Big Horn grew as one of the main communities along the stage route in Sheridan County. The first Big Horn Post Office was established in 1879 at Thomas Creighton's ranch two miles northeast of Big Horn, and in 1881, after Creighton sold his ranch, the post office was moved to Big Horn. That same year John DeWitt built a blacksmith shop at this site, where the 1867 military cutoff of the Bozeman Trail crossed Little Goose Creek. Typical of blacksmith shops in small rural towns along the wagon roads during the region's early settlement period, it became an important community business that provided horseshoeing, wagon repairing, and general blacksmithing. In the 1880s, advertisements in the Big Horn Sentinel offered services such as "Blacksmithing and Wagon Repairing Done on Short Notice." After DeWitt sold the shop in 1885, two other owners operated it. The building served Big Horn and the surrounding area until 1914, was restored in 1936, and now houses the Big Horn Museum.