Three Valleys State Bank opened in Three Forks in 1910, closed around 1920 and opened again in 1960. It is now gone and the old bank is now home to the
Headwaters Heritage Museum, open June 1 through September 30 (and by appointment in the off season). While the museum has been open since 1982, we can't state with certainty that it has been in this building for all of those thirty years.
LEWIS & CLARK ARRIVE AT THE HEADWATERS JULY 1805
"The object of your mission" wrote President Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark "is to explore the Missouri River and such principal streams of it . . . as may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent." Lewis and Clark, along with 32 other members of the expedition, camped on the banks of the Jefferson near here. Although they realized by then that the Missouri would not lead directly to the Pacific, they still considered it "an essential point" in the geography of North America. The Expedition rested here, exploring the surrounding area and noting the wide variety and abundance of game and plants. The following year, Clark and some members of the Expedition returned here on their way east.
From a nearby plaque
Just four miles south of the Headwaters of the Missouri River, the museum is just a half mile east of where the Lewis & Clark expedition passed on the Jefferson River, on their way to the Pacific. Given that Lewis & Clark were charged with exploring the possibilities of the Missouri's becoming a waterway to the Pacific, the headwaters area could well have marked the end of their journey. They did camp and rest in the area for several days, continuing southwest down the Jefferson River, passing near the present town of Three Forks. On the return trip, after Lewis and Clark separated, Clark and his party passed by Three Forks again.
The Three Forks Area Historical Society opened the museum in July of 1982, and it contains a vast and fascinating array of artefacts from the Missouri River Headwaters area. To list just the highlights...an anvil found at the headwaters (possibly the oldest American-made anvil in existence), Montana's largest brown trout caught in 1966 and weighing in at 29.5 pounds, an extensive barb wire collection, a dugout canoe used in a Lewis and Clark TV documentary, and a log cabin from Gallatin City (first county seat) built in the 1860s.
Upstairs is a nostalgic journey to the past with an old fashioned kitchen, school room, dress and millinery shop, beauty shop, tool room, and dental office. Three Forks was founded in 1908 by the Milwaukee Railroad, and there is a station agent's office filled with memorabilia. A military room is dedicated to those of this area who served our nation.
An extensive collection of obituaries, photo archives, and a newspaper microfilm library of the earliest issues of the Three Forks Herald, as well as the highly inflammatory Pink Reporter, published between 1938 and 1942, are available.
Our gift shop offers souvenirs, gifts, post cards, and a wide assortment of books about the Lewis and Clark expedition, the fur trapping era, Native American topics, railroad, and local history.
From Visit Montana
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