Talk:Cow Island, Montana

Hangon
Cow Island is a notable enough topic to be included in Wikipedia, it contains a historical battle as some assertion of notability. If still not notable, would any admin please userfy this article to my or the original author's userspace? ► Wireless Keyboard ◄. 00:49, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
 * How about a redirect to Cow Creek (Montana)? Seems to be regarding this same topic. Policy says I shouldn't remove the speedy template, so I'm putting it up on the table, first. ► Wireless Keyboard ◄ . 00:54, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Response to Hangon
The fragmented nature of this article entitled "Cow Creek, Montana" is explained below in the portion entitled "Response to Merger Proposal"

I would like to address the suggestion of a "redirect".

First, let me acknowledge that Cow Creek and Cow Island have almost no immediate interest to anyone today. They are remote areas, and seem to be getting more remote from travel as time goes on. As noted in the articles Cow Island and Cow Creek may be soon designated as prarie wilderness, which will restrict these areas from motorized travel of any sort. These areas only have historic significance, in that once Cow Creek and Cow Island were the crossroads of overland travel in an area, the Missouri Breaks, where travel has always been restricted and difficult.

Having written a fairly comprehensive article about "Cow Creek (Montana)" that referred to Cow Island, I continued research in a number of historical sources about this topic. They indicate that the Cow Creek/Cow Island area is referred to most often as Cow Island, and only secondarily as Cow Creek. However the topics are intertwined. There is the Battle of Cow Island, but there is the after math over the next 2 to 5 days that occurs up Cow Creek. There are references to Cow Island Landing, and to Cow Island Trail. Even so, the topography of Cow Creek (providing a route of passage through the breaks) generated the usages of Cow Island as a ford, a landing place, and as the start of the Cow Island Trail.

I therefore thought I would rewrite the entire topic, and break it down into several articles. That's what I was engaged in when I lost the fragment that "Wireless Keyboard" was trying to make sense of. This project, when finished would provide a more digestible resource for this topic.

Now let me see if I can sign this in the appropriate way. NoAmGeogSoc (talk) 22:14, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that Cow Island, Missouri Breaks, Eastern Montana be merged into Cow Island, Montana. This seems to clearly refer to the same topic PantsB (talk) 20:08, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Response to Merger Proposal
Here is a copy of a message sent to "Wireless Keyboard"

I am not familiar with this method of communication, but I hope this is the right way to clarify this. My user name is NoAmGeogSoc. The article now on the web entitled "Cow Island, Montana" was an early draft of an article I had been working on about Cow Island, in the Missouri Breaks area of Eastern Montana. I had been working on this early (and incomplete) draft on March 2, under "User:NoAmGeogSoc/Sandbox7a". Then I lost the article and was never able to find it. I thought it was because the designation "...7a" following "...Sandbox" was not appropriate. This source for the article now on Wikipedia as "Cow Island, Montana", is confirmed by the following under the "view history" tab at the "Cow Island, Montana" entry: (cur | prev) 00:46, 2 March 2011 Wireless Keyboard (talk | contribs) m (2,067 bytes) (moved NoAmGeogSoc/Sandbox7a to Cow Island, Montana: User moved from his userspace into mainspace, improperly named) (undo) After losing track of the earlier draft, I rewrote the "Cow Island" article in this place: "User:NoAmGeogSoc/Sandbox15". Today, in a routine search I came across the "Cow Island, Montana" article. I was appalled to find my earlier fragmented work on Wikipedia, and decided to move my current draft on that topic from my "user" space onto the "mainspace" (is that the right word) where it is now lodged as "Cow Island, Missouri Breaks, Eastern Montana". I am glad that this move got a response from you, so we could clear up the confusion between the two articles. So, the current article with the full title, "Cow Island, Missouri Breaks, Eastern Montana" has the fully merged content of the earlier "Cow Island, Montana" article, along with additional content. The proper title for this article is "Cow Island, Missouri Breaks, Eastern Montana". As you might guess there are many different "Cow Island" designations, and this particularly Cow Island is uniquely associated with the Missouri Breaks, and Eastern Montana. Eastern Montana, by the way, is a specifically and commonly designated region of Montana -- see "Eastern Montana" on Wikipedia. It is my intention to continue to work on the article in the next few days, adding footnotes, categories, "See Also" and all the rest until the article is complete. I will get some photos of this "Cow Island" in the future, when the weather is better. I would like your help in removing the "Cow Island, Montana" article in its entirety, and leaving the "Cow Island, Missouri Breaks, Eastern Montana" article to be completed. Thank you. NoAmGeogSoc

Redirect Proposal
Why don't we just redirect this article to the target article? ► Wireless Keyboard ◄. 23:15, 4 March 2011 (UTC)