Epsie

In May 1908 Epsie McAllister traveled with her daughter Mildred by train from Oregon to Broadus in order to join her husband Bill. He had started a horse ranch at the head of Mizpah Creek with his brothers.

“She was very well respected because she kind of took care of everyone,” said Calvin Rice a local historian. “So when they designated the post office in 1918, they named it Epsie after Epsie McAllister.”

The first post office operated until 1937. It moved a few miles north to Highway 212. In 1939 Frank Peterson moved his shack up to the highway became postmaster. Sometime the next year neighbors found the shack next to the post office on fire and Peterson crawled out of the post office with a gunshot wound that proved fatal. Some say he set the fire and committed suicide; others still suspect foul play.