Joplin is a Hi-Line train station where hopeful homesteaders arrived to settle on "free land". The post office opened in 1910 as they arrived, most from Missouri, Minnesota or North Dakota. This part of Montana, formerly a battleground of Piegan, Blood, and Gros Ventre Indians, became a land where homesteaders battled the elements and grasshoppers. (from Cheney's Names on the Face of Montana, Mountain Press Publishing Company)
