View source for Dusting Off the Old Ones (12)

12. Whose Place Is On DeMore's Avenue?

Our story this week concerns the platting of that section of land on which the Crossroads Inn and Leon Park are located. The portion of that section which lies south of the Yellowstone River was platted into lots, blocks, tracts and out-lots by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in 1884. The tract so platted was named "DeMore's Addition to Miles City." There was a street along the east edge of the addition called "DeMore's Avenue"--this street corresponds with what is now the county road which runs north and south in front of what used to be the John Herzog farm. (So that's the answer to the query which forms the title of the story). The south line of the addition was what is now known as Hiway No. 12, and the west line was Haynes Avenue, extended north. The Crossroads Inn tract was Block 54 of the addition. Leon Park was "Out Lot B." A street was laid out on the northerly side of the Northern Pacific right-of-way, and this was called "Railroad Avenue." Strangely enough, it is in fact a railroad avenue, for it now embraces the Milwaukee right-of-way. According to the records and files in the office of the county clerk and recorder, the plat of "DeMore's Addition" was vacated in 1889. While that portion of the land north and west of the Northern Pacific right-of-way was a portion of the land formerly occupied by what is commonly known as "Old Town" or "Old Miles City, the filing of the plat could not have had anything to do with that early day settlement, as "Old Town" moved in its entirety to the present site of Miles City upon the founding of Fort Keogh in the late seventies.