In 1877, the fort became the headquarters for the newly created District of the Yellowstone (a sub-unit of the Department of Dakota), which was commanded by Miles.

The development of Fort Keogh as a military installation soon stimulated traders to supply the liquor and other service businesses that were the beginning of Miles City.

Today the former military post is a United States Department of Agriculture livestock and range research station.

[2] Shortly after the defeat of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, the Army sent the 5th U.S. Infantry Regiment, under the command of Nelson A.

The Army's intended use for its garrison at the post was to reduce warfare by the American Indians in the region and to persuade them to resettle on reservations.

He thought the location would be good for supplying troops throughout the region, but the Army did not decide to build the fort until after Custer's overwhelming defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

[citation needed] Promising fair treatment and better lives to the Native Americans, Miles gradually persuaded the Indian nations to settle on the reservations.

The Sioux and Crow bands migrated through wide areas in the Montana Territory, and troops were engaged in battle with them hundreds of miles from the fort.

In 1860, he went to Italy after the Pope recruited Irish men to take up the fight to save the Papal States.

[7] Keogh preferred warfare to acting as a guard; he resigned his post and in March 1862 headed to the United States to serve in the American Civil War.

He won many commendations, and his bravery in the Battle of Gettysburg under Brigadier General John Buford earned him the rank of brevet Major.

Miles, Milestown developed first as an army town to meet the needs of young, isolated servicemen.

An employee of Carrol's, one John Carter, rode east on his big bay horse until he was the required two miles (3 km) away, beyond the edge of the reservation.

He found a flat spot along the Yellowstone, built a crude log hut out of driftwood and started selling whiskey.

The "Old West" rule was that if a man were to get four logs placed on the ground in a square, he had the foundation of a building, and could claim the land as his.

99) jurisdiction of the Fort Keogh Military Reservation was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for experiments in stock raising and growing of forage crops.

Since that time, additional land has been released for the Miles City industrial sites, Custer County fairgrounds, the warm-water fish hatchery and Spotted Eagle Recreation Area.

The remainder of the laboratory is rough, broken badlands typical of range cattle producing areas of the Northern Great Plains.