Fort Musselshell

The mouth of the Musselshell River, about 35 miles north of here, was a remarkably active place in the 1860s and 1870s. The Rocky Mountain Wagon Company built a log cabin and stockade there in 1866. Pretentiously called Kerchival City after a steamboat captain who promoted the venture, it was intended to draw trade away from Fort Benton. The scheme failed because of the opposition of the powerful Fort Benton traders. It was at Kerchival City that John Johnston earned the sobriquet “Liver-eating” after a bloody skirmish with the Lakota. In 1868, the Helena-based Montana Hide & Fur Company was ready to try there again. Called Fort Musselshell, the post was augmented by other traders and by soldiers from the 13th Infantry. It carried on a lively trade with the steamboats and the Crow, Atsina and Assiniboine Indians. The Lakota, however, resented the intrusion and harassed the settlement, eventually forcing its abandonment in 1870. The lure of the Missouri River trade was strong, leading to the establishment of a third settlement, called Carroll, in 1874. It flourished until, the Lakota and the erratic Missouri River channel forced its abandonment in 1876. Thereafter, the region was home to the Indians and only a few woodhawks and trappers.