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per year. After the gold boom, things did not look too good for
Fort Benton, and many businesses along the levee closed. It could
have easily become another boom-bust ghost town. But this resil-
ient, resourceful community had one more ace up its sleeve.
Until the Canadians also built their railway across their prai-
ries, the cheapest way to get goods to their western frontier was
upriver through Fort Benton. Not being a community to turn
its back on the possibility of quick riches (ethics notwithstand-
ing), bull and mule trains headed north out of Fort Benton up
the "Whoop-Up Trail" into Canada. For the first five years, they
were filled with illicit, watered-down rotgut whiskey that they
would trade with Canadian Indians for buffalo robes, netting
about 50,000 robes annually. Later, when the Mounties finally
arrived to establish some law and order, these rather unscrupu-
During 1867 and 1868, at e height of placer mining,
OVER $24 MILLION IN GOLD WENT DOWN RIVER ON THE STEAMBOATS. RIVERBOAT PROFITS WERE ASTRONOMICAL.
DURING THESE PEAK YEARS, AS MANY AS 60 STEAMBOAT TRIPS PER YEAR WERE MADE TO FORT BENTON.
Front Street, Fort Benton, 1869. Empty street as
the gold rush was winding down. Note docked
steamboat and the fort in the background
