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Camp Cooke Re-write

Camp Cooke (1866-1870), aka Fort Cooke, was the first military post in the new Montana Territory. It was established by the U.S. Army on July 10, 1866 on the Missouri River, just upstream from the mouth of the Judith River, and construction was begun by the 13th Infantry Battalion. After being reinforced by 100 soldiers in 1867, Camp Cooke had a strength of approximately 400 men. The purpose of Camp Cooke was to guard steamboat traffic going up river to Ft. Benton, which carried passengers and freight to swiftly growing boom towns at the site of rich gold strikes in the western mountains of the Montana Territory. However the location of the fort was along the Missouri River, as it crossed the broad eastern plains of Montana, far from the gold camps and their boom towns in the western Montana mountains. The fort was also located deep in the remote badlands which paralleled the Missouri River for hundreds of miles, called the Missouri Breaks. Once the fort was constructed, the garrison had little to do. Except for the high water months of May, June and July, Missouri River steamboat traffic was limited. As a result, soldiers were dispatched from Camp Cooke to other more strategic locations in the Montana Territory. Detachments from Camp Cooke guarded major transportation routes in Western Montana, including the roads between Fort Benton and Helena, building Fort Shaw along that route in 1867 in the Sun River Valley. Other detachments from Camp Cooke built Fort Ellis near Bozeman, Montana in the upper Gallatin Valley, which guarded the critical east-west over land route over Bozeman Pass. Camp Cooke was abandoned less than four years after it was built on March 31, 1870, in response to constant well-founded complaints that the location of the post was too remote.

Reason and Initial Purpose of Camp Cooke

The purpose of Camp (Fort) Cooke was to provide protection to Missouri River traffic and settlers in the Montana Territory who were traveling up the Missouri to the goldfields.

Following the gold strikes at Bannack, 1862 (Grasshopper Gulch); Virginia City, 1863 (Alder Gulch); Helena, 1864 (Prickly Pear Creek and Last Chance Gulch); and the spectacular gold strikes in 1865 at the Montana Bar and other sites in Confederate Gulch (Diamond City), immigrants and freight poured into the Montana Territory.

The gold fields were in the western mountains of Montana, in the intermontane valleys. From 1863 immigrants and freight had to cross the extensive eastern Montana plains, to reach the gold fields. The primary access route to the gold fields was up the Missouri River by steamboat to the head of navigation at Fort Benton, after which overland freight lines branched out to the inter-montane gold fields. Along this route pioneering steam boat captains began to haul increasing amounts of freight, along with passengers, starting in 1863.

A secondary route for overland travelers was over the Bozeman Trail which branched off from the Oregon Trail in Wyoming Territory, skirted the eastern edge of the Big Horn Mountains after which the trail continued up the Yellowstone River valley to reach the Montana goldfields via the Bozeman Pass. The Bozeman Trail route was used from 1863 to 1868 until the intercontinental railroad was finished in 1869. After that period, overland freight and passengers bound for Montana, more commonly went along the route of the intercontinental railroad (along the route of the Oregon/California trail) through the Wyoming Territory to Utah Territory, to Corrine Utah, and then proceeded north through Idaho, crossing into the western areas of Montana via Monida Pass and Reynolds pass.

However, during the era from 1862 to 1883, when a transcontinental railroad was built through Montana, the most efficient way to move freight (particularly heavy freight) to the gold fields of Montana remained via steamboat on the Missouri River.

The flow of immigrants and freight, traveling over the eastern plains and praries to reach the Montana goldfields invaded lands that Indian tribes considered theirs. These lands were occupied by the Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Crow tribes. The Missouri River steamboats and the resulting freight routes fanning out from the Missouri River, and the overland immigrant trains coming up the Bozeman Trail, drove off the buffalo and other game on which the Indian depended. In reaction, the Indians retaliated by mounting small scale, scattered, guerrilla type attacks and raids. The Indians were skilled in this type of land based hit-and-run warfare. They sniped at freight wagons. They attacked parties of overland immigrant and mail carriers. They stole livestock and killed travelers, herders, mailcarriers and settlers as opportunity presented.

The Indians along the Missouri also developed a quasi amphibious method of attacking steamboats and mackinaw boats. (develop this from the book about LaBarge).

Camp Cooke becomes the first Army post in Montana Territory

As reports of thefts of livestock and killings by Indians accumulated, the newspapers that had sprung up in the swiftly growing mining and trading communities of the Montana Territory demanded that the U.S. Army provide protection. Petitions and letters went east to Washington. In response the Army established Camp Cooke on the Missouri River in the Montana Territory in July 11, 1866. On the Bozeman Trail the Army had previously built two forts in Wyoming Territory (Fort Reno and Fort Phil Kearney), and on August 12, 1866 the army established Fort C.F. Smith on the Bozeman Trail, just over the boundary in the Montana Territory. Thus, by the narrow margin of one month, Camp Cooke became the first U.S. Army post in the Montana Territory.

Naming Camp Cooke

Camp Cooke was named in honor of Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke. In 1866 he was in command of the Department of the Platte, which then included the Montana territory.

Locating Camp Cooke at the mouth of the Judith River

Draft 1 - Location of Camp Cook on the Missouri at the Mouth of the Judith River

After the discovery of gold in Montana Territory in Grasshopper Gulch (1862), and in Alder Gulch (1863), and in last Chance Gulch (1864) the citizens began to request a military outpost be located within the Territory.

When Inspector-General D.B. Sackett was sent to Montana Territory to select a site for a fort he first looked at sites the Missouri River. Historically the army had placed forts along major transportation routes to facilitate immigration into the western territories. As the gold camps in the western mountainous portion of the Montana Territory grew and developed, most of the passenger and freight traffic began to come up the Missouri River to Ft. Benton, the head of navigaiton, by steamboat. Other Forts had been placed on the Missouri River in Territories east of Montana.

The logical site for a fort in Montana Territory was Ft. Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri River. In the 1860's (and continuing for decades) from the eastern border of Montana to Ft. Benton, there was no other community of any size along the Missouri. This was due to two factors. On the eastern Montana praries, on both sides of the River, free roaming hostile bands of Indians made life precarious. In addition, for hundreds of miles the River passed through the roughly eroded badlands country of the Missouri Breaks.

Inspector-General Sacket, however, judged that Ft. Benton lacked sufficiennt materials to construct a post and maintain the necessary livestock. He recommended a post at the mouth of the Musselshell River. The Musselshell River was deep in the remote Missouri breaks, but it was about midway along the course of the Missouri, from the eastern border to Ft. Benton. The War Department pondered his suggestion and then selected a site at the mouth of the Judith River.

The problem with the location of Camp Cooke at the mouth of the Judith River was that it was far removed from the more moutainous western portion of the new Territory where centers of mining, and the related communnities and roads which were springing up. The Camp was out on the eastern plains, and it was not only separated by long distances from these other western Montana centers of burgeoning activity, but it was placed at a site on the Missouri River deep in the badlands of the Missouri Breaks. This site was difficult to reach except by steamboat, and the site remains extremely remote to this day; the site of Camp Cooke (see below) has no road access and may only be reached by canoeing down the Missouri River.

There was some minor justification for the location of the Camp. It was placed on the Missouri River three miles downstream from Deadman's Rapids, and fifteen miles upstream from Dauphin Rapids. Steamboats encountered trouble in these treacherous waters. They had to slow and take extra precaustions to get upstream through the rapids. Sometimes they had to offload freight, go through the rapids and then lighter their freight up river and reload. Thus, these rapids were places where steamboats were likely to come under Indian attack.

Draft 2 - Locating Camp Cooke at the mouth of the Judith River

Inspector General D.B. Sackett was sent to Montana to select a site for the military outpost to protect the traffic on the Missouri River. The logical site was Ft. Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri River. However Sackett judged that Ft. Benton had sufficient resources to defend itself, and he considered the area lacked materials for the construction of a post, and also lacked sufficient range for the maintenance of its livestock. He recommended a site at the mouth of the Musselshell River, where a small community existed. As an alternative Sackett suggested the mouth of the Judith River.

The Army chose the alternative, last-choice site, the mouth of the Judith River. This site is in the the "Missouri Breaks", an area of steeply eroded badlands extending out for miles on either side of the Missouri River. The Breaks continue upstream from Camp Cooke for fifty miles miles, and they also continue down stream to the Fort Peck area, several hundred miles below Came Cooke.

Considered and rejected in the decision making process was Fort Benton, which was just over 100 miles upstream, and the small community of Musselshell, located at the mouth of the Musselshell river, eighty five miles downstream.

Speculation continues to this day among historians as to what moved the U.S. Army to choose this remote spot for Camp Cooke, at the mouth of the Judith River. No records have been found that conclusively establish the rationale for the choice of this site.

The speculative reasons include the following:

• The decision was probably influenced by symmetry. The decision placed a military installation along the Missouri, approximately in the middle of a long 180 mile stretch of river where there was no previous settlement or center of civilization of any kind.
• On the map, if it were not for the difficulty of movement in and out of the Missouri Breaks, the location appeared to be centrally located. From the site of Camp Cooke, once out of the "breaks" along the river, the broad rolling plains of eastern Montana ran north to Canada, south to the Yellowstone, west to the Rocky Mountains and eastward ad infinitum.
• In 1866, the junction of the Judith and the Missouri River was considered to be at the central meeting place of areas held by conquest by separate Indian Tribes. The Army could have considered that Camp Cooke was strategically placed at a point of jucture of the powerful tribal entities in the area. Just downstream, lying in the main channel of the Missouri was Council Island, a sort of neutral ground where representatives of the tribes occasionally met for discussions. To the south, the "River Crow" segment of the Crow (a/K/a Absaroka, or Absaloka) Tribe claimed jurisdiction up to the Missouri River. North of the Missouri bands of various tribes claimed sovereignty down to the Missouri, and even beyond, including bands of the Blackfoot tribe to west of Camp Cook, competing with Assiniboine and the Gros Ventres to the east of Camp Cook. South of the Missouri, and extending to the east out into the plains, the bands of the Sioux tribe and their allies, the Cheyennes roamed over a wide territory.
• The delta of the Judith River, where it joined the Missouri, formed a limited but flat and well wooded area. The Army may have anticipated that once a military post was established this pleasant delta area would eventually support an ancillary community, like the downstream community of Musselshell or the upstream community of Ft. Benton, both formed around trading forts. No such community ever developed, but in this pleasant area a trading post variously known as "Fort Claggett" and "Fort Cooke" was established that continued to exist for a number of years after Camp Cooke was abandoned. A steamboat landing was built with warehouse structures to allow steamboats to offload goods for the trading posts. After Camp Cooke was closed, the famous PN ranch had its headquarters here for many years, and the area is still a headquarters for a large local ranch. Roads from north and south come down to the junction of the Judith and the Missouri, and these resulted in a ferry that ran for many years, until a permanent bridge was built over the Missouri.

Construction of Camp Cooke

In July horses were brought overland to the new post from Fort Copeland, at the junction of the Milk and Missouri River. Lieutenant Martin F. Hogan drove the horses with a detail of soldiers up the Milk River Valley to a point north of the Bear's Paw Mountains and then turned east to skirt the mountain range, and drop down to the site of the Camp Cooke, in the Missouri River Breaks.

Remote location of Camp Cooke

The Montana Territory gold strikes were located in the intermontane valley region of western Montana, far removed from Camp Cooke. Camp Cooke was in the broad-reaching eastern plains of Montana. Geographically the post was isolated from the western part of the territory. Further, the post was located deep within a several hundred mile stretch of the Missouri River known as the Missouri Breaks, which are steeply eroded badlands bordering the river and separating it from the surrounding eastern Montana plains.

Limited Utilization of Camp Cooke to Protect River Traffic

Camp Cooke was located on the south side of the Missouri River, just upstream from the mouth of the Judith River. This location was along the Missouri River, a major artery of commerce from the early 1860's to the late 1880's. In this period steamboats brought traffic and passengers to Ft. Benton in the Montana Territory. Ft. Benton was the head of Missouri River navigation in the Montana Territory. However steamboat traffic on this section of the Missouri was limited to a few months of "high water", which occurred when seasonal runoff of snow melt from the prairies and mountains of Montana made upriver steamboat navigation to Fort Benton possible. Except for the months of May, June and July, steamboat traffic was virtually nonexistent. Downstream from Camp Cooke was the Dauphine Rapids, which were difficult-to-impossible to traverse after the river began to fall, after the spring floods. During low water season on the Missouri, most freight and passengers were offloaded down stream from Camp Cooke, at Cow Island and carried by freight wagon to Ft. Benton. These freight routes did not pass by, or even close to Camp Cooke.

Abandonment of Camp Cooke

Because of its isolation Camp Cooke was abandoned on 31 March, 1870, although a rapidly growing infestation of rats at the post helped prompt the decision.

Visiting the Site of Camp Cooke

The Missouri Breaks have resisted settlement and so the site of Camp Cooke remains remote to this day. The site cannot be easily visited. It can be reached by canoeing/floating down the river through the Missouri Breaks, in the section now designated a wild and scenic river and part of the Missouri Breaks National Monument. the site of Camp Cooke is located at River Mile 86.8 Right. Today there are only the foundations of some of the buildings and the usual rubble that survives after the buildings were taken away, torn down or simply deteriorated and fell in.

Source

Huckabee, Rodger Lee, "Camp Cooke: The First Army Post in Montana – Success and Failure on the Missouri" (2010). Boise State University Theses and Dissertations. Paper 153. http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/td/153

References

Cooke Category:Fergus County, Montana Category:History of Montana Category:Montana Territory