How Nelson Reservoir got it's name

April 14, 2021

The Milk River is 729 miles long and travels from Canada to Fort Peck. Courtesy Photo.

A man named H.H. Nelson who in 1904 had property by Vandalia, between Glasgow and Hinsdale, along the Milk River, and with some other landowners from the Glasgow area formed the Lower Milk River Users Association. Their vision was getting water (liquid gold) from the proposed reservoir west of Saco to Valley County. They spent two years convincing Congress and Teddy Roosevelt for funds to develop the project.

"Mr. Heindrick Hans (H.H.) Nelson was born in Denmark, moved with his mother to Minnesota in 1866. In his late teens, got a job out of Bismarck, N.D., to be the trail boss of about s...

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