Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-05-16
Fort Benton Once Greatest Port I'm the Northwest;
Rich Treasures i'm Gold und Furs We're SHIPPED

On the banks Of the Missouri
river. more than !, 500 miles from
where the waters Of that stream
n0W with those Of the Mississippi
into the Gulf Of Mexico, stand a
square bastion and fragments Of
ruins Of this old trading post Of
the American Fur Co., forms one
q the points Of greatest historic
interest to be found between the
Mississippi river and the Pacific
coast. Before the ruins Of the old
fort the turbid waters of the Mis-
souri, flow calmly past mile Of
embankment that forms one of the
most historic waterfronts in Amer
lea and the most remote docking
place from the sea for steamboats,
on any waterway in the world.
Half 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 activity. with
steamboats, arriving and departing
amid much hustle of loading and I'M
loading cargoeS. Today the river bank
Is grass-grown, with not a trace Of
its old uses being evident, and it forms
a small riverside park for the little
city that lives much in the past and
history. During the three decades that
1t formed an inland port of real i'm
portance, handsome river steamers
from doWnriver unloading 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 transportation
downstream to the eastern minis.
Along this strip of river front stepped
ashore many Of the pioneers and SOL
diers who we're to become outstanding
figures in the history of the west. 1t
was here. too. that the Inflated Gen.
Thomas Francis Meagher illustrious
Civil war cavalry leader, was drowned
one night while serving as governor
Of Montana.
Had Thrilling History
Before these days. however, the old
trading post whose crumbling ruins
now attract the interest Of the tourist
had history of thrilling interest, for
in the forties and fifties Fort Benton
was equalled only in Importance
among Indian trading centers by
other Of the southwestern posts. 1t
was the greatest American rival of
the Hudsons Bay Co.'S trading out
posts, and before the day of the
steamboat on the upper river shipped
annually great quantities of furs down
the Missouri to St. Louis in mackinaw
boats manned by French and American
voyageurs of the earliest pioneer type.
Fur trading on the upper Missouri.
which had its beginnings as early as
1907 at Fort Manuel on the Yellow
stone river, centered in 1881 at Fort
Benton, at the mouth of the Yellow
stone, which became the headquarters
OF the great American Fur CO. Various
other trading posts were built on the
river above Fort Union in the Black
feet country, and most of these had
short-lived tragic histories. Then, in
184l, it was decided to build an i'm
portant fortified post as far up the
river as practicable, and Fort Lewis
was erected five miles above the site
chosen later for Fort Benton, and on
the south side of the Missouri. This
proving an unfavorable point for trad
ing. Mai Alexander Culbertson, then
chief factor for the American Fur Co..