APRIL 2023 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter From The Whole Truth (Castle, MT) April 3, 1897 IN DAYS OF BIG HORSE RANCHES, VARNEY AND FARRELL LED FIELD, 6,000 HEAD OVER THE FOOTHILLS From The Montana Oil and Mining Journal, Jan. 2, 1937: When people refer to Montana as a livestock state, they usually think in terms of cattle and sheep. But the breeding of horses on a commercial scale has been carried on in years past. Montana horse ranchers have sold thousands of animals to the United States army in years gone by. Montana bronchos were sold through the states of the middle west by the hundred, to pull the plows of corn belt farmers. Montana cattle and sheep ranchers who did not care to engage in horse raising themselves, but who had use for a large number of horses, furnished a strong home market. During the Boer war to South Africa hundreds of Montana range bred animals were shipped to that country for army use. One of the largest horse ranches that Montana has ever had was the old VF ranch in Madison county. It was owned by two men, horsemen both, who came to Alder gulch during the gold Osmond B. Varney Courtesy of The Madisonian, 1906 Thomas J. Farrell Courtesy of The Madisonian, 1906 Accessed via: https://montananewspapers.org mining boom of the early sixties. One of them started a livery stable in Virginia City upon his arrival. The other established a custom horse herd, one to which the prospectors and miners of the vicinity could take their horses to be cared for when not in use and to be delivered to them upon request.
2 Publizr Home