Dryhead Country is a region in
Carbon County and
Big Horn County in southern
Montana between
Bighorn Canyon
Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area is a national recreation area established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, following the construction of the Yellowtail Dam by the Bureau of Reclamation. It straddles the border between Wyoming ...
and the
Pryor Mountains. The locale was named after the piles of dry
bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...
skulls that accumulated at the base of a local
buffalo jump. The Dryhead region starts near the Wyoming border in
Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area and extends northward into the
Crow Indian Reservation. Dryhead Creek drains a portion of the area, falling eastwards into Bighorn Canyon. The semi-arid basin is one of the most remote areas in Montana. The area is sparsely populated with isolated ranches.
Limited settlement took place in the late 19th century in the form of small homesteads that took advantage of the open range to become ranching operations. Several of these ranches have been preserved within Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. The
Ewing-Snell Ranch
The Ewing-Snell Ranch was established between 1896 and 1898 by Erastus Ewing in Carbon County, Montana, on Layout Creek between Bighorn Canyon and the Pryor Mountains in a region called Dryhead Country. Ewing took up ranching after failing as a ...
was established in 1898, and acquired a post office until 1906, known as Ewing, Montana. From 1915 the Cedarvale Dude Ranch received mail as "Hillsboro, Montana," operating until 1945. Another post office operated on Dryhead Creek as "Dryhead, Montana" from 1919 to 1924, before moving to the Kearns ranch, then to the Smith ranch. It was closed in 1946.
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References
External links
Dryhead Country
at the Pryor Mountain Coalition
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Geography of Carbon County, Montana
Geography of Big Horn County, Montana