Homesteaders Gap (formerly Squaw Gap) is a tiny hamlet on

North Dakota Highway 16 North Dakota Highway 16 (ND 16) is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of North Dakota. ND 16's southern terminus is at the end of state maintenance south of Golva, and the northern terminus is at ND 68 southe ...

McKenzie County McKenzie County is a county in the U.S. state of North Dakota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,704, and was estimated to be 14,782 in 2024, The county seat and largest city is Watford City. McKenzie County is also the largest cou ...

, extending across the

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

border as West Squaw Gap. The unincorporated village includes a school and a community center (the Squaw Gap Multipurpose Center). The McKenzie County school, which had been operating since 1904, had two students in 2006. It is now closed; local students attend Rau School in

Sidney, Montana Sidney is a city in and the county seat of Richland County, Montana, Richland County, Montana, United States, less than west of the North Dakota border. The population was 6,346 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city lies alon ...

. Squaw Gap School, when it was functioning, served kindergarten through sixth grade. A trailer on the school property used to house the lone schoolmaster, but has since been occupied by a local woman. A local independent telephone exchange was inaugurated on December 15, 1971 with an

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

broadcast of a first phone call from Squaw Gap to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

Earl Butz Earl Lauer "Rusty" Butz (July 3, 1909 – February 2, 2008) was a United States government official who served as the secretary of agriculture under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. His policies favored large-scale corporate farming ...

in Washington, D.C. The community was one of the last to obtain landline telephone service in the continental United States. (

Iowa Hill, California Iowa Hill (formerly, Iowa City) is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community in Placer County, California, Placer County, California, United States. he town is located 6.5 miles northwest of Foresthill, California, Forest ...

, lost its service in the 1960s, but regained it in 2010.) In January 2023, the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation ...

announced that Homesteaders Gap, along with six other locations, had been renamed due to the former name containing an ethnic, racial and sexist slur. The new name was chosen by the government, and is relevant to local history.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in McKenzie County, North Dakota Unincorporated communities in North Dakota