A history of Plentywood,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Plentywood from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗In 1881, Sitting Bull and his band surrendered to US forces roughly at what is now Plentywood.
Butch Cassidy and other rustlers used a trail through Plentywood to move their stolen cattle into Canada. The plentiful gulches provided coverage for the outlaws. The Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 sparked an increase in Montana homesteaders, including in the Plentywood area. Claiming this land forced some of the outlaws away.
The first business in Plentywood opened in 1900, and a post office was established two years later. The city incorporated in 1912, following the arrival of a Great Northern Railway branch line that eventually ran from Bainville to Opheim.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Plentywood’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewHealth center. Plentywood, Mont, 1920: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Plentywood
See all 2 →Plentywood, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Plentywood is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Plentywood has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Raymond Grain Elevators Historic District in Plentywood, 7.2 miles away.
Plentywood and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Health center. Plentywood, Mont (1920) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (12). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.