The End of an Era

 
 
 

 

            Since its construction in 1879, Fort Assinniboine had depended primarily on C. A. Broadwater and his cousins to provision the post, but all this was to change with the arrival of the railroad in 1887.  By 1894 the post was receiving most of its provision by rail and the cadre of local ranchers, bakers, and businessmen, who had supplied the fort found themselves looking elsewhere for a market.

            Fortunately they didn't have to look far.  The very railroad that was responsible for depriving them of one market served to open opportunities for another.  Even as early as 1887, a line of shoddy wood and tent businesses began to sprout up just north of the fort boundary in an area then called Bull Hook Bottoms, about 5 miles east of the gin mills of Cypress.  While the advent of a new and slightly more diverse community at Bull Hook Bottoms would eventually lead to the demise of Cypress, many of the more successful establishments found it easy to relocate in the newly formed community.  Collectively the businesses were to form the nucleus of a new community soon to be known as Havre.
            The loss of a market at Fort Assinniboine was also

The fort ordanence building (front) and one of the NCO
quarters building are among the scattered remains of the
once elegant post.
exacerbated in 1894 when the military started the commissary system and no longer needed to contract with Broadwater for dry goods.

One of the brick carriage houses still stands at the fort
             After the Spanish-American War, Fort Assinniboine never regained its preeminence among western forts.  The Indian wars had ended and fears of raiding parties invading south from Canada no longer existed.  Strategically the post had lost its significance.  Its large compliment of troops never returned after the war and the mission of the post became one of maintenance instead of offensive action.
            Fewer and fewer troops were being assigned to the post following the Spanish-American War.  Many of its buildings were empty and no new structures were being built.  By 1911 a fire that destroyed the fort's
water tower signaled the end.  It was decided not to rebuild the tower and the fort was abandoned that same year.
            Shortly thereafter the Montana Legislature agreed to purchase the fort for the sum of $5,000 for the purpose of using the facility as a college.  Unfortunately no money was appropriated to start one.  The facility would eventually be given to Montana State University Bozeman to be used as an Agricultural Experiment Station. The Northern Agricultural Experiment Station still owns and occupies the site today.
Over the years, scavengers tore down most of the buildings for the bricks, which were used to construct other buildings in and around Havre.  Pershing Hall on the campus of MSU-Northern is one such example.
            Fort Assinniboine is today on the National Registry of Historic Places and protected from scavengers.  Thanks to the

Three Double Cavalry Guard Buildings and one stable
also remain.
cooperation of Montana State University, the site is being preserved as a historical attraction.  Scheduled tours are available during summer months from members of the Fort Assinniboine Preservation Association.