The engineering marvel in front of you is the Fort Peck Dam, the highest of six major dams along the Missouri River. This massive structure, at nearly four miles in length and over 250 feet tall, is the largest hydraulically filled dam in the World. The story of the Fort Peck Dam and Power Plant began in 1933, during the height of the Great Depression.

The Fort Peck Dam was the nation’s largest Public Works Project and was initially constructed to provide flood control and improve navigation downstream. It also created jobs in an economy devastated by the depression. Soon after the very first load of mud, shale, and water was dumped onto the dusty plains of northeast Montana, shanty boom towns appeared, largely out of thin air, but necessary to accommodate workers that claimed 10,456 jobs at the peak of construction. The shanty towns disappeared as quickly as they grew, some now covered by water.

As one can imagine, the construction of Fort Peck Dam was no easy task. Workers on the project toiled long hours, doing back breaking work and experienced many challenges throughout the process. Over the course of seven long years, an estimated 50,000 workers faced risky and dangerous conditions in three shifts, twenty four hours a day. During a time of uncertainty, it was rewarding for many to be employed, receiving a paycheck for their contribution on this massive undertaking. However, it wasn’t without hardship and tragedy. In total sixty men were killed during construction, with one incident leaving an indelible mark on the history of the project.
It was a quiet fall day in September of 1938. The dam was nearing completion, the end in sight after years of labor. Suddenly, the quiet was interrupted by a grumbling landslide, the upstream portion of the east end of the embankment giving way like an avalanche. It was a major setback, with 5 million cubic yards of earth plunging down, burying a pump barge, several tractors, and draglines near the site. 134 men were on the clock during the fiasco. Thirty-four were carried into the sliding material, with 8 men losing their lives, some permanently entombed in the structure.
Construction stalled to investigate the slide, then with modifications to the dam slopes, continued until 1940 when the dam was completed. It spans nearly four miles to block the Missouri River, creating Fort Peck Lake. However, due to shortages of supplies and materials during World War II, the first power house was not ready to operate until 1951. A second power house was completed in 1961. Today, the power houses average 1.1 billion kilowatt hours a year, or enough power to supply a town of 100,000 people. The Memorial Overlook sits above the dam, commemorating those who were lost while contributing to this extensive project, a dramatic achievement of that era.
As part of the 1944 Flood Control Act, Fort Peck Dam is also authorized to provide fish and wildlife habitat, public water, water quality, irrigation, and recreation resources.