Gilman (Bill) and Pauline Norris had this spacious gambrel-roof house built in 1901 for $6,000. The Craftsman style home with its wraparound porch, stone fireplaces, and second-story balcony was a mansion compared to the Norris’s former three-room residence. A Civil War veteran, Bill had come west in 1867 as a surveyor for the Northern Pacific Railroad. In the 1870s, he served as a military scout as the U.S. Army forcibly removed Indigenous tribes to reservations. Norris bought out “merchant prince” T. C. Power’s local partner James Wells in 1883, and by 1885, he had developed Judith Landing into a small but thriving supply town for area ranchers. Norris and Power also formed a cattle operation, and by 1900 the Power-Norris or PN Ranch was one of the largest in the area. Sadly, a typhoid outbreak at Judith Landing killed Pauline in 1903, leaving Bill to raise their three young children. By 1908, he had remarried, sold his cattle, and become a hotel manager in Seattle. Although the Norrises only lived here a short time, the home is a reminder of the ranch’s high status.
]]>In 1877, a fast-moving flood damaged much of the original Fort Clagett trading post, located about a mile to the west. Consequently, manager James Wells moved the trading post here, out of harm’s way and closer to a safer river crossing. As steamboat traffic declined, Wells shifted his business to attract freighters, cattlemen, Indians, and miners, operating a blacksmith shop, saloon, hotel, stable, store, and ferry. He also established a post office in 1880. Initially, the post office—which operated only intermittently over the next three years—was likely located in the store. After Gilman R. (Bill) Norris bought out Wells in 1883, he received the contract to carry mail from Maiden (a mining camp sixty miles south) to Judith Landing the following year. In preparation, Norris improved the steep road out of the river bottom and built a “mail station” (or barn) and corral further west, at the mouth of Dog Creek. Sometime after 1890, the mail barn appears to have been moved from Dog Creek to this location for use as the post office. It remained in operation until May 15, 1919.
]]>After the U.S. military established Camp Cooke west of the Judith River in 1866, Fort Benton merchant Thomas C. Power built a trading post nearby to supply soldiers and area Indians. When Camp Cooke closed in 1870, Power renamed the post Fort Clagett and hired James Wells as manager. Through the 1870s, steamboat traffic and trade with Indians decreased, while cattle ranching grew. Wells moved the post east to this more advantageous river crossing in 1880, installed a cable ferry, opened the Judith post office, and started raising cattle. Although Wells’ health was failing, he and a carpenter spent six months building this sandstone and granite store/warehouse, which was completed in December 1882. Iron-clad doors fortified the store's entrance on the north wall, and teamsters could unload large quantities of beans, oats, whiskey, and other staples directly into a cellar door (removed) on the east wall. The store supplied the ranching community until 1934, when the building was converted into a barn by the PN Ranch. The original front façade collapsed in 1975, after high water undercut the north wall.
]]>Few Montana places encompass as much varied history as Judith Landing. For millennia, Native peoples used this wide landing spot as a seasonal campground and burial site. Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark camped nearby in May 1805, naming the Judith River after Clark’s future wife. Fur traders and naturalists also used the landing. Nearby, in 1855, paleontologist Ferdinand Hayden collected the first skeletal dinosaur remains officially documented in North America. Important tribal peace councils brought numerous Indigenous people to Council Island in September 1846 and October 1855. The first council forged peace between the Blackfeet and several western tribes. The second, called Lame Bull’s treaty, established boundaries for a communal hunting ground and paved the way for non-Indian settlement. In 1866, the U.S. Army built Camp Cooke west of the Judith River to protect steamboats. Soon, merchant Thomas C. Power set up a commissary and trading post nearby to supply the camp. After Camp Cooke closed in 1870, Power and his partner, James Wells, bought the camp and renamed it Fort Clagett. Circa 1880, Wells moved Fort Clagett here, just east of the Judith, drove the ranch's founding cattle up from Texas, established a post office, and built a stone warehouse and store. As ranching flourished in the area, Gilman R. Norris took charge in 1883 and with Power started the Judith Mercantile and Cattle Co., also known as the PN Ranch. Norris’s elegant 1901 ranch house still reflects the high status of the PN and brings attention to this multi-faceted historic landscape.
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