Merchants
View the goods used
by early residents in the Mercantile Display
With the addition to the northern plains of more than 600 troops, their
families and civilian employees, Fort Assinniboine became an economic gold
mine to local settlers, who provided food and other goods to the fort.
Also attracted to the post were traders, bakers, tailors, and merchants
of all kinds. Civilians also found employment at the post and took up residence
on its outskirts.
By 1894, however, the U.S. Army underwent a change in
the way it procured goods for the troops. No longer would the army
buy goods locally from private merchants, but instead by army contracts
negotiated at higher levels. Food, dry goods, everything a soldier
needed would now be shipped to the fort by the recently completed railroad.
Fortunately for local ranchers and businessmen, the addition of a railroad
provided new opportunities for growth. Businesses soon cropped up
north of the fort boundary near the railroad in an area known as Bull Hook
Bottoms. The |
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community of Havre was on its way to being born.
Business was good and when railroad tycoon James J. Hill decided to extend
his railroad along the Hi-Line all the way to the coast, business got even
better. Settlers continued to come to the area and in 1909 the area
was opened to homesteading and Hill promoted it with a vengeance.
From 1909 to 1913 hundreds of homesteaders flooded into the area seeking
free land and opportunity. New towns sprang up west of Havre with
names like Kremlin, Gildford, Rudyard, Hingham, Inverness, Joplin and Chester.
Agriculture, railroading and ranching were now the primary businesses and
Havre, as the largest community on the Hi-Line, reaped many of the benefits.
Fort Assinniboine was no longer needed to protect settlers and most of
the troops left to fight in the Spanish American War in 1898. But
a small contingent of troops continued to occupy the post until 1911 when
the War Department could no longer justify its existence. The buildings
were left to decay and many of the buildings demolished. The bricks
were used to construct many other buildings around Havre.
