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Historic Sites in Montana
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Fort Owen State Park
Built of adobe and logs, Fort Owen is the site of the first
permanent while settlement in Montana. Major John Owen
established the fort as a regional trade center in 1850 and
period furnishings and artifacts are displayed in the restored
rooms of the east barracks. This site is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places. For information call: (406)542-5500
Fort Benton
Established in 1864, Fort Benton is known as the "Birthplace of
Montana". An American Fur Company trading post at first, it
became the hub for trade and travel throughout the northwestern
United States and Canada. Fifty steamboats a season would dock
along its levee, bringing fur traders, gold seekers and settlers
to the land of their dreams. Freight destined for isolated
settlements would be loaded onto wagons and pulled by thousands
of oxen along the trails of the northern plains. Today, Fort
Benton is recognized as a National Historic Landmark, because of
the importance it played as the head of navigation on the
Missouri River and the opening of the northwest and western
Canada. Walk along the steamboat levee and the part of the town
once known as "the bloodiest block in the west". View the ruins
of "Historic Fort Benton" which is currently under
archaeological study and in the process of being reconstructed.
Explore the Museum of the Upper Missouri and the Museum of the
Great Northern Plains. For information call: (406)622-3864
Sluice Boxes
Sluice Boxes State Monument is located along Belt Creek in north
central Montana. Tent camping is permitted but no facilities are
available. There is a trailhead accessing the Lewis & Clark
Forest and the Little Belt Mountains. Fishing is permitted on
the creek. For information call: (406)454-5840
Pompeys Pillar National Historic Landmark
Pompeys Pillar is a rock outcropping that rises 200 feet above
the Yellowstone River 30 miles east of Billings. Pompeys Pillar
is like a sandstone history book that reads like a who's who of
western frontier history. Look on the rockface for the remains
of animal drawings created by people who used the area for
rendezvous, campsites, and hunting. In 1806 Captain William
Clark carved his signature and the date in this rock. It is the
only site on the trail where visible evidence of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition may be viewed by the public. Interpretive
tours. For information call: (406)238-1540
Fort Assinniboine Historic Site, Northern Agricultural Research
Center
Fort Assinniboine Historic Site was constructed in 1879, and
became the largest military fort west of the Mississippi River.
The post had 104 buildings and was contained within a 40 mile
long by 15 mile wide military reservation. Several of the
original buildings still stand. The primary mission of the
Fort's garrison was to prevent attacks from the some 5,000
Lakota Sioux Indians led by Sitting Bull, and other chiefs who
had fled to the safety of Canada after the Battle of the Little
Big Horn. The fort served as a base for patrols along the
Canadian border and the Milk River Valley. Fort Assinniboine
became the state's military head quarters, with the
responsibility of maintaining control over the Blackfoot
Confederacy and other northern Montana Indian Reservations. The
most famous soldier to serve at the Fort was John J. Pershing,
who was assigned to the post in 1896. He commanded H Troop, the
Black "Buffalo Soldiers" of the 10th Cavalry. It became a state
agricultural experiment station in 1911, and continues so today.
For information call: (406)265-4000
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