Ubet, Montana


Ubet was a stage stop settlement in Fergus County, Montana, United States. It is approximately west of Garneill, Montana which was reputedly the best-known stagecoach station in the Montana Territory.

History

Ubet was founded in 1880 on the Ft. Benton–Billings stagecoach route by lumberman A. R. Barrows. The name supposedly came from Barrows' response to a challenge for a name for the settlement's proposed post office: "You bet!" At one time, it included not only a two-story log hotel, but a stagecoach barn, post office, icehouse, saloon, blacksmith shop, and a stable.
At one time, there were less than ten fixed human habitations between Ubet and Billings, Montana, making the respite there particularly treasured. Clientele included Liver-Eating Johnson and local cowboy Charlie Russell, who would become the first well-known "cowboy artist". After the advent of railroads in the area, the stage stop became less vital, and the settlement seems to have withered away. In 1934, Barrows' son John published a boyhood memoir titled, Ubet which was reviewed in the New York Times as "dramatic and colorful."
As of the 1939 Montana: A State Guide Book by the Federal Writers Project, only one or two log buildings remained, used in the earlier 1930s by sheepherders.
There is a Ubet Cemetery located on the Ubet Ranch still extant at longitude 46°44′50″ N latitude 109°46′33″W 46.747178.