Our Story
Over 100 years ago our story began. A widowed mother and her young son made the journey to Montana. Traveling here to meet up with her brother who had written to her telling her he had started farming in the wild west. When she and her son arrived they found that her brother had packed up and left. The Darlington Ranch is a tale of resilience in untamed land that turned into a 5 generation legacy.
In 1916 Iva Nora Darlington (known as "Nora") traveled to Big Sandy, MT after receiving word from her brother that he had begun farming there and that she was welcome to join him in Montana. Nora had lost her husband, William, to pneumonia 7 years prior when her son was just 3 years old.
Nora Packed up her 10 year old boy, Harley, and made the trek for Montana from Winchester, Ohio. When she arrived she found that her brother had packed up and left!
At this time the Homestead Act of 1862 had been revised to the Enlarged Homestead Act which brought a great influx of homesteaders to Montana. Despite the odds stacked against her as a widowed mother, Nora stayed and so began the legacy of the Darlington Ranch.
In an effort to attract more people to homestead in Montana, this new act doubled the amount of land available for claim to 320 acres and shortened the amount of time a person had to live on, cultivate, and improve the land in order to receive a deed to 3 years instead of 5.
Railroads launched massive advertising campaigns to bring homesteaders to Montana. When it was over, an estimated 300,000 people had filed for homesteads in Montana with at least eighteen percent of these claims filed by unmarried women.
(Source: https://dp.la/exhibitions/industries-settled-montana/early-settlement/homestead-act?item=1137)
Nora claimed her share and with Harley beside her they built a life in Montana.
In 1928 Harley married the love of his life, Alma. Alma moved to Big Sandy via immigrant train with her family and other members of her French settlement. Alma could not speak a lick of English when she arrived, however as told by her grandchildren, she didn't have even a hint of a French accent as an adult.
Pictured in the photo above is Harley and Alma sitting in front of the sod house they built. They went on to have 6 children, 2 of which were born in this home. The family farmed and ranched living in this old sod shack for 15 years through the depression, dust storms, and low farming prices. Through those hardships they found life's silver linings. They enjoyed attending local dances on the weekend and were no strangers to having a good time, some things never change I suppose! The two had been married 68 years when Harley passed away in 1996. Alma continued to live on the ranch until her own last day.