Hi-Line Living: Bullhook Bottoms to Havre: Celebrating Havre's incorporation year

Before there was Havre, there was an area south of the Milk River called Bullhook Bottoms, which got its name from the butte southeast of present-day Havre that regional Native Americans called Bullhook, from the legend of a bull bison gouging out the middle of the butte.

The lowland, where the creek that starts at the butte flows into the Milk River, was known as Bullhook Bottoms.

Great Northern Railway head James J. Hill, the "Empire Builder," wanted the name of the area changed after he made it a major stop for his east-west line. So a meeting to discuss a new name was held. Things got heated and a brawl broke out, the 1976 book describing the history of Hill County, "Grits Guts and Gusto," recounts. The next meeting was more civil and the original five homesteaders - most of whom were of French descent - were to select the name. Joe Demars suggested "France," but that was shot down. Then Gus Decelles suggested using the name of his parent's French hometown, Le Havre - the Harbor - and the town name became Havre,

2018 marks the 125th anniversary of Havre's incorporation on Sept. 5, 1893, which happened just four years after Montana became the 41st state added to the Union on Nov. 8, 1889, and five years after the U.S. government opened Hill, Blaine and Liberty counties for settlement May 1, 1888.

"As it is true in any undeveloped country, the exploiters came first - trappers, fur traders, gold seekers and adventurers - then came the men who wished to establish roots by filling their homestead claims. Some brought their wives and families; many of the bachelors that came married and settled down," says "Grit, Guts and Gusto."

Settlers from Europe, Asia and the eastern U.S. were "enticed" by James Jerome Hill, the Canadian-born railroad titan/entrepreneur, to come to the area.

Life on the frontier wasn't easy and to survive and thrive people needed grit.

"These were rugged individuals that stayed and populated the country. They endured hardships - it was a way of life; some returned to the area from whence they came, but most felt challenged to live with their decision to settle the area and survive," says "Grit, Guts and Gusto."

The old railroaders, who "had language as colorful as the cowboys" were at the mercy of the elements - they froze in the winter and roasted in the summer. When the farmers and businessmen were poor, the railroaders were poor. The railroaders carried to the West people Hill "beckoned with his talk of an utopia in the Montana north country."

Without Hill, Havre as it is now might not have been. Without Hill, there would be no Hill County. A statue of Hill stands in front of the BNSF railroad station.

Hill was a driving force for thousands of people who wanted to earn their fortunes on the prairies of the West as homesteaders. Those who filed a claim for a homestead had to pay 25 cents per acre and they had four years - which was later modified - to show "proof and cultivation and improvement of the land." Since the land was categorized as desert land, each homesteader was able to file a claim of 320 acres.

Hill was born Sept. 16, 1838, near Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and died May 29, 1916, in St. Paul, Minnesota, but not before building a large railroad network and a multi-million dollar empire that would tip into the billion-dollar tax bracket in today's money.

After settling in St. Paul in about 1870, Hill established transportation lines on the Mississippi and Red rivers and arranged a traffic interchange with the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. On that line's failure in 1873, Hill interested Canadian capitalists and reorganized it as the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway Company, becoming its president in 1882. (from Encyclopedia Brit.)

Hill visited his friend Simon Paris Gibson in Great Falls during that same year, 1882. On his return to St. Paul, he applied for permission from the federal government to open northern Montana territory through Native American lands to build a railroad. The government granted permission in 1887.

Railroad construction began April 2, 1887, just a few miles west of Minot, North Dakota. Progress reached the bottomlands of the Milk River Sept. 6, 1887, on the way to Fort Assinniboine.

The railroad continued, tracking through Great Falls and then Helena, a sum of 643 miles.

The railroad officials decided to locate a terminal where the best water supply could be found, and that's how the location of present-day Havre was chosen. The operation was moved from Cypress, near Big Sandy Creek, that had serviced Fort Assinniboine since its commissioning in 1979, to Bullhook Bottoms, which was an ideal area for a campground. Many Assiniboine, Gross Ventres and Cree camped there.

Many of the first pioneers have been embedded in Havre history - in books and in stories told by descendants who still inhabit the area. The pioneers' names live on through their families, monuments and organizations.

The men and women who came to north-central Montana came to work and to build a life, and many did just that.

Leon LaSalle came to Havre in 1895 and staked a homestead in the Bear Paw Mountains. Together with Mary Jane Bonneau, whom he married, they raised seven children. LaSalle ranched and also worked as a county road supervisor. He helped develop the first roads through the Beaver Creek area.

Ed Redwing arrived at Fort Assinniboine in 1890 from North Dakota. He worked at the roundhouse, a locomotive maintenance shop, which was on fort grounds at the time, as a wiper and holster helper. In the summer, Redwing worked as a fireman. In 1893, Redwing went into the cattle business, with Jack Thompson and Al Reberg, and bought 100 head of cattle.

Redwing married Matilda Ryan June 27, 1904, in Havre. Matilda Redwing, or Hilda, loved to ride.

Simon Pepin built an empire of cattle and land, says a poem in "Grit, Guts and Gusto."

Born in St. Michel, Canada, Pepin came to the U.S. when he was 16, first to Saco, Maine, before arriving in the West, where "he knew there was a great future." The need for better beef for military personnel prompted Pepin to go into the cattle business.

With the help of others, Pepin secured a military beef contract with the U.S. government. In 1891, Pepin, his associates and family moved to Havre when it was still Bullhook Bottoms.

As time went on, Pepin's family and home enlarged. Pepin built a five-room house on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Third Street. His was the first Havre home to have running water.

Pepin's family moved to Havre from Wisconsin and St. Paul, prompting Pepin to enlarge his home by adding another nine rooms. Pepin also owned two ranches, one of those being the P Cross ranch.

Bill Thackeray, born in 1937, said his family arrived in the area in the days of Bullhook Bottoms. His great-grandfather, Bill said, was a Virginia man who went to school in England, and when he came back found himself in the throes of the Civil War. He was opposed to slavery, so the elder Thackeray took off to Canada, where he got involved in the Irish Revolt, the Fenian Raids, that were happening at the time.

The Canadian government, under British rule at the time, gave Thackery a trading post just outside Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada, for his service. Lake Thackeray, near Battleford, was named after William Webster Thackeray, Bill's great-grandfather.

At some point, the trading post was burned down, presumably by the Irish rebels, Bill said. The elder Thackeray decided to get his family out of there, for fear that his young son, Bill's grandfather, was getting involved with the rebels, Bill said.

Thackeray moved down to northern Montana with his family, by the Milk River. He had become familiar with the area during his travels to Fort Benton, where he bought a lot of goods for his trading post that had come in by ship on the Missouri River.

His grandfather, also named William Webster Thackeray - a name Bill says has been passed down to six generations of Thackerays including himself- was 14 when he moved with his family to Bullhook Bottoms.

Bill's grandfather worked as a lineman for Pepin's P Cross ranch. His job, Bill said, was to search out lost cattle and horses, a duty that took him all over northern Montana.

Bill said his grandfather shared quite a few stories of his early Havre days, adventure tales from his days of riding through northern Montana in a volatile climate, both elemental and criminal.

The Thackerays lived near the Milk River during prohibition. Bill's grandfather told him he often heard the gunshots from the scuffles involving bootleggers who'd come from Canada with booze in tow. When the river was frozen, many bootleggers would ride with liquor in tow on the river because it was flat and concealed, especially at that time, when there was more brush along the banks.

Since being born in Havre, Bill has left for various reasons, including his time in the U.S. Army, educational pursuits, and teaching jobs, he said. Although he has spent time in Chicago, Seattle and Utah, Bill came back and, for decades - from 1965 to 2006 - taught at Montana State University-Northern.

Havre has changed "quite a bit" during his lifetime, he said. Bill remembers a time when the city had a larger population - at one point, there were more than 12,000 people in Havre, he said. He remembers a time when local businesses like the Dutch Shop Café, Buttrey's, various barbershops, and many more, lined the city's busy streets.

When being prompted to give his opinion on what might help improve the area, he said, businesswise, it would probably be a good idea to have a four-lane highway along the Hi-Line, to capitalize on potential traffic and the revenue it would bring.

Local historian Emily Mayer sees Havre as a place that has changed, for good and for bad.

Havre has always been willing to embrace technology that improves everyday life, from the automobile when it was first introduced to the masses to modern conveniences such as PCs and cellphones, she said.

But, Mayer added, many in Havre today "lack understanding" that subsequent generations need to step up to the plate and maintain necessities that make cities attractive and enticing for companies, citing the city's aging infrastructure as proof.

"Your grandparents thought enough of Havre to invest in the future. They had limited incomes, too, but they stepped up to the plate and created these necessities and amenities for us," Mayer said in an email Thursday. "Can't have something for nothing, and that's a mentality Havre needs to get over. Many times, people think someone else needs to pay for what we want, but the reality is, no one is going to help us if we don't help ourselves."

"Back then," Mayer says, there was a sense of real community, of neighbors, of neighborhoods.

"Havre will always have my heart, but there is a lot of room for improvement," she said.

There are many more men and women who had the grit and fortitude to help make Havre what it is today.

Before the settlers - the trappers, the cowboys and homesteaders - the rolling prairie land was already occupied by the Native Americans. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Assiniboine and Atsina - Gros Ventres of the Prairie - occupied the northeastern corner, the Blackfoot the central and north-central area, and the Kutenai the northwestern corner.

Over time, the settlers and Natives learned to live together - they married, worked together, rode together, did business together.

This year's Festival Days theme is "Roots and Branches ... We Need Each Other," said Jody Olson, director of Havre Area Chamber of Commerce. The theme and logo, just recently revealed, was created by Chamber Office Manager Julea Robbins. Plans are to include the 125th incorporation anniversary in Festival Days' advertising, Olson said.

"I still believe in the saying 'Havre, It's the People,'" Olson said. "I've lived many places and find Havre unique in this way also."