A yachting party consisting of Capt. Wm. Clark, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, six of his men, Sacajawea and her child floated by here August 1, 1806, navigating a craft made by lashing together two hollowed-out cottonwood logs. It was Clark’s birthday and the outfit had to land that afternoon to let a herd of buffalo swim the river ahead of them. Sir George Gore, a “sporting” Irish nobleman, arrived on the scene to hunt in 1855 with Jim Bridger as a guide. Gore’s harvest during an eleven-month stay in the Yellowstone Valley included 105 bears, over 2,000 buffalo, and 1,600 elk and deer. He hunted for the thrill of the chase and trophies, only infrequently using the meat. The Crows, who occupied this country, hotly protested the devastation of their food supply. It was Sir George who named the local tributary to the Yellowstone River “Glendive,” and the town assumed the same name 25 years later. During the cattle boom of the 1880s Glendive became the “Queen City of the Cow Land.” In 1884, 12,800 “pilgrims” or eastern cattle were unloaded here in one week to help stock the range. They may have been “barnyard stock” but their progeny grew up rough, tough and hard to curry.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.