Fort Parker

The first Crow Agency, which was supposed to be built where Big Timber is today, was eventually located about eight miles east of present-day Livingston in the year 1869.

Fort E. S. Parker, the first Crow Indian Agency, was built in the fall of 1869, southwest of present-day Springdale, Montana (Big Timber).

It was a difficult location to teach farming, due to constant winds, cold weather, and buffalo herds roaming northeast of the Agency.

The Agency also acted as a line of defense for the people of Bozeman and Crow from assaults by the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Blackfeet tribes.

Fort Parker was abandoned in 1875, even though the Crow and locals from Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley opposed the move east (further into country dominated by the Sioux).