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Montana's Inland Jewel
| From Montana
Magazine, No 185, May/June 2004, 52-58; this article is presented
in cooperation with Montana Magazine. All rights reserved, © 2004.
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KIDS, LET’S GO TO THE LAKE!”
THAT WAS OUR SIREN CRY FOR AN OUTING TO FORT PECK. The thought of those
tall shady trees at the park and the cool waters of the reservoir sent
us into a flurry of excitement. Amid a tangle of fishing poles and picnic
coolers, we’d crane our necks out the  window,
determined to be the first to catch sight of the powerhouses.
A slow drive through the former government town of
Fort Peck elevates you to the face of the dam, an impressive structure
more than four miles across. Attaining this height meant rolling down
all the windows and waving at the fishing boats on the lake, wind in our
hair.
Turning downhill, the powerhouses waited. When you lean
your entire body against the concrete, the building purrs. Inside, it
rumbles. The blinking lights, spinning shafts, dark tunnels, and mysterious
prehistoric artifacts contained in the powerhouse tour were a pinnacle
experience every time. Satisfied that operations were continuing as planned,
we’d settle in for food and fishing, swimming with the clear blue
sky and white clouds as companions.
In later years, after all those trips through the powerhouse
had sunk in, I realized Fort Peck is really a testament to exploration
and hard work.
EARLY DAYS
May 10, 1805. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was traveling up the Missouri
River and stopped, resupplying with buffalo meat. May was a rough month
for the corps, having narrowly escaped numerous grizzly bears (the last
one taking eight rifle balls before it stopped). Their earlier dismissals
of the Indian tribes’ warnings were now taken much more seriously.
Signal Hill
(east of the powerhouses) was a spectacular vantage point for surveying
their future route and now has a set of interpretive signs for the present-day
visitor.
Capitalizing on those same views, Colonel Campbell Kennedy Peck established
Fort Peck in 1867, a branch of Durfee and Peck Trading. Previously located
at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, the store was replaced by Fort
Buford, a military installation. This new trading post constructed of
sturdy cottonwood logs had a twelve-foot-tall stockade and several low
buildings inside. The Fort Peck Indian Agency based at the post distributed
supplies to Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Indians.
A narrow shale ledge supporting the fort made steamboat docking and unloading
easier, but limited the access to land. This was the undoing of Fort Peck—in
1877 the flooding Missouri destroyed the stockade. The agency moved to
Poplar Creek, at present day Poplar, where it remains.
Creation of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Reservation in 1885 shrank
the previously extensive hunting grounds of the tribes and opened new
lands to homesteading. Railroad promotions and a few years of abundant
rainfall and mild winters populated the prairies so fast that the area
settlers reached 20,000 by 1914. By 1916 the eastern corner of Montana
was the largest inland wheat-exporting point in the nation.
Lulled by good times, overextended homesteaders were unprepared for brutal
winters followed by drought and dust storms. Crops that managed to sprout
in the dry earth were quickly consumed by legions of grasshoppers. |
DAM FACTS
FORT PECK DAM, THE LARGEST hydraulically filled earth dam in
the world, measures 21,026 feet long, with a maximum height of
250.5
feet. The five turbines can generate 185,250 kilowatts of power,
creating over $10 million dollars annually and a source of constant
power for Montana’s rural electric cooperatives. The reservoir
stretches for 134 miles, and its created shoreline runs 1,520
miles (longer than the California coast).
Reservoir water is managed for hydroelectric power, flood damage
reduction, downstream navigation, fish and wildlife, recreation,
irrigation, public water supply, and improved water quality. Storage
capacity of the reservoir is 18.7 million-acre feet. The curve
of the earth is visible from the middle of the reservoir.
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THE NEW DEAL
The Great Depression was well underway in Montana when
government surveyors arrived. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized
Fort Peck Dam construction in 1933, a cornerstone of his plan to alleviate
mass unemployment. Only ten days elapsed between authorization and construction,
triggering a breakneck  pace.
By 1935 more than 7,000 men and women had signed on, and employment peaked
at 11,000 workers in 1939.
Planning went awry when housing was constructed for dam
workers. The 300 units for married men quickly disappeared, and the race
was on for housing of any type, size, or construction. Seemingly overnight
the population exploded to over 40,000. Eighteen boomtowns sprang up around
the dam site, outside of official government jurisdiction. Army officers
at the Fort Peck Hotel turned a blind eye to the obvious: Massive Partying.
Ernie Pyle, famed war correspondent, said it best: You have to see the town
of Wheeler to believe it. When you drive through, you think somebody must
have set up hand-painted store fronts on both sides of the road, as background
for a western movie thriller. But it’s real. At night the streets
are a melee of drunken men and painted women, as they are called in books.
Gambling and liquor by the drink are illegal in  Montana.
But Wheeler pays no attention. You can sit in a stud game, or keep ordering
forty-rod all night.
LIFE photographer Margaret Bourke-White arrived in 1936, shooting
for the magazine’s first issue. She captured the contrast between
the massive, elegant federal structures and the rowdy population in a
masterful photo essay. The powerful spillway structure, larger than most
dams, dominates the cover.
In September 1938, construction enthusiasm was marred by a tremendous
slide—five million cubic yards! A combination of slippery bentonite
and bearpaw shale, the slide killed eight workers. “Five minutes
later, and my dad would have been in the middle of it” Fort Peck’s
former mayor Ken Bondy remembered. “The ground started breaking
away from his truck as fast as he could back it up.” A memorial
overlooks the shaft towers, near the slide site.
When the dam was finished in 1940, Major Clark Kittrell, the district
engineer from 1937 to 1939, wrote: No engineering job of this magnitude
had ever been attempted with so short a time for planning.
DEM DRY BONES
For more than a century, residents have passionately
dug for dinosaur bones. Dr. Barnum Brown of the American Museum of Natural
History discovered the rich fossil field nearby, uncovering the first
TYRANNOSAURUS REX skeleton in 1902. During dam construction, amateur diggers
found fossils, buffalo skulls, and artifacts from Old Fort Peck. Dinosaur
digging didn’t really hit the limelight until 1997,  when
one of the largest T-REX specimens was found. A cry of outrage went out
when plans were made to remove it from the area, as most great finds already
are displayed in museums far from Fort Peck. Determined fundraising convinced
congressional leaders that Peck’s REX would stay home. Public sentiment
was personified by schoolchildren, particularly one who presented to the
project a chicken bucket with his life savings inside.
Peck’s REX is now being prepared at the Paleontology Field
Station of the Fort Peck Dam Interpretive Center, where bones and exhibits
are on display. The organization welcomes volunteers and is a must-see
for dinosaur enthusiasts.
In the works since 1996, the newly completed $6.7 million, 18,000-square-foot
Fort Peck Dam Interpretive Center sits near the powerhouses. A highly
anticipated grand opening is scheduled for
May 8 and exhibits are being constructed this summer. With a stellar view
of the Missouri River from the glass lobby, the center features a warm-water
fish aquarium. Planned exhibits include dam construction,
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eastern Montana’s abundant fossils, and wildlife displays. Peck’s
REX will be a natural centerpiece. Also under construction, a warm-
water fish hatchery is scheduled for completion in 2005. This hatchery
will produce many of the fish species found in Fort Peck, while providing
research opportunities for scientists to study the endangered pallid
sturgeon in a visitor-friendly facility.
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WANDER & WONDER
The expansive Fort Peck area ab-sorbs nearly 300,000 visitors a
year, estimated to be the fourth most- visited place in the state. The
U.S. Army Corp of Engineers operates the hydropower and lake levels from
the town of Fort Peck, incorporated in 1986.
Sturdy construction and graceful lines put the Administration Building
and Fort Peck Theatre on the National Register of Historic Places. Wood-impressed
concrete and a red tile roof bring a quiet presence to  the
office building, while the theatre is colorfully exuberant. Built as a
movie house to entertain dam workers, it’s now a very popular summer
stock theatre—the only one in northeastern Montana. Talented local
actors and profes-sionals present vibrant musicals, dramas, and comedies.
Shows scheduled for 2004 include THE KING AND I, FOOTLOOSE, and HAYFEVER.
“A rich warm feeling surrounds the audience, and I loved
it so much I got involved,” Pat Etchart, a theatre board co-chair,
explained. “My daughter Christen walked in at age eight and fell
in love with the smell of the place. She’s been performing there
ever since.”
That warm feeling might also be Floyd, the friendly ghost. He’s
been rumored to hang around the back stairs, ready to help soften a fall
in the dark.
Screened-in verandas at Fort Peck Hotel, also on the National Register,
encourage some relaxing before theatre performances, and interior décor
is classic WPA lodge. Wooden hallways lead to guest rooms that are outfitted
with vintage fixtures from the 1930s. Cast members often stay in the hotel
for the summer. “It’s like home,” commented costume
designer Dana Donovan. Modern nods to television and internet are in the
lobby. The restaurant keeps regular dining hours and is a favorite stop
for lunch during weekend drives.
Across from the theatre, the recreation hall will get your blood
moving. Use the gym, or take advantage of their exercise room. The cost?
$1.00 a day.
The boomtown party gene lives on today at the Gateway Inn Supper
Club (“Best dam bar by a dam site”), featuring dining and
dance bands. It’s a weekend hangout of the LandShark waterski club.
Across Highway 24, the Buckhorn Sportsman’s Lodge and the Lakeridge
Motel and Tackle command a view of the vanished ghost town of Wheeler.
The downstream Park Grove Bar is my favorite for a thick burger. A drive
around this small boomtown holdout gives glimpses of abandoned shanties
tucked under cottonwood trees.
Once your belly is full, get outfitted from Missouri River Outpost
or Lakeridge and channel that energy into fishing, camping, hiking, diving,
or water skiing. Or just stroll through town and chat with residents.
Why do they stay? “It’s just a clean, beautiful little town,”
beamed town clerk Bobbi Kirkland. Ken Bondy echoed her sentiments, adding,
“It’s a real hunting and fishing kind of place. I’ll
stay here the rest of my life.”
Blending history and progress, Fort Peck is a must-see stop in Big Sky
Country.
SCENIC DRIVES
& INTERESTING ODDITIES
NASHUA
HAD A HOUSE-MOVING BONANZA AFTER DAM CONSTRUCTION WAS
completed, and amazingly, there still are undecided buildings up on
blocks. That hasn’t slowed down Bergie’s—their only
blocks are made of ice cream, and they serve ’em up the old-fashioned
way. It’s just the place for a sweet treat, like a hot fudge
butterscotch sundae.
Valley County Museum, in Glasgow, compiles an array
of seemingly unrelated events into a comprehensive area history. In
addition to their new Lewis & Clark exhibit, the unassuming steel
building  houses
an impressive aviation collection. Former resident Major James V.
Sullivan had a record-breaking transatlantic flight from New York
to London in 1974. Afterwards, journalists asked, “Where were
you born?” His prompt reply, “Wheeler, Montana!”
drove the media crazy looking for the then-nonexistent boomtown.
The Cold War stretched to Montana in the form of
Glasgow Air Force Base. Protecting the northern border and the Fort
Peck hydropower plant from Russian missiles swelled the base population
to 9,000 in 1962. After hostilities waned, the base was decommissioned
in 1968. Now the community of St. Marie, it’s a rare view of
what a military buildup looked like. The runways, acquired by Boeing,
are used for aircraft testing. Appearing dramatically as you drive
over grassy hills, acres of housing with lawns perfectly mowed complement
the base office buildings, closed for years. The landscape doubled
for the frozen Arctic in Clint Eastwood’s film FIREFOX, and
an abandoned town in NORTHFORK. Ironically, the town of Fort Peck
purchased and moved many buildings from the place built to protect
it.
Farther east, the last steamboat to pass under the
Lewis and Clark Pennsylvania Truss Bridge was freighting materials
up the Missouri to Fort Peck Dam. The graceful, arching structure,
built to accommodate the fully flooded Missouri, is now a historic
site with a state fishing access and day recreation area. A BLM Backcountry
Byway begins in the park. By following the byway to Circle, and continuing
north of Flowing Wells, you’ll see the rugged eastern edge of
the C.M. Russell Refuge. Sightings of mule deer and pronghorn antelope
are common.
Elk viewing opportunities lie at The Pines, west
of Fort Peck. Stately pine trees at the recreation area provide shade
and a vivid contrast from the surrounding badlands and prairie. This
part of the CMR is renowned for its trophy elk.
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ALLISON WHITMER grew up in McCone County, so nearby Fort Peck has always
been a favorite oasis. She earned degrees in consumer economics and filmmaking
during her seven years at MSU–Bozeman and now divides her time between
filmmaking and historic preservation. Recent credits include PBS’s
FRONTIER HOUSE and films THE SLAUGHTER RULE and NORTHFORK.
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