Montana Forts of the Old West

Montana Forts of the Old West

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Fort Owen (1850-18??) - The fort is situated on the site of the first permanent white settlement in Montana. In 1841, Father Pierre DeSmet came to the area and established St. Mary's Mission among the Flathead Indians. In 1850, Major John Owen, an Indian trader, purchased St. Mary's Mission, establishing a regional trade center. He later acted as Indian agent. The fort, built of adobe and logs, also supported an extensive farming operation, sawmill and gristmill. Today, the site is a Montana State Park located in Stevensville, Montana. The park, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, features the original 1841 restored chapel, a cabin that now serves as a museum, barracks, and several other buildings on the one acre site. The park is 25 miles south of Missoula on U.S. 93 to Stevensville Junction, then .5 miles east on Secondary 269.

More Information:

The original 1841 St. Mary's Mission still stands at

Fort Owen, Montana.

This image available for photographic prints

and downloads HERE!

Fort Owen State Park

3201 Spurgin Road

Missoula, Montana 59804

406-542-5500

Fort Parker (1869-1870) - Also known as the Crow Agency, Fort Parker was established as a result of the 1868 treaty with the Crow Indians. Located a few miles below the great bend of the Yellowstone River, it was named for E.S. Parker, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The area was intended to be a refuge for the Crow Indians from their enemies -- the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Blackfoot. The government encouraged the Crow to adopt an agricultural lifestyle, with little success. When the government began to reduce the size of the Crow Reservation in 1875, the Crow Agency was moved to a location on the Stillwater River, near the town of Absorkee, ostensibly to remove itself from the whiskey peddlers at Bensons Landing. At that time, the fort was abandoned. Several years later, in May, 1883, the agency was moved farther east to its present location, south of Hardin, Montana. No buildings remain at the site located about ten miles to the east of present-day Livingston, Montana near Interstate 90.

Fort Peck (1867-1877) - Established 1867 Colonel Campbell Kennedy Peck, the post was a branch of Durfee and Peck Trading. The site was constructed of sturdy cottonwood logs had a twelve-foot-tall stockade and several low buildings inside. It became the Indian Agency for the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre Indians in 1871. A narrow shale ledge supporting the fort made steamboat docking and unloading easier. But it would be the Missouri River that would be the fort's undoing in 1877 when it flooded and destroyed the stockade. The Indian Agency then moved to Poplar Creek. The site today is covered by the waters of Fort Peck Reservoir.

Fort Piegan (1831-1832) - This non-military fort was established in October, 1831 by James Kipp for the American Fur Company. Located by the mouth of the Marias River, it was the first successful trading post among the Blackfoot Indians. The fortress including three large log buildings surrounded by a 25 foot palisade. it was abandoned in 1832.

Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Shaw, Montana, 1888.

Fort Shaw (1867-1891) - First called Camp Reynolds when it was established in 1867, the post was tasked with guarding the road between Fort Benton and Helena, and protecting the miners and settlers in northwestern Montana. During the 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Cheyennes, Colonel John Gibbon, the base commander, led the garrison up the Missouri, procured reinforcements at Fort Ellis, Montana , rendezvoused with the forces of General Terry on the Yellowstone at the mouth of the Rosebud, and subsequently relieved the survivors of Custer's regiment at the Little Bighorn. The next year troops from Fort Shaw, along with Forts Ellis and Missoula, again under Gibbon, defeated the non-treaty Nez Perces, retreating from Idaho to Montana at the Battle of the Big Hole.

After the Army relinquished the fort in 1891, for many years the Department of the Interior used it as an Indian school. At that time workmen covered the frame-roofed adobe buildings with wood siding and erected some new buildings. Later the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation occupied the fort. In 1926 ownership passed to the Fort Shaw School District. Since then, a few of the buildings have been used for school and community purposes, some have been rented to private individuals, and others have deteriorated or been demolished to make way for new construction. The location, in Cascade County, is on Montana Highway 20 about 1/2 mile northwest of the town of Fort Shaw.

Fort C.F. Smith (1866-1868) - The fort was established on August 12, 1866 on a bluff overlooking the Big Horn River to protect immigrants traveling on the Bozeman Trail from attacks by the resentful Sioux Indians. Its stockade, of logs and adobe, 125 yards square, was an impregnable haven; from its lookout tower, riders three miles distant could be watched. Manned by the 27th Infantry, and commanded by Brevet Lieutenant N. C. Kinney, the soldiers battled the Indians from the beginning, as the fort was besieged over and over again by Red Cloud's Sioux.

On August 1, 1867, three miles from Fort C.F. Smith, the Hayfield Fight occurred that pitted a determined stand of 31 soldiers and civilians against more than 700 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Fortified behind a barrier of a low log corral, the combined soldier/civilian force withstood six hours of attacks before relief finally arrived to disperse the warriors.

In the spring of 1868, the United States Government agreed to abandon the Bozeman Trail forts and close the trail to travel as part of the Laramie Treaty. The forts were abandoned that summer, starting with C. F. Smith, then Phil Kearny, and finally in late August, Fort Reno.

Today, there is nothing left of the old fort but low mounds and debris. Its ruins are on a bluff 500 yards from the Big Horn River on private land but visitors may see it by making prior arrangements at the Yellowtail Dam Visitor Center. Midway between the ruins and the Big Horn River was the post's burial ground. In 1892 the remains of 17 soldiers and civilians were removed to the Custer Battlefield National Cemetery. Two and one-half miles south, on War Man Creek, is the site of the Hayfield fight.

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