Historical Marker
Fort Owen
Ravalli County · Montana
The plate gives Owen's government years one sentence. In 1856, on the strength of his standing with the Salish, he was named special agent to the Flathead and the tribes allied with them, and the plate says the fort served for a time as agency headquarters. The appointment is probably where the title Major came from; a Missoulian history doubts he ever held the rank. He served until 1862, through years when the Hellgate Treaty, unratified until 1859, delivered little of what it promised. His letterbook from 1858 and 1859 survives at Yale's Beinecke Library.
What the plaque says
Fort Owen State Monument Fort Owen's log and adobe walls witnessed dramatic changes as the Bitterroot Valley emerged from remote wilderness to settled agricultural community. The Jesuit fathers who had established St. Mary's Mission nearby in 1841 closed their doors in 1850, and trader John Owen purchased the property. Owen operated and expanded St. Mary's mills, cultivated the fields, enlarged the fort and kept a well-stocked trade room thereby transforming the mission compound into a vibrant trading post complex. A man of many talents, Owen also served as agent to the Flathead Nation from 1856 to 1862, and for a time the fort was agency headquarters. Owen and his Shoshoni wife, Nancy, created a refined and comfortable haven in the vast timberland, extending gracious hospitality to Indians, traders, trappers, missionaries, settlers and travelers. With the 1860s came gold-seekers and a fresh clientele, but the newly-completed Mullan Road by-passed Fort Owen and trading dwindled. Upon Nancy's death in 1868, Owen's mental health deteriorated. In 1872 Fort Owen was sold at sheriff's sale to Washington J. McCormick, who operated the fort's mills until 1889. In 1937, the Fort Owen site was donated to the State of Montana, and the donors sponsored stabilization and partial reconstruction of its sole remaining building, the East Barracks. Archaeological investigations initiated in 1957 by the University of Montana continued through 1980, exposing the fort's walls and foundations. Since 1971, the Stevensville Historical Society has been instrumental in interpretive reconstruction, continued stabilization and maintenance of this noteworthy site. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of Interior In cooperation with the Montana Historical Society
Where it stands
46.51960, -114.09734 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Fort Owen — steps awayA trader bought a failed mission for $250, walled it in adobe, and lost it all at a sheriff's sale.
- Historic St. Mary's Mission — 0.7 miThe mission the Salish asked for, abandoned, rebuilt, and closed again the year the Salish were made to leave.
- Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge — 2.7 miBitterroot wetlands bought with duck stamps and named for the senator who signed off on refuges across the country.
- Travelers' Rest State Park — 16 miThe one Lewis and Clark campsite with proof in the ground: hearths, gun lead and a latrine still laced with mercury.