Throwback Thursday: Montana’s historic places recognizedIn May…

Stafford Grocery. Photo provided by BLM Montana

Stafford Grocery. Photo provided by BLM Montana

Stafford Grocery. Photo provided by BLM Montana

Gist family on horses, ca. 1950 with Building #2 (left behind horses) and #3 in background. View to the west. (Photo courtesy of Jack Gist.)

The Ervin Homestead/Gist Bottom was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. (BLM photo)

The Ervin Homestead/Gist Bottom was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. (Photo provided by Jack Gist)

The Ervin Homestead/Gist Bottom was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. (BLM photo)

Throwback Thursday: Montana’s historic places recognized

In May 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Homestead Act, which encouraged Western migration by entitling settlers to 160 acres of public land after they reside on and cultivate the land for five years. For much of the West, including Montana, homesteading gave rural communities their roots. Some of these homesteads took root on huge, isolated stretches of land while others blossomed into bustling towns that acted as the gateway to the West. 

Two Montana locations from the homestead era recently landed on the National Register of Historic Places thanks to Bureau of Land Management archaeologist Zane Fulbright.

Thanks to work by the BLM and partners, the Ervin Homestead/Gist Bottom Historic District and Winifred Grocery now are recognized for their historical value.

The Ervin Homestead/Gist Bottom Historic District lies within the vast and isolated, but breathtakingly beautiful Upper Missouri River Breaks, located in Blaine County.

The district consists of the abandoned buildings and sites associated with the John Ervin Ranch and the Gist Family Ranch. John Ervin developed the land and buildings beginning in 1911. The Gist family bought the land in 1947 and began developing the area east of Bullwhacker Creek in what is now known as Gist Bottom. The Gist family sold the land to the BLM in 1980.

Since acquiring the land and resources, the BLM has been a stalwart steward of the Ervin Homestead/Gist Bottom area. The BLM has made valiant efforts to maintain the historic character of the buildings, preserve the integrity of this remote rural agricultural landscape, and educate the public about its importance. Projects have included trash removal, fence building to keep cattle away from buildings, stabilization of the Ervin cabin and installation of an interpretive panel in the cabin.

The standing residences are the most significant reminders of life in this most lonely and unforgiving landscape, and taken together with the remains of outbuildings, structures, fields, and roads, this district strongly represents the hope, hard work, and history of the people who settled and eked out an existence in the Upper Missouri River Breaks.

The path to its listing began twenty years ago when Zane Fulbright, today a BLM archaeologist, was sent on a work detail from the U.S. Forest Service to record homesteads within the BLM Upper Missouri National Wild & Scenic River area.

Winifred Grocery has functioned as a grocery store and gathering center for the isolated community of Winifred for over a century. 

The Milwaukee Railroad’s North Montana Line arrived at Winifred during the height of the Homestead Boom in 1913. The Winifred Grocery, known historically as Stafford’s Grocery, was built in 1914.

Stafford’s Grocery is associated with the community’s initial period of development as a railroad and trade center, when the store was one of several businesses constructed on Winifred’s Main Street.

Story by Jonathan Moore and Alyse Backus. Photos provided by BLM Montana/Dakota and Jack Gist.

Via Bureau of Land Management

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