Big Horn is along the valley of Little Goose Creek. From 1866 to 1868, the military cutoff route of the Bozeman Trail crossed Little Goose Creek, where Big Horn was later located. The trail was used by travelers going to gold fields in Montana, but was plagued by Lakota attacks under Red Cloud. Fort Phil Kearny was established on Piney Creek, but continued harassment by the Lakota led to its abandonment and the withdrawal of the U.S. Army from the Powder River Country under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.
According to local historian Glenn Sweem, the main route of the Bozeman Trail did not pass through the site where Big Horn was later founded.[citation needed] It lay farther to the east and followed Prairie Dog Creek, eventually leaving that drainage and taking a course now occupied by 5th Street in Sheridan. From there the trail crossed Goose Creek and continued out Soldier Creek to present-day Keystone Road, eventually crossing Tongue River between where Ranchester and Dayton, Wyoming, were later located.[citation needed]
The first settler in the Big Horn area was Oliver Perry Hanna, an adventurer, prospector, buffalo hunter, and Indian fighter who built a cabin on Hanna Creek in 1878.[4] During the winter of 1878–79, he rode his horse north on the frozen Tongue River to hunt buffalo in the Yellowstone River Country. He participated in the massive hide harvest that wiped out the buffalo on the northern plains. His published recollections told of entire steamships loaded with buffalo hides floating down the Yellowstone River, as well as entire freight trains loaded with buffalo bones. After the buffalo hunting dried up, Hanna made a 400-mile (640km) round trip to Fort Laramie to buy seed and a plow, becoming the first farmer to carve a furrow in what became Sheridan County. Hanna attracted many of the first settlers to Big Horn City, which was established in 1882. He operated the Oriental Hotel across the street from the Big Horn Mercantile for many years. William Frackelton, "The Sagebrush Dentist", credited Hanna as the inspiration for the Crow Tribe's involvement in a July 1902 reenactment of the Little Bighorn Battle in Sheridan.[5]
According to local legend, Frank James and Big Nose George were hiding out along Little Goose Creek in 1878. Supposedly, things got "too hot" for them in the Black Hills, so they headed for the unsettled country near the Big Horn Mountains, where they encountered Hanna. This story has been passed down in the written recollections of early homesteaders, but has not been corroborated by outside historical references or the chronology of the James Gang.[citation needed] The Hilman family employed a mysterious man for a time, who regularly engaged in target practice with his pistol. The family believes this man was Butch Cassidy, based on a note left on his sudden departure from the ranch, which read: "This is the only home I have ever known—Robert Parker."[citation needed]
Polo was first played in the area at a summer fair in Sheridan in 1893. Among the players in the match were ex-members of the Ninth Lancers division of the English Cavalry, who had brought polo from India.[6]
At one time Big Horn had nearly 1,000 residents, a college, a brick factory, a newspaper, two churches, a hotel, a livery barn, two saloons, and a mercantile. It made a bid to be the seat of Sheridan County, but an 1888 runoff election gave the title to Sheridan. There was an exodus of residents and businesses around 1891 when it was learned that the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad was being surveyed through Sheridan. The railroad came to Sheridan in 1893, and since then Big Horn has been a satellite community of Sheridan. Today Big Horn has a mercantile, two bars, several bed-and-breakfasts, a women's club, the Bozeman Trail Museum, a park, and an art museum several miles up Little Goose Creek at the Moncreiffe/Bradford Brinton Memorial Ranch.[citation needed]
Queen Elizabeth II stayed in Big Horn in October 1984 during a visit with her friends Lord and Lady Carnarvon (née Jeanne Wallop) at Senator and Mrs. Wallop's Canyon Ranch.[4][7]
Founded in 1882, Big Horn caught the eye of well-to-do cattle and sheep ranchers who established operations along the base of the Big Horn Mountains in the 1890s. These included the sheep-breeding Moncreiffe brothers (from Clan Moncreiffe of the Scottish Highlands), Oliver Wallop (a member of the English Nobility), Goelet Gallatin (a descendant of Albert Gallatin US Treasury Secretary under Thomas Jefferson), and Bradford Brinton (a businessman from Chicago). These residents of higher means were a minority among other residents who were owners or tenants on small ranches and farms. This trend has continued to the present day, with a number of distinguished but low-profile executives mixing with ranchers and upper-middle class residents, many of whom work in Sheridan, Wyoming. Land prices have risen dramatically in recent years, resulting in the subdivision of pastures that once served dairy farms and mid-size ranches. The large ranches along the base of the mountains have remained intact and largely undeveloped due to the foresight of residents who have established conservation easements on their properties.
From autumn to spring, most of the community activity in Big Horn centers around its K-12 school, especially during football season. In the summer months the community attracts polo players from around the world, who enjoy the laid-back atmosphere of Big Horn Polo and the Flying H Polo Club in comparison to the more aristocratic experiences to be had in Long Island, Palm Beach, Santa Barbara, Spain, and Argentina. In May, the Big Horn Equestrian Center often hosts the Mars Big Horn Mountain Spring Cup, a soccer tournament for dozens of Wyoming traveling teams. During the tournament three polo fields are converted into 18 regulation-size soccer fields.
Though Big Horn is an unincorporated community, it has several civic organizations including the volunteer fire department, a non-denominational church, Women's Club, Lion's Club, and the Big Horn City Historical Society, which has over 400 members nationwide.[12]
Flying H Polo Club
The Flying H Polo Club[13] is one of the oldest polo clubs west of the Mississippi River. Polo first arrived in the area in the 1890s, brought by British expatriates, second sons who did not inherit estates but rather received remittance payments, who settled on local ranches. Several British men, including Oliver Wallop and the Moncreiffe brothers, began breeding polo ponies and hosting matches.[14] A unique polo culture emerged in which local cowboys played the game with sons of lords. In the early 1980s, the Big Horn Equestrian Center opened.[15] Today, matches are hosted throughout the summer with various local teams competing on a Sunday schedule. Participants ride traditional polo ponies.
Big Horn has a K-12 campus serving nearly 400 students. Graduating classes number approximately 40 students. Standardized test scores are routinely among Wyoming's highest due to small class size, excellent teachers and administration, and an involved community. Recent years have seen several National Merit Scholars and a graduate who was nominated for the Rhodes Scholarship. Several graduates are enrolled in doctoral programs and medical school. Big Horn has also earned a reputation for competitive athletic teams, with several state championships in football, volleyball, and girls basketball in the last decade.
Big Horn School uses a four-day week with classes from 8 am to 4 pm, and teacher in-service days on Friday. Though controversial at its inception, this non-traditional schedule allows for increased teacher training and curriculum development, and reduces the need for students to miss school to attend athletic contests and other extracurricular activities on Fridays. It also allows for a consistent three-day weekend, giving children more time to be nurtured in the home setting.
In 2009, the Wyoming School Facilities Commission approved plans for new school buildings to meet Big Horn's future education needs. In August 2010, construction was completed on a new two-story combined middle school/high school. A new elementary school will also be built on the current school property, in the location of the old middle school/high school which was demolished in the summer of 2010.
Demographics
As of the census[3] of 2000, there were 198 people, 72 households, and 51 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 70.3 people per square mile (27.1/km2). There were 76 housing units at an average density of 27.0/sqmi (10.4/km2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 97.98% White, 1.52% Native American, and 0.51% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.52% of the population. 22.8% were of Irish, 22.0% German, 19.7% English and 7.1% Polish ancestry according to Census 2000.
There were 72 households, out of which 43.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.9% were married couples living together, 8.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.8% were non-families. 22.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.33.
In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 31.8% under the age of 18, 4.0% from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 28.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.4 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $52,344, and the median income for a family was $56,875. Males had a median income of $50,938 versus $25,625 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $23,217. None of the families and 1.2% of the population were living below the poverty line.
Sheridan County is a county in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 30,921. The county seat is Sheridan. Its northern boundary abuts the Montana state border.
Crow Agency is a census-designated place (CDP) in Big Horn County, Montana, United States and is near the actual location for the Little Bighorn National Monument and re-enactment produced by the Real Bird family known as Battle of the Little Bighorn Reenactment. The population was 1,616 at the 2010 census. It is the governmental headquarters of the Crow Native Americans. It is also the location of the "agency offices" where the federal Superintendent of the Crow Indian Reservation and his staff interacts with the Crow Tribe, pursuant to federal treaties and statutes.
Sheridan is a town in the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Sheridan County. The town is located halfway between Yellowstone Park and Mount Rushmore by U.S. Route 14 and 16. It is the principal town of the Sheridan, Wyoming, Micropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Sheridan County. The 2010 census put the town's population at 17,444 and the Sheridan, Wyoming, Micropolitan Statistical Area at 29,116, making it the 421st-most populous micropolitan area in the United States.
Story is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP population was 903.
The Tongue River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately 265 mi (426 km) long, in the U.S. states of Wyoming and Montana. The Tongue rises in Wyoming in the Big Horn Mountains, flows generally northeast through northern Wyoming and southeastern Montana, and empties into the Yellowstone River at Miles City, Montana. Most of the course of the river is through the beautiful and varied landscapes of eastern Montana, including the Tongue River Canyon, the Tongue River breaks, the pine hills of southern Montana, and the buttes and grasslands that were formerly the home of vast migratory herds of American bison.
The Little Bighorn River is a 138-mile-long (222 km) tributary of the Bighorn River in the United States in the states of Montana and Wyoming. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was fought on its banks on June 25–26, 1876, as well as the Battle of Crow Agency in 1887.
Red Cloud's War was an armed conflict between an alliance of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho peoples against the United States and the Crow Nation that took place in the Wyoming and Montana territories from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the western Powder River Country in present north-central Wyoming.
The Bighorn Mountains are a mountain range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana in the United States, forming a northwest-trending spur from the Rocky Mountains extending approximately 200 mi (320 km) northward on the Great Plains. They are separated from the Absaroka Range, which lie on the main branch of the Rockies to the west, by the Bighorn Basin. Much of the land is contained within the Bighorn National Forest.
The Battle of the Rosebud took place on June 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and its Crow and Shoshoni allies against a force consisting mostly of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians during the Great Sioux War of 1876. The Cheyenne called it the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother because of an incident during the fight involving Buffalo Calf Road Woman. General George Crook's offensive was stymied by the Indians, led by Crazy Horse, and he awaited reinforcements before resuming the campaign in August.
The Bozeman Trail was an overland route in the Western United States, connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming. Its most important period was from 1863 to 1868. Despite the fact that the major part of the route in Wyoming used by all Bozeman Trail travelers in 1864 was pioneered by Allen Hurlbut, it was named after John Bozeman. Many miles of the Bozeman Trail in present Montana followed the tracks of Bridger Trail, opened by Jim Bridger in 1864.
The Bighorn National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in northern Wyoming, United States and consists of over 1.1 million acres (4,500 km2). Created as a US Forest Reserve in 1897, it is one of the oldest government-protected forest lands in the U.S. The forest is well east of the continental divide and extends from the Montana border for a distance of 80 miles (130 km) along the spine of the Bighorn Mountains, an outlying mountain range separated from the rest of the Rocky Mountains by Bighorn Basin. Elevations range from 5,000 feet (1,500 m) along the sagebrush and grass-covered lowlands at the foot of the mountains, to 13,189 feet (4,020 m) on top of Cloud Peak, the highest point in the Bighorn Mountains. Around 99% of the land is above 1,500 metres (4,900 ft). The forest is named after the Bighorn River, which is partially fed by streams found in the forest. Streams in the range are fed primarily by snowmelt and snowmelt mixed with driving rainfall.
The Crow Indian Reservation is the homeland of the Crow Tribe. Established 1868, the reservation is located in parts of Big Horn, Yellowstone, and Treasure counties in southern Montana in the United States. The Crow Tribe has an enrolled membership of approximately 11,000, of whom 7,900 reside in the reservation. 20% speak Crow as their first language.
The Bridger Trail, also known as the Bridger Road and Bridger Immigrant Road, was an overland route connecting the Oregon Trail to the gold fields of Montana. Gold was discovered in Virginia City, Montana in 1863, prompting settlers and prospectors to find a trail to travel from central Wyoming to Montana. In 1863, John Bozeman and John Jacobs scouted the Bozeman Trail, which was a direct route to the Montana gold fields through the Powder River Country. At the time the region was controlled by the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho, who stepped up their raids in response to the stream of settlers along the trail.
Banner is an unincorporated community in southern Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. It lies near Interstate 90, south of the city of Sheridan, the county seat of Sheridan County. Its elevation is 4,580 feet (1,400 m). Although Banner is unincorporated, it had a post office, with the ZIP code of 82832, which closed in 2004. Public education in the community of Banner is provided by Sheridan County School District #2.
The Wolf Mountains, el. 4,842 feet (1,476 m), sometimes referred to by local people as the Rosebud Mountains, and also known to the Crow Native Americans as the Wolf Teeth Mountains, are a mountain range east of Lodge Grass, Montana in Big Horn County, Montana.
Wyoming Highway 335 (WYO 335) is a 9.71-mile-long (15.63 km) roughly north–south Wyoming State Road located in central Sheridan County south of the city of Sheridan.
Fort McKinney (1877–1894) was a military post located in North Eastern Wyoming, near the Powder River.
The Brinton Museum located on the Quarter Circle A Ranch and formerly known as the Bradford Brinton Memorial Museum, is a museum and historic ranch located 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of Big Horn, Wyoming. The ranch was built in 1893 by William Moncreiffe, a Scottish immigrant and successful businessman. In 1923, Bradford Brinton bought the ranch from Moncreiffe and expanded it to its current appearance. Brinton collected art and historical materials, particularly those relating to Native American history; after his death in 1936, his sister Helen converted the ranch to a museum displaying his collections.
Oliver Henry Wallop, 8th Earl of Portsmouth, was a British peer and also served in the Wyoming State Legislature in the United States.
Powder Horn is a golf course community and census-designated place (CDP) in Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 682.
↑ An Old-Timer's Story of the Old Wild West: Being the Recollections of Oliver Perry Hanna, Pioneer, Indian Fighter, Frontiersman, and First Settler in Sheridan County. Compiled June 1926. Copyright 1984 by Charles Hanna Carter. Printed by Endeavor Books, Casper, WY.
Amundson, Michael. The Mink and Manure Crowd: The History of an Elite Subculture in Wyoming. University of Wyoming MA Thesis. 1990. Available through Wyldcat at Sheridan Co. Fulmer Public Library.
Amundson, Michael. "The British at Big Horn: The Founding of an Elite Wyoming Community," Journal of the West, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Winter 2001): 49-55.
Amundson, Michael. "These Men Played Real Polo: the History of an Elite Sport in the ‘Cowboy’ state, 1890-1930,” in Montana: the Magazine of Western History 59:1 (Spring 2009), 3-22.
"Big Horn Pioneers." Published by Big Horn Public Schools, 1961.
Hunter, Deck. Big Horn City: Wyoming Territory. Volumes I-IV. Self-published, 1991.
King, Bucky. The History of Big Horn Polo. Sheridan: Still Sailing, 1987.
Morton, Sam. Where the Rivers Run North.
Slack, Judy, the Bozeman Trail Museum and the Big Horn Historical Society. Images of America: Big Horn City. Arcadia Publishing, 2011.
Big Horn community oral histories conducted by several local historians are available in the Wyoming Room of the Sheridan County Fulmer Public Library.
Rucker, Kevin. Where Time Stands Still: The History of the Dome Lake Club. 2001.
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