Old Fort Peck

Old Fort Peck stood on the west bank of the Missouri River about 1 mile from the dam. Built in 1867 by the firm of Durfee & Peck as a trading post, it was named for Colonel Campbell K. Peck. The stockade, about 300 feet square, had walls 12 feet high made of cottonwood logs set vertically, with 3 bastions and 3 gateways on the front and 2 bastions on the rear, enclosing quarters for men, store houses, blacksmith shops, stables, and a corral. Although not an Army post, it often served as temporary headquarters for military men and commissioners sent out by the Government to negotiate with the Indians. To peaceful Indians it was an important trading post, to trappers and rivermen a safe shelter from warlike Indians. Stern wheel steamers loaded and unloaded there and took on wood for steam for their journeys. Its site now lies beneath a man made lake formed by the largest earth filled dam ever built by man.

Montana · United States