by Michael Howell
Following a year of work by a group of volunteers spearheaded by Paula Carney, coupled with several years of historical research by Gary Liss, the Ravalli County Commissioners approved naming or renaming nine acres of parkland on the eastside of Hamilton as Big Corral Park.
One of the volunteers, George Corn, a former county attorney and a resident in the area, recounted to the Commissioners how the group spent several hundred hours over the past year cleaning up a building located on the property, taking down some dilapidated fencing, burning the old fence posts and painting the shelter on the property.
There are no surviving maps of the Big Corral. But based on historical records referring to it and the names of the settlers documented as owning homesteads within it, local amateur historian Gary Liss (left) has produced his version of the location of the 1,100 acre corral and the property lines of the early homesteaders. Paula Carney (right) is a leader in the ad hoc group of citizens who pushed for the official adoption of the name and are hoping to make future improvements to the park. Photo credit: Granicus.
“We are proposing the park be named ‘Big Corral Park’ based on the historical use of that name for the area,” Corn told the Commissioners. He said his group envisions a low-key open space park with a walking path around the perimeter, and a few picnic tables near the existing small pavilion. He said the open space is large enough for pick-up games for a variety of sports and activities and there is a three-walled shed with electrical outlets large enough to be used for gatherings or occasions of all sorts.
According to Corn, research by the County Administrator shows that the property was purchased from the widow of Jerry Stevens in 2008 for its appraised value of $470,000. He said two years later, in 2010, records show that a plan was presented to the Park Board and the Commissioners to install three regulation sized Little League ball fields and a rugby pitch and possibly a walk around the park in honor of Jerry Stevens. But those plans were dropped.
“I am guessing that it was because at that point the bottom fell out of the market,” said Corn. He said the estimated cost for the ballpark improvements at the time was $700,000, but it doesn’t mention where the money would come from.
“Park Board Chairman Gary Leese could confirm that there may have been some talk back in 2010 about a $40,000 donation in honor of Jerry, but that never happened,” said Corn. “There never was a donation in Jerry’s memory, so the county paid the entire appraised price for the property.”
According to Corn, there was no other mention of the park in the public record until 2013 when it was mentioned in a budget amendment and simply referred to it as “the Kurtz Lane property.”
“Other than that, there has been no mention of the Kurtz Lane property or anything about a park,” he said. “Then in May or June of this year you received a letter from the Stevens family. The letter states that the land would never have been developed were it not for the donation in honor of Jerry’s memory. But there never was a donation in Jerry’s memory and in the meantime a lot of concerned citizens have devised a plan for developing the park based on the history of the area. We believe the proposed name, ‘Big Corral,’ is appropriate since that was the name given to the area by the first settlers there. We are hoping that you will endorse the Park Board recommendation and name it Big Corral Park and the volunteers will get to work setting up a 501(c)3 and begin to gather funds to do further clean-up work and develop a plan and raise money for future improvements.”
Corn gave the Commissioners a thumbnail version of the history behind the Big Corral, referring primarily to a pamphlet authored by Ravalli County Museum historian William Whitfield entitled “Sod Forts of the Bitter Root Valley.” Although the pamphlet is mainly about the two sod forts that were hastily built in 1877 by settlers in the Corvallis (Fort Skidaddle) and Skalkaho (Fort Run) area in the scare that accompanied the news that the non-treaty Nez Perce were headed this way in their flight from General Gibbon’s forces, it was mentioned that the sod fort in Skalkaho was built within the Big Corral.
A newspaper article in the Missoulian from 1929 states, “The dimensions of the fort, similar to that of Fort Corvallis, were about one hundred feet square, twelve feet high, having a base three feet thick, continuing to ‘port holes’ at about four feet then gradually decreasing to eighteen inches wide at the top of the wall.”
Gary Liss gave the Commissioners a more detailed account of his research into the corral’s origins. “The Big Corral and the early Bitterroot settlement of Skalkaho are synonymous with each other,” he said. He said settlement in the Skalkaho area got started around 1864, about the same time that Corvallis did.
According to Liss, the Big Corral was built around 1871. “The corral enclosed the core community of the Skalkaho area, and they were all related either by blood or marriage. So, the corral surrounded all their homes, and they threw in their livestock together and built a continuous log fence that snaked around 1,100 acres of prime stock land.” The name Big Corral was started by other people in the area as a nickname for those people on Skalkaho, he said. The corral existed for about 10 years. At that point it was deemed impractical, land ownership was changing, so it began to be dismantled. But the fencing was so extensive that it took years to be completely dismantled.
“This Big Corral, really, is a part of the Bitterroot valley’s early heritage and it is one of those places that really characterized our local history, so it’s just really appropriate to carry on that name, Big Corral.”
Liss said one of the settlers in the Big Corral was John B. Catlin, a Civil War veteran who was also head of the volunteer militia here in the Bitterroot Valley. Catlin supervised the construction of the sod fort, Fort Skalkaho, called Fort Run, that was built inside the Big Corral during the passage of the Nez Perce in 1987.
“According to Whitfield’s pamphlet, ‘One obvious drawback at Fort Run was the proximity of a large hill to the east, where the Nez Perce launched their arrows toward the sod walls just to impress the frightened settlers. The sodbusters soon realized that the Indians could have just as easily cut off their water supply if they really had meant to do them any harm. Still, it should be kept in mind that General Custer had just made his infamous Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Big Horn the year before, and there may actually have been ample reason for taking extra precaution of building a couple of sod forts, just in case things somehow went haywire.”
Following the Nez Perce departure from the valley, Catlin gathered up 34 militia members and met up with General Gibbon and his men at Ross’ Hole and joined them in their pursuit of the Indians into the Big Hole.
Lynde C. Elliot and Warren Harris, both residents of the Big Corral, were also volunteers in the Bitter Root Militia. Elliot was a cousin of Catlin.
“Lynde Catlin Elliot was the only volunteer militia member that didn’t return alive,” said Liss. “He came back in a pine box. He was the only fatality from the Big Corral, so his name should be remembered… It’s a big part of our history here. It’s a heritage we want to remember.”
Liss said, “There is no surviving map of the Big Corral. Nothing survived. But what has survived are the names of those settlers enclosed by the Big Corral, the people who built it. We know who they are. So what I did, I researched their homestead boundaries and mapped them out and enclosed their homesteads with the Big Corral. That’s how I came up with this version of the Big Corral.
“The Big Corral is known to have been bounded on the west by the Bitterroot River which was a lot farther west than what it is today. You all know about Skalkaho Bend and how the river is moving. Back in the 1860s and 1870s that river existed close to a half a mile west and that’s as far as the homesteads go.
“My research also showed that the Big Corral on the east had to be bounded by the old wagon road going between Corvallis and Darby and that just happens to also be the eastern boundary of all these homesteads. So, it all works. And this is my version of the Big Corral using the early homesteads.”
Liss also contacted the great-great-great grandson of Robert Nichol who was one of the Big Corral settlers arriving in 1864 and said his great-great grandson is still living here locally. “He shared his family history with me.”
“There are no maps, just biographical history of the people who settled it. There is a lot of history here that should be remembered,” Liss said.
The Bitter Root Valley Historical Society sponsored a “Fort Skalkaho Dedication” on July 3, 1989 on Kurtz Lane. At the ceremony it was noted that a creek, no longer existent, ran through the sod fort that was constructed at the northeast corner of the corral and that, “The interior of the fort was quite pleasing. Living rooms were constructed of lumber, tents and whatever else the families had to make themselves comfortable.”
As part of the ceremony, a monument honoring Fort Skalkaho was erected consisting of a rock approximately 3-4 feet high with a metal plate commemorating the fort, noting it was placed in 1989 by the “Bitter Root Valley Historical Society.” The monument is located in a recorded permanent easement, on private property, on Kurtz Lane, only a few yards away from the entrance to the proposed Big Corral Park.
The Commissioners approved naming the park Big Corral Park unanimously and thanked the group for its presentation.