Dutton

U.S. I-15 Highway from Helena to Sweetgrass is dedicated as a memorial highway to the this elite WWII unit which was formed in 1942 at the direction of President Roosevelt and General George Marshall U.S. Army Chief of Staff and British leaders Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten. Their mission: parachute into occupied enemy territory and destroy vital Axis installations.

The "force" required a top notch area for special training in mountaineering, skiing, parachuting, demolitions, and weapons. Fort William H. Harrison, west of Helena, Montana, was ideal. Here rugged volunteers from the United States and Canadian Armies came together to train. This unique U.S.-Canadian unit selected the crossed arrows of the frontier Army Indian Scouts as their branch insignia and a red spearhead for their shoulder patch.

Combat casualties were high but the force never failed a mission. Named "The Black Devils" by the Germans, their ferocious nighttime fighting ability was legendary! The legacy of the first special force proudly lives one today in Special Forces of both countries.

Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union ran high during the cold war. Both sides relied heavily on their nuclear weapons arsenals as deterrents to actual combat between the two superpowers. When the Soviets launched the first man-made earth-orbiting satellite, Sputnik, in October 1957, it ushered in a new and deadlier phase to the cold war, the use of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) to carry nuclear warheads.

This area is part of the Montana missile field, a 23,500 square mile area that encompasses nine Montana counties. At its height between 1967 and 2008, it contained 200 Minuteman missiles controlled by the 341st Missile Wing based at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls. In December 1959, the United States Air Force (USAF) selected Malmstrom Air Force Base as the site of the country's first Minuteman missile field. It chose the state because of its high altitude, relatively flat terrain, and sparse population. Construction of the first missile silos, Alpha flight, began in 1961 and was completed in October 1962, just in time for the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the US and the Soviet Union came to the brink of nuclear war. By 1963, three missile squadrons were operational in Montana. Each squadron consisted of five flights of ten missiles, controlled by fifteen launch launch alert facilities, manned 24 hours a day. The missiles are scattered over a wide area, each missile at least ten miles from its nearest neighbor. In 1967, the USAF activated a fourth squadron, the 564th, that encompassed this part of Montana. The four squadron managed 200 nuclear warhead-tipped missiles in what was the largest missile complex in the world. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in 1991 decreased the number of missiles in the country's arsenal. Currently, the 341st Missile Wing, a part of Air Force Global Strike Command, operates, maintains, and secures 150 Minuteman III missiles in Montana.

The 564th Missile Squadron

The 564th Missile Squadron was the fourth activated by the Unites States Air Force (USAF) in Montana. Nicknamed "Deuce," the squadron was responsible for five Minuteman Missile alert facilities and fifty nuclear missile silos northwest of Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls. The unit originated as the 564th Bombardment Squadron during World War II, flying B-24 "Liberators" on missions in central and southern Europe. The USAF reactivated it as an ICBM squadron in December 1965 and it became fully operational in 1967. The 564th was the first squadron in Montana to receive the new Minuteman II missiles in 1967 and had upgraded to the Minuteman III ICBMs by 1975. In 2008, the USAF inactivated the 341st Missile Squadron and removed the Minuteman III missiles from the silos.

Erected by Montana Department of Transportation.

From 1869 to 1885, supplies and trade goods that came up the Missouri River from St. Louis were transferred at Fort Benton from steamboats to freight wagons for distribution in southern Alberta on the famed Whoop-up Trail, which ran near here. In 1869, traders John Healy and Andrew Hamilton established the 200-mile trail from Fort Benton to the junction of the Belly and St. Mary rivers in Canada, where they built a trading post called Fort Whoop-Up. The post was the first of a chain of "whiskey forts" where American traders swapped tobacco, sugar, knives, beads and rot-gut whiskey to the Blackfeet Indians for buffalo robes and wolf pelts. It was a lucrative business and the traders make a fortune to the detriment of the Blackfeet, who suffered the negative effects of the exchange. Responding to complaints from both sides of the international border, the Canadian government sent the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to chase the whiskey traders back across the borders into Montana in 1874. Soon after, Fort Benton merchants and traders realized there was even more money to be made supplying the RCMP posts in Alberta. The arrival of the Canadian

Pacific Railroad in the province in 1883 spelled doom for the trade and the Whoop-Up Trail soon fell into disuse.. The trail was the precursor in reverse of Alberta Montana rum running channels during the Prohibition era in the United States.

The exact origin of the name "Whoop Up" is lost, but one old timer told this story: "When Johnny LaMotte, one of the traders returned to [Fort] Benton from across the border, he was asked, 'How's business?' 'Aw, they're just whooping' 'er up!' was the reply,"

Rattlesnakes

One of the most iconic images of the American West is a rattlesnake coiled to strike a hapless pioneer. On May 17, 1805 William Clark wrote that he "nearly {treaded} on a small fierce rattle Snake different from any I had ever Seen." It was the Lewis and Clark Expedition's first encounter with a reptile that is as much a part of the lore of the West as is the buffalo and the grizzly bear.

The prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus vindus) is an amazing creature that is highly adapted to its environment. Found throughout most of Montana, it is the state's only venomous reptile. The snake is identified by its triangular head, blunt nose, stout body and the distinctive rattles at the end of its tail. The snakes range in length from fifteen inches to five feet. Rattlesnakes are pit vipers. They use heat sensors located between their nostrils and eyes to locate and kill prey, such a small rodents. Rattlesnakes rarely bite humans unless they are provoked or feel threatened. Snakebites are rarely fatal if the victim receives prompt medical attention.

The rattlesnake's distinctive rattles are make of hollow interlocked segments of keratin and are used to warn potential predators of its presence. The snake produced a new rattle each time it sheds its skin, which can be several times a year depending on the food supply. It is a myth that a rattlesnake's age can be determined by the number of rattles it has. Rattlesnakes hibernate in dens during the winter months, which they return to year after year.

Rattlesnakes can usually be found on the south-facing slopes and in rocky terrain where they can hide from predators. They will generally avoid humans if they are aware of their approach. So, if you see one keep your distance and allow the snake room to get away.