, two men robbed the First National Bank of Roy and drove out of town with $2500 in cash and Liberty bonds. Bank teller F. B. Stevens, farmers Grover Beal and William Olson, and A. L. McCain who worked at the hardware store in Roy gave chase in a car owned by E. O. Sanbo. They caught up with the robbers in Grassrange where shots were exchanged and McCain was wounded. They were joined by a sheriff and two deputies in Grassrange and continued the pursuit to Winnett where the robbers were captured the next day. The money from the robbery was never recovered.
Other famous events in Roy's history occurred on 15 May 1926 when the town's first grain elevator burned to the ground and the Roy Flood of June 1962. Right where MT-19 turns into U.S. HWY-191 there is a left turn if you are driving north that leads to Roy in about 6 or 7 miles. http://russell.visitmt.com/communities/Roy.htm http://www.co.fergus.mt.us/
Gregan Wortmann
Homestead Shacks over Buffalo Tracks by Roy History Committee; Color World Printers, Bozeman (1990).
Judith River Fergus County Montana http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-10832-Billings-Sightseeing-Examiner~y2009m10d1-Judith-River-Montana
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