Columbus

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Categories:

Things to See,  Historical Markers/Interpretive Sign

Keywords:

• Columbus, 
• Montana Historic Markers

General info

Location: Columbus The town of Columbus is located about 9 miles west of here. There is probably no town (or city) in Montana that had a more spectacular career, or more hectic embarrassment in finally lighting on an incorporated name than did the county seat of Stillwater. From 1875, when the Countryman stage station was known as Stillwater, until its incorporation in 1907, its name was changed every time the whims of a merchant moved his stock of merchandise, or a new business appeared. First, it was Eagles Nest, about two miles west of town; then an Indian trading post was listed as Sheep Dip, and it was not until the Northern Pacific built a station here in 1882 and named it Stillwater that the town's location attained permanence. Even this name didn't last long, however, as the N.P. had already listed a Stillwater, Minnesota, on their mainline and the similarity of Minnesota and Montana led to misdirected shipments, so the name of Columbus replaced Stillwater on January 1, 1894 There was just reason, perhaps, that this part of the Yellowstone was slow in getting settled. It was borderland on the north side of the Crow Reservation, and there were constant raids on the area