
07/24/2025
Miles Cityโs FIRST FLOOD, March 1881, photographed by L.A. Huffman. The Montana town was founded just four years prior, when Col. Nelson A. Miles kicked out the sellers of alcohol from Fort Keogh. An ice jam on the Tongue River, then having a path immediately west of the appropriately named Riverside Park, caused flooding.
Two deer heads were poking through the rails of the overhang. (Click for a better view is using a PC.) Signs were visible for the Telegraph Office, Post Office, a bakery, a bowling alley. The photo was from 4th Street looking east. During the June Rise, steamboats would dock nearby at what is now Cook Lake, just north of the townโs current outdoor swimming lake.
In 1880, Miles City had just 630 residents. Fort Keogh had a larger population than the adjacent town. Text and digital restoration of photo by Gary Coffrin.