Kerchival City

Competition to supply Montana mining camps was fierce in the 1860s, and many opportunists sought profit not by mining gold but by providing essential goods and services. Fort Benton dominated upper Missouri trade, so steamboat landings and trading posts established downriver of the world’s innermost port tried to bypass its monopoly. The mouth of the Musselshell River, about 35 miles north of here, was ideal for a landing because above it the river was treacherous and unreliable, while below it rapids were fewer and the water deeper, making the site busy in the 1860s. In 1866 the Rocky Mountain Wagon Company built a log cabin and stockade there and named the place Kerchival City after a steamboat captain who promoted the venture. Its owners hoped ships and mining camp traders would route freight, passengers, and gold through them instead of Fort Benton, but the effort failed because steamboats would not stop and Lakota Indians harassed the residents. By 1868 the settlement was nearly abandoned, and in 1869 John Johnson gained the nickname “Liver-eating” there after a bloody skirmish with the Lakota.

Montana · United States