The people of Northeast Montana work together to make their communities better places in which to live and work. Traditional values thrive along with progress and changes, the residents here are close to the land and nature’s bounty.
Valley County, specifically Fort Peck, is home to the largest hydraulic earth-filled dam in the world. The dam provides irrigation, electric power and recreation with a body of water that covers a quarter of a million acres of land. The town of Fort Peck was built during the 1930s to house and service workers who built the dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owned and maintained the town until 1986. It was officially turned over from the Corps to private ownership on Aug. 15, 1986. Year-round recreation opportunities abound in the Fort Peck area.
Fort Peck Reservoir, located 18 miles south of Nashua, provides endless recreational opportunities such as boating, fishing, ice fishing, hunting, swimming, sailing, water skiing, hiking and bird watching. Bordering the entire 123-mile long reservoir is the one million-acre Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is home to elk, deer, sharp-tailed grouse and many other prairie animals.
The Dredge Cut Swim Beaches are located 3 miles downstream from the dam and include designated swim areas, picnic shelters, playground equipment and restrooms. The Kiwanis Park and downstream campground is located on the left bank of the Missouri River, at the base of Fort Peck Dam. This popular recreation area is equipped with open shelter houses with concrete floors, charcoal grills, fire rings, drinking water, picnic tables, horseshoe pits, playground equipment and restrooms. There is also a 3-mile paved walking trail, a children’s fishing pond, a perch pond and Winter Harbor Bass pond.
The Fort Peck Amphitheatre has summer presentations including slide shows and movies. They are held at dark on Saturday nights between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The downstream campground is accessible by a road through Kiwanis Park. Amenities include paved sites with electrical hookups, hot showers, flush toilets, a sanitary dump station, 24-hour gate attendants during the summer season and a pay phone with Internet access. The campground is a Corp of Engineers’ facility and open from the end of April through October.
The Fort Peck Summer Theatre has performances from mid-June to August. The Fort Peck Interpretive Center and Museum is open every day in the summer with weekend programs, presentations, activities and educational projects for children. The Fort Peck Multi-Species Fish Hatchery opened in 2006 and tours can be scheduled. Also available for tours are the two hydroelectric powerhouses which include a museum.
Some of the best fishing is located in Northeast Montana. Fishing records have been set on Fort Peck Lake and Nelson Reservoir. For more information about the area, go to Montana’s Missouri River Country website at http://missouririver.visitmt.com/”.
This is Nashua
Nashua, which borders the Fort Peck Indian Reservation on the east, is one of the gateways to Northeast Montana's greatest recreation areas, Fort Peck Dam and Lake. Nashua was one of the colorful, lively boom towns during the construction of the dam in the 1930s.
Nashua is situated where Porcupine Creek runs into the Milk River. A few miles farther, the waters of these two streams flow into the Missouri near Fort Peck Dam. Nashua is believed to be an Indian word meaning “Meeting of Two Streams.”
The town of Nashua was founded by Charles Sargent, a second cousin of Robert E. Lee. Col. Sargent, who had been at Fort Union in 1866, returned twenty years later to take up a homestead near present-day Nashua, hoping that the land would be in demand as a division point on the Great Northern; the railroad chose Glasgow instead. By 1903 the town had a store, school, hotel, and a saloon, but it boomed only when the dam was being built. The building of the dam, at its peak in 1936, provided 10,456 jobs; it was completed in 1940.
Nashua has a full-service gas station, a cafe that features popular homemade ice cream, a grocery store, bowling alley, post office, two churches, and two bars. The population of the town, as of 2000 was 325.
This is Glasgow – county seat since 1893.
Glasgow is located on the Milk River in Northeast Montana approximately 60 miles south of the Canadian border. It is 15 miles west of Nashua and 125 miles from the North Dakota line. The first explorers to this area were Lewis and Clark in 1805. They camped at the joining of the Milk River and Missouri Rivers, about 18 miles southeast of Glasgow. Glasgow was first established as a railroad town, known as Siding 45. It was named Glasgow by a railroad clerk in 1887.
Glasgow, due to its excellent facilities and well-stocked business establishments, draws trade from all of Northeastern Montana and parts of Canada. There are over 200 retail and service establishments located in two shopping areas: downtown Glasgow’s main street (Second Avenue South) and a 4-mile strip of U.S. Highway 2 known as the “Treasure Trail.” The Glasgow Area Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture has accommodation guides and maps, along with convention and newcomer packets. They can be contacted at 406-228-2222 or http://www.glasgowmt.net/
Glasgow also has an airport with two flights daily to Billings, and Amtrak’s Empire Builder eastbound and westbound trains make daily stops in Glasgow. The handicapped-accessible Valley County Transit bus is on call to take people around Glasgow and makes morning and afternoon trips to Nashua. Recreation facilities include a bowling alley, duplex movie theatre, a country club with a 9-hole golf course, an indoor hockey and event center, a rifle range, a saddle club and indoor and outdoor roping arenas.
The Civic Center complex has a 25-meter, six-lane outdoor swimming pool, tennis and racquetball courts, exercise room equipment, sauna and whirlpool. During the summer, the city of Glasgow provides many sporting activities for children including softball and baseball. The Home Run Pond in Glasgow’s Sullivan Park provides convenient fishing opportunities for children.
The Northeast Montana Fair and Rodeo is held in late July or early August at the fairgrounds. Also located at the fairgrounds is the Valley Event Center. It is a multiple-use recreation and events facility. Go to http://hlyh.org/ for more information and a schedule of events.
Glasgow is also home to the ArtSpot Gallery, Pioneer Museum and the Children’s Museum of Northeast Montana. There are two Senior Centers, one in Nashua, the other in Glasgow. The Glasgow Courier is the weekly newspaper distributed on Wednesdays, their website is www.glasgowcourier.com and the radio station is KLTZ/KLAN, go to www.kltz.com for daily news updates.