Montana Dog Names

A well-known dog from Montana is Shep, a Shepherd/Collie mix that was born in the 1930’s. He began his life tending sheep with his owner, a sheep herder, who was struggling for money during the depression. The two were said to be inseparable and would work for food and a place to sleep. Unfortunately, in 1936 the herder got sick while tending his flock. He was brought to the hospital at Fort Benton, along with his dog. While the herder was in the hospital, a nun made sure that Shep was fed. The herder passed away and his family requested that his body be sent home. The herders body was put in a casket and brought to the train, with Shep following. According to onlookers, Shep watched his owner be loaded up onto the train and whimpered as the train pulled away. For the next five and a half years, Shep remained at the train station, where he welcomed four trains each day, hoping that his owner was on one of them.

The train section boss encouraged Shep to live in the section house during the winter, however Shep preferred to live under the train platform, so that he could easily meet each train that arrived. Shep became well known, appearing in papers in New York and London, as he represented the faithfulness of dogs. While many offered him a home, Shep was only interested in the man that he had bonded with and was willing to wait for his return. Shep lived out his life on the Fort Benton depot platform. He was fed by the railroad employees and as he got older would rest on a bed by the fire inside the depot. In 1942, Shep, whose legs had gotten stiff and his hearing poor, slipped when trying to get out of the way of a train that was coming. Unable to get out of the way, Shep passed away. He was laid to rest on the hill that overlooked the station, where he had waited for five and a half years for his owner to return.

Upon the fiftieth anniversary of Shep’s death, Fort Benton put together a committee to create a lasting memorial to the famous dog. Bob Scriver, a renowned sculptor in the west, was hired to develop a bronze statue of the dog. The statue was put along the levee of the Missouri River in a park across from the Grand Union Hotel, a tribute to his faithfulness.