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P.O. Box 879
Fort Benton, MT 59442
Phone: 406-622-3864
History
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.
Directions
Fort Benton can be found by traveling north on U.S. Highway 87 between
Great Falls and Havre.
Activities
Historic
Sightseeing
Communities and Related Links
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