Forts abound

From Medora we headed north to Fort Union, a restored trading fort that sits on the Missouri River. It is literally on the border of Montana and North Dakota, and Colby had fun jumping over states. The fort could have been a little underwhelming except the people working there were so impressive. We were met immediately by an impressive gentleman with handle bar moustache and in authentic period dress. He told us how the 9 different tribes came to Fort Union (a private enterprise and not military sponsored) to trade hides (mainly buffalo) for beads, tin decorations, sugar and tobacco. He was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. There was also a great park ranger in the "bourgeois house" (manager's house) who shared the sign language that was used between the tribes because they all spoke different languages. Grady was fascinated and shared his own sign language knowledge (thank you Mrs Bostock). It was great to see Grady come out of shell a little and actually talk to an adult he doesn't know.






We then started our Highway 2 journey and headed west, into Montana. Road construction made this travel very long and difficult, with bare dirt roads in many places. We made it to Fort Peck by late afternoon. After setting up camp we headed to the dam to learn more dam facts. We used the dam restroom, toured the dam museum and learned the dam history.

Fort Peck was built in the late 1930's by the CCC at FDR's command. It was a massive undertaking that took nearly 8 years to complete. Fort Peck is now the 8th largest dam in the world, and the 2nd largest earthen dam. It is impressive and underwhelming at the same time: impressive when you see the mighty Missouri River that creates nearly 150 miles of "lake;" underwhelming in the aspect that it is not a concrete marvel but rather a rolling hill that is currently being hayed (yes, they grow hay on the "dam"). We drove across the top and it felt like a rolling hill with a giant lake at the top. the Downstream Campground, run by the Army Corps of Engineers, was clean and well maintained. But it only provided electricity; no water or sewer so we were "dry" camping (not really). Colby tried his hand at fishing but wasn't too successful (still had fun). We had a great campfire, s'mores and lots of laughs around the campfire.