Strong Benton

The town of Fort Benton is the seat of the Comté of Chouteau, in the State of the Montana, with the the United States. At the time of the Census of the year 2000, its population rose with 1  594 inhabitants.

Geography

Fort Benton is located precisely at 47°49' 10" of Northern latitude and 110°40' 11" of western longitude. Its surface is of 5,4 km ², whose no portion is covered by water.

Demography

With the census of 2000, one counted 1  there; 594 inhabitants, divided into 636 hearths and 422 families. Its density is of 294,5/km ². The racial composition of the village is white: 97,68%; blacks: 0,19%; Amerindian: 0,56%; Asian: 0,38%; others: 0,38%; two groups or more: 0,82%. 0.56% of the population are of Latin-American origin , all confused groups.

Of the 636 listed hearths, 30,7% had children of less than 18 years, 54,4% consisted of married couples, 9,3% counted women living alone, 33,5% not being families as such. 31% of all the hearths counted one member (14,5% having more than 65 years). The intermediate size of a hearth is of 2,34 people, that of a family 2,93.

The age distribution is the following one:

  • x<18: 24,8%;
  • 18
  • 25
  • 45
  • x>65: 23,6%.

The Middle Age is 43 years, and the ratio women/men of 100/92,3 (100/84,2 men with the 18 year old top). The average revenue by hearth is of 29  406 $ by hearth, and of 32  072 $ per family (average revenue of the men: 22  819$ women: 20  787$). The income per head for the city is of 14  861$, 13,4% of the population (11,6% of the families) being located below the Poverty line. Distributed by, 16,6% age bracket of the people of less than 18 years and 6,7% of those of more than 65 years live under the poverty line.

Strong historical Benton

A monument dedicated at the time from now on completed of the trade of the fur is on the banks of the river Missouri. The old woman tower in the North-East of the village is a quiet testimony of Montana wild and unexplored, inhabited only Indians of the plains and occasionally traversed by explorers, runners of wood or merchants of fur. Singing the paddle with the hand, living of dried meat or game, these men built a dozen counters along the higher course of Missouri between 1831 and 1846.

In spring 1846, the representative of Fort Lewis the American Fur Company , Alexander Culbertson, is invited by the Pieds-Noirs (Blackfoot) to move the fort on northern bank of Missouri. A broad meadow downstream is selected and the construction of Strong Benton starts, counter of furs most deeply established along Missouri. The buildings, palisades and turns of Strong Lewis are dismounted and transferred onto the river up to the new point of establishment, the last structures being floated until Fort Benton in spring 1847. But Culbertson, having seen the structures of dried mud of Strong Laramie, in South-west, quickly decides to rebuild Fort Benton containing bricks drawn from the clay of the river, those offering according to him a better protection against the climate than could it of simple wood logs. The rebuilding began with the autumn 1848, to be completed in 1860 with the completion of the store.

Like all the other counters of the area, Fort Benton was built in a square of 50x50 m, more of the turns a height of 2 stages and a surface on the ground of 30 m ². Crenels and loopholes along the four walls ensured a defense in all the directions, a wall of adobe of approximately 5 meters in various height binding the building to close the square. A broad door out of wooden gave access the north-eastern tower and the deposit, and more a small door made it possible to the Indians to enter by small groups an enclosure belonging to the store and where they could exchange their furs (initially coloured fabric and small glasswares for a skin of beaver or bison).

The trade of the fur dies out towards 1865, and American Fur Company then sells the fort with the army, putting thus fine at its control of the higher course of Missouri. The strong one already started to fall in ruin when the soldiers settle in 1869 there, and those give up it in 1875, replaced by families of settlers. Completely deserted in 1881, the building collapsed the ones after the others. In 1900, only remained the north-eastern tower, last vestige of the largest counter of the last years of the trade of the fur. In 1908 an association, Daughters off the American Revolution restored the building using private donations and of a subsidy on behalf of the State.

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