Bos Farm, 4605 Cameron Bridge Road West, Manhattan, Gallatin County, MT

2017 Charles E. Peterson Prize, Second Place
Significance: The Bos Farm exhibits characteristics of several phases of the vernacular building form of early homesteads in the Gallatin Valley. This area, close to Manhattan, Montana, was known as the Holland Settlement because of the abundance of Dutch that had settled in the area by the early twentieth century. The community took formal shape as Church Hill. In 1911, the settlement of Amsterdam was established by the Northern Pacific Railroad adjacent to Church Hill in order to accommodate the continued influx of Dutch settlers.

The Manhattan Malting Company from New York established a malting plant in Moreland, Montana, in 1891. The seasons and soil made it an ideal location to grow a superior-quality malting barley. The New York businessmen then renamed the two as Manhattan, bought farm land in the area, and recruited Dutch immigrants to grow the barley they needed for the malting plant. The Manhattan Malting Company did this by sending fliers to the Netherlands to secure the farmers they would need to grow the barley. The firs wave of Dutch immigrants to the Gallatin Valley came in 1893. The farmers experienced high yields from the land. This encouraged other Dutch families to settle in the area.

By 1904, 40 Dutch families were prospering in their agricultural practices. This influx brought businesses such as garages, grain elevators, implement stores, and mercantiles to the town of Manhattan. Periods of boom and bust for the region's economy emerged in the 1920s and 1930s. The decline of the Manhattan Malting Company began in 1915 with Prohibition being passed by nearby states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The plant in Manhattan was closed as the company continued to struggle on. It was not until Montana passed Prohibition on January 1, 1919, that the Manhattan Malting Company went out of business. The area farmers were forced to look to crops other than malting barley during Prohibition. Wheat soon became the dominant crop for the area.

The land on which the farm sits was homesteaded by Lewis G. Young, who was born to William C. Young and Celeta Lay Young in 1855 in Missouri. Lewis Young homsteaded a 151-acre piece of land for which he finalized the patent on July 3, 1897, in what is now Manhattan. He sold the land to John H. Bos on January 27, 1904. Young died in Seattle on February 28, 1943.
Survey number: HABS MT-45