About sixty years after Lewis and Clark camped here, this area was among the first in the region to feel rapid immigration. In the late 1800s, steamboats made it a key stopping point because trees for wood fuel grew more densely here than elsewhere. Throughout the latter half of the century, the Missouri River was the main shipping and travel route into Montana, and the Judith Landing area became the primary crossroads for this part of the state. Where the river had been an isolated pathway for the Corps of Discovery, it later became a virtual highway for Euro-Americans streaming into the region. By the 1860s, forts and military installations helped safeguard travelers and settlers along the river. For Lewis and Clark in 1805, however, this was still a wild and life-threatening place: during the night, Seaman, Meriwether Lewis's dog, alerted the camp to a charging bull bison and saved their lives. The party first named the creek across the river Bull Creek to remember the incident, but it was later renamed Dog Creek.