Sun River Crossing
Posted by: Groundspeak Charter Member BruceS
N 47° 32.256 W 111° 42.843
12T E 446261 N 5265154
Historical marker commemorating the importance of the crossing and bridges over the Sun River in the vicinity of the marker.
Waymark Code: WM23GA
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 08/29/2007
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member CM-14
Views: 39

Sun River Crossing

This Sun River Bridge is situated on a crossing that has been used since prehistoric times.  when Captain John Mullan built a military road through Montana in the early 1860s, he utilized portions of already existing trails employed by generations of Native Americans.  Although Mullan surveyed the Sun River Crossing in 1862, it was already the site of the Blackfeet Indian Government Farm, located about one - half mile north of the existing bridge.  Electra Bryan married Bannack sheriff and outlaw Henry Plummer at the farm in 1863.  John Healy established a trading post near here in the early 1860s to exchange furs and pelts with his neighbors, the Blackfeet.  You can still see a portion of Healy's trading post just east of the bridge on your left.  The construction of the Mullan Road and the discovery of gold in southwestern Montana over the next several years made Sun River Crossing an important place in the states early history.  Healy and pioneer John Largent built a toll bridge at the approximate site of the existing bridge in 1867.  Founded by Largent in 1867, the community of Sun River was ideally situated to take advantage of the heavy traffic between the steamboat port of Fort Benton, nearby Fort Shaw, the gold camps of the Gallatin Valley.  Realizing the potential for quick money, enterprising individuals built two other toll bridges south of the existing bridge.  The arrival of the railroad in Great Falls in 1886 did not diminish the importance of the Sun River Crossing and its continued to thrive until after 1900.  Today, the community and the bridge (in its fourth incarnation) attest to the strategic importance of this place to the history of Montana. ~ text of marker

Describe the area and history:
Bridge and trading post mentioned on marker are near by.


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