Things to Do in Fort Benton, Montana

Up to 50 steamboats a season once tied up along this levee, unloading fur traders, gold seekers and settlers. Today it’s an easy riverside walk through the landmark district, past the part of town once called “the bloodiest block in the west.” Bob Scriver’s heroic-size Lewis and Clark Memorial, marking the expedition’s nine days at the nearby Marias River confluence, is also in town.

★ Good to know Start here to get your bearings. The museums, the Grand Union Hotel and the Old Bridge are all within walking distance.

The American Fur Company’s post here was the last fur-trading post on the Upper Missouri. It was formally named Fort Benton on Christmas Day 1850, for Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and served as an Army post from 1868 to 1881. The reconstructed fort now anchors the town’s museum complex.

★ Good to know The fort and museums open Memorial Day weekend and close September 30. The museum staff suggest at least two hours for the fort.

This is the State of Montana’s museum of the northern plains, and it’s the biggest stop in the complex. It takes in Homestead Village and the Hornaday Smithsonian bison gallery, and tells the story of homesteaders trying to settle a harsh land. The museum staff recommend at least four hours.

★ Good to know An admission fee is charged. Ask about group tours if you’re coming with a crowd.

This smaller museum covers the Upper Missouri’s frontier years, from the fur and robe trade to the steamboat boom and the gold rush. It also holds Shep’s collar and bowl, if you want to follow that story from the levee statue to the source.

★ Good to know Its posted hours are shorter than the rest of the complex, so check before you plan around it.

The Bureau of Land Management runs this center for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, 377,000 acres of badlands, bluffs and white sandstone cliffs downstream. Exhibits cover Lewis and Clark, the steamboat era, the Nez Perce flight of 1877 and paddlefish and sturgeon still in the river. A riverside walking trail starts here.

★ Good to know The lobby has boating information if you plan to float the river, and summer hours run mid-May through September, closed Sundays.

Shep was a Border Collie who watched his owner’s casket leave on a train in 1936, then met every train at the Great Northern station for five and a half years. He was killed by a train in January 1942. A larger-than-life bronze of Shep by Bob Scriver, front paws on a rail, went up on the levee in 1994.

★ Good to know Shep’s grave is on a hillside overlooking town, with a small parking area and a short walking trail behind the monument.

Below Fort Benton the Missouri is a designated Wild and Scenic River with no white water, which makes it a good canoe trip for beginners. Missouri River Outfitters, founded in town in 1965, runs guided multi-day trips through the White Cliffs, plus rentals, shuttles and shorter floats near town.

★ Good to know Expect to paddle about 14 to 20 miles a day on a multi-day trip, and book shuttles well before you arrive.

Built in 1882 at the height of the steamboat trade, the Grand Union is Montana’s oldest operating hotel and is on the National Register. Its Union Grille serves farm-to-table dinners in a tin-ceilinged dining room on the Missouri. Even if you don’t stay, it’s worth a look inside.

★ Good to know The Grille serves dinner nightly in summer and Wednesday through Sunday the rest of the year. Reservations are recommended.