Sykes-Belltower history

The major goal of the three authors (Sherry Farwell, Ned Summers, and Marguerite Goeders Rozelle) is to preserve the history of the Sykes-Belltower community by means of an accurate summary narrative. This narrative will be presented in multiple published parts and will focus on the years from 1865-1965.

PART I (1865-1908)

GENERAL GEOGRAPHIC AREA

The Sykes-Belltower area lies within central Carter County, Montana but has no definite boundaries. In general, the Sykes-Belltower region is bounded on the North by Devils Canyon Creek, on the West by Box Elder Creek, on the South by Catamount Creek, and on the East by the Long Pine Hills in Custer National Forest. Whereas most of the land lies within one Township (2S 60E), smaller portions are in 1S 60E, 2S 59E, and 3S 60E. In addition to Box Elder Creek, Speelmon Creek and Belltower Rock are two other significant geographic features in this Sykes-Belltower region. The 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty specified the lands reserved for the Plains tribes in western South Dakota, southwestern North Dakota, northwestern Nebraska, eastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. Via this treaty, the eastern half of Carter County, including the Sykes-Belltower area, was part of the 1851 Native American lands.

1865-1880

Prior to 1865, Native Americans such as the Crow, Cheyenne, Sioux and Hidatsa traveled and hunted in the above noted area. Historical evidence shows that Box Elder and Speelmon Creeks were important water sources on a common route for Native Americans as they migrated between the Yellowstone/Powder River drainages and the Little Missouri/Black Hills country. The first few Caucasians to set foot in this region were undoubtedly trappers and mountain men during the fur trade era. Unfortunately, their names are now unknown. The next Caucasians to enter and experience the Sykes/Belltower area were the ~1,600 members of the Eastern Division of the 1865 Powder River Indian Expedition. Colonel Nelson Cole was the commander of this large military force that included 140 6-mule supply wagons and two rifled cannons. On their march west from their previous camp on the Little Missouri south of present-day Camp Crook, Col. Cole's command on August 26, 1865 crossed the Tie Creek/Box Elder divide just south of Belltower Rock. They then proceeded northwest to their next encampment near the confluence of Sand Creek and Box Elder Creek. Lyman Bennett, the command's engineering officer, recorded this event in his diary: "Crossing the divide and descending into the Box Elder Valley, we again found a dry dusty and sterile region without grass except a little along the stream which was dry except for puddles.' Scientific investigations have revealed that a very severe multiyear drought occurred in southeastern Montana during 1861-1865. Hence, the Eastern Division with its ~1,600 personnel and approximately 2,600 horses/mules were subjected to a rather unpleasant travel and camp experience due to an extraordinary long drought and its effect on local weather and range conditions.

1881-1885

A few hardy buffalo hunters like "Ole Rus" (David Harrison Russell) and "Sitting Bull" (Thomas W. Sigler) came to southeastern Montana around 1881. While Mr. Russell settled near present-day Ekalaka, Mr. Sigler is probably the first white resident of Sykes-Belltower. During the early 1880's, Tom Sigler survived a cold winter in a small dugout that he had carved into the dirt bank of Speelmon Creek. In later years, Tom became good friends with George H. Farwell and was a regular guest at the original log house on the Farwell ranch, He told Mr. Farwell that the only thing that saved him from freezing to death that first long, cold winter in the dugout was the warmth from his only partner, his trusty dog! In later years, Mr. Sigler had a small homestead ranch on Speelmon Creek. He died in 1926, but like "Ole Rus", "Sitting Bull" was a true western trailblazer and a personable character.

Eastern Montana was blessed with above average annual precipitation during the years from 1872-1888. These wet years in combination with the ongoing extermination of the great buffalo herds resulted in abundant, nutritious native grass on the extensive prairie lands of eastern Montana. The availability of this relatively inexpensive, yet nourishing vegetation on almost all vacant land was the magnet that attracted the interest of large cattle and horse companies. As detailed in numerous books such as "Back Trailing in the Heart of Short Grass Country" by John O. Bye, during the early 1880's sizable herds of cattle and horses were headed north to Montana on a variety of long trails from Texas and Oklahoma, On July 17, 1882, General Marion Sweeny (General was his given name and not just a title) along with his brother William, young John McNarie, and eight other cowhands pushed 2,200 Texas cattle over the Tie Creek-Box Elder divide and stopped them on the east side of Box Elder Creek in the vicinity of where the Eastern Division camped in 1865. Hash Knife cattle were now grazing grass in Sykes-Belltower. The earlier home of the buffalo was now destined to become livestock ranches.

The first cattle & horse ranches operating in Carter County ran 10,000 to 40,000 head on expansive open range territories. Their names included the Hash Knife/Mill Iron, Dickey Brothers TL, Turkey Track, Three V's, Harmon & Hales 22, Carey's CY, and Buford's Quarter Circle Dot Bar. The severe drought of 1886 followed by the extremely harsh winter of 1886-87 caused open range livestock losses ranging from 60-95%. Such losses forced most financial investors in these large livestock companies to abandon their thoughts of making fortunes via their northern plains' empires. Charlie Russell's painting of the "Last of the 5,000" captured the end of the open range livestock boom. However, the disappearance of large corporate ranches, the melting of the huge 1886-87 snow drifts, and the subsequent rejuvenation of the prairie lands laid the foundation for the next era.

1885-1908

This was the period of the so-called "Nesters"; that is, those very early settlers that established smaller individual ranches on open-range land prior to the enlarged Homestead Act of 1909. The first "Nester" within the Sykes-Belltower region was Jacob Speelmon who established a small cattle ranch in the Spring of 1886 on the upper portion of a creek flowing out of the west side of the Long Pines. This small stream is still named Speelmon Creek. The harsh winter of 1886-87 killed most of their stock and forced the Jacob Speelmon family to abandon this initial ranch. During the Spring of 1887 they moved to Camp Crook where they operated a blacksmith shop and a hotel before relocating in 1889 to Ekalaka. Moreau Speelmon purchased the original Jacob Speelmon ranch from his father in 1892 and moved about 100 head of cattle to the Speelmon Creek area, Moreau sold his ranch and cattle in 1894 and then moved to the J.P. Hedges relinquishment on Russell Creek. Andrew Speelmon, the youngest son of Jacob and Mary, is the cowboy in the well known "Saddling The Wild Horse" photograph by L. A. Huffman.

The next "Nesters" were two Burditt brothers, Moses (Bud) and John (Ed) who brought a bunch of cows and started a ranch on the headwaters of Speelmon Creek in 1892. Bud, the older of the two brothers, came to Montana in 1882 and had been a well-known foreman for the SH ranch with livestock ranges around the Tongue and Powder Rivers. He married Daisy Speelmon in 1889 so one can assume that Bud obtained family information about the ranch sites available near the Long Pines and Speelmon Creek. The two brothers split up their ranch and livestock in 1895 and then Bud Burditt sold his portion of the stock and ranch land, which included the locally infamous Maverick Gulch. Later in 1895, Bud, Daisy and their baby girl (Mary) moved by covered wagon to Kalispell. Ed Burditt continued to operate the ranch, which now included the former Jacob & Moreau Speelmon and Bud Burditt place. Ed married Lillian M, Bridgeford in 1898 and they had one child, Etta Gertrude, who was born in 1899. At the request of the Forest Service, they moved their ranch headquarters in 1913 to a new site about a mile below the original location. Etta married Milo Kennedy in 1919 and they ran the ranch with her parents until 1938, when Ed and Mrs. Burditt moved to Ekalaka. Milo and Etta had five children. Their son, Bill, married Faye Ward and they moved to the ranch headquarters when Milo and Etta retired to Ekalaka. Bill and Fay's son, Billy, is now the fourth generation to live on and operate this historic Burditt/Kennedy ranch on Speelmon Creek.

The ensuing three "Nesters" along Speelmon Creek were Harrison N. Sykes, George H. Farwell, Jr. and Joe Wash. Previously, Mr. Sykes had operated sheep ranches, the first was near Powderville in 1885 and the second was in the Chalk Buttes with a partner, Harvey Messingale. In 1887, Harrison Sykes located his permanent home to a ranch near the mouth of Speelmon Creek where he ran cattle. From 1902 until his sudden death from a gallbladder surgery in the fall of 1913, Mr. Sykes served several terms in the State Legislature as a representative and senator from Custer County. Until 1913, Custer County contained the present-day counties of Custer, Carter, Fallon, Powder River, Prairie, and Sheridan. In 1901, Harrison's brother, George A. Sykes and his wife Jessamine moved from Missouri to a place on Box Elder Creek that was about a mile north of the initial Sykes ranch on Speelmon Creek. George and Jessamine had a son, Edwin, who was born in 1909. As a young man, "Eddy" married Irene Thompson and they had three sons: Gerald, Charles, and Harrison. Both Eddy and Irene enjoyed music and played for many years in local bands for dances. Eddy Sykes served as the Postmaster in Ekalaka for thirty years. Charles now spends part of his retirement time in Ekalaka and he provided key information that benefited the preparation of this historical summary.

George H. Farwell, Jr. was born in Nevada City, MT and his parents were George H., Sr. and Edna (Crogan) Farwell. His parents arrived in Virginia City, MT in 1864. After the death of George H., Sr. from pneumonia, Edna married Curtis Newbary. They then moved from southcentral Montana to a ranch site on Spring Creek in the Chalk Buttes area. This became the headquarters for the Quarter Circle Dot Bar horse and cattle operation. George lived and worked as an accomplished cowboy and wagon boss at this large open-range ranch along with his mother, step-father, five step-siblings and a host of seasoned ranch hands. During 1897, George and a fellow cowboy named Josh Jones took a herd of Newbary ranch cattle and horses to Speelmon Creek. These two cowboys spent the winter of 1897-98 in a dugout log structure on the east bank of Speelmon Creek. It was during this time that George selected the Speelmon Creek location for his own ranch based on the availability of excellent surface and subsurface water, good hay and range land, and its proximity to the Long Pines and Box Elder Creek. In 1901, George H., Jr. married Clara A. Parks and the couple rode in a buggy to their newly constructed log ranch house on the northeast side of Speelmon Creek. As an economic reference point, he paid Joe Wash, a neighbor who lived further down Speelmon Creek, $100 to furnish the logs and lumber for the house. He then paid Fred Clark another $100 to build the initial Farwell 3-room ranch house. In addition to operating the new NZ horse/mule/cattle ranch, George also sold Ford and Dodge cars, managed the Ekalaka Telephone Co., functioned as a director and investor in the First National Bank of Ekalaka, coordinated a plan to bring railroad service from South Dakota through Sykes/Belltower to Miles City, and served several terms as a county commissioner for Fallon and Carter Counties. George and Clara A. had two children: Georgia and Sherrill. Upon the retirement of George and Clara A., Sherrill and his wife, Clara F., continued to operate and expand the ranch with a different kind of livestock, sheep. Sherrill and Clara F. had two boys, Sherry and George.

Joe and Vienna Wash with four young sons and two daughters moved from Johnson County, WY to a new location along Speelmon Creek in 1896. While here, a son, Archibald Fields, was born in 1897. The mosquitoes were horrible at their specific site, so in 1898 they moved toward Belltower Rock and located a new operation in the Tie Creek area. The Wash family then expanded their number of children with the addition of Stella, Nellie, Clarence (Fritz) and Charles (Pod). As with many early ranchers, the Wash family greatly admired horses and they often participated in rodeos and horse races. Life was not easy for this rather large Wash family, but they survived and their family members have had a significant positive impact across this Tri-State region.

Two "Nester" ranches were established along Box Elder Creek in the Sykes-Belltower area. In 1905, Waitman "Scout" McElfresh settled on a small ranch site with a dugout that had previously been used as a line camp for the CY Cattle Company. "Scout" and Beth, his wife, built a two-room log house and lived here until 1915. They then sold their Box Elder ranch to Mr. and Mrs. Keltner. According to Beth McElfresh, they regretted selling their place for the rest of their lives.

In 1906, Felix and Harry Carroll purchased a squatter right from a Mr. Conley. They dissolved their partnership in 1909 and Harry moved to Illinois while Felix continued to work in the gold mines at Lead, SD. Felix married Ida Putman and they lived on this Carroll Ranch until his death in 1939. Felix and Ida had one child, James (Tommy), who was born in 1911. Tommy married Blanch Davis from the Chalk Buttes and they had five children, including a boy named James T. Carroll. James T. married Marlys Spicer (the granddaughter of David & Ekalaka Russell) in 1952 and they had two kids, James Thomas (Tom) and Josephine Faye (Jody). Despite the passing of her beloved husband in 2010, Marlys continues to set a high standard for how to live, work and enjoy family, friends and life. Gabe, grandson of James T. and Marlys, now operates the Carroll Ranch near Box Elder Creek with the assistance of his wife, Stephanie, and family.

Except for 1886-87, range conditions and weather were quite favorable to the ranch operations of these early "Nesters" along Speelmon and Box Elder Creeks. Their stock ranches were isolated by distance and the lack of transportation and communication methods. Hard manual work in often harsh environments without the benefit of modern conveniences was the "Nester" norm. Their buildings were constructed from near-by forest logs and were located near some river, creek, or spring. Minimal farming was performed due to the lack of machinery and time, although oats and corn were sometimes planted to supplement the grass and hay fed to the cattle, horses and mules. The range was free, fences were few, and the market prices for their fat animals were relatively good. In general, the "Nester" ranchers were financially successful during these early years.