There were settlers in Sun River even when Lewis and Clark made their expedition through Montana, and those were the tribes of the Blackfeet Indians. The Blackfeet used the Sun River for their wintering grounds because of the large herds of buffalo and elk that used it for wintering range. Sun River was named by the Piegan Indians, the name that they gave it was “Natoe-osucti” which means medicine river or Sun River.

John Largent was the first settler to the town of Sun River. He came in 1862 to Montana to work for the American Fur Company, which had a post in Fort Benton. He settled in Sun River in 1867 after leaving the American Fur Company. He later started the general store and lodging house in Sun River. Th

Before the railroad was fully established the town of Sun River had two blacksmiths, six saloons, three hotels, a meat market, lumber yard, two stables, ladies auxiliary, scale, a jail, four large warehouses, a cemetery, four eateries, general store and church. In 1911 the Great Northern Railroad arrived in Great Falls and was rapidly working it way west. When the railroad arrived in Sun River it was met with joy and anger. The business men of Sun River knew that if the railroad were to go through then this would cause the town of Sun River to shrink because they knew they would not need to receive goods by stage but instead would get them by rail. The businessmen also knew that when the rails came the people would end up going to Great Falls to buy their goods where they probably would be able to get supplies cheaper. When the railroad came this also made the cattlemen angry because this would be the start of fences, and with fences that meant no more free ranging cattle and grazing the grass until it was down to the dirt. During the time that Sun River grew to be what it was it was mainly controled by a few people and those people usually made the town’s decision. But this time it wasn’t the case and as the railroad went through and the town of Sun River gradually declined.

Then in 1867 the Wells Fargo and Company began to run a stagecoach from Fort Benton to Helena. The stagecoach traveled 169 miles on very poor roads and trails. The cost of the trip was twenty-five dollars in gold and that only got you a place on a stage, which was like a rocking chair because of the way the spring were placed lengthwise on the coaches. When stagecoaches were made they would put the springs on the coaches lengthwise because they thought that if the springs followed the axles the stage coach would bounce to much in the back and flip over. If the stagecoaches would have went with the axles design the stage coaches would have not had bounced so much if they just would have went a little slower. Jimmy Lee a local wagon and coach restorer of the Great Falls area said that “the spring were the only downfall of the stagecoaches of this time.” But since time was

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