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Fort Benton
      The Birthplace of MontanaTM



Fort Benton Montana On the Map

If your dream of the perfect experience is to get off the freeways, drive through vast open country, pass miles of wheat fields, and enjoy a view where you can see for ever in any direction, then journey to historic Fort Benton.

Fort Benton is one of the most historically significant sites in Montana.  No other town played such a prominent role in the opening of the Northwestern United States and Canada.  Located on the Missouri River, Fort Benton was established in 1846 as a trading post for the American Fur Company.  As a trading post, military fort and head of steamboat navigation, Fort Benton was an important overland connection.  By 1859 Fort Benton was connected to Walla Walla, Washington, by the Mullan Road.  In 1869 the Whoop-Up Trail from Fort Benton to Alberta was established as well as a trail into the Saskatchewan side of the Cypress Hills.  These two trails was used to supply western Canada with illegal “Indian Whiskey.”  Fort Benton also became a supply depot for North West Mounted Police charged with bringing law and order to the wild, whiskey-sotted western provinces.

Fort Benton is the only trading post that was built in the 19th century to still serve as a town today. It is also known as the gateway to Lewis and Clark’s “Scenes of Visionary Enchantment;” the “Wild and Scenic” Upper Missouri River and The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

Fort Benton is nestled in a Missouri River valley in North Central Montana.  Follow U.S. Highway 87, forty miles northeast from Great Falls or seventy two miles South from Havre and you'll discover us.

 

 Find Fort Benton in the "Big" State of Montana

Map of Fort Benton


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