Feb. 3 – On this day in history in 1887, the Miles City paper was reporting -10 degree temperatures at 3 p.m. and -24 at 1 a.m. This was one of the harshest winters in Montana history. It also brought the era of open range cattle ranching to an end. When Montana’s cowboy artist Charlie Russell was sent out to report on a herd of cattle in the Judith Gap area, he simply sent back a drawing of an emaciated steer with the caption “Last of 5,000.” That painting is hanging in the Montana Historical Society Museum in Helena. After this year, ranchers started raising and storing hay and feeding their cattle through the winter.