Rock of Ages

2012 Oil on Canvas
11″ x 14″ unframed
$500
Contact to Purchase

Pierre Wibaux arrived in Montana from France in 1883 and became a successful rancher even through the horrible year of 1886 by feeding his cattle cottonwood branches. He then bought up at rock bottom prices the cattle of other ranchers who went belly-side-up and by the mid 1890s supposedly had 65,000 head. At that point he persuaded the Northern Pacific to change the name of the area from Mingusville to Wibaux. Coming from a devout Normandy-French Catholic family, his father in 1884 sent him the capital needed to build a stone church in the style of churches back home in France. The small building, of native stone and lava rock, is an imposing structure built on a high bluff overlooking the endless prairie. During his lifetime, Pierre built himself a magnificent ranch about 14 miles from town, but those buildings all burned, and this church, St. Patrick’s, is the only standing tribute to his contributions to this town, save for his clapboard office building in town, which now houses the county museum.