A history of Belle Fourche,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Belle Fourche from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Belle Fourche, French for "beautiful fork", was named by French explorers from New France, referring to the confluence of what is now known as the Belle Fourche and Redwater Rivers and the Hay Creek. Beaver trappers worked these rivers until the mid-19th century, and Belle Fourche became a well-known fur-trading rendezvous point. During and after the gold rush of 1876, farmers and ranchers settled in the fertile valleys, growing food for the miners and their animals. At the time, the open plains for hundred of miles in all directions were also being filled with huge herds of Texas and Kansas cattle. Towns sprang up to serve the ever-changing needs of the farmers and ranchers. In 1884, the Marquis de Mores, a French nobleman and contemporary of Theodore Roosevelt, established a stagecoach line between Medora, North Dakota and Deadwood, South Dakota. The Belle Fourche way station included…
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Belle Fourche’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewCowboys near Belle Fourche, 1887, 1887: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Belle Fourche
See all 10 →
Belle Fourche, decade by decade
![Round-up scenes on Belle Fouche [sic] in 1887](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/16156/2b8c6a4b3ef28015246c-s.jpg)
![Roundup scenes on Belle Fouche [sic] in 1887](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/16156/d1e1663ec02e8fbd7fe6-s.jpg)
![Round-up scenes on Belle Fouche [sic] in 1887](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/16156/32c406027a99167a4686-s.jpg)
1990s
16 historic places in Belle Fourche
16 places in Belle Fourche are on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Listed 1978John Aaron Scotney House
Listed 1978Wide Awake Grocery Building
Listed 1982Belle Fourche Commercial Historic District
Listed 1982Charles Bolles House
Listed 1982Thomas Haskins Gay House
Listed 1988Fred S. Harris House
Listed 1991Charles and Eleanor Small House
Listed 1993Tri State Bakery
Listed 1998Butte County Courthouse amd Historic Jail Building
Listed 2001Lincoln School
Listed 2013First Congregational United Church of Christ
Listed 2016Belle Fourche Band ShellListed 1993Hay Creek BridgeListed 1993Minnesela BridgeListed 1993South Dakota Dept. of Transportation Bridge No. 10-109-360Listed 2019Roosevelt SchoolThen & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Cowboys near Belle Fourche, 1887 (1887) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (4) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.