Two ranger stations, a significant tribal site, a shopping center, and an expanded hospital district all are nominated for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Zortman and Main Boulder ranger stations include clusters of buildings constructed in the early 1900s by some of the first U.S. Forest Service employees.

The Main Boulder Ranger Station, located southwest of Big Timber, is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, continually operated USFS administrative facilities in the Northern Region 1, according to the nomination form. Starting in 1908, Harry Kaufman constructed the ranger station, outbuildings, and a home with a hand-crafted bay window, which today serves as a museum filled with his personal effects and original furnishings.

“The property captures the story of the life and duties of one of the earliest Rangers in the U.S. Forest Service and his attempts to establish government influence in the vast reaches of what is now the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness area,” the form states, adding that Kaufman’s diaries “gives a vivid picture of life for an early forest ranger.”

The Zortman Ranger Station buildings predate the log buildings commonly associated with Forest Service facilities presenting a simpler wood frame style that lack ornamentation, architecturally resembling the buildings that populate the community of Zortman.

It includes “functional buildings that reflect the rustic character promoted by the Forest Service in its early years,” the nomination form states. It served as a station for forest guards to monitor and fight forest fires and “timber predation” in what then was the Jefferson National Forest in central Montana. The property was transferred to the Bureau of Land Management in 1966.

The Head Chief-Young Mule Charge Site is just east of Lame Deer in Rosebud County on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. It was the site of a deadly confrontation between two young Northern Cheyenne men, Head Chief and Young Mule, and the U.S. Army cavalry on Sept. 13, 1890.

The property retains deep cultural significance to the Northern Cheyenne in many ways, notes the nomination form. The incident is recalled in a tribal warrior song, handed down through generations.

Head Chief fatally shot a young man who had stumbled across the Northern Cheyenne as they butchered a milk cow belonging to the young man’s uncle.

“Head Chief and Young Mule refused to submit to the military, and instead met their fate in a traditional manner, culminating in a dramatic mounted charge by Head Chief and Young Mule at army lines in full view of gathered Northern Cheyenne bands; the charge resulted in the deaths of both young men,” the nomination form states.

In Bozeman, the Westgate Village Shopping Center was built in 1957 and represents the first small neighborhood multi-unit retail shopping center in the city.

“Although a simple design, the building is characteristic of the mid-20th century Modern Movement style,” the nomination report states. It was designed by Hugo Eck, a locally famous architect and Montana State University professor.

The final nomination includes expanding the boundaries for the Lewis and Clark County Hospital District to include the Poor Farm Cemetery. The cemetery was used from 1890 to 1916. None of the burials are marked.

The nominations will be forwarded to the National Park Service’s for a final determination.