Archives West Finding Aid

In July 1876, in direct response to the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the U.S. Congress appropriated funding for construction of two military posts, Forts Custer and Keogh, on the Yellowstone River in Montana Territory. The latter, named for Captain Myles W. Keogh who died at the Little Big Horn encounter, was located on the south bank of the Yellowstone, just above the mouth of the Tongue River in present day Custer County. Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Fifth Infantry arrived in the area late in 1876 and established a temporary post known by several names including New Post on the Yellowstone, Cantonment on the Tongue River, and Tongue River Barracks. The following year, when building supplies could be freighted in, Miles had the post relocated one mile from the original site and officially named Fort Keogh on November 8, 1877. The post, unusual because it was constructed in a diamond shape with no stockade, was for a time the largest in Montana. In 1878 there were 36 officers and 754 enlisted men stationed there. The role of Fort Keogh was to provide a strategically positioned base for patrolling the Yellowstone area to prevent the escape of Indians into Canada. Miles, wasting no time, had his forces engaging Indians in the area before the permanent structure of Fort Keogh was constructed, most notably against Crazy Horse at the Battle of Wolf Mountain (1876) and against Lame Deer at the Battle of Lame Deer (1877). With Miles' successful campaigns Montana saw the end of Sioux and Cheyenne hostilities. A short time later, in 1877, the forces of Fort Keogh were successful in obtaining the surrender of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce to Colonel Miles at the Battle of Bear Paw Mountains, thereby ending the last major Indian war in Montana. The 5th Infantry remained at Fort Keogh until 1888, at which time they were replaced by the 22nd Infantry. With the end of Indian hostilities, however, the importance of the post, and therefore its size, waned. It was decommissioned in the early 1900s, but was later used as a remount station during World War I. Following that, it was turned over to the Department of Agriculture and converted into a livestock experimental station.