Billings Senior High School - Kyote Yearbook (Billings, MT)

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StNiOR Entrance

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South Entrance

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 r I or tcci LO i before there was a city of Billings. Chief Plenty Coos Xester of the C row Indians, knew of the site as the “Place of the Skulls ' for it was here that a terrible plague of smallpox decimate.I the ranks of a great Crow band encamped on the east bluffs. As soon as anyone contracted the dis- ease. he immediately jumj ed into the river, thinking to cure himself. But, naturally, it only made him worse. Then to appease the angry spirits, whom the Indians held responsible for all their misfortunes, several warriors blindfolded their horses and rode them over the cliffs to their deaths. However, the fact that they moved camp the next day, thus putting an end to the epidemic, did not alter their belief in the effi- cacy of the sacrifice. Since then, this place has been known as Sac- rifice Cliff. Dakota Hunk Robber! . 18 7 -Two Robert Bro . and Tutner However, like all frontier towns. Billings originated from a small trading post. The gently sloping plain on the north side of the Yellowstone, known a Clark’s Fork bottom, was the site. In 1876 and 1877. P. Y. McAdow. J. J. Alderson. Joseph Cochran, Henry Col well. Clinton Dills. Milton Summer, and others founded Coulson. In it there were two general stores, two ho tels, thirty-five saloons, four restaur ants, a brewery, and. in 1878. a saw mill was built. The log cabins seldom had more than one rough-hewn wooden stool for each member of the family, a table, a stove, and a bed. The town was the headquarters for Italians, trap Main N I Yards, Rllllttff