Crown of the Continent

tana, is still visible in places along the base of the the Blackfeet agent, with the aid of some of the chiefs, selected a site three and one-half miles mountains to the west. northwest of present day Choteau. That site eventually took on the name Old Agency. The Records indicate in 1854, James Doty was probpost closed in 1876 when the New Agency was ably the first white man to explore this area, although fur traders and trappers who didn’t leave built on Badger Creek. a written record visited the Rocky Mountain Front well before Doty. In 1859, Jesuit priests es- In 1883, Hamilton and Hazlett platted the new tablished a short-lived mission three miles south town of Choteau. Apparently, it still retained of today’s Choteau. Cattle ranching got its start in the moniker “Old Agency” because Hamilton arranged for the post office there, serving the 1853 when James Gibson brought livestock into the country. And A.B. Hamilton and Isaac Hazlett local white settlers, to be named that. It was ofopened a trading post on the Teton River in the ficially dubbed Choteau in 1893. The name is a misspelling of the Chouteau family name. Pierre early 1870s, stocking it with goods brought by Chouteau, Sr. was the head of the American Fur steamboats to Fort Benton.

Company, the dominant trading outfit on the upper Missouri River. The Choteau inhabitants The town’s strongest roots come from “the Old Agency.” From 1855 until 1869, the Blackfeet preferred to keep the incorrect spelling so as Indian Agency was located at Fort Benton. Hosto distinguish their city from Chouteau County.

The town of Choteau is the seat of Teton County, tilities of the settlers against Indians visiting while Fort Benton is the seat of Chouteau Counthe agency there forced the US Government to ty. move it. In December 1868, Captain Nat Pope,