Dupuyer
- Categories:
- Historical Markers/Interpretive Sign, Historic Sites, Lewis and Clark Expedition
- General info
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Location: Hwy. 89 north of Dupuyer
Dupuyer, a colorful frontier cattle town, and 1880s stop on the Fort Shaw-Fort Macleod Trail, is the oldest town between Fort Benton and the Rocky Mountains. Joe Kipp and Charlie Thomas, whiskey traders, settled here to raise cattle in 1874 and sold their holdings to Jimmy Grant in 1877. Jimmy was killed by an Indian and is buried east of the highway.
To the west, following the base of the mountains, lies one of the oldest trails in the United States. It began when early North American natives used it as a primary north-south route. Jim Bridger and his kind knew it as “The Old Travois Trail,” when white men bootlegged whiskey into Canada, it became known as the “Pondera Trail.”
The refugees of the Riel Rebellion came to Dupuyer Creek in 1885 and many remained to make this area their home. The Home Ranch on Dupuyer Creek was headquarters for the famous Seven Block Cattle spread of the Conrads and a frequent stopping place for Montana’s noted western artist, Charlie Russell.
Dupuyer