Historic Town Founder - Detailed Research Report

Part one- Horace Countryman arrived at this area in 1875 and settled on a homestead west of present-day Columbus. When Horace arrived he played a role in shaping Columbus to the town it is now. He is the founder of Columbus and a huge part of our community, and not very many people in this community know about him so we are trying to get a marble plaque placed at West Hill just outside of Columbus that has a little bit of information about Horace Countryman. Countryman was well known for also illegally trading goods with the Crow Indians on the reservation that covered the whole south bank of the Yellowstone all the way to the Beartooth Mountains.

We are doing this because Horace Countryman was one of the three people who made Columbus the way it is. He is basically the founder of Columbus. Countryman has also done quite a bit for the Stillwater community, and so we are going to try and honor him by building a plaque. The plaque is going to be put up at West hill that overlooks where Countryman’s cabin was on the flat between Columbus and Holmgren's fishing access. We find it important for people to know about Horace Countryman.

Part two-We have been gathering information about Horace Countryman. We have been doing this by getting files from the museum. When we went to the Museum, we talked Penny who runs the Museum she showed us files on Horace. Our Group went through the files and newspapers that the museum had on him then we photocopied them. We then took all of those files to the classroom then went through all the copied documents, highlighted all the information we could found on him. We all came up with valid information about him, we found out that he had a log trading post just outside of Columbus. We have also been searching the internet we have found a lot of information on the website “Museum of the Beartooths” we also conducted a survey and the results were on our side. Horace didn’t just find Columbus either, he was a businessman. We have been doing a lot of research to find out more about him.

Part three-Findings

Source: Museum of the Beartooths website (www.museumofthebeartooths.com/)

Horace Countryman was the “founder.”

He and partners opened a trading post in 1875. (You can see where the old trading post was when you look off the hill.)

After 1877, he became the postmaster for Stillwater (old name of Columbus--two miles west at West Hill). He also owned the stagecoach station.

When the railroad came through in 1882, the post office moved two miles east to the location where the RR set up their station of Stillwater. (This is where present-day Columbus is.)

In the new location, Horace and partners set up a ferry to cross the Yellowstone River. (From West Hill, you can see where the ferry crossed. There is also a crossing part at the present-day pump house. We are going to find out more about that.)

Horace also owned the hotel in Stillwater.

Horace also drew up the original map for Stillwater showing the plots of land in 1889.

Stillwater changed to Columbus on January 1st, 1894, because mail was getting mixed up with Stillwater, Minnesota. (The names are too close.)

The name Stillwater became the county name and Columbus was the county seat.

We found a lot of evidence from the museum such as when he was born and where he lived before moving to Columbus. We also gathered together files and pictures.

We have pictures of the hotel/restaurant he built.

We also found a map with the exact coordinates of where he had his trading post by West Hill, and that is why we have chosen that particular spot.

Source: museum archives

We found an old map that shows the original locations from west end of Columbus to West Hill. It showed the original outline of this location.

Source: old newspapers (need info on source)--picture of him in paper file

Biographical information on his birth and life before Columbus. (need to add details here)

They say that he was the “founder of Columbus” and they have pictures of him.

There is information about the sandstone buildings in town--main street buildings. He built a log hotel with the help of friends John “Liver-Eating” Johnston and Jack Craft.

He built the first silver mill in Montana and also built ferry boats so that people could cross the Yellowstone River. He brought in hundreds of dollars a day.

Source: Survey of 120+ community people

Questions were about how much people knew about Horace Countryman, how important local history is to the community, how much people look at information roadside plaques, geo-caching, and extra comments.

In the survey, 68% of the people in this community had no idea who Countryman was. That’s a problem because without Horace, Columbus most likely would have never been a town in Montana. We found out that almost 60% of the 120 plus people that took this survey said that historical information signs are beneficial for local tourism. Also, 97.5% said that it was very important or somewhat important for local residents to know the history of Stillwater County. One person even said, “I lived in Columbus as a child, and know little (if any) of the historical information about the area.”

Source: book They Gazed on the Beartooths

“One of the interesting events which marked the thrill

Packed life of this pioneer was ride of nearly 200 miles poney-express style that he made in carrying the news of the Custer massacre from his stage coach station to Helena.” His stage coach station was Near modern day Columbus.

Source: trip to West Hill with Olsen

We took pictures of where we want the sign to be located. You can see where Countryman’s log cabin was while reading the sign. This is why we chose the location at West Hill.

From our research and survey, we are trying to get a marble plaque placed at West Hill just outside of Columbus with information about Horace. It will include biographical information, his achievements, and what he did for Columbus. We also will add in the story of his ride to Helena which is when Horace had to ride a horse all the way to Helena to tell the governor about the Battle of the Little Bighorn. When he got there, he busted through the door of the governor’s house, exhausted, yelling about the defeat of Custer at the battle. We found this evidence in the book They Gazed on the Beartooths. For the sign, we have gathered location information by taking a drive out to West Hill with Mr. Olsen. We took pictures of where we want the sign to be located. You can see where Countryman’s log cabin while reading the sign. This is why we chose the location at West Hill.

Part four-

The plaque will be a stand with a square platform slanted toward the reader. There will be an etching of Horace Countryman and an etched map showing locations of everything described on the plaque. On the top left corner will be Countryman’s picture (etched) and to the right will be his birthdate and death date. Below will be a short couple paragraphs of information about him and his importance to Columbus. Along the bottom of the plaque will be the etched map.

People will go down Highway Old U.S 10 more now because of Holmgren Fishing Access. They will stop and read our sign. As they look out, they will see where his old trading post was, the Yellowstone River and learn about his ferry. When they drive into town then, they will look for the crossing by the pump house and the main street buildings that he helped build.

For the people who live here, it will make them more aware of who founded Columbus. They will learn more about the history of our community.

There is a bunch of stuff we still need to do. We have to contact the state and county officials. We have to find out who to talk to, to make this happen. We have to find out how to fund this. We are going to write the paragraphs for the sig

The most important information that we will put on the sign is that he is the founder of Columbus.

All of this evidence that we have gathered is very valid. Without it, we would not have a good argument for the state to put up the sign that we want. The state will help us if we prove a need. We feel like we need to put a sign up for our “founder”. Few people even in Columbus know anything about Horace Countryman. All of this evidence that we have gathered is history of Columbus and Countryman. It shows how important Horace Countryman is to the history of Stillwater County and the town of Columbus.

Part five- The importance of this entire essay is to get a sign put up at West Hill for Horace Countryman. From the results of the survey The people of this community want this sign put up. The people should want this sign up because Horace Countryman deserves some appreciation for all of his accomplishments. In this essay we have gone over all of his accomplishments for the community of Columbus and told all the reasons why this sign deserves to be put up. This sign will make people more aware of the history of Columbus and that is important. This will also inform tourists passing by about the history in this area. At this point of the project our group feels as if we have accomplished a lot but still have a lot of work to accomplish to make this sign happen. We are going to make this happen by going to the county website and calling the county. We have already emailed them but there was know response. So this the county didn’t respond we emailed the county road department and gave them the exact coordinates. But they said that the highway that we want the sign to be located is not a county highway. So they gave us the state's number.