Montana boasts many historic sites to discover – whether that means following in Lewis and Clark’s footsteps at Traveler’s Rest, witnessing a sun dance at Deer Medicine Rocks or learning about the Little Bighorn Battlefield at Big Hole National Historic Park – there’s sure to be something fitting your interests here.
Learn about Montana history at Libby’s Heritage Museum, featuring an intriguing log structure with 12 sides that showcases local mining and logging history.
Fort Benton
Fort Benton is an excellent way to explore Montana’s rich past. Once known as “the bloodiest block in the West,” its Front Street now contains numerous artifacts from those days.
Fort Benton is a National Historic Landmark and considered to be the “Birthplace of Montana”. Constructed originally as a trading post for the American Fur Company by Alexander Culbertson in 1845, he relocated it downstream in 1847 naming it after Thomas Hart Benton a Missouri senator who helped negotiate financial matters between their company and Indian tribes.
Fort Beauvoir features two blockhouse bastions, Bourgeois quarters, kitchen, trade warehouse and blacksmith/carpenter shops as well as Pompey’s Pillar; an ancient sandstone monument covered with thousands of etchings and pictographs dating back to Lewis & Clark Expedition. You can also visit Pompey’s Pillar.
Pompey’s Pillar National Monument
Near Billings, this BLM property was officially designated a National Monument in 2001. The sandstone outcrop features Native American pictographs and petroglyphs as well as Captain William Clark’s signature from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Crow Indians refer to this structure as the place “where mountain lion lives”, due to its shape resembling that of an animal’s head from certain angles.
This site also marks the last physical evidence of Captain Clark’s Expedition along the Yellowstone River. Pompy’s Tower, named by Captain Clark after Sacagawea’s son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau whom he nicknamed Pompey, remains standing to this day and must not be touched or defaced in order to respect its heritage.
Yellowstone Kelly Interpretive Site
Montana is home to many historical sites and buildings that contribute to its rich cultural legacy. Visit TA Ranch on Johnson County’s National Register of Historic Places listing to gain insight into one of Johnson County’s cattle war figures, or stroll down late-1880s Billings Montana Avenue for an in-depth view into how Billings developed as a bustling town.
Luther Sage Kelly was an adventurous frontiersman from an affluent New York family who sought adventure in the American West. As a Civil War veteran who could have been interred at Arlington National Cemetery, instead he chose instead to be interred high up on Rimrocks overlooking Billings instead. Today the Yellowstone Kelly Interpretive Site honors him by hosting an educational visitor center, an amphitheater for presentations, and a commemorative donor wall – keeping his promise that they would always be remembered.
Montana Avenue
Montana Avenue served as an economic corridor in early Helena. From the railroad tracks to its northern city limit, this route was lined with saloons, barber shops, laundry services, soda fountains and nurseries – an area now covered by Highway 12 through Montana Avenue.
During the first decade of the 20th century, brick buildings began replacing wooden saloons and stores, while several hotels opened near rail corridors.
Montana Avenue bustles by day and shines by night! Enjoy shopping for flat-crowned buckaroo hats or local art at one of the many Artwalk events, or enjoying dinner at a fancy restaurant before taking in Canelo vs Charlo fight at Tavern on Main. Additionally, Montana Avenue features historic warehouses.
Moss Mansion
Montana is home to one of its most distinctive historic sites: the Moss Mansion. Completed in 1903 by Preston Boyd Moss (known as P.B), who had an enormous impact on Billings culture he built a thirty-eight room mansion that stands fifty-five feet.
Wood paneling, walls with gold threading and hand painted wall and ceiling decoration as well as marble fireplaces are all original components of this building, constructed at an estimated cost of $105,000 at that time. Each room contains original furniture, drapes and carpets as well as original Moss family artifacts such as quilts, a harp, paintings and china patterns – an enormous sum for that time period.
The Moss Mansion has become a historic house museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As its symbolism suggests, its mission of the Billings Preservation Society is to inspire and facilitate cultural preservation activities for their local community.
