The Missouri River is the longest river in the United States, born in the joining of three small rivers near Three Forks, MT, and flowing north over 200 miles before making a gentle arc that ends over 2,000 miles later downstream north of St. Louis, MO, where the Missouri enters the Mississippi River. For thousands of years the river provided a path into the interior of North America but the modern era began in 1805 when the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled up the Missouri on their quest to find the mythical Northwest Passage leading to the Pacific Ocean. The expedition traveled up the river in early fall 1805 through extremely rugged terrain with success until they met the greatest obstacle that they would face during their entire trip, the falls of the Missouri. The river drops 612 feet over a series of five falls in a ten mile stretch of river, effectively blocking access by water upstream and establishing the base of the falls as the furthest point that boats could travel up the Missouri. Fur trader Alexander Culbertson established a trading post on the western banks of the Missouri at this site and named it Fort Benton.
Fort Benton
The location of Fort Benton was actually the result of a request made by the Blackfeet Indians. The first location had been named Fort Lewis and was 18 miles north of the current location on the opposite bank of the river. The Blackfeet asked that the fort be relocated to the grassy bank on the west side of the river. Due to the lack of timber in the area, Fort Lewis was dismantled and the log walls floated up river and reassembled into the newly named Fort Benton. The original adobe northeast blockhouse and an adobe barracks remain with the rest of the fort reconstructed around them.
The fort is usually open for tours but the combination of being past tourist season and the corona virus means that all I can do is walk around the outside.
A rare photograph from 1860 shows the fort rising from the grassy bench above the river. Note the lack of trees, the Missouri historically ran through essentially treeless prairie. It was only after the settlers came and planted trees to protect themselves from the brutal summer sun that trees spread along the bank of the river (this is generally true of all of the rivers in eastern Montana.)
The fur trade that initially spurred the establishment of the fort gave way to the shipping of buffalo hides in the 1860’s. The western bank of the river was transformed into a rock lined levee where river boats would dock to unload supplies for the growing gold fields of the interior and pick up loads of buffalo hides for the cities to the east. Buffalo hides were bulky and heavy so a fur press was used to compress hides into a bundle for shipping. 10-12 hides would be layered on the press and then men would push down on the long tree pole and the tightly pressed bundle would be tied and carried to the boats for shipment down the river.
Fort Benton quickly became the commercial center of the territory and enthusiastic city fathers dubbed it “The Chicago of the West.” The Mullan Road, built by the military in 1859 to connect Fort Benton in Montana with Fort Walla Walla on the other side of the Rocky Mountains in Washington, connected the riches of the interior Rocky Mountain region to the steamboats of the Missouri River, allowing Fort Benton to become the burgeoning United States’ busiest interior port. Bull trains of 10 yokes of oxen, mules, or horses hitched to a train of three wagons flowed in and out of Fort Benton from all directions. Each bull train could carry about 15 tons of freight.
The Missouri Breaks Interpretive Center in Fort Benton has a small but informative collection of artifacts and original photographs documenting the period. The “Missouri Breaks” is the name given to the land along the Missouri River from Fort Benton downstream to Fort Peck. The Breaks are an incredibly rugged and inhospitable stretch of broken land rising in steep cliffs from the banks of the river to deeply eroded sections of grassy plains. Even to this day it is sparsely populated and many areas are inaccessible to motor traffic, home to a rich diversity of wildlife untouched by humans.
Gold strikes in the mountains of western Montana brought thousands of prospectors to the area, many via steamboat on the Missouri, disembarking at Fort Benton before setting out to find their fortune. Merchants “mining the miners” thrived in Fort Benton and an imposing downtown grew along the levee. Upwards of 50 boats per season would dock along the levee in Fort Benton. A model of the steamboat “The Far West” demonstrates the design that successful navigated the treacherous Missouri. The narrow boat with the curved point could maneuver in and around the changing sand bars of the river while trying to avoid snags on trees hidden beneath the raging current.
As the gold rush waned in the late 1860’s a contraband whiskey trade emerged as a driving force in the local economy. The sale of whiskey was illegal in Montana but just across the Canadian border it flowed freely. More than 40 “whiskey posts” opened over the Canadian border and the illegal trade flourished for five years before the North West Mounted Police arrived to patrol the border and stop the illegal trade in whiskey. Fortunately for Fort Benton, legal trade with Canada replaced the whiskey trade and it continued to flourish as the inland port closest to the Canadian settlements to the north. The final stage in the development of Fort Benton’s most prosperous years came with the settlement of the interior of Montana by homesteaders. Farmers and ranchers in Central Montana were able to access the markets of the world through the port at Fort Benton. Photographs show a bustling levee at Fort Benton.
The early 1880’s saw the peak of Fort Benton’s glory with numerous brick buildings rising along the west side of the street fronting the levee. The jewel in the crown was the Grand Union Hotel, opened on the south end of the levee in 1882 and recently restored.
Multiple buildings from the same era look across the street towards the levee.
The only building actually built on the levee is the 1883 Engine House, built in the center of the levee used by a corps of 35 volunteer firemen. The building also did double duty as the city hall and the city jail.
Standing outside of the Engine House the view south along the levee is to the Grand Union Hotel behind the trees to the south and downriver to the north.
The last of the grand buildings from the 1880’s is the Choteau County Courthouse, built a couple of blocks west of the levee in 1884.
The dreams of the city fathers for the grand future of Fort Benton never came to fruition as the completion of the Northern Pacific Transcontinental Railroad in 1884 spelled the beginning of the end of the Missouri steamboat era. Other railroads across the west quickly followed and Fort Benton became eclipsed as a commercial center by the city of Great Falls, about 40 miles south on the other side of the falls on the river. Today under 2,000 people call Fort Benton home.
The rugged canyon that houses the falls of the Missouri River also precluded the development of either railroads or highways so both had to be built up on the prairie flats above the river valley. Just out of the valley the views are endless, stretching in all directions.
To our east, hidden beneath the view of the prairie, the Missouri flows over the five falls that proved to be such a barrier to navigation. The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is actually closed due to the corona virus other than the lobby where a diorama shows the challenging task that the explorer’s company had dragging their boats around the falls.
The falls essentially no longer exist in their original state, either because the river has been dammed and harnessed for hydroelectric power or because they are submerged under the reservoirs created by the dams. Fortunately photographs taken prior to the construction of the dames show the river in all of its’ original glory. In order from north to south, here are the five falls of the Missouri River:
Great Falls of the Missouri
Crooked Falls
Rainbow Falls
Colter Falls
Black Eagle Falls
As I noted most of the falls are not easily accessible today but an overlook of the Black Eagle Falls area shows the dam and the shrunken river below. Note the terraced hillside west of the falls. In 1891 a massive copper smelter complex was built on the hillside utilizing the electricity generated by the damming of the river. The refinery operated until 1980.
Down river from the Black Eagle Falls is Rainbow Falls, the flow of the river severely restricted by the Rainbow Dam.
Between Black Eagle Dam and Rainbow Dam is another natural wonder of the area, Giant Springs. Water seeps into the ground from the Little Belt Mountains to the south east and flows through a formation underground for nearly 50 years until it surfaces at a consistent 54 degrees all year round at the Giant Springs next to the Missouri River.
Billed as the “worlds shortest river” the Roe River flows about 200 feet through a now-walled channel from the springs into the Missouri River.
Back up on the prairie an opening gives us a glimpse of our next destination, the city of Great Falls, the downtown area nestled in a curve of the Missouri with residential areas carpeting the hills and prairie beyond to the east.
Great Falls
The founding of Great Falls was tied to the falls of the Missouri River. In 1880 businessman Paris Gibson visited the bench created by the bend in the river above the falls and was impressed by the possibilities of building an industrial city near the falls to take advantage of the potential hydroelectric power. He returned three years later and platted the city. By 1887 1,200 people called the city home and in October 1887 the Great Northern Railroad reached Great Falls. It quickly eclipsed Fort Benton as the major commercial center for the area and by the early 1900’s was one of Montana’s major cities. The railroad soon linked Great Falls with the mines of Helena and Butte, prompting the building of the first dam on the Missouri at Black Eagle so that a huge copper smelter could be built. A post card from around the turn of the century illustrates the smelter completx sprawling across the western hill side above Black Eagle Falls.
Black Eagle Dam began generating electricity in late 1890 and Great Falls became known as the “Electric City.” The economy boomed, aided by the establishment in 1939 of Malmstrom Air Force Base just east of the city. During the years from 1950-1970 Great Falls was the largest city in Montana. However, the boom years were soon tempered by the closing of the copper complex in 1980 and the downsizing of Malstrom Air Force base after the end of the Cold War. Great Falls is now the third largest city in Montana, behind Billings and Missoula. The eastern bank of the Missouri is dominated by the 135 foot tower of the 1915 Chicago, Milwaukie, and St. Paul passenger depot with the corporate log made out of small tiles designed to give the illusion of one large sign and across the street to the south the 1909 Great Northern Railroad depot.
The business district stretches east along 1st Ave North and Central Ave, anchored by the 1912 US Courthouse and Post Office and the 1939 Great Falls Civic Center.
The gleaming copper dome of the 1903 Cascade County Courthouse dominates the skyline just north of the downtown area.
Across the street is the old Cascade County jail, built in 1913 and used until 1998.
Just north of the courthouse is the Northside Historic District, an impressive collection of historic homes built around the turn of the century.
The massive copper smelting complex at Black Eagle just northeast across the river included company housing. 17 managers’ houses were built in the mid-1890’s. After the complex closed in 1980 a number of the houses were saved and moved to other areas of Great Falls. This home was built in 1893 and was moved to this site in the historic district in 1983.
Just east of the downtown core streets rise up a slow rise to continue on across the prairie towards Malstrom Air Force Base and the Judith Basin. Here, at the crest of the rise, the city built a high school in 1896. Named Great Falls Central High School until 1930, it then became Paris Gibson Junior High until 1975. Today the magnificent sandstone building houses the Paris Square Museum of Art.
Leaving Great Falls, our path now heads due northeast away from the Missouri Breaks and out onto the plains of northern Montana.
Next up: The Hi-Line
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