The Fifth Legislative Assembly of Montana created the Board of Sheep Commissioners in 1897. The governor appointed one Board member from each county to serve a two-year term. Commissioners were required to be an elector, sheep owner, and resident of the county from which they were appointed. A president and secretary of the Board were elected by the members. The Board was created "for protection of the rights and interests of sheep owners." In order to achieve this end, the Board could divide the state into districts for inspection purposes and appoint inspectors to monitor diseases and impose quarantines when necessary. The counties were required to institute a tax on sheep to pay the expenses of the sheep inspectors. T.C. Power and Cornelius Hedges served as president and secretary respectively of the Board at the turn of the century. The Board of Sheep Commissioners was abolished in 1917 when its duties were transferred to the newly created Livestock Commission. The Livestock Commission was renamed the Board of Livestock in 1971.
This collection contains general correspondence of the Board of Sheep Commissioners which discusses appointments of inspectors, quarantines, meetings, the National Wool Growers Association, annual reports, sheep diseases, poisonous plants, etc. The collection also contains lists of sheep ranchers in Chouteau, Dawson, Park, and Rosebud counties and reports from commissioners in Beaverhead, Broadwater, Carbon, Cascade, Chouteau, Custer, Dawson, Fergus, Gallatin, Lewis and Clark, Madison, Missoula, Park, Powell, Silver Bow, Teton, and Valley counties. These reports give the number of sheep, number of inspectors, pounds of wool, health condition of stock, etc.
The collection is arranged by series.
Collection open for research
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical Society Library & Archives. The Library & Archives does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collection. In some cases permission for use may require additional authorization from the copyright owners. For more information contact an archivist.
In 2024, the various collections of the Department of Livestock were integrated under one collection identifier, RS 500, in order to help facilitate access, reduce redundancy in the Montana Historical Society Library & Archives catalog, and to follow best archival practices.
Collections from the Department of Livestock's Divisions and Boards that were previously
treated as separate entities are now integrated into
Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Library & Archives, Helena, Montana.
Acquisition information available upon request
Separated from Hedges Family Papers (MC33).
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the Montana Historical Society Archives catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search under these terms.