Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-08
TRAILING ON THE OLD FRONTIERS
Wealth of Romance and Adventure CROWDS History of Old Fort Benton
Which GreW From Lone Outpost of Fur Trade to Important Port on River

with those of the Mississippi
into the Gulf of Mexico, stand
a square bastion and fragments
of the walls of old Fort Benton.
The ruins of this old trading
post of the American Fur COM
pany forms one of the points
of greatest historic interest to
be found between the MISSISSIPPI
pi river and the Pacific coast.
Before the ruins of the old fort
the turbid waters of the Mis-
souri, flow calmly past a mile of
embankment that forms one of
the most historic water fronts
in America and the most re-
mote docking place from the
sea for steamboats, on any wa
ter way in the world.
Half a century ago the levee
along the river bank here,
which, for 80 years from 1859
to 1889 was the terminal port
for steam craft plying between
ST. Louis and Fort Benton, was
the scene of the greatest activ-
ity, with steamboats, arriving
and departing amid much bus
tie of loading and unloading
cargoes. Today the river bank
is grass-grown, with not a
trace of it's old uses being evil
dent, and it forms a small riv-
erside park for the sleepy little
town that lives much in the
past and takes great pride in
its traditions and history. Dur
ing the three decades that it
formed an inland port of real
Importance, handsome river
steamers from down river I'M
loading during the summer
months each season vast stores
of merchandise for the gold
camps, army forts and trading
posts of the Upper Missouri
country, while millions upon
millions of dollars in gold dust
were taken aboard for trans
portation downstream to the
eastern minis. Along this strip
river front stepped ashore
of the pioneers and SOL
diers who were to become out
standing figures in the history
of the west. 1t was here, too,
that the Inflated General
Thomas Francis Meagher, il
lustrious Civil War cavalry
leader, was drowned one night
serving as governor of
Before these days, however,
the old trading post whose
crumbling ruins now attract
the interest of the tourist had '
a history of thrilling interest,
for in the 40's and SOS Fort
Benton was equaled only in i'm
.oortance among Indian trading :
,enters by Bent's Fort in oCl-
,rado and one or two other of {
he southwestern posts. 1t was
greatest American rival of
he Hudson's Bay company's {
;rading outposts and before the !
lay of the steamboat on the {
upper river shipped annually I
great quantities of furs down
he Missouri to st. Louis in
nackinaw boats manned by
and American voy-
lgeurs of the earliest pioneer {
ype.
History of Fort Benton
Fur trading on the Upper !
Missouri, which had it's begin :
lings as early as 1907 at Fort v
Ganuel on the Yellowstone riv- :
r, conferred in 1881 at Fort =
Benton, at the mouth of the l
,ellowstone, which became the :
leadquarters of the great {
american Fur company. Va
ious other trading posts were (
uilt on the river above Fort
Jnion in the Blackfeet country,
nd most of these had short
we'd, tragic histories. Then, in
BAL, it was decided to build an
Important fortified post as far
p the river as practicable, and
'ort Lewis was erected five
lilies above the site chosen
tier for Fort Benton, and on
ne south side of the Missouri.
his proving an unfavorable
oint for trading, Major Alex
.der Culbertson, then chief
actor for the American Fur
,mpany began the construc-
on in 1916 of Fort Benton.
Major Culbertson, who, for
years, was a leading figure
Upper Missouri history, en-
red the service of the Amori-