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!
