In 1991, it was the best-preserved segment of the Whoop-Up Trail within Montana and it included rut tracks still visible and the surrounding landscape was mostly natural.
[1] A National Register study of the Whoop-Up Trail included "Diamond R. Brown's account of being caught in a tremendous snowstorm in 1871 at Rocky Springs": The Whoop-Up Trail, extending from Fort Benton, Montana, to Fort Hamilton, Alberta, was, initially, a trade route between Montana and the southern region of now Alberta, then known as Rupert's Land, and controlled by a British fur trading company, the Hudson's Bay Company.
In addition to their usual trade goods such as guns, metal implements and blankets, they began supplying adulterated alcohol known as "firewater", to the Blackfeet, for buffalo robes, horses and anything else of value.
This trade continued until the arrival of the North-West Mounted Police, in October 1874, when it was considerably curtailed by their establishment of Fort Macleod.
Whoop Up trail continued to be the main supply route from Fort Benton into the north for mostly legitimate goods.