d i s t i n c t ly m o n ta n a • s u m m e r 2 0 1 5
60
N
ewly-elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed off on the
Fort Peck Dam project in 1933 after a severe drought brought
northeastern Montana farmers, ranchers, and businessmen to
their knees. e Army Corps of Engineers' plan was to construct a dam across the
Missouri River just above the Milk River. e WPA dam project employed 11,000
Montanans and created the fifth largest lake ever made by humans. e monumental
project became an example of American muscle and know-how but it also altered forever
the rural Montana landscape.
At the start but not by the end (1940), no roads or electricity or railroads or towns existed but as in the gold rush, 18 boomtowns
popped up, and soon disappeared when over. e dam with its Art Deco towers extended four miles, took over homesteads, and
changed ecosystems for wildlife. Sixty of the untrained men, who worked in the coldest of winters, died. In 1938, a crack in the
dam caused a major landslide; within five minutes a 2,000-foot long section slide into the lake, burying six men while others escaped.
a Dam FiNE plaCE
FOrT pECK
These men are building the iconic headwalls.
president Franklin
roosevelt made a
whistle-stop tour
of the dam once it
was complete.
From the DM Archives, find
a related article: "Heyday
on the High plains: Field
Notes," Fall 2014
DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL