Montana's DAR Markers . . . Honoring Where History Was Made

In the summers of 1874 and 1875, low water on the Missouri River
temporarily made Carroll an attractive port, but freighters soon
discovered that the Carroll Road was actually more difficult to travel
than the Fort Benton Road to Helena due to the gumbo-mud road. In
addition, Lakota Sioux warriors took advantage of the feeble protection
provided by over-stretched infantry troops along the route, with
bloodshed and horse-stealing a growing occurrence.
Then in 1876, high water allowed most steamboats to continue to
Fort Benton's better port facilities and the Carroll Trail was left
completely unprotected when most troops were called to the Great
Sioux War in southeastern Montana. Thus, the Carroll Trail was a
failure. Except for local traffic, freighting along it never revived and the
trail was abandoned and later was washed away by Missouri River
flooding.
During the 1877 Nez Perce Indians’ flight to Canada, Chief Joseph
and his followers camped near the Reed and Bowles Stockade shortly
before their defeat at the Battle of the Bear Paw.
Despite the failure of the Carroll Trail, Reed and Bowles remained,
running a brisk business trading with passing tribes, hunters, and
trappers until 1880. The cabin was the last structure remaining of the
trading post; the stockade and other cabins no longer remain.
According to a 1931 historical account by O.O. Mueller, “In 1883, the
original log cabin was enlarged and a new roof put on and since then
there have been no changes in the structure except repair to the roof.”
History shows Alonzo Reed and John Bowles to be unsavory
characters. They arrived in Montana Territory in the 1860s from either
Wyoming or Colorado. References to them in Montana begin at
Diamond City, the mining camp in Confederate Gulch on the north
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