In 1876 this was strictly buffalo and Indian country, with no ranch between Bismarck, North Dakota and Bozeman, Montana. From 1876 to 1881, the U.S. Cavalry rounded up hostile Indians and forced them onto reservations, while buffalo hunters were clearing the range for the cattle boom of the eighties. In the early days, Pierre Wibaux ran one of the biggest cattle spreads in this area. His will provided a fund to erect a statue of himself "overlooking the land I love so well." It stands a mile west of the town of Wibaux. From this end of Montana to the west end is just about the same distance as from New York to Chicago, showing how much ground must be covered to get places in this state.