Dryhead Country is a region in Carbon County and Big Horn County in southern

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

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 Pryor Mountains are a mountain range in Carbon and Big Horn counties of Montana, and Big Horn County, Wyoming. They are located on the Crow Indian Reservation and the Custer National Forest, and portions of them are on private land. They li ...

. 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 A buffalo jump, or sometimes bison jump, is a cliff formation which Indigenous peoples of North America historically used to hunt and kill plains bison in mass quantities. The broader term game jump refers to a man-made jump or cliff used for hun ...

. The Dryhead region starts near the Wyoming border in

Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area 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 Wyomin ...

and extends northward into the

Crow Indian Reservation The Crow Indian Reservation is the homeland of the Crow Tribe. Established 1868, the reservation is located in parts of Big Horn County, Montana, Big Horn, Yellowstone County, Montana, Yellowstone, and Treasure County, Montana, Treasure counties ...

. 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.

References

External links

Dryhead Country
at the Pryor Mountain Coalition {{authority control Geography of Carbon County, Montana Geography of Big Horn County, Montana