This area, the final hunting ground for Montana Indians, was the site of battles fought over the buffalo. In 1874 on the Carroll Trail, Reed and Bowles ran a trading post known as “Reed’s Fort.” Chief Joseph and his band stopped at the post on their retreat across Montana. Camp Lewis was built near the post to guard freight wagons from Indian raiding parties. During the winter, soldiers of the Seventh Infantry relieved boredom by playing cards and that’s how two nearby creeks were called Big and Little Casino. Lewistown, named after the camp, was first inhabited by Metis, French Canadian Indians, who migrated into Montana and possibly gave some Montana communities their French names.

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