With oxen the trip two or three weeks to complete, if the weather was good that is. The trail was freezing cold in the winter and then one of them Chinook winds would blow up and turn ‘em into miles of mud. Summer weren’t much better with dust and bugs. A variety of trade goods were shipped north from Fort Benton: Blankets, calico cloth, hats and clothing, pots and pans, knives and hatchets, hoop iron, flour, salt, sugar, tea, bells, beads, guns and tobacco. In demand, were repeating rifles, cartridges, ammunition and powder, but the most profitable was the trade of whiskey. Alcohol was shipped in pure form in five-gallon tins. At the Fort, it was mixed with variety of other ingredients to give flavour and colour.

While it looked like whiskey, it wasn’t. The actual amount of alcohol varied as much as the recipes used. The whiskey was purchased on site, by the cup or taken in jugs back to the camps, sometimes to be traded again or more often consumed.

Missionaries, like the Reverend John McDougall, complained to authorities in Ottawa in effort to get the illicit trade halted and to gain influence among Blackfoot peoples.  Trading took place in the trade or Indian Room. Usually only a few individuals were admitted into the Fort at a time, particularly if the customers were not known to the American traders or if they had a reputation for making trouble. In the bastion, a slit enabled a man to watch over the trading and if necessary a gun could be poked through the slot to put a stop to any trouble.