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Celebrating History: Chief Rocky Boy dies, park created

By Emily Mayer

Sad news was reported in The Havre Daily Promoter’s April 24, 1916, issue. The honorable and courageous Chief Rocky Boy passed away peacefully the previous week on April 18, and his community was mourning a great loss. The article was rather lengthy, mostly taken from accounts of the Great Falls Tribune. The article noted that Chief Rocky Boy was over 80 years old, and that he had passed away on the “recently acquired Assinniboine reservation.”

Other news regarding the former Fort Assinniboine military reserve and land reserved for the Rocky Boy Reservation hit the papers. This article was on the front page of The Havre Plaindealer’s April 29, 1916 issue:

PARK ON BEAVER CREEK ASSURED

Myers Bill Passed Senate On Last Monday.

The bill of Senator H. L. Myers giving this city reservoir sites and setting out certain lands for park purposes along Beaver creek, south of Havre, passed the United States senate last Monday. It is the general belief that the measure will receive early and favorable consideration in the house, and will soon become a law.

As it passed the senate the bill contains important amendments. Instead of two townships originally planned, three townships are reserved for Rocky Boy’s band of Indians, embracing a total of 56,035 acres. Lands for reservoir sites embracing 920 acres are reserved for the city of Havre. It is provided that this city shall pay $1.25 per acre for the land. It is also provided that if the city of Havre shall abandon the lands or cease to use them for reservoir purposes, the lands shall revert to the government. The bill also reserves 880 acres along Beaver creek for a permanent camping ground.

The interior department under Secretary Land has urged prompt action on the measure so that time may be had for the Indians to take advantage of the law for the present crop season.

With the land in the reservoir site the camping ground reservation will contain 10, 240 acres on both sides of Beaver creek in a compact body for a distance of twenty to twenty-five miles. The nearest point of the camping ground from Havre is ten miles as the crow flies.

Copies of the bill in its full text as it passed the senate were received in Havre this week.

Also announced in the Plaindealer was this information:

SHERIFF’S OFFICE IS NOW AT COURTHOUSE

Work of Removing Office Effects Started Yesterday

All Hill county offices are now quartered in the new court house, the work of removing the sheriff’s office from its former location at First Street and Fourth avenue having started yesterday afternoon. The new steel cells were placed in the jail about two week since and the work of painting the interior was completed this week.

From every standpoint the equipment of the new jail is the best to be found not alone in Montana but in the northwest. The steel equipment is of the finest make, and the latest system of unit or multiple locks is used. he one who makes other than legitimate egress from the new county bastile must have a fertile brain indeed, besides acids and files heretofore unknown among the most expert yeggs.

Ample quarters for the sheriff are provided on the upper floor of the buildings, and Sheriff Loranger with his family will reside in these quarters.

Of course, we can’t forget an entry from the Plaindealer’s Society column. In accordance to old custom, women escorting their men to a ball happened only during a leap year, so Havre’s social matrons were taking full advantage of the situation:

Annual Ball Tuesday.

The Leap Year Ball given by the Woman’s club at Lyceum hall Tuesday evening was one of the most successful parties, both socially and financially, ever given by the club, which is famed for the excellence of its entertainments. Close to one hundred couples were completely captivated by the brilliant appearance of Lyceum hall, which was beautified by Mesdames L. R. McKenzie, Lewis, Bimrose, Wilson, Whitlock, Ferguson, Berthelotte, Archibald and Wilkie, under the able direction of Miss Mable Richmond.

The orchestra was enshrined in a mass of pink and white apple blossoms, intertwined with trailing ground pine and white lilies. The rest and punch rooms were bowers of spicy pine boughs, lined with window boxes, which held potted pink and white geraniums. The lights were shaded in pink and entwined with pine, and great festoons of pink and white, were draped from light to light, while great mossy baskets of feathery fern were suspended for the ceiling. The punch was prepared by Mesdames D. S. McKenzie, Grimmer and Carruth. The patronesses were Mesdames Wilkie, Bossout, D. S. McKenzie, Archibald, Benson, Wright, E. M. Allen, Lewis, Bimrose, and Henry.

The gentlemen were escorted to the ball, besieged with attentions, and safely returned to their homes in the most gallant manner, and declared most emphatically they had enjoyed the most pleasant evening of their existence.

The ladies were completely gratified by the success of their venture, and only regret the opportunities of Leap Year are so far apart.

 

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