Shepherd was named after R.E. Shepherd, owner of the Billings Land and Irrigation Company and the Merchants National Bank. This area was used for cattle ranching in the early part of the 1900s, until the creation of an irrigation canal throughout the area was built for farmlands. Many immigrants poured into the area to try and start a new life in farming, but eastern Montana is known for drought, thistle, coyotes, prairie dogs and grasshoppers, and a combination of all of these forced the land back to ranching. It has become a suburb of Billings.