Fergus Crude oil to be refined in Lewistown.

              Carroll Will Lie Under New Lake
Was Rival of Fort Benton during Steamboat Days on Missouri River
By Eva Town Murphy 1935
When the huge Fort Peck dam is filled with water, it will cover many historic spots, including some of the early
buffalo feeding grounds, the old Indian trails, many of Montana's earliest ranches and a few old town sites,
forts and trading centers. Some of these communities were founded for trading purposes, to get buffalo hides
from the Indians, to be shipped by boat down the river. Often the whites gathered in groups so as to be safer
from the attacks of the unfriendly Indians. It was very dangerous in the early seventies for a lone man or even
a few men to go out to work, because of the hatred of some of these Indian tribes.
When the town of Kerchival City, at the mouth of the Musselshell River was partially destroyed and all hopes
of its future success abandoned, the inhabitants had to move. Some went back! down the river, but those who
still wanted to pioneer and endure the hardships of frontier life, moved on up the river to a location about
thirty miles farther.
Here they chose a big flat of Missouri River bottom land where there was an abundance of cottonwood
timber. These logs were splendid for building purposes, and they set to work to build a new town. They named
it Carroll in honor of one of its ambitious promoters, Matthew Carroll. .. "Matt" Carroll was a native of Ireland,
born in 1837. He came to Fort Benton in 1857 as a young man, seeking adventure and he got plenty of it in
Montana. He worked at various jobs along the river, but his chief occupation was trading. His death is
recorded in Helena on Feb. 3, 1909.
Old Carroll was situated 35 miles from the present town of Roy, its nearest railroad center. It was more than
175 miles above fort Peck dam and the site will be at the very head of the huge body of water. The Carroll
town site will lie beneath the water, only when the dam is completely filled.
Carroll, unlike most of the other towns, was not built for trading purposes. A few of the friendly Indians came
there to trade, but not in large numbers, and their trade was not solicited like at most trading posts. After the
experiences at Kerchival City, the whites wished to live in peace with the Indians if such were possible. They
built Carroll only for a river port. For a few years it was an early rival of Fort Benton. The river channel was
deep up to this point, but the shallows further up made it impossible for big boats to reach Benton during low
water.
Many men moved down from Fort Benton to Carroll in hopes that the newer town had a more promising
future. Those who remained in Fort Benton were jealous of the new town that took away so much of the river
trade.
Carroll was started early in the spring of 1874, by Carroll and a few friends. In May, Col. Clendennin and his
group moved up from Kerchival City and within a few weeks many arrived from Fort Sheridan. The old fort was
dismantled and all the available material was freighted to Carroll.
A camp of soldiers was regularly stationed at Carroll for protection and other companies came with the large
wagon trains to protect them from Indian interferences or other robberies. The Indians bothered very little at
the new town, but occasionally a wagon train was attacked.