Sugar beets made the valley bloom, and the landscape still shows those marks today. That place would be the Billings Sugar Factory, a huge sprawling complex of where town meets farm, ironically located about halfway between downtown Billings and the old Yellowstone River townsite of Coulson. And the legacies extend to places not often thought historic. This Queen Anne house, like the Moss Mansion, were listed in the National Register in the 1980s, and the Moss-O’Donnell storyīecame better known. O’Donnell also had his town house, on a more modest scale but grand as far as many homes in the “new” Billings. The Moss Mansion became a house museum in 1983. Moss also looked to the Midland Empire, and built his grand mansion in pursuit of that dream. O’Donnell’s empire depended on others for capital, none no more so dependable that Preston Moss. Located 20 minutes southwest of Philipsburg, Montana, the 400± acre Kokopelli Ranch offers a spectacular hilltop setting with unmatched alpine views and a custom five-bedroom log home with horse facilities. Amazingly the very simple farm-vernacular building that housed the project’s office at Ballatine still stands, a little building that really conveys a huge story of a federal program that transformed a region. Reclamation Service, which made the Huntley Project its second one across the West. His enthusiasm and connections attracted other investors, and soon caught the attention of the new U.S. O’Donnell expanded the ranch at Hesper Farm and turned into a private demonstration farm for the entire region, a place of beautiful cottonwood trees and modern barns. Each is crafted by skilled log smiths using chainsaws and traditional hand tools. O’Donnell, self taught in the value of land, irrigation engineering, and the possible miracle crop of sugar beets, became the Oracle of Irrigation for not only the Yellowstone Valley but for all of the northern plains. Montana Log Homes has been handcrafting log cabins for over 40 years. O’Donnell, to make his land valuable and to give life to the town that was named for him. When Billings lost faith in Shuart, and his own son Parmly unexpectedly passed away, Billings turned to one of his son’s workers, and friends, I.
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