The Great Falls, Fort Benton, UMRBNM

Great Falls, Ryan Dam

The first thing we did yesterday morning, on our way to Fort Benton, is to drive to Ryan Dam where the first falls that Lewis and Clark encountered. When L &  C came through, they had to pull the boats up on shore and hauled them by land until they got past the last falls (Black Eagle) and then put them back in water and onward.  This took 3 weeks and 18 miles of drudgery for the men.  And it is huge - 778 feet tall.  Of course there is a dam built right before it, built in 1910, to harness the energy, but you have to imagine what it looked like before the dam was built. We parked the car near the foot bridge that you walk over - called Goat Island - to view the Falls at closer range.  The warning at the bridge was enough to stop you and think about crossing, then another sign after you got on the island warns you to evacuate when you hear 8 short blasts.  Yikes!  The view was spectacular.  There is renovation going on at the dam so water was only being released in one area.

From the dam we drove north east to Fort Benton, the last fur trading post established on the Missouri River by John Jacob Astor (yes, the same as the New York Astor) for his American Fur Company in 1807.  Fort Benton is a cutsy little town situated right on the Missouri River, and driving into the town you are surprised at how large it is.   We stopped at the visitors center for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument which explained that  it was established to protect the river from harm and to prohibit any changes or improvements to the river, making it remain as pristine as it was when Lewis and Clark came through in 1805 and 1806.  Most of the monument is not accessible by car, only by water.  They encourage you to see the river by boat, canoe, kayak, or hiking.  We didn't have time or wanted to do this so we went on to the fort.

Replica of Fort Benton

What a surprise this was.  Long story short, Astor established the trading post for his company to move the skins and hides, specifically buffalo hides, and to provide a trading area for the local inhabitants - namely the Blackfeet Indians.  This fort also is the only fort that never saw any skirmishes with Indians, being a fort of peace. By 1848 when the town was established alongside the trading post, steam boats came up from St. Louis bringing supplies and then returned with the hides and furs.  By the 1880's the railroad come through and the fort was abandoned. This fort is a replica of the original fort.  Had an interpreter inside explaining what went on, how life was.  In the other part of the fort a new museum was built just opened this May,  of the living quarters of Culbertson (the fort's manager) but inside was really a museum of Bodner's paintings and lithographs (a German artist who came through there in 1840) and of Scriver, a local artist who sculpted out of metal. Pretty impressive.

Buffalo from the Smithsonian

And last, while in Fort Benton, we went to the Museum of the Northern Great Plains where  life is depicted on the Great Plains area through 3 generations.  In tact homes and businesses of the 20's, farm equipment from the early 1880s to present, displays of everything and anything relating to the last 100 years.  The most incredible thing we saw - was the exhibit of buffalo, from the Smithsonian, which was returned to Fort Benton after 70 years in the Smithsonian since the buffalo were killed right in the area and it was fitting that they returned 'home' to be on display, and also with the exhibit were Remington sculptures!  Real ones!  Talk about a lot of money in one town! Between the Remingtons and the Scrivers and Bodners art plus this display of buffalo, WOW.