Yellowstone Sheriff’s Deputies Recreate Historic Photo

In the midst of all of the coronavirus news over the past couple weeks, you might be wondering- what else is going on out there?

A couple weeks ago Captain Kent O'Donnell with the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office was telling me about something being planned by he and others in the sheriff's office: they were going to recreate an historic photo of a former sheriff who died in the line of duty over a hundred years ago.

I wanted to share this with you earlier in the week, but given all of the coronavirus news I wasn't able to get to it yet. It's better late than never.

The YCSO now has several pictures posted on their Facebook page, along with this writeup describing the background on the above photo from Tuesday, March 24th:

Today we honor the life of Yellowstone County Sheriff James T. Webb. On this day in 1908, Sheriff Webb was shot and killed while trying to arrest William C. Bickford for the theft of horses in Wyoming.

After a posse found and surrounded Bickford, he turned his gun on himself and took his own life.

Sheriff James T. Webb was laid to rest in Mount View Cemetery in Billings, MT. Every business in Billings was closed during the service, which held an estimated 2,000-2,500 guests. At the time, this was the largest crowd ever assembled for a funeral in Eastern Montana.