Montana Horse Racing by Wahler Brenda;

Author:Wahler, Brenda;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

* About $278,000 in 2017 dollars

† In 1900, the county census stood at 13,964, growing to 23,596 by 1910. The city of Missoula grew from 4,366 to 12,896 in the same period.

* See chapter 9.

* See chapter 13.

*Montana began regulating ADW in 2008.

11

BILLINGS

Running under the Rims

Billings was founded in 1882 when the Northern Pacific Railroad platted a townsite about two miles from the Yellowstone River. Named for Frederick Billings, president of the Northern Pacific, the new town sprang up nearly overnight—like magic—hence Billings’s nickname, “The Magic City.” The nearby town of Coulson, founded in 1877 on the banks of the Yellowstone, was soon abandoned in favor of the new site.

Records indicate that the Apsáalooke (Crow) people, noted for their love of horses and racing, traded furs at Coulson and held horse races there. Trade goods and money were freely wagered between whites and Native people. A 1953 history claimed, with only slight exaggeration, that goods were “piled high on the open prairie.”203

The first fairs in Billings began in 1892, sponsored by the Yellowstone Fair Association, a private organization started by I.D. O’Donnell, a founder of the Billings Sugar Company. Horse races were run from the outset, and at the 1892 meet, photographers attempted to capture exciting finishes, producing blurred images of horses in motion. The track was on a 20-acre plot of land with a one-thousand-seat grandstand for spectators. Today this area is North Park, and one of the exhibition buildings, converted to a private residence, still stands at the corner of Sixth Avenue and North Twenty-Second Street.204

The North Park location hosted fairs and racing until 1915, but the Magic City was growing and the fair needed a new home. A 1912 map shows North Park surrounded by residential streets, and a boundary line labeled “fairgrounds,” today’s MetraPark, was already drawn. A bond issue was approved by the voters in April 1916, promptly launching the construction of the iconic exposition building that stood until 1969. The name “Midland Empire” was proposed for the new event: Billings was midway between Minneapolis and Spokane and midway between Denver and Canada. In September 1916, the first Midland Empire Fair opened.205

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