Lewis and Clark Trail History

Fort Benton, Montana

The man on your right was the first multi-millionaire in the United States. His name was John Jacob Astor, and he founded the American Fur Company in 1808.

After the War of 1812 the company developed a monopoly in the fur trade in the Great Lakes region and the Midwest. In the 1820s the monopoly was extended into the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. By 1830, the American Fur Company had nearly complete control of the fur trade in the United States. During the years of 1831 to 1846 they built a dozen trading forts along the length of the Upper Missouri River.

Fort Benton was constructed under the command of an agent for the American Fur Company named Alexander Culbertson, and was the last fur trading fort on the Upper Missouri River. Culbertson had spend time at Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming, and had seen the adobe buildings of the Southwest. He felt that adobe would offer better protection against the Upper Missouri's extreme weather than logs could, so the fort was built using adobe bricks made from Missouri River clay.

By the 1840s, silk was replacing fur in European clothing fashion, and Europe was then a major market for American furs. Later, Fort Benton became a boom town as gold seekers and cattlemen used it as a supply point on their way west. With the building of the railroads, its importance as a transit point diminished.

Today's town of Fort Benton likes to call itself "The Birthplace of Montana", and has an array of museums to back that claim up. Historic Old Fort Benton provides an overview the early settlement era of the Northern plains, while the Museum of the Northern Great Plains documents the story of homesteader families who came to settle the vast Montana prairie. The Hornaday / Smithsonian Buffalo and Western Art Gallery houses the world famous Buffalo display, in addition to a small collection of western art by 19th Century artists. Homestead Village contains buildings restored and relocated from abandoned homestead era towns. Then there's the Museum of the Upper Missouri, where you can explore the history and legends of the Upper Missouri River. Last but not least, the Missouri Breaks National Monument Interpretive Center interprets the natural and cultural history of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.