M is for Miles City, Montana

Fort Keogh was established after the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.  The fort was named after Myles Keogh an officer who died with Custer.   Johnny Horton recorded a song about Comanche, the military horse that survived the Little Bighorn Battle.  Myles Keogh had been his rider.

General Nelson Miles established the fort after the military lost the Battle of the Little Bighorn.  The village that developed around the fort was called Milestown, in honor of General Miles.  It later became known as Miles City. 

I have lived off and on in Miles City many of my adult years.  When I moved to Miles City my mother was teaching in a one room school about 50 miles from Miles City called the SH School.  My younger sister was one of her students.  I enrolled in Miles City Community College, a small two year college.

Shortly after college I worked for the Stabler Cab Company as a dispatcher.  The cab company had a small corner of the Bison Bar in downtown Miles City.  One of the drivers was Forest Ferris.  His son, Dan, came in one day and he introduced him to me.

Later I went to work as a barmaid at the Alta Club Saloon.  The Alta Club was owned by Burch Ray Palmer, and his wife Linda.  Burch was a very talented musician.  He and his wife now own the Cork Room Lounge in Nevada. 

While working at the Alta Club Dan came in and introduced himself to me.  I told him I knew who he was because his Dad had introduced us.  He didn’t remember meeting me.  We dated for a while then I took a job with the Montana National Guard in Helena, Montana.  It would be 20 some odd years later before we would again reconnect and later marry.