After 100 years: Work progresses on Fort Assinniboine

After only 32 years in operation, one of the largest forts in the country closed its operation.

Now, 100 years later, the group working to preserve and promote Fort Assinniboine is stepping forward with more improvements on its buildings and more activities at the fort, about six miles south of Havre, including a major event set for Saturday, June 4, including presentations by a local black powder shooting club.

Work to preserve history

Work now is being done to stabilize the stockade, or guard house, building at the fort, and other work on the carriage house, or field-grade officers stables, is in the planning stages.

The work at the fort is coming during National Preservation Month. The event was set by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1973.

The Havre/Hill County Historic Preservation Commission monday night at the Havre City Council meeting presented preservation awards to local residents for work they have done.

John and Anna Brumley were honored for their work at the Wahkpa Chu'gn bison kill archaeological site north of the Holiday Village Mall, while the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce was given an award for its work putting on Havre Festival Days.

Gary Wilson has been involved in work at Fort Assinniboine since the 1980s, working to provide tours at the site and to organize the work to stabilize and preserve the fort's remaining structures.

That situation also has changed in the last few months, with one of the main buildings, the fort library, vacated by the agricultural research center that has been on the fort grounds since 1915. New buildings were constructed for the Northern Agricultural Research Center's offices and for some laboratory and research work.

The staff moved out of their offices in the library in February.

Wilson said he is waiting for a meeting with NARC staff to discuss what his tours can do to incorporate use of the library, and the potential to set up offices for the preservation association and for the tours in that building.

"I guess we're at a pivotal point for the fort, " he said.

A major fort

Fort Assinniboine was once one of the largest forts in the United States, with more than 100 buildings — 14 still are standing — a 700,000-acre military reserve and the capacity to house more than 1,000 soldiers, with an average of 600 troops stationed there during its career.

The fort was authorized in 1878, with construction starting in 1879.

It came at the tail end of the Indian wars, with driving factors in its construction the defeat of Gen. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 and the Battle of the Bear Paws in 1877 when Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce surrendered to the U. S. Cavalry following a five-day battle.

Chief Sitting Bull had taken a band of warriors north into Canada following the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and one reason the fort was constructed was to allay fears that his band would raid into the area.

It also helped reduce fears of fights between tribes in the area and to raise confidence for settlers coming to the region.

The fort housed several famous individuals or groups, including Lt. John "Black Jack" Pershing, who would go on as a general to command the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I.

The companies of the African-American 10th Cavalry, known as the Buffalo Soldiers, were stationed at Assinniboine before rising to national fame during the Spanish-American War under the command of Pershing.

By 1911, the concerns in the region had diminished. Montana lawmakers and local residents had fought to keep a military presence at the fort, but after its heated water tower burned down for the third time, Fort Assinniboine was decommissioned.

Continuing impacts

The fort continued to impact the area, including the state Legislature authorizing the creation of an agricultural college and research center at the site. The state took ownership of the buildings and 2,000 acres of land for that purpose, but never funded the actual creation of a college.

Wilson said parts of the military reservation also were opened for homesteading, with that also impacting the buildings. He said numerous people started taking building materials from the fort.

In that time, several other proposals to use the facility also were raised, including using it as a federal prison or for an insane asylum.

"They came up with a lot of neat ideas, " Wilson said.

In 1915, the Northern Agricultural Research Center was created at the fort, and continues its operations to this day.

In 1916, Congress authorized converting much of what remained of the military reservation as Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, to be home to the Chippewa and Cree Indian bands of Chief Rocky Boy, or Stone Child, and Chief Little Bear.

The congressional act authorized transferring part of the reservation to the city of Havre as a recreation area, an area now known as Beaver Creek Park. Wilson said that part of the reservation had been set as a recreation area when the fort was decommissioned in 1911.

He said that after homesteading began, a group formed to make sure additional materials were not stolen for local construction, and began more organized recycling. Building materials from the fort were used across the state and in the region, including at the state hospital in Warm Springs.

One prominent Havre building was constructed entirely of materials from the fort.

After a local college finally was created — Northern Montana College opened in Havre in 1929 — Fort Assinniboine materials were used to construct Pershing Hall. The building, named for the famous general, is still in use at Montana State University-Northern.

Increased activity, promotion

Wilson said small projects have been done to stabilize the fort since the late 1980s, although finding funding is getting more and more difficult. Increased promotion also has gone on since that time.

Another benefit for the fort started in the 1990s, when Wilson spearheaded the creation of the Old Forts Trail. The historic trail includes Fort Benton and Fort Assinniboine and traces the routes freight took from Fort Benton to sites in Montana and Canada.

The membership has grown to include several more Canadian forts, including the recent addition of Fort Calgary in Alberta, a major tourist destination site.

Wilson said the resources of the additional forts has increased marketing immensely, including new brochures and a new website at http://www.oldfortstrails.com

Wilson conducts tours of the fort during the summer, at noon and 5 p. m. or by appointment, starting at the H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum at the Holiday Village Mall.

The rendezvous set for Saturday, June 4, will include a series of tours, starting at 10:30 a. m. with the last starting at 3:30 p. m. It also will feature presentations and activities including the participation of the Bullhook Bottoms Black Powder Club.

Wilson said that club represents an era that just was ending at the time the fort was commissioned, with the activities of the club showing what life was like for the traders, trappers, and wolf and bison hunters. The club members will be at the event with their costumes, black powder firearms and cannon, as well as exhibits.

Representatives of Canadian forts on the Old Forts Trail also will be at the event.

Wilson said local groups and businesses, including the Havre Best Western Great Northern Inn, the local Business Improvement District, C&C Excavation, Havre Tire Factory and the Northern Agricultural Research Center, have been instrumental in putting the event together.