As workers poured in to work on Fort Peck Dam, the population of this quiet area boomed.

Barracks and dormitories were built in Fort Peck to house individual workers, but families had nowhere to live. More than 20 boomtowns sprang up just beyond the city limits of the carefully planned community of Fort Peck. Most were platted by the local farmer or rancher who owned the land.

By 1936, the dam employed nearly 11,000 workers. Many brought their families since the state gave hiring preferences to married men with dependents. Many other people came to open businesses.

After the dam was completed in 1940, the population of Fort Peck eventually fell back to a little more than 300 people. Businesses closed. Homes were torn down, taken home, or sold. Little remains of the boomtowns today.

Erected by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The largest hydraulically filled dam in the world, Fort Peck Dan was made from a slurry of sand, silt, clay, and gravel dredged from the Missouri River.

Nearly four miles long, the dam needed over 125 million cubic yards of material-enough to fill more than 12 million dump trucks. Huge dredge boats sucked a watery mixture of sediment from the bottom of the river and pumped it to the dam through long pipelines. As the material settled out of the water, the core of Fort Peck Dam solidified.

Heart of Steel Although the dam looks like just a mound of dirt, it was engineered to withstand the pressure of 130-mile-long Fort Peck Lake. Deep inside, a 35-million-pound steel wall prevents water from seeping underneath the dam. This wall was pounded deep into the shale bedrock below the dam and surrounded by an impervious clay core. The force of the water helps stabilize the dam.

In August 1935, 200 workers set a world record by driving steel plates more than 160 feet into the bedrock to support the earthen dam. All together, these steel walls stretch nearly two and a half miles long.

Erected by

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Four underground tunnels were built to move water around the dam, from Fort Peck Reservoir to the Missouri downstream

On June 24, 1937, the dike holding back the Missouri River was blasted with dynamite. Since then, the river has flown through these tunnels. The only other way water can be released from the reservoir is when the lake becomes high enough to discharge water through the spillway.

About 4,000 men worked day and night for nearly four years to build the tunnels. The tunnels required 117 million pounds of steel, 660,000 cubic yards of concrete, and the removal of nearly 4 million cubic yards of material-enough to fill 500,000 dump trucks.

Each tunnel was designed to safely carry the entire flow of the Missouri River on its own. Today, two of the tunnels feed water to the powerhouses, while the other two are reserved for bypass flows if needed.

Erected by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Administration Building was built in 1934 to house management operations for the construction and maintenance of Fort Peck Dam and Lake. Construction of Fort Peck Dam was one of the most ambitious public works projects and symbolized the New Deal in Montana. As many as 10,500 workers participated in construction activities during the 1930s, and as many as 50,000 lived in the surrounding communities. While the Swiss Chalet style (popularized in the West by the National Park Service from the early 1900s to the 1920s) dominates the town, the Colonial Revival style Administration Building stands eloquently apart. Front and rear porches, window shutters, and a clay tile roof with parapet and octagonal cupola embellish the austere symmetrical plan that aptly conveys the building’s significance. During intense construction of the 1930s, wood frame wings were added to house payroll offices and construction staff, while two bunkhouses on the east side accommodated workers. These temporary structures were later removed. Today the Administration Building still presides over the area, home of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Peck Lake office, and other federal agencies.

Erected by Montana Historical Society; Department of the Interior, National Register of Historic Places.

The stretch of land between the Missouri River and Fort Peck Lake is Fort Peck Dam. Built between 1933 and 1940 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the Great Depression, it is an engineering marvel and a testament to the human spirit.

With unemployment averaging 18 percent, two of every five banks failing, and crops continually decimated by drought and locusts, the early 1930s appeared bleak- enter the New Deal.

Fort Peck Dam was authorized under the Public Works Administration as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in October 1933. The single largest employer of the New Deal. Fort Peck Dam provided work for thousands of men and women during the Great Depression. Thousands more set up businesses to provide services for the workers.

Erected by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In memory of those who lost their lives in “The Slide”

September 22, 1938

Oliver Bucher

John L. Johnson

Walter Lubbinge

Archie R. Moir

Douglas J. Moore

Dolphie Paulson

Albert V. Stoeser

Nelson P. Van Stone

Forever entombed in the dam

Great Quantities of Every Species of Game Common Here

The primary purpose of the Lewis and Clark expedition was to find a Northwest passage from the interior of the continent to the Pacific Ocean so that beaver pelts and other valuable furs could be shipped directly to the Orient via the Columbia River. Although an all water passage was never found, vast numbers of beaver and other wildlife were recorded in northeastern Montana. As they passed through this area, Lewis and Clark noted game so abundant that they could scarcely cast their eyes in any direction without receiving deer, elk, buffalo or antelope.

Many of these species no longer exist on the plains. Audubon sheep have become extinct. Buffalo now live in protected herds while other wildlife like grizzly bears, wolves and moose have been pushed to the mountains. Today, thanks to the reintroduction of elk and bighorn sheep along the Missouri River and around Fort Peck Lake, we can enjoy more of the same species that so amazed Lewis and Clark on their journey through this area.

"We saw a great number of buffaloe, Elk, common and Black taled deer, goats, beaver and wolves... We can send out at any time and obtain whatever species of meat the country affords in as large quantity as we wish..." Captain M. Lewis, Wednesday, May 8, 1805

"we scarcely see a gang of buffaloe without observing a parsel of those faithful shepherds (wolves) on their skirts in readiness to take care of the famed & wounded." Captain M. Lewis, Sunday, May 5 1805

"we also saw this evening emence quantities of timber cut by the beaver which appeared to have been done the preceeding year, in place particularly they had cut all the timber down for three acres..." Captain M. Lewis, Thursday, May 9, 1805

The Country is as Yesterday Beautiful in the Extreme

From the notations in their journals, it is obvious that Lewis and Clark were explorers in the truest sense. They not only documented landmarks and activities, they also kept highly detailed entries in their journals describing the natural world around them. Noting even the slightest variations in everything from sediment to vegetation to wildlife species, they left us with a remarkable appreciation of the richness and complexity of this land in northeastern Montana. Following the footsteps of Lewis and Clark through northeastern Montana, today's traveler will find the quality and character of this land hasn't changed much since the expedition pass through. Today you can experience this area with much the same awe as they did, Scan the horizon and enjoy panoramic views of wide, open plains. Watch as herds of antelope race the wind across the prairies, listen to meadowlarks chirping out their wake-up call and feel air so fresh it revitalizes the soul.

❶ First Whitemen This Far West

It was believed that only one whiteman had ever ascended the Missouri River as far as the party had come and he had turned back only several miles beyond the Yellowstone River. The expedition was entering completely uncharted wilderness at this point.

❷ First Grizzly Bear Killed "about 8 A. M. we fell in with two brown or (yellow) bear; both of which we wounded; one of them made his escape, the other after my firing on him pursued me seventy or eighty yards, ...we again repeated our fire and killed him....it is asstonishing to see the wounds they will bear before they can be put to death. Captain M. Lewis, Monday April 29, 1805

❸ Biggest Elk Killed "I walked on shore this evening and killed a black Elk...it appeared to me to be the largest I had ever seen...found it five feet three inches from point of hoof to the top of the shoulders..." Captain M. Lewis, Tuesday April 30, 1805

❹ First Moose Sighting

A moose was first encountered about 10 miles above the mouth of the Big Dry River. This subspecies of moose known as "Alces acles shiasi" has no scientific standing prior to the Lewis and Clark expedition.

"Several of the party went out to hunt...they Saw Several moose deer which was much larger than the common deer and the first we have seen." Sergeant John Ordway, May 10 1805

❺ Caving Banks of the Missouri "Set out this morning at an early hour, the courant strong; and the very crooked; the banks are falling in very fast; I sometimes wonder some of our canoes or peroques are not swallowed up by means of these immence masses of earth which are eternally precipitating themselves into the river,..." Captain M. Lewis, May 11, 1805

❻ The Prairie Rattler

While at present-day Timber Cove, the party saw a new species of Rattlesnake never before recorded by white men, the Prairie Rattler (Crotalus viridian) "Capt. Clark narrowly escaped being bitten by a rattlesnake in the coarse of his walk, the party killed one this evening at our encampment, which he informed me was similar to that he had seen; this snake is smaller than those common to the middle Atlantic States, being about 2 feet six inches long..." Captain M. Lewis, Friday, May 17, 1805

❼ First Glimpse of the Little Rocky Mountains "I walked on Shore with two men we killed a (brown) white or grey bear;...after killing the bear I continued my walk alone...I ascended the highest hill I could See from the top of which I Saw the mouth of M. Shell R. & the meanderings of the Missouri for a long distance. I also Saw a high mountain in a westerly direction, bearing S. S W. about 40 or 50 miles distant..." Captain W. Clark, Sunday May 14, 1805

❽ Captain Lewis, The Observant Naturalist "the Burrowing Squirrel...never visit the brooks or river for water; I am astonished how this animal exists as it does without water, particularly in a country like this where there is scarcely any rain during 3/4 of the year and more rarely any due (dew); yet we have sometimes found their villages at the distance of five or six miles from any water...." Captain M. Lewis Thursday, May 23, 1805

❾ Big Sky Country "the air is so pure in this open country that mountains and other elivated objects appear much nearer than they really are; these mountains (present day Little Rocky Mountains) do not appear to be further than 15 m. we sent a man up this creek (present day Rock Creek) to explore the country he returned late in the evening and informed that he had proceeded ten miles directly toward these mountains and that he did not think himself by any means half way..." Captain M. Lewis, Friday May 24, 1805

Sacagawea: Equal in Fortitude as any Member of the Party

She was only 17 years old, a mother and a Shoshone Indian. Sacagawea joined the expedition at Fort Mandan with her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau and their infant son.

Although Charbonneau was hired as an interpreter, only one role was intended for his wife: by reuniting Sacagawea with her people around the headwaters of the Missouri in south-central Montana, Lewis and Clark hoped to obtain badly-needed horses to cross the mountains on their way west to the Pacific Ocean.

Yet Sacagawea's contributions to the expedition far exceeded her original role. Her knowledge of native plants and interpretation of Indian signs and customs served the explorers well. Most importantly, she was instrumental in preventing a premature end to the expedition. When a boat overturned, she single-handedly retrieved articles from the water that were indispensable for the success of the expedition. This earned her the respect and status equal to any member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, recognition rarely enjoyed by women, let alone native Americans, in the early 1800's.

Sacagawea River: A Fitting Namesake "...about five miles abe (NB: above) the mouth of shell (Musselshell) river a handsome river of about fifty yards in width discharged itself into the shell river on the Stard, or upper side; this stream we called Sâb-câ-gar ,e-âh (NB: Saw ca gah we a) or bird woman's River. after our interpreter the Snake woman." Captain M. Lewis, Monday, May 28, 1805

"It happened unfortunately for us this evening that Charbono was at the helm of this Perogue,... in this perogue were embarked, our papers, Instruments, books medicine, a great part of our merchandize and in short almost every article indispensibly necessary to...insure success of the enterprize...the Perogue was under sail when a sudon squawl of wind struck her obliquely, and instantly upset the perogue... Captain M. Lewis, Tuesday, May 14, 1805

" ...the Indian woman to whom I ascribe equal fortitude and resolution, with any person onboard at the time of the accedent, caught and preserved most of the light articles which were washed overboard" Captain M. Lewis, Tuesday, May 16, 1805

Erected by Army Corps of Engineers, Travel Montana, Dept. of Commerce, Montana's Missouri River Country, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce.

Look slightly to your left at the end of Fort Peck Lake to find the highest hill in this area, today called Signal Hill. It was near this area that Captain William Clark first viewed and named the Milk River as it enters the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark concluded correctly that this was the same river the Hidatsa Indians at Fort Mandan referred to as the "River Which Scolds at All Others". Imagine how like an oasis in the middle of the prairie these two converging rivers must have seemed!

"The water of this river possesses a peculiar whiteness, being about the colour of a cup of tea with the admixture of a tablespoonfull of milk. from the colour of it's water we called it Milk river... Capt Clark who walked this morning on the Lard. shore ascended a very high point opposite to the mouth of this river; he informed me that he had a perfect view of this river and the country through which it passed... Captain M. Lewis, Wednesday, May 8, 1805

Scientific Discovery: White Apple, (Psoralea esculent) (Indian Bread Root) "The white apple is found in great abundance in this neighbourhood,,, our epicures would admire this root very much, it would serve them in their ragouts and gravies in stead of the truffles morella." Captain M. Lewis, Wednesday, May 8, 1805

Erected by Travel Montana, Dept. of Commerce, Montana's Missouri River Country, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, Army Corps of Engineers.

Scan the horizon across the Fort Peck Reservoir to your right. The stretch of land past York Island is an area called the Pines, site of Lewis and Clark's May 11, 1805 encampment. They noted enormous herds of elk, buffalo, deer and antelope at this site as well as the first pine trees they had seen on the upper Missouri since leaving Fort Mandan. This piney area must have been a sight for sore eyes after passing through so many miles of relatively bare hills and gullies.

"Saw today some high hills on the Stard. whose summits were covered with pine...it is of the pitch kind but I think the leaves somewhat longer than ours in Virginia... there is a dwarf cedar growing among the pine on the hills" Captain M. Lewis, Saturday , May 11, 1805

"About 5 P. M. my attention was struck by one of the Party runing at a distance towards us and making signs and hollowing as if in distress,...it was Bratton... he had shot a brown bear which immediately turned on him ...we finally found him ...and shot him through the skull with two balls;...it was a monstrous beast,...these bear being so hard to die reather intimedates us all; I must confess that I ...had reather fight two Indians than one bear." Captain M. Lewis, Saturday, May 11, 1805

Scientific Discovery: Greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus) "There is another growth that...is becoming extreemly troublesome...the wood is firm and stif, the branches beset with a great number of long, shap, strong, wooddy looking thorns" Captain M. Lewis, Saturday , May 11, 1805

Erected by Travel Montana, Dept. of Commerce, Montana's Missouri River Country, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, Army Corps of Engineers.

It was a quiet day, September 22, 1938, and work on the Fort Peck Dam was nearing completion. But the quiet would not last. At 1:15 that afternoon, the upstream portion of the east end of the embankment gave way.

As the earth started shaking, dredge pipes and railroad tracks shifted and sank. A massive section of the dam swung out into the pool, like a great earthen gate handed on the east abutment. Machinery and men alike were swallowed up as 5 million cubic yards of earth slid out into the reservoir, coming an island.

Eight men lost their lives that day. Six are still buried in the dam. A board of inquiry met to study the accident, reporting that the slide's occurrence was due to the shearing resistance of the weathered shale and bentonite seams in the foundation that were insufficient to withstand such forces.

Thirteen months later, on October, 11, 1940, the last load of material finalized construction of the dam, topping it out at a height of 250 feet. Since completion, Fort Peck Dam has proven to be a sage, stable and reliable structure.

Erected by

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Today, the quiet countryside surroundings Fort Peck Dam is very different from the energy and bustle than once occurred here. During the height of the dam's construction in the mid-1930s, it was a mass of men, materials , and machines.

Before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could build Fort Peck Dam, it had to build a town to house the thousands of workers needed to construct it. People came from all over Montana and the United States for a chance to work on one of the largest public works projects in U.S. history.

Building a Community

The town of Fort Peck sprang up quickly. Shown here (middle left) in June 1937, it included a 12-store business block, a 40-bed hospital, a town hall, a hotel, a school, a recreation hall, and a 1200-seat theater. The bunkhouses were built for laborers. Dormitories were built for foremen and other skilled labor. Temporary houses in the town were built for managers and supervisors. Big Shot Row is where the Army Officers lived.

Erected by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

As you look straight south across Fort Peck Lake, it doesn't make much sense that an area inundated with so much water could be called the Big Dry. Yet, in 1805 when Lewis and Clark named it, instead of an arm of the lake, the Big Dry was a tremendous, relatively dry riverbed.

The Big Dry was so impressive, Lewis and Clark thought it extended possibly as far southeast as the Black Hills. Unlike streams they were familiar with in the East which flow all year, an intermittent stream like the Big Dry was a curiosity to Lewis and Clark.

"Today we passed the bed of the most extraordinary river that I ever beheld. it is as a wide as the Missouri is at this place or ½ a mile wide and not containing a single drop of runing water; some small standing pools being all the water that could be perceived... This stream... we called Big dry river." Captain M. Lewis, Thursday, May 9, 1805

"we saw a great quantity of game today particularly of Elk and Buffaloe, the latter are now so gentle that the men frequently throw sticks and stones at them in order to drive them out of the way. Captain M. Lewis, Thursday,

May 9, 1805

Scientific Discovery: the Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus)) "I killed four plover this evening of a different kind from any I have yet seen...the notes of this bird are louder and more various than of any other species of this family..." Captain M. Lewis, Thursday, May 9, 1805

Erected by Travel Montana, Dept. of Commerce, Montana's Missouri River Country, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, Army Corps of Engineers.