Fort Benton Summer Celebration

Old Fort Park and Front Street

On the last weekend in June, white tents go up across Old Fort Park in Fort Benton, a Chouteau County town of 1,413 that lies in a valley on the Missouri River below high bluffs. The park holds the celebration’s center. Its gazebo carries the music, and the Cook Shack serves breakfast. Vendors fill the grass under two banners. “Crafts and Things” is the general fair. Art on the Levee, run by the GFWC Fort Benton Woman’s Club, admits only original artwork and handcrafted work, made and sold by the person at the booth, with no dealers and no commercially produced goods. Most of the levee spaces have shade for part of the day. The club’s rules warn that Fort Benton is windy at times and require exhibitors to weight their shelters against gusts of 30 miles an hour. By city ordinance, no pets are allowed in the park.

The 2026 celebration ran Friday through Sunday, June 26–28. Admission was free, with support from the Montana Department of Commerce’s Destination and Event Grant Program. Between the tents stood a nine-hole mini golf course, which charged a fee. Magpie and the Honeybees did face painting and balloons, and on Sunday there were free yard games for children. Festival T-shirts were sold at the Rustic Mug booth near Veteran’s Way.

Front Street carries the rest of the program. The parade comes down it Saturday at 11 a.m. A car show follows from 12:30 to 3:30, and the organizers invited entrants to reserve “your spot on the levee,” from classics and customs to “daily drivers with a story.” A cornhole tournament ran on the 1400 block in front of the Pour House Saloon. In 2026 the music moved between the Park Gazebo, the Courtyard, BSocial, and a Downtown Stage. On Saturday it ran from Cale Younce and Ryan Johnson at noon through Addison Andara, Joselyn and Don, and Joel Corda to the Lucky Valentines at 6 p.m. Trevor Panczak closed the night on the Downtown Stage from 9:30 to 1 a.m., the street dance of the weekend. Fireworks went up after dark. Central Montana’s tourism office calls them “the best fireworks display you will ever see.”

Pie, pancakes, and the Steamboat Levee

Much of the eating raises money for someone. The Friday kickoff luncheon is hosted by First Bank of Montana at 1502 Main Street, with Jamie Carrier, the City Band, and Greg Kinder playing in 2026. That evening the Woman’s Club held its pie contest and auction at the Community Bible Center on 16th Street. Saturday began at 7 a.m. with a pancake and sausage breakfast at the Cook Shack, for the Pool Repair Committee and the EMTs. At 1402 Front Street, Farm Bureau Insurance and the Chouteau County Farm Bureau Federation served a free breakfast at the same hour. On Sunday the Cook Shack served biscuits and gravy for the American Legion and the EMTs. Food trucks open in the park each afternoon or late morning.

At 8 a.m. Saturday, children fish along the Steamboat Levee in a derby sponsored by Fort Benton Hardware, where they sign up. An hour later the Audra Morger-Bonilla Memorial Fun Run/Walk starts at the Lewis & Clark Statue, at distances of 1 mile, 5k, and 10k. Through the weekend the Chouteau County Library on Main Street holds a used book sale. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on 14th Street held an open house in 2026. The town’s museums keep extended hours: the Museum of the Upper Missouri and Historic Fort Benton in Old Fort Park, and the Museum of the Northern Great Plains on 20th Street, both charging admission, and the IG Baker House at 1608 Front Street, which is free.

Fifty years and a Sunday squall

The 2026 edition was billed “50 Years: A Golden Celebration,” and the committee afterward thanked the town for a “monster turnout” at the anniversary parade. The judges named the Morger family Best Historical, Chad’s Shop Most Creative, and the City Band Most Civic. Fort Benton Longhorn Tennis took Best Youth, and First Christian Church took Best in Show. The committee wrote that Trevor Panczak and his band “lit up the night right along side the beautiful fireworks.”

Sunday turned. Late in the morning the committee posted: “Ahh sweet rain! The park is getting packed up, as wild winds are predicted soon.” Molly Wilson’s fiddle contradance, planned for the gazebo, lost its stage, though the post allowed that “she is brave and they may set up somewhere about town!” First Christian Church, the parade’s Best in Show, opened its sanctuary. The sixth annual Dennis McSweeney Memorial Talent Show went on there at 1 p.m.

A statue by the river, 1976

The celebration dates from the summer the town dedicated its Lewis and Clark statue by the river, in 1976. In 2016 Connie Jenkins, then the committee’s chairwoman, told a Montana television station that 11,000 people came to Fort Benton that day: “It was a huge celebration cars were parked clear to the highway. There were people parked on our lawn where I live. It was a huge crowd and a wonderful day.” Arnold Anderson, a Chamber of Commerce volunteer, gave the Havre paper a figure of 10,000 in 2014.

The count of years has not always agreed. The Havre paper called the 2014 celebration the 38th annual. That same summer a television report quoted Jenkins calling it the 48th. The 2016 festival was billed as the 40th, which brings the count to fifty in 2026.

Each year has a theme. In 2014 it was “Year of the Woman,” for the centennial of women’s suffrage in Montana, and Rosie the Riveter appeared all over town. Abby Clark, 11, drew her in chalk. That year the program included an Old West re-enactment and a fishing derby. The parade carried marching bands, color guards, class reunions, and a convertible from each decade since 1920. Anderson said the crowds were smaller than in 1976, but the streets were still packed for 13 blocks along the route. He had met a man from France and a visitor from the Far East who had come to see one particular tractor in the parade. “It’s a busy three days,” he said. Jenkins said that evening’s bands played at Grand Union Square, and that “class reunions get together during this time and people come from all over.” By 2016 she put the weekend’s attendance at about 7,000.

Connie Jenkins’s thirty years

Jenkins directed the event for some thirty years. “Well as soon as this year gets over we start on next year,” she said in 2014. She remembered how small the gathering was when she began. “When we took over, there was only 20 people attending the potluck in the park, and we’ve had as many as 800 people attend that. So it really grew,” she said in 2023.

She announced that the 2023 celebration would be her last at the head of it. At that year’s kickoff luncheon, Ron Young handed out free cupcakes. He had just retired after 50 years in banking, much of it at the First Bank of Montana in Fort Benton. “It’s a wonderful community and a great event, but it’s a lot of work,” he said. Jenkins expected to step back: “Well, I might help with the entertainment next year, but next year, I’ll be able to just sit back and have fun.” On the 2026 committee roster, under Chandee Bomgardner as chair, the entertainment contact is Connie Jenkins, vice chair.