Pearl and Josie Gilmore, with their seven children in tow, applied for a 624-acre homestead in 1934 in a remote area of the Missouri Blake south of Harbor.
Evidence of their tenacity to settle in the dry sagebrush uplands is evidenced by old enclosures, simple log cabins, filled cisterns, and old root cellars that served as their homes until log structures were built. It can still be found in ruins.
Gilmore Cabin, also known as Gilmore Cattle Camp, will become more easily accessible to the public as the Bureau of Land Management has decided to open a half-mile route into the Bullwhacker area of Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument .
According to a 2001 presidential proclamation establishing the area, “The Monument's Bullwhacker region includes some of the most rugged land and important wildlife habitat in the entire Great Plains.” “During stressful winters, mule deer and elk migrate into this area from rivers, and antelope and grouse descend into this area from benchlands. At the tips of coulees and rest areas, teepee rings and historic It also includes archaeological sites and historic sites, from the remains of trails to abandoned homesteads and observation decks used by Meriwether Lewis.”
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The cabin is located approximately 7.5 miles north of the Missouri River and 3 miles west of Cow Creek.
“The Missouri Breaks are a region of steeply dissected valleys, coulees, ridges, and ridge spurs between rivers and upland plains,” the BLM noted.
“This place is on the main road to Gist Bottom on the Missouri River. You'll need a good map to find it.”
family history
Pearl Sanford Gilmore was born in Missouri and moved to Helena with her family at the age of 17. His wife, Josie Mae Goode, was born in Rosalia, Washington in 1896. That same year, her family moved to central Montana. The couple married in Lewistown in 1907.
The Gilmore family sought land in the Missouri Blake under the Livestock Homestead Act of 1916. The act granted settlers entire parcels of unirrigated land, or the equivalent, for ranching on land deemed to have no value other than grazing livestock.
According to a history compiled by the BLM, the Gilmore family raised about 20 cows, cultivated a garden, and their eldest sons worked on surrounding farms. It took him 1941 to complete the cabin, which still stands today. I assembled it using hand tools.
“Surprisingly, very few nails were used in the construction of buildings and structures,” the BLM noted, although some were built with “tacks” and others with mortises and tongues. It was carefully made.
The lifestyle in such plots was sparse. According to the BLM, “the only time water has ever flowed into the home is when it rains.” Between the reservoirs that supplied water to the aquariums, “there were several screens in the aquariums to catch rats and other critters that flowed from the reservoirs.”
Locals called the area Badlands. Details of the settlers are revealed in an article in The Chinook Opinion under the heading Bad Land Briefs. In a column of December 17, 1942, the author of the preparatory note decorated the log Gist school with “branches of fur (sic)” to provide “additional vitamins” to boost the children's energy. He talked about the food he received from the welfare office.
It also noted that Pearl had been visiting Chinook to pay taxes and do “Christmas shopping.” It took my neighbor three days to get back from the Chinook because deep snowdrifts made the road nearly impassable.
Author Wallace Stegner, who grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada, wrote about the sparse lifestyle of late-arriving settlers and the harsh environment and weather conditions that would have applied to northern Montana.
“You cannot escape from the wind, but you learn to lean into it and squint,” he writes in the book “Wolf Willow.” “Instead of running away from the sky and the sun, wear it on your eyeballs and on your back. You become acutely aware of yourself. The world is so big, the sky is even bigger, and yet you are so small.” It is.”
exchange hands
In 1941, the Gilmores' daughter Thelma patented the land. Five years earlier, in 1936, she had married Arthur Campbell, whose family had settled in the nearby Bear's Paw Mountains.
Campbell joined the Army during World War II and served in the Pacific. Her marriage to Thelma failed during the war, and she sold her estate in 1946 to her brother Kenneth Gilmore for her $500. Two years later, Kenneth sold himself to his neighbor Leo Gist. The Gist family lived in this log house for two years. It was then used seasonally as a cattle camp and hunters' residence.
In testimony provided to BLM, Jacques Gist said, “The people of this region lived on the frontier and survived without running water or electricity much later than in other parts of the country.'' ” he said.
After passing through several more hands, the land was transferred to the BLM in 1983 as part of a land swap.
historical relevance
The Gilmore family moved to Chinook in 1947, where Pearl purchased an apartment. He died in 1977 at the age of 92. Josie May oversaw the apartment until 1979. She died in 1986 at the age of 94. By that time, her obituary listed 22 grandchildren, 44 great-grandchildren, and 12 great-great-grandchildren.
In 2012, BLM began renovating the cabin with an eye toward renting it out. That never happened, but this cabin continues to be used by campers and hunters today, and you'll be amazed at the tough people who tried to carve out a life in a harsh landscape.
“Homesteading is a story of isolation. It often takes more than three days to get to a community[with a post office or store]and the weather can trap people in their homes.” Zane Fulbright stated in a 2012 paper. This is an article from River Press.
“The fact that there is a farm here tells us what life was like back then,'' says the man who now manages the monument and allows public vehicle access to the area. Fulbright, who signed the decision, added:
The BLM classified the Gilmore cabin as eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places because of its association with Montana settlements during the Homestead era from 1900 to 1937.
The building is “sufficiently intact to clearly convey the concept that this is a run-down Missouri Blakes farm associated with livestock raising,” officials noted.