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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.
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