Joan and Keith's Travels: Havre and Glacier National Park

This is a Corps of Engineers

campground in Fort Peck, Montana.

It was a very nice and spacious campground.

Havre!

Located in north central Montana, Havre was incorporated in 1893. It was founded primarily to serve as a major railroad service center for the Great Northern Railway (built by James J. Hill) with its location midway between Seattle and Minneapolis-St. Paul. A statue of Hill stands near the Havre Amtrak station to commemorate the key contributions his railroad has made to Havre's and Montana's history.
Originally named Bullhook Bottoms, the town met in a series of meetings to determine a new name. The original settlers were given the final decision, and due to a strong French influence, the town was renamed Havre.^[7]
Simon Pepin (1840–1914), the "Father of Havre," was a typical Montana entrepreneur. Born in Quebec, Canada, he emigrated to Montana in 1863, and became a contractor, furnishing supplies for the construction of Forts Custer, Assinniboine, and Maginnis. Pepin purchased ranch lands near Fort Assinniboine. When James J. Hill built the Great Northern Railway across northern Montana, Pepin convinced him to build his locomotive shops at Havre, on property owned by Pepin. In the ensuing years, Pepin was a major contributor to Havre's economic growth through his cattle, real estate, and banking enterprises.^[8]
Havre is the eighth-largest city in Montana, and the largest city in the Montana section of the Hi-Line. With the nearest major city, Great Falls, about 120 miles (190 km) to the south, Havre serves as a medical and business center for the Montana section of the Hi-Line. U.S. Highway 87 has its northern terminus at Havre. U.S. Highway 2, running east-west, is the city's main street. The largest employers are Northern Montana Hospital, Montana State University – Northern, and the BNSF Railway. Throughout much of the twentieth century, BNSF was the most prominent employer in the city, but the company scaled back its workforce in Havre in the 1990s. The Milk River (tributary of the Missouri River) runs through the town, and the Bear's Paw Mountains can be seen to the south.
Small grids of purple colored squares can be seen in some of the sidewalks in the downtown area (on the north side of the city). These are skylights for a sort of underground "mall" built in the city at least a hundred years ago. Throughout its history, this underground area has been host to a brothel, a Chinese laundromat, a saloon, a drugstore, at least three opium dens, and rooms used for smuggling alcohol during Prohibition. When fire destroyed Havre's business district in 1904, legitimate above-ground businesses joined the illicit businesses operating in the underground while the new brick buildings were built in the streets above. The underground area, now designated "Havre Beneath the Streets", currently operates as a small tourist attraction.^[9]
The Wahkpa Chu'gn buffalo jump, or bison kill, is located behind the Holiday Village Shopping Center near the northwest corner of Havre. Over 2,000 years old, it is one of the largest and best preserved buffalo jumps anywhere. In prehistoric times, Native Americans would drive bison over the edge of the cliff, killing or severely injuring the animals. Afterwards, the Native Americans skinned the animals and preserved the meat. The buffalo jump is now an archaeological site and a small tourist attraction.