They Danced til the Feds Arrived

Oil on Canvas
20″ x 16″
$800
Contact to Purchase

Gebo Barn
This magnificent structure, now a part of the Hill Ranch, was built in 1907-1909 by Samuel Gebo to shelter his purebred Belgian horses, other livestock and equipment. The structure has 20-foot high concrete walls with wood drop siding under the metal, gambrel roof. At 154 feet long, and 8,000 square feet of storage space in the hay loft, it is one of the largest barns in Montana and was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Samuel Gebo was an American entrepreneur influential in the development of Montana. He grew up in Plattsburgh, New York and settled in Montana in the early 1890’s. He developed the Gebo Coal mine near Fromberg, the Canadian American Coal and Coke Company in Alberta, Canada, the Spring Creek Mine near Lewistown, Montana, and the Owl Creek Coal Mine in Gebo, Wyoming. In 1910 he purchased the Citizen’s Electric Company and the Spring Creek Power and Electric Company and merged them with the Lewistown Coal, Gas and Light Company. Sam was a powerful man.

On his 300 acre ranch near Fromberg he built a large, stately home and this one-of-its-kind barn. To celebrate the completion of the construction of the barn, Sam planned a magnificent dance to be held in the structure. Unfortunately the dance was never completed for the federal agents arrived with an indictment on land fraud charges in Wyoming. Gebo fled to Guatemala, where he developed a marble quarry in 1913, and his ranch was put up for auction. In 1927 he returned to Seattle, where he lived with his second wife until he died in a gas-leak explosion in his home.