Before the National Workers Party of Baüme raised the Shield to safeguard our future, and long before the 2025 Declaration of Independence etched our sovereignty into the record of nations, the land of the Republic existed as a silent witness to a long and rugged history. To understand the iron-willed strength of Baüme today, one must first look back at the ancient, volatile world that preceded it; a world of shifting tides, frontier grit, and a landscape that demanded resilience from anyone who dared to stand upon it.

Pre-Humans:

(80 MYA)

Some 80 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous period, the history of the land we now call the Republic began. At that time, the land was not a high-altitude plateau but the bottom of the Western Interior Seaway. As the prehistoric ocean receded, it left behind vast deposits of Eagle Sandstone. Over the next few millennia, the ancient Yellowstone River carved through these deposits, creating the characteristic Rimrocks. This geological phenomenon created the “Upper Heights” as a natural fortress, providing a strategic rise of about 400 to 500 feet above the surrounding basin, a geographic advantage that would foreshadow the military and social isolation of the area in centuries to come. The area was not then a high-altitude plateau but the floor of the Western Interior Seaway.

Great thicknesses of Eagle Sandstone were left by the retreating ancient ocean. Over the next several thousand years, the ancestors of the Yellowstone River carved through these deposits to create the distinctive Rimrocks. This geological event created the “Upper Heights” as a natural fortress, raising the strategic altitude some 400 to 500 feet above the surrounding basin, an advantage of geography that would affect the military and social isolation of the region for centuries to come.

Native tribes:

(1400 - 1800)

Before colonial interests arrived, the land was the sovereign territory of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation, who called the Yellowstone the Elk River. For the indigenous inhabitants, the Upper Heights were a crucial vantage point, offering clear views for tracking bison herds and observing the movements of rival tribes, such as the Blackfeet and Sioux, from the plateau near the Oasis. This era established the plateau as a place of watchfulness and strategic significance, ideas that are still fundamental to the land’s character today. The Yellowstone the Apsáalooke called the Elk River.

The Upper Heights were for the natives an important observation post. The plateau near the Oasis afforded clear lines of sight for tracking the herds of bison and for watching the movements of rival tribes, such as the Blackfeet and the Sioux. The plateau was thus made into a place of alertness and tactical importance, ideas still central to the land’s identity.

Billings, Mont., was formally established on March 24, 1882, when it entered modern administrative history. Founded as a logistics hub for westward expansion, the city is named after Frederick H. Billings, President of the Northern Pacific Railroad. But at first the "Magic City" was confined to the valley floor. The Upper Heights was a rough frontier, largely forgotten by the railroad barons, who found it too hard to get water and supplies up the sandstone cliffs. This brought about an early cultural and logistical rift between the “Valley” and the “Heights.”

Foundation of Billings:

(1882)

This geographic divide gave birth to a specific kind of person. While the valley became the seat of banks and bureaucracy, the Upper Heights became a sanctuary for the outliers. These early residents, dry-land farmers who trusted the sky more than city pipes and ranchers who lived by the seasons, developed a culture of quiet, hardened self-reliance. They looked down upon the "Magic City" not as their home, but as a distant, crowded world below their feet. Long before any borders were drawn, the people of the Heights had already claimed their independence in the silence of the Rims.

Dustbowl:

(1930)

The 1930s brought a weight to the plateau that the valley floor never fully shared. When the Dust Bowl descended upon Montana, the Upper Heights lacked the luxury of the Yellowstone’s irrigation; here, the earth was dry and the wind was relentless. Survival ceased to be an individual pursuit and became a communal pact—a necessity of looking a neighbor in the eye and dividing the last of the water or the grain. This era forged "Heights Grit," a stubborn, quiet resilience that bound the people to the sandstone. It was during these lean years that the Heights stopped being a mere collection of outskirts and transformed into a unified community, anchored by the vow that no matter how hard the wind blew, they would not leave the rock.

The Millennium, and a road to freedom:

(1980 - 2024)