Russell Country
This collection of poems is an echo of the stories I heard as a
granddaughter of early Montana and North Dakota pioneers. These poems contain
memories of a time when the great buffalo herds still thundered through the
valleys, when Cheyenne and Crow still camped around the Yellowstone River, when
mountain men and cowboys, prospectors and miners, rustlers and vigilantes still
populated Russell Country. Many of the poems are true accounts of events in the
lives of Emma and Caleb Duncan (Grandparents of my late husband, Bill Duncan.)
The poem "Shaney Ridge" tells about how Caleb Duncan and his brother
George, through hard work, built up a large ranch in Russell Country; and how
George gambled it away. The poem "Empty Cradle Sad" tells about the
abduction of Bill's father, when he was an infant, by a Crow Indian.
Bill was raised on the family ranch. As a small boy, he and his brother Pete
rode bareback on bucking calves with Bud Linderman, pretending to be rodeo
stars. ( Bud Linderman later became a World Champion bareback rider.) Bill was
active on the family ranch. In Spring, he helped drive cattle about 50 miles
from the home base, to higher leased ranges on the Crow Indian reservation. In
fall, he helped drive them back. He figured he'd been on about 20 such cattle
drives. Many of the poems were based on accounts in Bill's life.
The poem "Rustler's Roost" is about a band of rustlers that operated
out of the Big Horn Mountains. As head of a nine member crew that surveyed the
Big Horn Mountains prior to the construction of the Yellowtail Dam, Bill
traveled through country that few white people have ever seen. In the five
months they were there, they lived chiefly off of the abundant game to be found
in the Bighorns. In a very remote section of the Big Horns, the crew came
across a narrow pass into the canyon. It had a heavy chain attached to a hook
in the granite wall. It was stretched across the pass, and across the adjacent
river. Past the boulders, there was a pathway to a fertile plateau. It had long
been rumored that there was a band of rustlers that operated out of the Big
Horn Mountains; and this apparently was the place. The entire area is now under
water; and is part of the Yellowtail Dam Reservoir. Bill was fortunate to have
seen this bit of Montana history and to have experienced the wild west in a way
that few people living today have known.
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