Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 91 seat. Over half the county's population lives in Scobey, which had a 2020 count of just under 1,000 residents. Mansfield Daniels named the town for his friend,Major Charles Rich- ardson Anderson Scobey. Scobey the man was a Glendive area rancher, served as Indian Agent at Poplar, and served in the territorial legislature. The town has a colorful history, part of which entails the lo- cal legend of the building housing the courthouse. As I trav- eled around Montana, I have to admit that what I expected to find, especially in the less populated counties, was a court- house similar to the one in downtown Scobey. The town's own website says this about the building: "a former hotel and house of pleasure known as One-eyed Molly's, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and now houses the Daniels County Courthouse." Flaxville, eleven miles east of Scobey, was born as Boyer, but when the Great Northern branch line came through in 1913, the site of the town moved to its present location. The name comes from the large amount of flax grown in the area. The 1930 census counted 515 residents, but that number has dropped with every succeeding count. In 2020, only 63 peo- ple called Flaxville home. Other names that show up on a map of Daniels County in- clude Four Buttes, Navajo, Peerless, Whitetail, and Madoc. All of these communities had high hopes when the railroad came through. Today, the railroad is gone and little remains of any of the towns. I had a grand time photographing what's left of Madoc when I drove through Daniels County in 2011. Thirty percent of Daniels County residents claim Norwe- gian ancestry. This might explain why a map of Scobey shows Granrud's Lefse Shack. Scobey has three motels and 13 restau- rants—if we include bars serving food and coffee shops. Cer- tainly that number should provide for any tourists who find themselves in the area. And one of the things Daniels County is known for is its wild bird and big game hunting. Daniels County also contains part of the Fort Peck Reser- vation and trust lands of the Turtle Mountain Reservation. The latter serves Chippewa people and the former Assini- boine and Sioux. Native Americans make up the largest eth- nic minority in the county at 3.2% of the total population. My own Daniels County story starts before my birth and centers on the Scobey Methodist Church. In 1946, as my fa- ther was about to graduate from Boston University's School of Theology, a district superintendent from Montana made a recruiting trip to Boston. He urged my parents to come west, instead of returning to their native West Virginia. His offer was Scobey. Neither of my parents had ever been west of Co- lumbus, Ohio, so they asked the D.S. to describe Scobey. He did, and they asked, "Do you have anywhere else?" Yes, he did, Stevensville—which my parents accepted, and in 1946 they said good-bye to family and friends and moved to Mon- tana. Three years later, I was born. I N 2 0 1 0 , D A N I E L S C O U N T Y I N 2 0 1 0 , D A N I E L S C O U N T Y RANKED AS MOST RURAL COUNTY IN THE CONTIGUOUS 48 STATES. The Madoc School

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