Homesteaders arrived in the Shepherd vicinity after the creation of the Billings Bench Water Association canal in 1905. This 65-mile canal brought Dutch, German, and Scandinavian farmers who took this cattle range and turned it into farmland. However, when the grasshoppers devoured the sugar beet crop in 1936, most of the farmers picked up their stakes and moved on. Today, Shepherd is a suburb of Billings which is only 16 miles south.
Shepherd is located south eastern area of Montana, just north of Billings.
