FORT BENTON — It’s been about a year since Fort Benton was awarded a $1.25 million state tourism grant, and community leaders say the investment is already laying important groundwork.
The funding, awarded through the Montana Department of Commerce, is part of a potential five-year, $2.75 million grant. However, because of Montana’s two-year legislative cycle, only the first two years are guaranteed, and they must reapply to secure the remaining funds.
For a small town like Fort Benton, the grant was a major opportunity.
“Our city doesn’t have a tourism budget. There’s just no place to get that money except from grants, so to get a large grant like that is a very big deal in a small town,” said Joellyn Clark, grant administrator for Destination Fort Benton.
Clark says the first year focused on planning and assessment.
An outside firm conducted a tourism evaluation, visiting businesses and attractions to see the town from a visitor’s perspective. That resulted in a list of nearly 90 recommendations to improve the experience.
“We have a list of, I think, like 88 things that he recommended that we work on,” Clark said. “They were not all costly things either. A lot of them were really simple things.”
Many of those suggestions centered around improving signage and connections along the Missouri River levee trail, one of Fort Benton’s biggest assets for tourism.
The city also completed a new branding project, is redesigning its tourism website, and hired engineers to develop a full tourism master plan, including proposed infrastructure improvements, safety upgrades along Front St. and beautification projects.
While much of year one happened behind the scenes, some projects are already visible.
Through a sub-grant program, Destination Fort Benton distributed funding to support local efforts, including improvements to the Visitor Center deck, ADA access connections between the trail and downtown businesses, mural panels on the historic Choteau House building, and new advertising avenues for the Choteau County performing arts concert series.
Clark says those smaller projects help strengthen the overall visitor experience while larger infrastructure plans move forward.
With the master plan expected to wrap up this spring, Clark says year two will bring more noticeable progress, along with paid media and advertising to attract more visitors.
“Year one was more behind the scenes… year two, we’ll see some really visible progress,” she said.
For Fort Benton, the hope is that the early groundwork will translate into long-term growth, helping Montana’s oldest city draw more visitors and reinvest tourism dollars back into the community.
