Rosebud County, Montana Courthouse

Today's post is about the County Courthouse in Rosebud County, Montana.  Rosebud County is in southeastern Montana, near the Wyoming border. The town of Rosebud, conveniently located in Rosebud County, sits hard on the south shore of the Yellowstone River and is ten miles to the east of Forsyth on I-94.  Forsyth is actually the County seat, and is the location of the Rosebud County Courthouse - not Rosebud. Go figure. 

The sign below is found at a rest area off I-94, and it gives a little bit of the history of the county and the area to those travelers who do more than just stop to use the restrooms.

This sign reads:"From July 28, 1806 when Wm. Clark passed Rosebud Creek on his way down Yellowstone, this river valley was served as one of the major avenues for development and trade in eastern Montana. Innumerable trappers and traders followed Clark's route, including the American Fur Co. which constructed Ft. Van Buren at the juncture of the Rosebud and Yellowstone, in 1835. The fort proved unprofitable and was abandoned in 1843.

Buffalo Hunters took over 40,000 robes from this area alone during the 1860's and '70's shipping them out by river boat. The slaughter disrupted eastern Montana's Indian culture and precipitated several years of bloody confrontation, culminating in the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn eight days later."

Rosebud County was carved out of Custer County in 1901. I don't know why. It probably doesn't matter. The area was explored by traders ad fur trappers. It turns out Rosebud Creek was full of beavers. After much debate, the county was named Rosebud and not Beaver. Which is probably a good thing, because Rosebud Creek is still around. I am not sure how many beavers are left.

This also happens to be near the spot where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer camped along the banks of Rosebud Creek a few days before the Battle of Little Bighorn. We al know what happened there, don't we?  Perhaps if you are thinking about camping near here, you might want to rethink that idea.

 Here is a photo I took of the Rosebud County Courthouse. You will see that this building is much like the Divide County, North Dakota County Courthouse from an earlier post. Three stories, stone finish, a dome at the top. Many County Courthouses share a similar design.

The Rosebud County Courthouse was built in 1912.  The cost to build the structure, furnish and landscape the grounds was about $175,000. Remember, that's in 1912 dollars. It would be just a bit more to build it today. It turns out there was a bit of an issue with cost overruns, which apparently the local government did not want to pay for, or perhaps did not have the funds to pay for. The builders, having completed the job and feeling as though they were entitled to get paid, simply locked the doors. The people of Forsyth protested, the Judge threw the contractors in jail, and after everyone cooled off, the courthouse was opened.

 

Here a another view of the Rosebud, Montana County Courthouse.

Because this building is in Montana, and those were the days of the wild wild West, the building would not be the same if there weren't a unique story that becomes part of the local lore. There is an actual bullet hole located in one of the seats in the Courtroom.  During a trial, there was a question as to whether a shotgun held as evidence could accidentally go off, as alleged by one of the parties.  The Sheriff said the gun could not go off accidentally. He shook the gun to make his point, and, you guessed it - the gun went off.

 

In 1927 the Richland County Commissioners used the Rosebud County Courthouse plan to build an identical building in Sidney but with brick facing instead of sandstone. what a bunch of copycats they are up in Sidney.

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