FEATURED LOCATION

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.

Fort Benton was one of the most important early trading posts because it was built at the head of navigation on the Missouri River. Steamboat brought supplies up the river this far, but because of rapids could go no further. All cargo had to be unloaded here and taken by freightwagons to the gold camps at Helena and Virginia City and other places in western Montana. This post was the point of debarkation for thousands of tenderfeet anxious to reach the gold fields. Fort Benton's hotels, with their high ceilings, plush furniture, and glittering chandeliers were the last word in fashion in the 1870s and '80s.

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