During the height of Fort Peck Dam's construction in the mid-1930s, this quiet countryside was filled with men, materials, and machines as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers first built a town to house the thousands of workers needed for one of the largest public works projects in U.S. history. People came from across Montana and the United States for work, and the town of Fort Peck rose quickly, including a 12-store business block, a 40-bed hospital, a town hall, a hotel, a school, a recreation hall, a 1200-seat theater, bunkhouses for laborers, dormitories for foremen and other skilled laborers, temporary houses for managers and supervisors, and Big Shot Row for Army officers.