The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-07-15
STORY OF FORT ASSDMM1B01ME, LARGEST
MILITARY POST CONSTRUCTED 0M MONTANA


protection to the few settlers who
were ~filtering into this great ex-
panse of virgin country, being ii
the height of its glory during d
period Of from 20 to 40 years ago.
old Fort Assinniboine, the north
ernmost post in Montana and one
of the last to be abandoned by the
war department, is now little more
than a collection of abandoned and
weather beaten buildings, visited
occasionally by automobile parties
from Havre or by a few farmers
who desire to visit the agricultural
experiment station now maintain
ed there.
For more than 10 years the post
has been a veritable deserted vii
lage, no bugle call has reverber-
ated between its various structures
and no uniformed men have been
gathered upon its parade ground. 1t
has been turned over to the state
for use as an agricultural and man
ual arts training school and has so
been designated by Legislative en-
actment, but no state appropria-
tions, although passed by the legis-
lature, have ever been made avail
able for the rehabilitation of the
buildings and the maintenance of
the proposed school.
Time after time the people of the
city of Havre, near which the fort
is located, have conducted cam
paigns to obtain from the state the
money required for the opening of
the school and while they have gen
orally succeeded in getting an item
for that purpose included in the
general appropriation bills, the
appropriations have always so
greatly exceeded the states reven-
ues that when the Assinniboine
school came in for its share there
was nothing left for it.
Old Fort Assinniboine has some
what of an interesting history as
was told as follows in an article
published on the Fourth of July,
1900:
Authorized in 1878
Fort Assinniboine is the largest
military post ever constructed in
Montana and for many years was
regarded as one of the most i'm
portant strategic points in the
northwest. A bill authorizing the
construction of a military post at
or near its present location was
passed by congress in 1878 and was
approved June Is of the same year.
The act appropriating 100000 to-
ward the building of Fort Assinni-
boine cited that the post was needed
for the protection of the citizens
and settlers of Montana from the
hostile incursion of Indian tribes
dwelling in that region, and espe-
cially of that portion of the Sioux
which had then been withdrawn
across the international boundary
line after the victory over United
States troops in the Yellowstone
country. This evidently had ref
erence to the Custer massacre.
In the spring of 1873 Lieutenant
Colonel John R. Brooke, who later
won renown in the Spanish-Ameri-
can war, serving for a time as gov
ernor-general of Cuba and who is
now in command of the military
department of the east, with head
quarters on Governors Island,
while in command of the Third in
fantry had selected the site Of the
proposed new post after a thor
ough inspection of that entire re-
gion.
Early in the following year, Col
onel Ruger, commanding the 18th
cavalry, then stationed in Georgia,
was ordered to proceed to Milk
river, Montana, and there garrison
the proposed post. In time the
command reached Bismarck, where
three steamers awaited the arrival
of the soldiers to carry them up the
river to the point of debarkation.
After a tedious voyage of hun
dreds of miles up the Missouri, the
troops were landed at the Coal
Banks, 40 miles from their destina-
ton, and marched to the present
site of Fort Assinniboine.
The post was laid out and for
mally established on May 9, 1879.
1t is in the form of a rectangle and
by points of the compass lies near
1y northeast and southwest. The
altitude is 900 feet above the sea
level. The situation is near Beaver
creek, about five miles south of
that tributary's confluence with
the Milk river. The post is about