Distinctly Montana Magazine

29 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m describe mountains of goods stacked so high that only the tops of the steamboat smokestacks could be seen. Eventually, it was all hauled off by "bull" teams headed south to the gold fields, using Mullan's road for the first part of the journey. As was often the case in the West, people moved in well before the establishment of any formal law and order. These were the years of the Civil War, so there was no military until 1869. Like many other boomtowns across the West, violence was waiting just below the surface, boiling up at a moment's notice. Vigilan- te groups were formed to try and establish some semblance of peace, but Fort Benton still maintained the reputation of being the most lawless and bloodiest town in the West. Fort Benton attracted the rich and famous, would-be miners, bank robbers and killers, merchants and gamblers, missionaries, governors (one who fell overboard drunk and drowned)—all with no questions asked. Even Frank and Jesse James spent time in Fort Benton. Bannack was not the only Montana town to hang its sheriff. A man by the name of Billy Hensel showed up in Fort Benton from Helena after killing a Chinese woman there, and quickly became its self-proclaimed marshal. Mysteriously, the rate of muggings and robberies all of a sudden shot up. When his own vigilante group fingered him as the culprit, they prompt- ly strung him up with his own rope. One gets the feeling that being an undertaker in Fort Benton during the gold rush days would have been a pretty lucrative job. With the gold boom in full swing, river traffic only slowed when the water level dropped too low for the steamboats. Goods came in, gold went out. During 1867 and 1868, at the height of placer mining, over $24 million in gold went down river on the steam- boats. Riverboat profits were astronomical. A single steamboat could realize annual profits of $40,000–$100,000 for the down river gold shipments. During these peak years, as many as 60 steamboat trips per year were made to Fort Benton. Everyone was out for a "piece of the action." By 1870, though, the placer mines began to play out and people started looking to move on to the next bonanza. Traffic on the river slowed to a trickle—just a few Steamboat Chippewa. First steamboat to arrive at Fort Benton, 1860 VOTE FOR US WIN $ 500! FOR YOUR CHANCE TO B E S T O F M O N TA N A B M D I S TI N C T L Y M O N T A N A ' S 2023 Live Music, Casino & Food Open 7 Days / Week 8am - 2am Entertainment 5 Nights / Week 406.728.1559 1101 Strand Avenue, Missoula Sunrise SaloonandCasino.com Missoula's only country-western bar and largest dance floor

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