Closed Captions Audio Described

Opening ceremony speakers welcome attendees to the Explore the Big Sky signature event in Fort Benton, Montana. Speakers include county commissioners and fair board representatives who discuss the region's agricultural heritage, the fair's 93-year history, and partnership efforts across Chouteau County. Historical vignette on Fort Benton's role as Montana's oldest continuously occupied settlement, trading post, and steamboat hub from 1847 onward.

Transcript

0:01 Olson. I'm with the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and Corps of Discovery. 2, 200 years to the future. I want to welcome you here today. I had a really good opening line, but it's rained so much. I'm going to pass and that opening line.
0:20 My job this morning is just to say hello and to welcome you. And we really are glad that you're here. We have a wonderful lineup of speakers that will be here in Fort Benton through the 12th of this month before we go up to Rocky Boy for a four day weekend and then back to Great Falls and we'll be there, June 25th through July 24th. We hope you come back to see us at all of those venues. We have
0:42 literally dozens of unique programs at each one of these venues. So I just wanted to make sure you know about that. And what I want to do right now is to open with a blessing and, uh, Clint Brown who is a Montanan will come forward to do that. And if ladies, you'd make sure your husbands have their hats off.
1:10 Yeah,
1:16 we could have this point stand, please. Well, hey, my name is Chris Brown. I'm a gold member of the Roon Drive for Human Reservation here in Montana. And I, I'm very blessed and I'm very honored to be here today to uh speak in front of you. First of all, I want to apologize to the elders, my elders that I'm here, standing in front of, of them and talking
1:39 at the same time, I was asked to come and do a prayer. And when uh we as, as Native American people are, are given that great honor to step forward. If I want to say a prayer in my own language, I want to pray for all the people that we have here. All the people behind the scenes. I want to make the creator for the weather that we have today. That a good question that we're getting you mother
2:02 earth. I wanna thank all the people that came here today. Uh We would like to ask the creator to have special blessings on people who travel in all ways, those people that are away from their homes and their families that, that when they get home, that those things may be better than the way they left them. I'm gonna go ahead and say a prayer in my own prayer. Pray along with me. Uh I was always told as a young man that
2:27 for one crater, no matter which way you choose to talk to him or, or believe in him. It all goes to the same place if you hang on. Go ahead.
2:41 Ok. OK.
2:47 So no, no.
2:54 So, so
3:01 drink the cur create your way. I'm ta it ain't tough. I know, you know, on a not tough all the people get up and speak clear that the message will, they'll get their message across to the people say you know it. Uh I uh I got to take a look. I wanna thank everybody for coming today. I want especially thank from the Native American point of view.
3:26 I wanna thank the uh National Park Service and the people that are are doing this uh doing the the court too. The traveling along the trail. I truly believe it's a great chance for our people, not only the Native American people, but the people from Fort Bet, the people from Great Wall, the people who, whomever where wherever they stop, it's a great chance for us to tell our story from a local point of view as opposed to something that they might read
3:51 uh that little piece in the history book or that little piece in the newspaper. Once again, I wanna thank all the people behind the scenes for the book. For them. We would be standing here today. You can have, I hope thank you.
4:06 You know.
4:13 Well, Lynn said it best. This is the tent of many voices, but it is one voice and that's the voices that have come together to tell the stories in every aspect. We are very, very honored to have the National Park Service here, the BLM and, and the other federal agencies that have partnered with CTO County and Cascade County
4:36 and particularly you're sitting here along the banks of the Missouri River that made this all possible between both counties and to make the signature event, this 10th national signature event possible.
4:50 We have been working for three years. Peggy Bourne is our executive director and she'll be talking later. We have put in a tremendous amount of effort into making this one of the most pleasurable, most memorable and to, as I would say, put your own signature on this event, we're gonna start out today with the
5:14 Scow County commissioners and that's where you are today. You're in Scow County, Fort Betton, Montana and you're on the Scow County Fairgrounds. And so we're gonna start with our story. The chairman of the SOTO County commissioners is Jim o'hara. Jim o'hara is not with us today. He is away on another duty. Um
5:37 but he has been sitting for three years on what is called Explorers Council. And that was made up of uh county leaders and city leaders, um agency leaders from both from both counties from SOTO County and Cascade County. And every month for three years, um there would be a 2 to 3 hour meeting and Jim was usually there
6:02 and it was from, from efforts such as Jim o'hara, speaking for Scow County and myself, Valerie Mor, speaking for Scow County. Also that we came up with what are now the activities and the events that you will be attending in the next 34 days. Um We were very, very pleased with representation that Jim o'hara brought to
6:25 um and to, to the Explorers Council and for you Sho County, he has been very eloquent, he has been very proud. He is a farmer from um out going towards Darley out east. And so he wears that uh that proudly and he does a wonderful job. I am sorry that he's not here today. Um He has been called over
6:49 because of the wonderful weather that we've been blessed with as a farmer. We are, we really believe that this is a wonderful thing. And so don't feel bad you guys from Oregon or National Park Service or K two people, you guys, we welcome you and we welcome the rain. Um He's been called over actually to Highwood Montana, which would have been the scene also of Shields Creek, but I think Shields Creek is overflowing now.
7:14 And um he's been called over there to monitor that, that area and to um and, and, and to see if they're gonna have to do something special with Highwood. So that's where he is today. But if you have a chance to see Jim o'hara, please tell him, thank you for his three years of attending those meetings and, and, uh, talking about CTO County and,
7:37 um, bringing the best to those meetings. I'm gonna turn the podium over now to another commissioner. We have three and the next commissioner is Harvey W and he is from Loma Harvey.
7:58 Greetings and welcome to Shoulder County myself and the other commissioners extend a warm and rainy welcome to you, Jim o'hara, chairman of the board of commissioners was, was to open today and, and to explain our involvement with explore the big sky. But as you know, he was called away,
8:24 as you know, we, we wear many hats as commissioners presently, Commissioner o'hara is dealing with flooding emergencies in this district along with there's five or more bridges out and roads are a lot of water running over the roads and they are starting to evacuate some areas.
8:46 County is the 10th largest county in Montana. It comprised of 3927 square miles and has a population of 5576 of the nicest people you ever want to meet.
9:02 Maybe there are 56 counties in Montana and this county alone is larger than three of the smallest states in the nation. One of those states is Rhode Island, which has more population than all of Montana. And it's a third the size of CTO county.
9:24 One of the problems the commissioners face is maintaining 2400 miles of gravel roads. Although the rural population may have a difficult time traveling on muddy roads. No one would dare call us to complain on the conditions. This moisture is really needed here. We've been going through so many years of drought.
9:49 Well, we didn't expect it. So, um, farming is our mainstay in Choto County and all three of us would like to would uh, all three of our commissioners are farmers. So, so therefore, I'd like to introduce my fellow commissioner Ken Evans and he will talk about uh farming in Choto
10:13 County. Thank you. Thank you.
10:21 Thank you Harvey. And again, welcome to Sho County. Agriculture is our mainstay and one of the requests that was made of the Lewis and Clark when they made the travel to the West Coast was to look for future agricultural lands and unbeknown to them as they came through this and looked this area over.
10:41 This has become the golden triangle of Montana which raises a high protein, high quality winter wheat that's sought after by many foreign countries.
10:53 The we are ranked number one in the state for uh grain production and N and 33rd for cattle production. We have a total cash sales of $58 million of which 44 million of it is wheat or grains and 14 million is livestock. There's 790 farms. So it's pretty big, sparse area with large farms
11:19 and this rain you're seeing is a miracle. You know, a week ago, a lot of us were looking at crops and pastures that were disappearing and drying up and we could see our income flying away and thinking boy, here goes another bad year. We've been through a lot of them already. And when that happens, the local townspeople, the local businesses suffer, the schools suffer because of can't pay taxes and just nobody has any money to spend.
11:41 So we have a miracle here. We had a bumper crop started this spring and now we have the prospects of a really good crop. Maybe again with this kind of rain, if we can get some more rain as this goes along. So somebody said, well, this is a million dollar ring. I don't agree. When I looked and seen what, $58 million worth of egg products out of Cow County, I'd say this is maybe a $30 million ring.
12:05 So, with that, I'd like to thank you for coming. Have a good time, enjoy yourselves and come back again. We'd sure like to see you. Thank you.
12:21 Ok.
12:25 My name's Rick England. I'm chairman of the Scow County Fair Board where you're sitting right now is fair property owned by the county of Choto County. I've been asked by Laurie Hardy to do this. She seems to get me into a few things and she's a good friend of mine
12:44 upon looking, she upon looking for the first fair ever in CTO County. That date is a little bit vague as the first fair was held in Chinook Montana as our county high school was in Haver. This apparently was to pacify early attempts at a county division. As at that time, SCLE County was huge Choto
13:07 county in 1876 reached from the crest of the Rockies to near Malta down along the Missouri River and over to Arrow Creek
13:19 in 1893 Teton County was formed off the west end
13:25 in 1911. An election, an election determined the creation of Hill and Blame County effective in 1912. And so that brings us to the shuttle county fair. The first county fair ever to be held in Fort Benton was reported in the River Press, September 18th, 1912.
13:49 It was held in the armory downtown as there were no fairgrounds per se. It says the general desire and this is from the River Press. The general desire to participate in the CTO County Fair is one of the most gratifying features of the undertaking. The funds necessary for holding the fair was subscribed by the Fort Benton citizens in the belief that the residents
14:12 of the other parts of the county would respond with exhibits that would make it all a success. And this belief was amply justified by this pleasant displays in the various departments.
14:25 Summarizing the first fair. The River Press stated band concerts by the second regimental band during the time of the fair was in progress, furnished excellent music entertainment for the crowd. In attendance, the program of sports races and additional attractions. The first shuttle county fair is such a successful project that its annual reoccurrence on a larger scale is assured and we've never missed one since that date.
14:52 The fair property was then purchased for the price of $1500. December 1419 12. On April 16th, Henry Hagen was hired to build a fence around the perimeter and there are some old pictures up at the egg museum that shows just a basic building out in the middle and a white painted white fence, all kind of like out in the middle of a prairie out here.
15:16 It was reported again by the River Press, September 17th 1913, that the second annual fair was a huge success including horse racing, motorcycle racing and many festivities. And I would like to note that at that time, the commissioners appointed the Scow County Fair Board which consists of a five member board throughout the community
15:40 ranging from Highwood carter big Sandy Fort Benton Geraldine areas. And that mem five member board in turn hires a staff. And our budget is supported by the county with the funds that we bring in. And this is how the fair has been since 1912. And at that time, the commissioners appointed a
16:03 superintendents to handle each one of the events, sheep, cattle, horses and what not. My great uncle Jurgen England was the chairman of the sheep division. So I've, I've had kind of enjoyed this project. Our mission statement as a fair is the purpose of the Scow County Fair is to provide educational entertainment and recreational opportunities
16:26 for the general public and preserve the heritage of Montana. Agriculture. This is accomplished while promoting and showcasing the talents, interests, and accomplishments of the residents of Montana, especially Sho County residents.
16:43 Laurie also asked me to touch a little bit of on some of the past things, events we've had over the years and I guess first comes out with horse racing was very popular in that area. The JC Demo Derby then took off CTO County tractor Pullers Association held huge tractor pulls, which was some of the most popular in Northwest. We still have rodeos O Moie team roping many horse events,
17:07 musical entertainment, 4h and youth of all all kinds come to the fairgrounds and, and use our facilities
17:17 in the 93 years since the first fair was held in Fort Benton. There has been an ongoing commitment to improve the fairgrounds and this continues today. In the past few years, the fairground has seen many improvements including the restoration of the grandstands and other historic buildings. The building of the canoe launch campgrounds, new Fair office, restroom and shower facility, and a brand new 70 by 120 building right behind you for year round use is with the
17:42 Cooper operation of the county commissioners past and present fair board members, managers, secretaries, the residents of CTO County and the huge support of deliberate clay water Foundation. It is with that, that we have this facility we are proud of and we hope you enjoy while visiting our great county, we welcome you to your fairgrounds and we hope you enjoy your time with us. Thank you.
18:08 I now would like to introduce Steve Adams, superintendent of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail of Core Discovery Two.
18:22 Thank you, Mr England and welcome to the tent of many voices. I want to thank, uh, Clint Brown, uh, for his blessing to begin this, this program. You know, it's folks like Clint that really bring this place to life and they come up here and they share their culture with us.
18:44 Um, and we just really appreciate that. Clint. Thank you very much. Uh, thanks Val for the, the work that you've put in on this and, and the other 353 days. Is it
18:59 a year long, almost a year long celebration? It seems like it. I'd like to thank the county commissioners for what they've done, Mr England for allowing us to be here at his facility. And, uh, we, uh, is this, are we still at 100% in our venues for rain?
19:24 Ok. All right. We've been to, I don't know how many venues but it has either rained or snowed at each and every one of them. So, uh, somebody suggested we may want to call this the tent of many rains.
19:41 Uh I'd like to thank also our colleagues who are with us today and, and with us often on the trail from Bureau of Land Management. The Bureau of reclamation, Army National Guard has just been an outstanding supporter of uh what we've been doing across the country and it just wouldn't be possible without them.
20:05 Uh Thanks to Peggy for all the work that she's done and will continue to do over the next few days. It's a tough job and, you know, give Peggy all the support that you can. Uh, I also want to thank, uh, Clint, talked about some of the folks behind the scene
20:29 and the folks that you see in the, the blue jackets and the blue shirts, that's the legacy staff and they've been moving this exhibit across the country for the past couple of years and they've done a superb job and getting us there, getting us there on time, getting this thing set up and prepared to go. And I especially want to thank
20:53 our core two staff, the folks in the gray and the green. Uh, they have been doing this job day after day for the past several years and you can appreciate, I think, uh, being away from home, uh, a year at a time almost and being continually, uh, you're either working or you're driving
21:17 and, uh, they've just been a marvelous staff. And, uh, again, it wouldn't be possible without these folks doing all of their good work. So, thank you, thank you very much for what you do. And with that, I'd like to, uh introduce the explorer, the big sky coordinator. Peggy. Born.
21:47 Good afternoon. The first time I had the distinct pleasure of being in this tent was when it was in Monticello. And it felt about this cold too. Maybe a little more, maybe a little colder in Monticello. The neat thing about this tent is as I've had the opportunity over the last two years to travel, the Lewis and Clark Trail attending other signature events.
22:10 Um This tent is and core two seems to be the common boundary, the common element with all of the signature events. And you begin to make a lot of good friends and you see a lot of great people all along the trail. I remember walking into the signature event in Louisville and who did I see performing? But Clint
22:31 and it just brought Montana right home into that tent with, with me. And it was just a wonderful feeling that all of us along the trail really are one big family and we've all been working very hard over the last many years personally. For me, it's 3.5 years, but I know a lot of people in the audience have been working a lot longer than that on the bicentennial commemoration.
22:53 And um we've all become one big happy family and it's been a wonderful experience. Um I'd like to welcome you to one of the activities, one of the um or the third day of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial signature event called Explore The Big Sky. We've been working on this event for 3.5 years and like I said earlier, we've made a lot of good friends. Um The communities of Fort Benton, Great Falls, Loma
23:18 Geraldine, all those communities have bonded together to offer the world a unique and wonderful opportunity while they visit Montana and to listen and hear and learn about the Lewis and Clark story um that occurred here 200 years ago. Our goal when we began planning the signature event was to provide a cross cultural
23:40 approach to the examining the expedition through as many different means as we possibly can. We also wanted to examine the story in as many different mediums as we possibly can anything from reenactments. And after today, you'll be able to go out to decision point and see a first person reenactment of the campsite that they had 200 years ago
24:04 through music, arts, dance lectures, tours, float trips, community events and events that are showcasing our Montana Indian culture.
24:16 In over the 34 days, there are over 100 and 80 different activities that will be offered. Many of them are offered several times. And I'm proud to say that the core two programming in this tent is one of those 180 different activities and the people who have put the programming together, working with the core two staff have, are put to together a fabulous slate.
24:37 Every hour there will be a different performance in this tent. And then you can't forget the, the tent that has the, um, exhibit in it either because it's also ex extraordinary and certainly worth the time to, uh, spend in it and to learn and to, and to see what it has to offer. I invite you and encourage you to go to as many different activities as you possibly can.
25:01 Um Each one of them has been sublimely planned. Welcome to explore the Big Sky. Welcome to Core Two. Welcome to Sho County. And it's also my pleasure to welcome our next speaker, who's June Bailey, who's a field manager from BBLM from Lewistown.
25:28 Thank you, Peggy and good afternoon. I would like to extend a very special. Thank you to the City of Fort Benton, the National Park Service and all of you who have planned and worked so hard to make this portion of the Lewis and Clark bicentennial. Such a memorable time for everyone. I'd like to speak for just a few moments about one of our truly unique areas, the little Missouri River.
25:52 It's been described as a crown jewel of the entire Lewis and Clark Trail. And I'd also like to talk about our role here in Fort Benton, Blm's role in our working relationship with Fort Benton in our other gateway communities such as big Sandy Winifred and Geraldine has been crafted by the history of our land, water and people. Some of this history has sped by in centuries,
26:17 some in decades, but it all leads us to where we are today and indicates where we may be tomorrow. Long before 1805 native Americans used the upper Missouri river and its surrounding lands as a pathway through their lives. The river and these lands provided many of the main components
26:40 necessary for their daily survival. In 1805, Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery ventured through this portion of North Central Montana and their toll and adventure became part of the American legend. Unique portions of this area have remained largely unchanged
27:02 in the nearly 200 years since they've traveled through here on their epic journey. In 1976 149 miles of the upper Missouri River were added to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. To facilitate that special multiple use legislation, the BLM was named as a managing agency,
27:27 the citizens of Fort Benton and area landowners all along the upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River helped forge a management plan that addressed management issues and most of the social concerns surrounding this new designation. Fort Benton would naturally serve as a beginning point for many of those coming to North Central Montana
27:51 to enjoy this 149 mile long wild and scenic river. These circumstances form the perfect opportunity for even stronger partnerships between Fort Benton and BLM. The BLM managed the public lands in this region to provide livestock grazing, recreation, minerals and timber.
28:15 For several decades, the use of these public lands remained mostly dispersed and somewhat in the background of North central Montana. Then more people began boating and floating the Missouri river. Hunters began using these lands and waters more and more the expectation of livestock,
28:36 mineral timber and other recreation interests began to focus on public lands to respond to these increasing expectations. The BMM had to focus on management of these lands and to become more of a presence, partnerships and working relationships among interest groups, communities and the BMM were in their formative stages.
29:02 In the late 19 seventies. BLM increased our presence in Fort Benton. We had a seasonal staff that worked out of the back of a pickup and it was located down by the boat launch. Later, we moved into an older trailer which served as our contact station and office facility for this seasonal staff.
29:23 A few years later, as the demand for services and information increased. So did our presence as we increased the seasonal and volunteer staff and moved into the visitor contact station. Now located on Front Street. Throughout this evolution, the relationship between Fort Benton and BLM became stronger and stronger.
29:46 We at BLM feel the river designation has been a positive development for the community and the BLM in 1999 discussions about a special designation for the public lands adjacent to the Upper Missouri National Wild and scenic River began to evolve. And in 2001, a presidential proclamation
30:10 designated the Upper Missouri River breaks national monument, Lewis and Clark first encountered the brakes country of the monument on their westward leg. In his journal, Clark described the magnificent white cliffs, the abundant wildlife of the area. And on April 29 1805,
30:33 the Lewis and Clark expedition recorded the first big horn sheep observation by non Indians in North America. This is one of the few landscapes along the entire Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail that remains remote and nearly as undeveloped as it was in 1805,
30:55 the people of Fort Benton and area landowners are helping the BLM once again prepare a management plan for this newly created monument that will address today's resource issues and social concerns will soon be breaking ground in Fort Benton for construction of the new interpretive center for the Upper Missouri River breaks National Monument.
31:18 This project is truly a partnership among the city of Fort Benton, the River and Plain Society and the BLM.
31:26 Our partnership with Fort Benton and all of our gateway communities has come far from what seems like just yesterday as we look back and marvel at the accomplishments of Lewis and Clark and how all of our ancestors evolved to meet the challenges of their day. It's a little easier to see how the BLM has evolved around the use and enjoyment of our public resources.
31:52 We look forward to continuing our service to the public while strengthening our partnerships with all who use or care about the public lands. Thank you. And I hope you enjoy this great event.
32:12 No,
32:15 that
32:17 some of you have heard me talk about Lewis and Clark in the past and I've been giving Lewis and Clark talks since 1983 but this ain't one of them. I'm here to welcome you to good old Fort Benton on occasion, I portray different historic figures. And today, I'm sort of portraying Andrew Dawson, the Scotsman who is the factor here at Old Fort Benton,
32:39 the trading post from 1854 to 1864 when he retired and went back to his native Scotland. So as I walked in the 10 of many voices today, one of my compatriots said, Bob, you can't come in with those Wellington boots on. It just doesn't look right. And I said, well, Andrew was from Scotland. These Wellington boots were made in Britain,
33:02 Scotland and England joined in 1707 to make Great Britain. So these Wellies are appropriate. Now, we've heard about curses today and we've heard about blessings. And the last five or six years has been a curse to the farmers in Choto County. This rain has been a blessing. The last five or six years of drought has been
33:24 a blessing to those that recreate on the river outdoors and to some of the event planners the last couple of days have been a little bit of a curse because they've had to make some significant changes all in all. We welcome the rain. But Fort Benton and I'm going to be telling you the next 10 or 15 minutes since I'm supposedly the keynote speaker and Valerie said I can talk for an hour, but I'm only going to talk for 15 minutes.
33:49 I'm just going to give you a few vignettes about our Fort Benton history. Fort Benton is used to curses 25 in Fort Benton, which is the block directly across the front of the CTO County courthouse was also known as the Hoodoo block.
34:07 The first structures built on that block were gallows, a wooden gallows in the 18 sixties and a small wooden jail. And there was also a well that was dug on that block which picked up the Namak of the well of Golgotha for good reason. They used to stuff human bodies down there, both white and Indian.
34:33 Anyway, Billy Hensel was hung at those gallows in the early 18 seventies.
34:41 And there was a squaw man who was, uh whose father in law came to town got into an altercation, he was killed, he was put down there. But there were also white men that were put down this. Well, then when the military came here, after 1869 they were here until 1881 there were three soldiers. And after spending 20 years in the military in another life,
35:05 I know how sometimes you can party hardy and they got put in the, uh jail overnight. Somehow the jail burned down and all three were burned to death. Then a fellow came along and he built a house on this block on the Hoodoo block and he built a livery stable
35:23 several weeks after he built his house, his wife died about a month later, he died and then his house burned down. Then another fellow came along and on the opposite end of this block built a furniture store.
35:37 He no sooner had that built than a high wind came up in Fort Benton and it completely destroyed that furniture store but didn't touch any other block in the small town of Fort Benton in the 18 seventies.
35:53 And then shortly after that, the livery stable burned down.
35:58 There are now I believe nine structures on that block and the curse lifted right around the turn of the century. So Fort Benton has had its share of curses. Fort Benton is the oldest continuously occupied community in Montana, having been laid out as a trading post by Alexander Culbertson in the fall of 1846. And then it was constructed
36:23 in the spring of 1847 from the logs from old Fort Lewis, which was a trading post just upriver on the south side of the Missouri.
36:32 And it has been continuously occupied since that date. It was originally called Fort Clay. And then Fort Lewis named for, for, for Meriweather Lewis. But then on Christmas day, 1850 Alexander Culbertson, the founder of that trading post and the factor of bourgeois commissioned at Fort Benton in honor of Thomas Hart Benton,
36:55 who was the retiring senator from the State of Missouri. He had been the state of the senator from the state of Missouri. From 1820 to 1850 he had helped out the fur trade company when they were having some problems in terms of trading whiskey in Indian country. So Benton was a supporter of the Scow family and the American Fur Company and thus the Fort was christened. Fort Benton.
37:20 Oddly enough, he had a grandson by the same name Thomas Hart Benton who was a painter. Some of you may have seen some of his work. He lived on into the 19 seventies. And then when he was about 80 years old, old Jack Lepley took him down river in the late sixties. At the mouth of the Marias, there was quite a bit of uh
37:41 press there, there were some people, photographers and so on. And Benton proceeded to strip naked and jump in the water. He said he always wanted to jump in the river at the mouth of the Marias and lovely said, I don't think that's a good thing to do here. He said, God, darn it. I'm 80 years old. I can do anything I want. So, the spirit of Thomas Hart Benton still lives
38:05 after Meriweather Lewis left this country in 1806. It was a full 25 years before the first trading post was established at the mouth of Marias, Fort Pago. We don't have time to get into that story. The Blackfeet, this was black feet country and they did not want the Americans coming in and trapping their animals. They didn't mind trading. They'd been trading with the Hudson Bay company for a century before.
38:28 But they finally agreed that as long as you traded and didn't trap, you could establish a trading post. And there were a whole series of trading posts established up and down the river here between the mouth of the Marias and just above where Fort Benton is. But Fort Benton was the last one. It was a trading post from 1847 to 1869. And then the military contingent came in when they closed down camp cook at the mouth of the Judith.
38:52 And from 1869 to 1881 there was a military contingent here. The first houses outside of the trading post or fort were built somewhere between 1858 and 1862. We think 1862 is probably a more correct time period. So in the forties, fifties and sixties.
39:14 You had a tremendous trade with buffalo robes and hides with the Blackfoot, with the white clay people also called the Atina and the uh the gro V and we had one, we had Clint give the blessing. The white clay people were closely affiliated with the Blackfoot confederate confederation up until about 1863
39:36 when they had a falling out. So you have those kind of tribes trading here. But then when the first steamboat came in 1860 there were 148 different steamboats that arrived at this levee between 1860 1887 when the railroads came through and put the end to steam boating. And Ken Robinson is going to give a talk later on. Not today but one of these days forthcoming
40:00 about the whole background of steam boating and its legacy with regard to Fort Benton's history. Fort Benton's history is so rich that all I'm gonna do is give you a couple of uh quick daughters, decade by decade. And uh no, no possible time to fill in the uh uh all the detail which is incredibly interesting and rich uh by the 18 fifties,
40:24 you had a number of trails that led out of Fort Benton because of the river for the steamboats came. You had the mackinaws, you had the paros, you had the keel boats and uh the trails that developed in the fifties and sixties included the fisk wagon road out of uh Saint Paul in Minneapolis, you had the Cow Island trail. You had the Graham wagon route that went on the south side of the river.
40:49 You had the trail that went down to Coulson, which became Bills. You had the whoop up trail between about 1869 and 1874. That was the trail heading up into Canada. And you had the Mullen trail which led over to the gold fields and on over to Walla Walla Washington established between 1858 and 1862. Gold was discovered in Montana in a big way in 1862.
41:14 And that's when the settlers started coming in and the miners and the people who supported the miners and the uh the trade here started declining a bit uh because of that incursion of people. But uh there was a fellow named John Silverthorne who showed up in Fort Benton in 1858 and he came in and Alexander Culbertson was down here at the time visiting.
41:39 He was really at Fort Union at that time, Andrew Dawson was the factor, but he came in and he said, I've got about $1000 worth of gold dust here. So Colbert looked at it, he wasn't sure, but he decided to make the gamble, took in the gold dust for trade goods and so on. And Silverthorne left, they never saw Silverthorne before and they never saw him afterward.
42:03 And then when that gold dust was assayed. It was worth about 1600 bucks. So Culbertson made out well on his gamble, but we don't know where he got that gold. So there might be some gold out there and then there are hills that hasn't been discovered yet. So that's sort of an interesting vignette in the sixties and into the early seventies is when all of the structures in Fort Benton were basically made of wood.
42:28 It's when the bloodiest block in the west and you can read the levee signs. When you go down the levee, it describes all of this was in existence and you had the Bordellos and the opium Dens and the taverns going 24 7. And then toward the late 18 seventies, they started to bring in the churches and schools and everything went to hell.
42:50 Uh The last big prosperous era for Fort Benton in this historic age was between say 1878 and 1884.
43:00 That's the period when the steamboats were coming up here in a big way as they had been. Nobody projected that railroads were going to put the end of the steamboat trade. It's just like the railroads in the 20th century forgot. They were part of the transportation network. They thought they were just railroads and they'd never declined. Well, that's how they thought about the steamboat traffic. Between 1878 and 1884 there were three brickyards
43:25 working full time in the Fort Benton area and all of the brick buildings that you see in Fort Benton, the historic buildings were built during that time period. The old jail which has been torn down in 1881. The county courthouse, which is the second oldest one in Montana. In the early 18 eighties, the Grand Union opened on November 2nd, 1882.
43:47 If you walk down front street and you look over the drugstore, Benton Pharmacy, you'll see 1882 up there in the brick work. When you walk down front street a lot of times. And this is true of any community. You want to look above the street level, look at the second story level the same way in Great Falls and you can see some of the historic structures that haven't been covered over. Like one guy told me one time it's like
44:11 aluminum salesman came to town in the 19 fifties and changed all the storefronts. But at any rate, very rich history through that era, then quickly after the decline of steam boating and so on, you had the open range era in the eighties and into the nineties, very short period of time. But that's when Charlie Russell used to come here on visits and
44:33 you had Sullivan the Saddler and you just had a lot of the uh stock associations and so on. This was a good open range country and then the homesteaders came in roughly about 1908, 1909 into the teens. That was the big homesteading era. And when you go to the Museum of the Northern Plains,
44:57 it will describe this whole era in detail. And it was also like this. There was a lot of moisture between about 1908 and about 1916 or 17 in the World War I, when the grains started coming in in a big focus because most of your early homesteaders, 75% of them came from the Midwest and they knew how to plant corn and beans and so on.
45:21 And that's what they planted and they had rain and it worked. So you had a great influx of homesteaders. Then you had the war, things started turning over to wheat and grains and then you had a drought from about 1919 into the mid 20 s. And that's when you had a great exodus of people. And you started consolidating these units as has occurred right on to the present time.
45:45 Then we had the dirty 30 s and you go on into World War. I I this county and area was very patriotic. Seven flag officers were born right here in Fort Benton and you can read about them in our museums. Then after the war, you had the continual grain production which Ken has alluded to.
46:09 And this is the richest grain producing county of the entire 56 counties in the state of Montana. So the agricultural heritage is rich. And then when they came in with CRP, the Conservation Reserve Program that put these small communities under pressure because there wasn't the input costs
46:32 and the products that you needed to purchase. But we're surviving. Our future is agriculture. It's heritage tourism. We have two wonderful museums. We have a homestead village and we've got a partially reconstructed old Fort Benton. The oldest building in the state of Montana is the block house at the old fort.
46:55 So we've got a lot of interesting information provided through our levy signs. And uh there's a lot of good tours that are provided in this community. So, uh welcome to Fort Benton and as Andrew Dawson, it's my privilege to welcome you here. And since I died in 1871 I can now reascend.
47:20 So, thank you very much.
47:29 Yeah.
47:31 Ok. Now I'm sad, I'm up here because as a realtor, I have to reveal that. Who do um curse, but then you said it was lifted. So that's ok. And my dad, Wally Mor happens to live on that block. So I don't know.
47:48 I also wanted to um, tell everyone today to please. Before you leave, we have some refreshments over here. And there's when Sandra Paddy and I had and, and Laurie Hardy had said, what are we gonna serve and, and kind of have, you know, it always says, eat dessert first. So, um, what are we gonna have in the tent? Oh, well, it'll be so nice.
48:11 We'll have lemonade iced tea. Well, yesterday, we switched over to hot chocolate, um, coffee and hot tea. But I also want to bring your attention to some wonderful cookies made by a CTO County farm lady, Beverly Grass. And, um, she comes from a wheat farm up at Box Elder
48:34 and she has graciously made us cookies in the shape of Montana that show the river. And here we are today with a little red dot Fort Benton, Montana. Let's give her a round of applause
48:54 before I turn the mic over to the to the stage director, Amy. I'd like to have a, just a little wrap up. I have been very privileged to serve with the Explorer of the Big Sky. Um All the patrons and, and all the people that we've partnered with um Bob Archibald said something the other day and it really was true about our whole journey that we put together.
49:17 And that is that we started out with a destination. But what became important was the journey. And I think for us, we really realized what the journey was and that was what we really have here. And, and Bob Dirk said it so eloquently is our history and Kenny Evans alluded to it with our agriculture
49:41 and then you coming here, whether you're commissioned or you have a chain of command to be here or your ancestors have come here. We all have arrived at the same place. But it is about the journey. And we have learned so many things throughout this journey. We've, we've learned to say yes, we've learned to be flexible. We've learned to wear different clothes. We've learned to wear different hats.
50:06 And it was, it's in that, in that manner, in that spirit that we have all come together to tell our story beginning here in Fort Betton, Montana. And it, and it is no mistake that Fort Benton is known as the birthplace of Montana. And I think it's so apropos then that the 10th national signature event for
50:31 explore the Big Sky starts here at Fort Benton, Montana in Choto County. I want you to as you sit in the tent of many voices for the next approximately 10 days until um June 12th. I want you to put on the, the stole, the Erman stole that was given to Lewis. And um Bob Archibald,
50:55 the noted historian and author spoke so eloquently on that in Loma and he put on that stole and he was metamorphosed and that means he was changed, the speakers that we have coming to you in the tent of many voices that has been put together very, very competently by Sandra Padilla. And thank you so much Sandra for participating in that
51:19 she has made sure that community was represented. She has made sure that the agencies are represented and she's made sure that the tribal people are represented. Everything comes together as you sit in the tenement voices and, and go through the exhibits, put that on and let yourself just be wrapped in what is being told, the story that is told
51:41 and maybe just maybe will be changed also. And this will be our journey. Thank you so much and I'm gonna turn it over now to Amy, the stage director,
51:58 on behalf of the National Park Service. I would like to thank all of our speakers today for coming out and I also would like to thank all of you for joining us. Next event that's going to happen here inside the tent of many voices will begin in about 15 minutes or so. And that is going to be a film entitled Lewis and Clark Confluence of Time and Courage. So I encourage you to come back for that film in about 15 minutes.
52:21 I do have some schedules of programming inside the tent of many voices for the next week. So if you'd like a copy of that schedule, please stop up and see me afterwards. In the meantime, we do have our child size Keel boat, a great plains tepee, our exhibit tent for you to explore today. Enjoy the rest of your day, everyone.

Tent of Many Voices

Fort Benton opening remarks: Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration

52:47

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Fort Benton opening remarks: Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration

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