Rocky Springs Segment Of The Whoop-Up Trail
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Rocky Springs Segment of the Whoop-Up Trail was the location of campsites for travellers along the Whoop-Up Trail between
Fort Benton, Montana Fort Benton is a city in and the county seat of Chouteau County, Montana, United States. Established in 1846, Fort Benton is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in Montana. Fort Benton was the most upstream navigable port on the Miss ...
and Fort Hamilton, Alberta in the 19th century. In 1991, it was the best-preserved segment of the Whoop-Up Trail within Montana and it included rut tracks still visible and the surrounding landscape was mostly natural. The numerous small springs in the area were mostly dried up by 1991 "due to modern cultivation and resultant ground water changes". It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1993. A National Register study of the Whoop-Up Trail included "Diamond R. Brown's account of being caught in a tremendous snowstorm in 1871 at Rocky Springs": :the cold was almost unendurable, whiskey froze, :coal oil became thick slush, our horses chewed :the wagon boxes and consumed a dozen brooms. :Many of the animals froze to death. The Whoop-Up Trail, extending from
Fort Benton, Montana Fort Benton is a city in and the county seat of Chouteau County, Montana, United States. Established in 1846, Fort Benton is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in Montana. Fort Benton was the most upstream navigable port on the Miss ...
, to Fort Hamilton, Alberta, was, initially, a trade route between
Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...
and the southern region of now
Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
, then known as
Rupert's Land Rupert's Land (), or Prince Rupert's Land (), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin. The right to "sole trade and commerce" over Rupert's Land was granted to Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), based a ...
, and controlled by a British fur trading company, the
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
. In 1869, negotiations were taking place to transfer control to Canada. Several American traders took advantage of lack of policing in the area and set up trading posts. In addition to their usual trade goods such as guns, metal implements and blankets, they began supplying adulterated alcohol known as "firewater", to the
Blackfeet The Blackfeet Nation (, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Montana. Tribal members primarily belong ...
, for buffalo robes, horses and anything else of value. Several posts were established and one of the earliest was Fort Hamilton, in 1869, which burnt down and was replaced by another in 1870, near
Lethbridge, Alberta Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 106,550 in the 2023 Alberta municipal censuses, 2023 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...
, which became known as Fort Whoop-Up. This trade continued until the arrival of the
North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian paramilitary police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory to ...
, in October 1874, when it was considerably curtailed by their establishment of
Fort Macleod Fort Macleod ( ) is a town in southern Alberta, Canada. It was originally named Macleod to distinguish it from the North-West Mounted Police barracks (Fort Macleod, built 1874) it had grown around. The fort was named in honour of the then List o ...
. Whoop Up trail continued to be the main supply route from Fort Benton into the north for mostly legitimate goods. The arrival of the railways in the 1880s ended its usefulness.


See also

*
Macleod-Benton Trail The Whoop-Up Trail, also known as the Macleod-Benton Trail was a wagon road that connected Fort Benton, Montana, to Fort Hamilton, Alberta. The trail was initially a trade route between Montana and the southern region of Alberta, which was then k ...


References


External links


Fort Whoop-Up Interactive Center
Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana Historic trails and roads in Montana National Register of Historic Places in Chouteau County, Montana Whoop-Up Trail {{Montana-NRHP-stub