Fort Assinniboine

Fort Assinniboine. Old Forts Trail. Montana's largest and most impressive military post was established in 1879 in the aftermath of the defeat of Colonel Custer and the Seventh Cavalry by the Sioux (Lakota) Nation at the Battle of the Little Bighorn River and the capture of the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph at the Bear Paw Battlefield at Snake Creek. Fort Assinniboine was considered the most important military post in the Northwest because of its strategic location at the conjunction of major Indian trails. Midway between Fort Benton on the Missouri River in Montana and Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills of present-day Saskatchewan in Canada, the trading post complex at Fort Assinniboine was both a supply destination and stopping point. A steady stream of ox-drawn freight wagons and Métis Red River carts bound for other northern Montana trading posts and North West Mounted Police posts kept the trail to Fort Assinniboine well trodden. The railroads eventually reached areas served by trade trail and replaced freight wagon traffic, but soon homesteading brought new significance to the northern route. By 1911, Fort Assinniboine was no longer needed. The vital economic military link played an important role in the development of the American and Canadian West. Today, parts of the international "Old Forts Trail" linking Forts Benton, Assinniboine and Walsh and others are now incorporated into present-day US 87.