70 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
trains. It is reported that in the early days, before the railway had 
been built into this region, officers from Fort Keogh (ke’o) used this 
butte for sending and receiving messages from the Black Hills, 175 
miles distant. The signaling was done with a heliograph, an instru- 
ment for reflecting the sun’s rays in any desired direction and flash- 
ing messages in the Morse code. On account of this use the knob 
received its name. 
Miles City, at the mouth of Tongue River, was named in honor of 
Gen. Nelson A. Miles, an experienced Indian fighter, who had 
already established Fort Keogh on the river bottom 
Miles City. about 2 miles farther west. Miles City is said to be 
Elevation 2,377 feet. the greatest horse market in the West, and is also an 
Seeenttciesies, important wool-shipping point. In the early days the 
principal industry was the hunting of the buffalo or 
bison, and it is reported that as many as 250,000 hides were shipped 
from this place in one season. Such num- 
bers are almost inconceivable, but it is well 
known that the buffalo roamed the plains 
in great herds, and when the slaughter was 
carried on in wholesale fashion the number 
killed must have been very great. Capt. 
Clark and his party, in descending the Yel- 
lowstone in boats, were forced to wait near 
Glendive until a herd of buffalo numbering, 
by his estimate, 80,000 had crossed the 
river. Now all traces of the buffalo are 
gone from these plains except an occasional 
sun-bleached skull or a few weather-beaten 
roamed these plains. horns. (See fig. 8.) 
Some distance below Tongue River the St. Paul road crosses the 
Yellowstone, and Miles City has the advantage of two transconti- 
nental railways. 
West of Tongue River, on the right (north), is Fort Keogh, which 
was built by Gen. Miles in 1877 and named in honor of Capt. Myles W. 
Keogh, who perished in the Battle of the Little Bighorn the year 
before. For a long time this was probably the most important post 
in the Indian country, but now it is used only as a remount station, 
where horses are trained for cavalry service. 
The St. Paul road crosses to the north side of the Yellowstone 
again a short distance above Fort Keogh, and it remains on that 
side of the stream to Forsyth, where it turns northwestward and 
crosses the divide to Musselshell River. The Northern Pacific line 
continues on the south side, running in places along the wide, flat 
bottoms and in others on the river bank, where it is overhung by 
cliffs and steep slopes of sandstone, shale, and coal beds of the Lance 
