Fallon
Travel
Montana
A view from 1939:
FALLON (2,251 ait, 200 pop.), was named
for Benjamin O'Fallon, Indian agent and army officer, nephew
of William Clark, the explorer. His report of the slaughter
of 29 members of the Jones-Imenell party of the Missouri
Fur Company by 400 Blackfeet, in May 1823, presents one of
the most vivid pictures of Indian warfare in the West.
About 1900 grain raising became important in this area, gradually increasing
until the late 1920's, when mechanized farming was at its peak. Some farmers
planted 1,200 acres of wheat yearly. Diversified farming replaced specialized
grain production in the early 1930's.
Buffalo grass, which once nourished millions of bison, is the natural vegetation
of the region. Its destruction began when cattle and sheep replaced the buffalo,
and was completed when the rich topsoil, no longer held by fibrous, slow-spreading
roots, blew away during the drought years.
Source: Montana: A State Guide Book;
Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the
Work Projects Administration for the State of Montana; September,
1939. |