3 June 2017
After leaving the Fort Peck Dam, we headed to Havre, MT. We spent the night just outside of town at
the Hansen Family Campground. It was an overnight
campground with friendly owners and a lot of animals running around. Our plans for a social evening fell apart
with the cool temps and a steady wind of 25 MPH blowing the whole time we were
there.
On our way to Great falls, MT, we stopped in downtown
Havre. We had heard about the underground
town tour and decided to check it out.
The town was established in the late 1800’s as a railroad hub that
helped open up the West. It was truly a
wild west kind of town in those early days and continued to prosper thru the
hay days of the railroads.
In 1904 the town suffered a huge fire in the downtown
district that destroyed many of the businesses in the district. Rather than
close shop during the reconstruction of the buildings, the businesses moved
into the underground basement of the destroyed structures above. These underground structures remained active
long after the surface buildings were rebuilt.
As late as the 1920’s it was an active area involving bootlegging and bordellos.
Today these underground businesses have been preserved
as an interesting part of the town’s history.
We had a guided tour with reenactors answering questions about what it
was like living and working in the underground town.