9/16/2011:
There is history in every step you take, and in every place you see, whether or not you know it. You may be driving over an old cattle trail, or perhaps you live where there was once a school, or a barn, or a church.
On this date in 1934, residents of Wildrose, Williams County, were oohing and ahhing over a historical find made by the young sons of local farmer Frank Hankey, Jr. While traversing Indian Hill, the highest hill in the vicinity on the North end of Big Meadow Township, where the Hankeys lived, the boys had found a historical treasure cache, “apparently uncovered by drifting winds.” The hill overlooked the meadow below, and early settlers had reported that Indians travelling between Fort Peck and the Turtle Mountains would generally stop there to camp. “[Indian Hill] probably carries secrets unknown to the paleface,” the local newspaper proclaimed.
Part of the find was taken to the Winkjer garage, so residents could view it. The treasure included “flint arrowheads by the hundreds, flint spear heads, stone tomahawk heads, bullets of various sizes, some loaded rifle shells, copper dishes,” and more. The newspaper reported, “The find also contained a brass button from a US army uniform; the button bears the regular eagle and 13 stars which would indicate that the uniform was made when the United States consisted of 13 colonies only. However the bullets look like they had been used during the civil war period.”
Meanwhile, the Hankey family story is also part of the local history. When their grandfather, Frank Hankey, Sr. was just 18, he had a government contract to drive cattle overland from Post Siding, St. Paul, to Fort Benton, Montana. He and his brothers opened the first meat market in Grand Forks, established the Hankey Brothers Livestock Commission, and later were given a contract to furnish meat for grade and rail camps of the Great Northern Railway. Eventually, Frank Sr. decided to move his cattle to Plentywood; however, he ended up stopping in Big Meadow due to a storm. It was good haying land, and he decided to stay awhile, and ended up living just south of Indian Hill in the early part of the century, where he raised stock until he was crowded out by the incoming homesteaders.
Coincidentally, Frank Hankey, Sr. was also reported to have found something of note around that land—a human skull.
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
Wonder of Williams, Vol. 1
Wildrose Mixer, Thursday, September 13, 1934