FAR EAST MONTANA

Despite France's magnificent, monumental contributions in mathematics, science, the arts, literature, and so many noble fields of human endeavor, it was surprising to learn that its 18th century textile industry gave the world its first programmable computing machine, the Jacquard Loom. It should not be altogether shocking, then, that in the 19th century the same French industry gave us Wibaux, Montana. Whether it is or not, we decided to make a report, and for sources we have gone as far and wide as personal interviews, Facebook, Wikipedia, various historical websites, and the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.

In 1858 Pierre Wibaux was born into a prosperous, French textile family, and in the course of events, he completed his year of military service then was sent abroad a few miles west to study the same business in England. There, neither one in the plans, he discovered both a bride and American cattle ranching, and who would not get more excited about stepping in cow dung and getting thrown off horses than about cloth? He was about to go much, much farther west.

He arrived out here in the winter of 1883 – Did anyone ever come in summer? – and spent it in a dugout, of course. In one version he brought Mary Ellen, "Nellie," from France the very next year and they ate Christmas dinner in evening clothes in a sod house.

Others will say that he spent three years here, went back home when his money ran out, and returned with his wife and new money in 1887. The former belief is best for the family reputation, because his son, Cyril, is said to have been born in 1885, and it would have been quite unorthodox if the child were conceived and born while his father was in a dugout across an ocean and a continent.

They were aristocratic, but historic Montana was like Death in that it was a great leveler of mankind. The back-with-wife-after-one-year plot has them, like poverty-stricken homesteaders, graduating from sod to logs, a 14' x 16' foot cabin on Beaver Creek, 12 miles from the settlement of Mingusville.

Until 1887 they had a small ranch, the W, with 800 head of cattle, but in the fierce winter of that season, it became even smaller, zero, in fact, and they lost everything.

Pierre, though, had resources unavailable to the likes of Mingus and ordinary ranchers – banks and a wealthy family in France. He borrowed quite a few francs, bought at low prices every cow in sight, and rapidly became owner of 65,000 cattle and 300 saddle horses. (Upon moving to this state, we learned that ranchers are hesitant to disclose the number of their livestock or the quantity of their land and may invent cryptic answers like, "Oh, it runs to those mountains over there." Perhaps earlier strangers turned out to be tax assessors in disguise, but it is not surprising that references to the size of Pierre's herd vary substantially.) Shakespeare wrote, "Sweet are the uses of adversity," and, sure enough, in this case, someone became very sweet as a consequence of other people's adversity. In 1890, alone, he is said to have shipped 12,000 cattle by rail.

That year, too, he built a proper home, called the White House – probably Maison Blanche, to him – or the Palace, and all the materials came by wagon from parts east. The house was large and fine enough to include room for the servants he imported from France, which likely signaled that the family were definitely no longer anything like poverty-stricken homesteaders.

Even a Palace for a home did not make Mrs. Wibaux a year-round resident, and she and Cyril spent winters in a Paris apartment. That was not just a matter of weather. Until age 15 he was educated at home, but they wanted their son to do his French military service and receive education in Business. From what our series has revealed about frontier Montana schools, this was probably all for the best.

The W was the scene of the first rodeo in that area of the state. The Wibaux's staged it for some guests of the French nobility, and it was held out on the plains without an enclosure.

In 1903 the ranch expanded by 36,000 acres, over 560 square miles, via a bargain purchase from the Northern Pacific Railroad. He paid less than a dollar an acre for that acquisition.

At the zenith of his affluence and influence, Mingusville became "Wibaux" by the cattle baron's petition. He accumulated signatures at one end of the street, then rode his horse to the other and had the same people sign again, which is rather like voting in places like Chicago. Thus, says one source. Another maintains that he had his cowboys lay siege to the town and prevent all entries and departures until everyone signed. This reads like a Hollywood scenario, but, somehow or other, the name was changed, and it's difficult to imagine anyone other than a Mingus' regretting it.

One explanation for the presence of St. Peter's Church is that Pierre's father sent funds to construct one in the style of those back in Normandy, and the vigilant, sentinel in the painting dates from 1895. There have been restorations inside, and the external river stone was added in 1938, but the building is no longer used for worship.

Whereas the waves of homesteaders ended the open range and laid the foundations for hordes of movies like "Shane," Mr. Wibaux was again circumspect in timing his business decisions, sold the W for $16/acre, a handsome mark-up, and focused his attention on banking and gold-mining. As he enjoyed traveling, he spent his final years doing that.

The White House burned in 1913, the year he passed away in Chicago at the age of just 55. Nellie and Cyril lived out their lives in France and are buried there, but Pierre ordered his ashes returned to Montana. They are interred beneath his statue. Or are they? Another source claims they were scattered on the surface, but the important point is that for his remains, Mr. Wibaux preferred the wide, open spaces of Montana to a stuffy cemetery in Paris. True, he earned baskets of money from his adopted state, but the evidence is that he loved it more than his native country.

You may know that the surrounding Montana county is named "Wibaux," also, and you might be tempted to guess he engineered that rechristening, too. If so, you would be incorrect. Wibaux County is a Frankenstein; it was created in 1914 by amputating parts of three neighboring counties and sewing them up into a new one. In a state with some huge counties, Wibaux is a midget and has the 4th lowest population.

Pierre Wibaux was said to be an excellent boxer and a capable rider that participated in roundups and took orders from the trail boss. He produced the prototype rodeo in his vicinity, raised tens of thousands of cattle, and chose to depict himself in wrangler attire for the statue he left as a remembrance. Surely, that's a man that deserves membership in the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed upon him in 2012.