Havre Montana

Our first time to Havre brought us to several gems. Fort Assinaboine was built near present day Havre in 1879 – 108 brick buildings were built in about 6 months – and for the next 30 years was the largest military installation in the US. After the Civil War and the US Government’s continued encroachment on the lands promised the native nations, the military believed that the various nations that dodged US control by moving back and forth between Montana and Canada would amass and launch a thunderous attack on US forces. Accordingly, this Fort with over 700 soldiers and at least as many civilians, was built and maintained until early in the 1900’s. It was eventually abandoned as it never in its history had a single skirmish with any of the native nations.

Of the 108 original buildings, only about a dozen remain – a noncommissioned officer family duplex, an officer non-family residence, an officer family duplex, the original guard house, the officers club, the brig, and several Calvary stables and related housing. We got what might be the best personal tour of the old fort by Kirt, a local music teacher that conducts tours when school is out. Kirt did his research and told us dozens of stories about the times when the Fort was occupied and drove the economy for this part of the state. He told us how the Buffalo Soldiers occupied the Fort as its importance was winding down, and even got out his banjo and sang us the Buffalo Soldiers song he had found in doing his research.

It’s impossible now to grasp the magnitude of this military installation given that only around 10% of the buildings remain. According to our guide, the parade grounds between the officer and enlisted quarters was over a mile long. As an example of the scale, when the base had to communicate with all its members, they had to run flags up a 50-foot-tall mast near the end of the parade grounds. That mast still exists today.

We learned about underground Havre. In 1904, a massive fire destroyed nearly the entire downtown of Havre Montana. As in our travels to Alaska, the early buildings were all wood construction. The town passed an ordinance that any buildings from that time forward had to be made of brick or stone or concrete to reduce the chance of destruction by fire. Accordingly, it would be many years before any significant buildings in downtown Havre would exist.

Due to local custom, all existing buildings had basements, and most basements survived the fire devastation. So, while the slow process of replacing the downtown was undertaken, most businesses set up in their basement until a permanent alternative was available. We toured barber shops, butchers, saloons, opium dens, and brothels, all connected by underground passageways as the buildings above ground were being constructed. The city operated underground for many years before resurfacing.

Finally, we visited the Wahkpa Chugn Archaeological Site. 1,300 years ago, native Americans harvested buffalo by herding them into a bowl, and then killed them in large numbers using arrows and atlatls. Then the natives would process the buffalo, hides for clothing and shoes, meat for eating, bones for boiling and then skimming the residue to make 

The excavations show the extensive remains of the buffalo bones in layers. As the natives processed massive amounts of buffalo, the sediment would cover the existing base of bones. The next layer would then develop. In addition, the soil would redden as a result of the saturation of buffalo blood into the soil layers.

Apparently, the last inhabitants of this site left in around 1,500 – around the same time as Columbus was flirting with the East Coast. A 14-year-old kid, John Brumley, discovered this site in 1961, and has dedicated his life to excavation and documenting its history. While several hundred “buffalo jump” sites have been discovered in Montana alone, this remains one of the more notable.

Talk to you soon!