THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE. 81 
On the south side it forms a prominent cliff and on the north it swings 
to the west and borders the valley with a precipitous wall. 
Billings, a division terminal, is the most important city in the 
eastern half of the State. It was named in honor of Frederick Bil- 
lings, one of the early presidents of the Northern 
Billings. Pacific Railway Co. For a long time it was the great- 
palin ie nage est wool-shipping point in the United States, if not 
St. P ies. in the world, but in recent years much of the wool 
from the north has been diverted by the St. Paul 
road and the dry-land farmers have taken up so much of the open 
range that the raising of sheep has been greatly reduced and is likely 
to become one of the vanishing industries of this region. 
The earliest authentic record of exploration in the vicinity of 
Billings is that of Capt. Clark, who on his return from the Pacific 
coast passed the site of the city July 24, 1806. Soon afterward fu 
traders and trappers explored most of the streams of this country in 
search of beavers, and in so doing they frequently passed up and 
down the valley of the Yellowstone, but they left no record except 
possibly their names attached to some of the old trading posts or to 
the streams. The first permanent settlement in this vicinity appears 
to have been made about 1876, when a place called Coulson was 
established as a stage station and steamboat landing. Coulson con- 
tinued to be of importance until the railway was built in 1881-82. 
In 1883 a street railway, the first in Montana, was built connecting 
this town with Billings, then recently established. The new town 
soon outgrew its rival, and to-day Coulson has disappeared. 
Originally the valley outside of the lower land was clothed only 
with sagebrush, and for a number of years after the completion of 
the railway but little farming was done. As the annual rainfall is 
only about 14 inches and the summer season short it was thought 
that even the hardier grains could not be successfully raised here. 
About 1892 agricultural development started in earnest, ditches were 
dug, and water was taken to the land, and to-day there is no more 
fertile and productive valley in the State than that of the Yellow- 
stone about Billings. Sugar beets are the principal crop, but alfalfa 
and grains are also grown in abundance. Farming is now the main 
occupation of the people about Billings. A large sugar factory has 
been erected at Billings which manufactures sugar from beets grown 
in many of the irrigated valleys in this part of the State. 
Near milepost 3, west of Billings, the traveler may, if the day is 
clear, catch his first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains, directly ahead, 
nearly 100 miles away. In midsummer the outline of the mountains 
may be faint and scarcely discernible, but early in the summer or in 
the autumn the snow on their summits should cause them to stand 
95558°—Bull. 611—15 6 : 
