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

American Fur Company's agent at Fort Lewis, Alexander Culbertson,
to relocate the fort to the north side of the Missouri River and a broad
grassy river bottom on the north side a few miles downriver was selected
as the site of Fort Benton. It was to be the last fur trading fort on the
Upper Missouri. Fort Lewis' log buildings, walls, and bastions were
dismantled and floated to their new site. By the spring of 1847, the last
structures were rafted down the Missouri to form the new trading post.
But Alexander Culbertson was not satisfied with his fort. While at Fort
Laramie he had seen the adobe buildings of the Southwest, and felt
adobe would offer more protection against the Upper Missouri's
extreme weather than could logs. Reconstruction of the fort using
adobe bricks made of Missouri River clay began in the fall of 1848. A
two-story dwelling for Major Culbertson was the first building
completed. Reconstruction was completed in 1860 when the trade store
was rebuilt. The American Fur Company sold the fort in 1865 to the
Northwest Fur Company.
According to the Fort Benton River Press newspaper on June 9,
1976, “The Block House, built in 1850 of sun dried adobe bricks, is one
of the oldest in Montana, exceptions being, possibly one of two of the
missions in western Montana.”
Since 1864, the settlement around the old fort had been the hub of
the territory’s supplies coming in for mining camps and raw gold going
out. Later it was the center for shipping wool to eastern mills. From
1869 to its abandonment in 1882, the U.S. Army maintained a garrison
at the fort to protect shipments. After the army left, Fort Assinniboine
near Havre was left to protect the region. (See Fort Assinniboine chapter.)
Soon, railroads ended navigation on the Missouri River to Fort Benton.
65