Ismay, nicknamed “Little Chicago” for its bustling business, wicked ways, and itinerant population of cowboys and railroad men, was born with construction of the Milwaukee Road across Montana and began in 1908 as Burt before being renamed a few months later for Isabelle and Maybelle, daughters of railroad official George Peck. During the settlement boom of the 1910s, the town needed a deterrent for its rougher element, and W. T. Perham won the contract to build a local jail for $676. The squat, sturdy brick jail with small windows and iron bars was built in 1910, a type of lock-up once common in rural settlements. Over the years it largely housed rowdies who overindulged at local saloons and held prisoners awaiting transport to the county jail at Miles City. It is the only public building remaining from Ismay’s early period. In 1993, when the community was Montana’s smallest incorporated town, its twenty-two residents conditionally changed the town’s name to Joe in honor of football player Joe Montana, gaining national attention and raising enough money to build a new fire hall, acquire a fire truck, and restore the jail, which remains as a reminder of the time when Ismay was the “Little Chicago” of the West.