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Libby Smith Collins had a ranch in Choteau, Montana, where she was known as Cattle Queen of Montana. She was the first woman from Montana to accompany her cattle to market in Chicago; she had to challenge the railroad regulations to do so.
She came west from Illinois with her parents probably in the 1850s. She traveled to several western states and experienced many adventures, including getting captured by Indians. She got to Montana in the 1860s and lived in the mining towns of Virginia City, Helena, and Silver City. Disenchanted with mining she and her new husband Nat Collins bought 180 head of cattle and rented a ranch in the Prickly Pear Valley. That year was an unusually severe winter. Much of their herd died that year. More died the following winter too. They moved to the Teton Valley just outside Choteau that August. There was only one store and a couple of houses there at the time. Their ranch did well.
In 1886, they moved for the last time, to Willow Creek, which offered more grazing for the growing herd. Every fall, buyers came to the ranch to buy surplus "beeves." The first year they took their cattle to Chicago was quite successful. They gathered more to go east the next fall too, but a few days before their scheduled departure Nat got sick. He was too sick to go and they dared not trust just anyone with the cattle and the large amount of money involved. For a woman to do this was unheard of. But Libby was determined to go. They moved the herd to the railroad at Great Falls without incident. Her herd was too small to warrant a full train so she was forced to wait for more cattle to arrive to fill all the cars. Also the railroad prohibited allowing a woman to accompany stock on a cattle train or even riding on the train even if she paid full fare. A valuable pacing horse she was going to ship for training was accidentally killed during the delay. She was so discouraged she walked along the river and burst into tears, but finally determined to finish the job. In Great Falls she met with a representative of a Chicago commission firm. When he heard her story he telegraphed the railroad officials in St. Paul who granted her a special permit to ride the train. As she boarded the train the cowboys cheered her on and yelled out "Success to Aunty Collins, the Cattle Queen of Montana."
She went all the way to Chicago with the cattle and did the bartering for their price herself. She got several hundred dollars over what she had been offered at the ranch and at Great Falls. The October 1891 issue of Chicago Drover's Journal included a report of her achievement. After that she went to Chicago regularly. Newspapers and magazines of the time wrote many stories about her exploits saying much about a woman taking care of business matters. During the 1950s a movie was made about her called Cattle Queen of Montana and it was filmed at Glacier Park. She was played by Barbara Stanwyck and it costarred Ronald Reagan.
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