The Powder River Country

The board's second naming story rests on a weak witness. William Drannan, its army scout, published Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains around 1900 as the memoir of a boy taken up by Kit Carson. W. N. Bate's 1954 study called him a pseudo frontier comrade of Carson, Harvey Carter's Dear Old Kit called his narrative a tissue of lies, and Carson's family disavowed him; no Carson biographer has taken the book seriously. Clark's Red Stone came from the color of hills he saw near the river's mouth.

What the plaque says

The Powder River Country From its source in central Wyoming to its union with the Yellowstone River, the Powder River is 250 miles long, "a mile wide and an inch deep; too thick to drink and too thin to plow." During World War I, Montana's 91st Division gained national notoriety for the river with its war cry of "Powder River let'er buck!" The origin of the river's name, however, is obscure. In July 1806, Captain William Clark christened it the "Red Stone River" Later renamed the Powder River, historians supposed it took its name from the dark gunpowder-colored soil and sand along its banks. But army scout William Drannan maintained that the river was inadvertently named by Vierres Roubidoux, a French guide, who shouted "Cache la Powder!" (Hide the Powder!) when a group of soldiers he was escorting was attacked by Indians. Located in the center of Powder River Country, Broadus was once situated 20 miles upstream on the Powder River in 1900. Named for a pioneer family, Broadus was relocated to this site at the beginning of the Homestead Boom in 1907. The community's strategic location at the junction of two important highways made Broadus an important trade center despite its great distance from any railroads. Designated the county seat of the newly created Powder River County in 1919, Broadus was once described as one of the "Biggest Little Towns in the West."

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Big Sky Country — steps away
• The Hell Creek Formation — steps away
• Southeastern Montana — steps away
• Southeastern Montana — 1.7 mi