Wood Mountain Trail

This ancient trail extended from the Yellowstone River past this point to the Wood Mountains in southwestern Saskatchewan. It was used for generations by the Sioux and Assiniboine Indians in pursuit of buffalo and for trade with the Canadian tribes west of the Great Lakes. Refusing to surrender to the U.S. Army, Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa followers often used the trail in the years following the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Eventually becoming homesick for his people and perhaps realizing the futility of his fight, he rode this trail for the last time in July, 1881 to Fort Buford where he surrendered to his enemies. It was later during the late 1880s that cattlemen drove longhorns over the Wood Mountain Trail into northeastern Montana. By the second decade of the 20th century, this region was populated by hundreds of homesteaders who sought their own piece of the American dream on the windswept plains of northeastern Montana. While many failed to realize their ambitions, they left an indelible mark on the landscape and culture of the region. During the height of the homestead boom in the 1910s, Scobey was the largest primary shipping point of grain in the world.