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Band. Guard mount at Ft. Keogh - in fur coats. January, 1882. |
Military Forts
This list does not include fur trade or privately-run forts but strictly military-operated forts. The information in the following table was compiled from K. Ross Toole and Merrill G. Burlingame, A History of Montana (New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1957), Vol. 2, p. 150, Don Miller and Stan Cohen, Military & Trading Posts of Montana (Missoula: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1979), and Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company,1988).
Ancestry.com has scanned post returns for the forts below. Post returns were "a type of personnel report" made monthly by commanding officers of posts and they "show the units that were stationed at a particular post and their strength, the names and duties of the officers, the number of officers present or absent, a listing of official communications received, and a record of events." You can either search for a person or by post. If searching by post, be search to check the box "Exact" for both the Post Name and the Return Period.
| Name | Date Established | Location | Named For |
| Fort C. F. Smith | 1866 | On Bighorn River, some ninety miles from mouth, on crossing of Bozeman Road | Charles Ferguson Smith, Major General of Volunteers |
| Camp Cooke | 1866 | South bank of Missouri just west of mouth of Judith River | Brigadier General Philip St. George Cooke |
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Camp Reynolds/ Fort Shaw |
1866 (1867) | On Sun River some twenty miles west of the Missouri | Colonel Robert G. Shaw |
| Fort Ellis | 1867 | Three miles east of Bozeman | Colonel Augustus Van Horne Ellis |
| Fort Benton | 1870 | Present town of Fort Benton | Took name of fur fort named for Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri |
| Camp Baker / Fort Logan | 1869 (1877) | 18 miles northeast of Diamond City, 15 miles west of White Sulphur Springs | Major E. M. Baker of Fort Ellis; Fort Logan for Captain William Logan, killed in Battle of the Big Hole |
| Camp (Cantonment) Porter | 1873 | 3 miles above the mouth of Glendive Creek along the banks of the Yellowstone River | |
| Fort Missoula | 1877 | Five miles south of Missoula | Took name of town |
| Fort Keogh | 1877 | On Yellowstone at mouth of Tongue River | Captain Myles W. Keogh, 7th Cavalry, killed on Bighorn with Custer |
| Fort Custer | 1877 | At junction of Little Bighorn with the Bighorn | Major General George A. Custer |
| Helena Barracks | 1877 | On Helena Fair Grounds about 3 miles outside city | Took name from town |
| Fort Assiniboine | 1879 | Six miles south of Havre | Took name of Indians |
| Camp Loder | 1879 | On Lodge Pole Creek near Fort Musselshell | |
| Camp Poplar River | 1880 | 2 miles north of the Missouri, on site of the present day town of Poplar | Took name of river |
| Camp Porter | 1880 | Established on Yellowstone River near Glendive Creek, on site of the present day town of Glendive | |
| Fort Maginnis | 1880 | Judith Basin some twenty miles northeast of Lewistown | Montana Representative to Congress, Martin Maginnis |
| Camp Crook | 1890 | Near what is now the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation (old Tongue River Indian Agency) | |
| Camp Merritt | 1890 | On Lame Deer Creek, near present town of Lame Deer in Rosebud County and what is now the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation (old Tongue River Indian Agency) | |
| Fort William Henry Harrison | 1892 | Five miles northwest of Helena | President William Henry Harrison; First named Fort Harrison for President Benjamin Harrison; name changed in 1906 |
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225 North Roberts, P.O. Box 201201, Helena, MT 59620-1201, 406-444-2681, 406-444-2696 (fax). |