Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 67 When Montana became a territory, it was divided into nine counties. MISSOULA COUNTY was estab- lished by 1860, which may seem odd, since Montana Territory wasn't created until May of 1864. A remote corner near the junction of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana remained part of Dakota Ter- ritory. It was eventually properly surveyed and on February 17, 1873, was attached to Gallatin County. Covering an area smaller than Manhattan Island, it has come to be called LOST DAKOTA. Montana's original nine counties were, to tell the truth, a bit unwieldy. MISSOULA and DEER LODGE COUNTIES extended from the Canadian border down through timber and ranching country to the rich mining districts of the southwest, with only BEAVERHEAD COUNTY standing as a bulwark against their seeming inexorable march into southeastern Idaho Territory. In fact, in 1877, the Montana Territorial Legislature sent a memorial to Congress in Washington asking that a large part of southeast Idaho be added to Montana's boundary. In an act of Territorial ingratitude, EDGERTON COUNTY, one of the original nine, was renamed for Lewis and Clark, although a slight error led to it being Lewis and Clarke County until it was corrected on February 10, 1905. us Sydney Edgerton (who is often credited with making off with most of northeastern Idaho for Montana) lost the honor of having a county named for him. Ironically, MEAGHER COUNTY, created in 1866, honors omas Meagher, acting-governor of Mon- tana who replaced Edgerton and whose death from suicide, accident, or murder has never been solved. Since his body was never found, he may well have died of old age. Foreign visitors (that is, people from out-of-state) are easily spotted when they pronounce his name "meager"—perhaps appropriately. e mnemonic to help them pronounce it properly is to think of his statue in front of Helena's beautiful capitol building: With his sword upraised, he sits atop a restive steed—effectively "marring" the view of the Capitol. e county named for him, however, is Meagher-valous. JEFFERSON, MADISON, BIG HORN, CHOTEAU and GALLATIN COUNTIES completed the original nine, with Beaverhead and Madison managing to hang onto most of their original boundaries in the ensuing years. Sorting out the dates, names, county seats and boundaries of Montana's 56 counties is like trying to make a couple of dozen different jigsaw puzzles fit neatly into a Montana-shaped frame. Take MUSSELSHELL COUNTY, for example. In the records of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Joseph Whitehouse wrote that on May 30, 1805, "we passed an Old Camp of 20 lodges, which we supposed the black foot Indians had lately left. ey had left piles of Muscle shells, at each fire." at would explain the spelling of the original Muscleshell County, its county seat to be Kercheval City. Created by Montana's Territorial Legislature in May of 1866, the name was changed to Vivion County (county seat Smithton) in November of the same year. Both names were tossed out in March of 1867. Muscleshell-Vivion County had a brief, optimistic history. It was created to boost traffic for the "Missouri River & Rocky Mountain Wagon Road and Telegraph Company." Kercheval City, they hoped, would capture steamboat trade bound farther upstream to Fort Benton. It was no boom town. Mon- tana pioneer diarist Granville Stuart wrote, "June, 1866, Passed the mouth of Muscle Shell river, and the ci-devant metropolis of "Kercheval City," which consists of two seven-by-nine log cabins with a little stockade around them." "Smithton" also came in for some ribbing. e November 24th edition of Bannack's Montana Post, noted "ere appears to be a doubt regard- ing the Smith in honor of whom Smithton, the capital seat of Vivion county, is designated. Some contend that the Governor [Green Clay ABRAHAM LINCOLN APPOINTED SIDNEY EDGERTON AS THE FIRST TERRITORIAL GOVERNOR OF MONTANA. HE WAS ALSO A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE MONTANA VIGILANTES. B EFORE MAPS AND POLITICS BEGAN FRAGMENTING NORTH AMERICA INTO NA- TIONS, TERRITORIES, RESERVATIONS, STATES AND COUNTIES, THE BOUNDARIES WERE SOMEWHAT FLUID. Tribal use of land fluctuated with seasons, available game, crops, alliances and enmity. Rivers acknowledged no boundaries as they flowed from Triple Divide Peak in the Northern Rockies to the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson's Bay. by LYNDEL MEIKLE Sidney Edgerton Governor Thomas Meagher

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