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A Most Interesting Place

By: LC200 staff

The American Fur Company entered the race to develop the fur business early on. As the fur frontier moved farther up the Missouri, the Company determined to establish their own treaty with the Blackfeet. By 1829 Jacob Berger was in Blackfeet country near the site of the Two Medicine River where Captain Lewis had his run in with the Blackfeet. Berger and his small party wintered with the Piegan Blackfeet. The following spring a group of about one hundred Blackfeet accompanied him to Fort Union where Kenneth McKenzie negotiated a trade agreement. In the fall of 1831 James Kipp led a party of twenty five men and a keelboat up the Missouri to the mouth of the Marias and built a trading fort, Fort Piegan, near the Lewis and Clark camp of 1805. The fort was immediately a grand success. However, in early 1832 another branch of the Blackfeet, the Bloods, attacked the fort and burned it to the ground.

This was the earliest attempts by Americans to establish a permanent presence in this part of Montana. However short-lived it was, Fort Piegan did show that it could be done. This first fort spawned several other forts along the river until ultimately Fort Benton was built and became a permanent settlement in 1846.

After Fort Piegan was destroyed David Mitchell succeeded in building Fort McKenzie a few miles upriver from the Marias. Alexander Culbertson took over the fort in 1834. Under his direction Fort McKenzie became one of the great fur forts on the upper Missouri. Such people as Prince Maximillian, George Catlin, and John Audubon were all guests at the fort. In 1844 Indians attacked the fort and burned it to the ground in retaliation for treachery on the part of traders who had killed a number of Indians.

Culbertson, who had been replaced at Fort McKenzie by F.A. Chardon in 1841, returned to the area and built a little further upstream. He named it Fort Lewis in honor of Captain Meriwether Lewis. Because of its bad location he moved it across the river and a little ways downstream the following spring. Father Point recorded the date of the move in his personal journal as May 19, 1847, however Culbertson reported it as 1846. Later the fort was rebuilt using adobe bricks and renamed Fort Benton, in honor of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, during a ceremony on Christmas night 1850. This fort immediately became successful, in addition to being permanent.

There had been other small, mostly temporary trading forts along the Missouri between the mouth of the Marias and Fort Lewis. Names included Fort Harvey, Fort Campbell, Fort Cotton, Fort Fox and Livingston and Fort LaBarge. They didn’t last long nor were they of much significance beyond maintaining a presence in the fur country. Over a span of forty years the area, eleven miles by modern road or twenty-five river miles, went from obscurity to a permanent settlement deep in the unknown territory Mr. Jefferson had dared to purchase and explore.

Almost as soon as Fort Lewis was built a new fur trade era was launched. The immense herds of buffalo were soon being slaughtered for their hides. A wagon road was carved across the prairies from Fort Union in 1851. The beaver era in central Montana gave way to buffalo hides as road building grew, providing a means for transporting the hides back to ‘the states’. These roads were soon replaced by steamboats up the Missouri from St. Louis to Fort Benton, which became the head of navigation on the river.

Supplies to outfit an empire were moving up the Missouri on steamboats then overland on the wagon roads to all parts of Montana and southwestern Canada. Merchants in Fort Benton were handling hundreds of thousands of tons of goods and reaping the financial rewards. Competition was keen and risks were high, but so was the profit. The mouth of the Marias River once again became a focal point, threatening to drastically change the situation.

Although steamboats were arriving at the Fort Benton levee, the “season” was terribly short. The design of the boats, in addition to several rocky shoals in the river and an everchanging maze of sandbars lying just under the surface limited traffic to high water times, April, May and June. During the low water periods freight was usually offloaded at the mouth of the Marias then freighted overland to Fort Benton for further delivery.

James Moore brought his boat, the Cutter, upriver, but had to lay over the winter of 1864 at the Marias. Here he conceived the plan for a new town that would replace Fort Benton as the head of navigation. By February 1865 a group of prominent miners had formed a stock company and received a legislative charter for the town of Ophir. The new company hired N.W. Burris as their field manager. He laid out four hundred lots for three hundred cabins. By late May several of the cabins had already been built. However, a band of Bloods attacked a woodcutting party and killed them all. This ambush was in retribution for an earlier incident when trappers attacked and killed several Bloods the trappers accused of stealing their horses.

The “massacre” of the woodcutters at Ophir included field manager Burris thus ending all dreams of the new town. The Indian scare spread rapidly with a great outcry to punish the Indians and make the area safe again. The Territorial Governor left Montana on business and the outcry was ignored. The Marias’ last attempt at fame died and Fort Benton resumed its roll of destination point for the upriver traffic. The cabins that had been built and other cut logs were used for firewood by passing steamboats. Nothing remains of this once widely promoted attempt at city building. The townsite is now a field that lies just below the visitors overlook at the mouth of the Marias.

Several more attempts were made by others to divert the lucrative freighting business away from Fort Benton, but for various reasons they all ended in failure. With the redesign of the steamboat to enable it to navigate shallower water, Fort Benton flourished until the coming of the railroads. During the “steamboat days” on the upper Missouri, which lasted from 1859 until 1890, nearly 75% of all the freight to the northwest unloaded on the Fort Benton levee. When Jim Hill brought his railroad lines through the country, he did what many others before him had tried to do and all had failed. River freighting could not compete with the railroads so Fort Benton slipped out of prominence, changing to an agricultural center for the area and county seat of Chouteau County; one of the nine original counties created in the Montana Territory.

Fort Benton is a small town with a huge history. It is a “must see” for any traveler to central Montana who has an interest in history. A look at Fort Benton’s history is a look at the history of a developing region of the continent. It has its roots in Lewis and Clark—Lewis passed through the area on June 12, 1805; Clark passed through there on June 5, 1805 and camped nearby on June 13, 1805; Lewis rejoined part of the Expedition at Fort Benton after his incident with the Blackfeet at the Two Medicine River, but its continued development shows the next steps in developing a territory that the Expedition gave to the nation.

Local advertising call Fort Benton “the birthplace of Montana” because it is the oldest continuously inhabited town in the state. It traces its birth to 1846 when Fort Lewis was first built. That fort was named in honor of Captain Meriwether Lewis. The following year it was moved to the location of present day Fort Benton, but was not renamed until 1850. The new name was in honor of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Other names in the city’s history read like a who’s who of the fur trade and early day Montana mercantiling; Chouteau, Baker, Conrad, Sullivan, Power.

The first stop the traveler makes is at a scenic overlook on the hill to the west of town. Interpretive signage gives a snapshot look at Fort Benton and talks briefly about the Whoopup Trail and Mullen Road. Other stops include St. Paul’s Episcopal Church which is on the national register of historic places. The church was first brought to the area by Bishop Tuttle in 1865. The church building was completed in 1879 making it the oldest church in Fort Benton and the oldest Episcopalian church in Montana.

Two blocks away is the Chouteau County courthouse. It was completed with a “laying the last block” party on July 4, 1884 making it the second oldest courthouse still in use in the state. James Willard Schultz described the activity he observed when the Fort Benton volunteer fire department attempted to save the original courthouse from being destroyed by fire in 1883. (It burned to the ground and the current one was completed the following year).

“The department had just got their new pumper, had practiced for endless hours, and the men were itching to put it to use. Everyone soon realized the fire was out of control in spite of commands to pump faster. So the firemen repaired to Keno Bills saloon to quench their thirst and let’r burn. Some comments were made that it was strange how the building caught fire, but it was decided some records naturally had to be destroyed to keep certain fellers out of a heap of trouble.\"

Also included on the tour of Fort Benton is the Museum of the Upper Missouri with its many dioramas of steamboating and early settlers. There is an early day homestead cabin display as well an early day saloon. Another museum to see is the Agriculture Museum of the Northern Great Plains. Shown in this facility are several acres of agriculture equipment and an early day farm town. There are so many interesting items they all can’t be displayed. Consequently the displays are frequently changing. A featured attraction in the museum is the Hornaday Buffalo collection on loan from the Smithstonian. These six buffalo were collected in 1886 from the last of the wild herds between the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. This is the same area as the last buffalo hunt of the Blackfeet before they were forced onto the reservation. The lead bull in the group was the model for several coins including the buffalo nickel, the seal for the Department of Interior and the National Park Service. The Department of the Interior also maintains a visitors center for the upper Missouri that gives many details of the river. The 149 mile section of the Missouri between Fort Benton and the Fred Robinson Bridge is designated as a wild and scenic river.

Every visitor needs to reserve some time to wander through the Old Fort Park, located on the site of the original fort. Some parts of that original fort’s adobe walls still exist. Many interpretive signs are in place to take the traveler back in time to the glory days when the fort was the hub of commerce. The fort is being rebuilt to look like it would have in 1850. So far the trade store and storehouse building have been rebuilt. The blockhouse on the southeast corner of the Old Fort is the original structure built in 1850. It is the oldest existing building in the state of Montana. The rebuilt section also houses a working blacksmith shop equipped as it was when originally built. The blacksmith shop got its baptism in June of 2000 as two blacksmiths spent a weekend turning out a variety of items commonly used at the original fort.

In 1965 Fort Benton was designated a national historic landmark for its role in national expansion. Historic sites dot the four-block length of what once was the Fort Benton levee. Take a leisurely stroll through this area stopping to read the interpretive signage along the way.

The river levee holds two other treasures for the history buff. A modest boulder with a bronze plaque attached to it commemorates the starting point of the Whoopup Trail. The trail was developed by the Fort Benton merchants who pursued trade opportunities with the Blackfeet after they had been pushed north into Canada by the constant pressures of advancing white settlement. That trade soon turned from providing provisions to supplying firewater, “a poisonous decoction of Missouri River water, whiskey and tobacco.” The main trading post was dubbed Fort Whoopup, near present day Lethbridge, Alberta. Smuggling whiskey to the Indians was against Canadian law, but very lucrative business.

Finally, in 1874, the Royal Northwest Mounted Police came west to end this trade. They established Fort Macleod near Fort Whoopup as their headquarters to keep a close watch on the trade activities. When the Fort Benton merchants realized the “Mounties” were there to stay and athe whiskey trade became too risky, they quickly turned to the business of supplying the Mounties with their needed provisions. Another rough and tumble chapter of western settlement came to a close, thanks to Canadian law enforcement; the only effective law in the area.

A short distance further up the levee is the obelisk statue of Lieutenant John Mullen. Mullen built a 624 mile long road from Fort Benton (the head of navigation on the Missouri River) to Missoula then Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and on to Fort Walla Walla, Washington (the head of navigation on the Columbia River). From the time of its completion in 1860 until the railroads pushed across the country, the Mullen Road served many thousands of travelers including most of the miners who flocked to the gold fields of Montana.

The Mullen Road was the first efforts to open a westward route for developing commerce coast to coast. It has been termed the completion of President Jefferson’s instructions to Lewis and Clark to find the best commercial communication route to the Pacific.

Before leaving Fort Benton be sure to stop and see the Shep statue on the levee near the Grand Union Hotel. His story is simple, but unique; one that was known around the world in the early 1940s.

In the late summer of 1936 a sheepherder’s body was put on the train at Fort Benton for shipment back east for burial. His shepherd dog waited patiently nearby. When the train pulled out of the station the dog disappeared only to return when the next train arrived at the station. And so it went for five and one half years. The dog, dubbed Shep by the station attendants, met every train into the station, eagerly hoping for his master’s return. He refused offers for a new home, preferring instead the shelter he found under the rail station. Shep finally accepted food and water that was left for him by the station agent, but only because it made his scavenging easier.

By 1939 he had become famous with newspapers all over the country telling of the dog who met every train, waiting for his master to come back. Shep even was the subject of articles in the London Daily Express and Ripley’s “Believe it or Not.” People would make special trips to Fort Benton either by train or car just to see Shep and maybe take his picture. Through it all Shep remained shy tolerating, but not liking the crowds of people each train brought. He would not let them prevent him from the possibility of being reunited with his master.

Finally time caught up with the faithful shepherd dog. In mid winter of 1942, growing older and not being as agile as he once was, Shep slipped on the icy rails in front of an oncoming train. He was finally reunited with his master.

Both the Associated Press and United Press news services carried the story of Shep’s death. It was as important a news story as any of the ones about the war raging in Europe and the Pacific. Shep’s funeral was attended by hundreds of people as the local Boy Scout troop carried his casket to its final resting spot on a hill overlooking the rail station. A lighted marker still stands at the dog’s grave.