Fort Parker, Montana
Fort Parker, Montana, also known as the Crow Agency, was established in 1868 under a 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 Blackfeet. The government encouraged the Crow to adopt an agricultural lifestyle with little success.
When the government began reducing the size of the Crow Reservation in 1875, it moved the Crow Agency to a location on the Stillwater River near the town of Absarokee, 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 about ten miles east of present-day Livingston, Montana, near Interstate 90.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated September 2026.
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