Miles City: End of the Western Cattle Trail

Miles City sits at the confluence of the Tongue and Yellowstone rivers in eastern Montana, and it owes its existence to two things: a military fort and a cattle trail. The town grew up around the Tongue River Cantonment in eighteen seventy-six, a post established after the Little Bighorn campaign. General Nelson Miles commanded the district, and the city carries his name.

A permanent installation, Fort Keogh, rose two miles away the following year. When the Northern Pacific Railroad arrived in eighteen eighty-one, Miles City became a destination for Texas cattle driven north. During the eighteen eighties it was one of the great cattle-shipping centers of the American West.

During World War One its Fort Keogh remount station processed more horses than any other Army post.