Canyon Ferry Lake, Montana’s third largest body of water may look like a simple recreational lake at first glance, but there is more here than meets the eye.

In the late nineteenth century, the Helena Water and Electric Power Company built the original Canyon Ferry Dam. Then, in 1954, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation completed work on a new Canyon Ferry Dam. The dam further flooded the valley near Helena, Montana, obscuring Lake Sewell, a reservoir created by the original dam, 4,000 acres of farmland, and the entire town of Canton.

Also absorbed by Canyon Ferry Lake was a stretch of the Missouri River traveled by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the latter part of July 1805. This expedition traveled with an Indian woman named Sacajawea, whom they had hired as an interpreter, ambassador, and sometimes guide. The Hidatsa had taken Sacajawea as a young girl from her Shoshone village. The French fur trader Charbonneau acquired her from the Hidatsa as a wife and ultimately brought her to the attention of the Corps of Discovery.

When the Corps reached the Canyon Ferry region of the Missouri, Sacajawea began to recognize the landscape of her homeland. This was good news for the Corps because they needed to obtain horses from Indians for their trek over the mountains.

The Canyon Ferry Dam and Visitor Center is located about 20 miles east of Helena, Montana, and is operated by the Bureau of Reclamation. Here you can learn about Lewis and Clark’s journey through Montana as well as local wildlife and the workings and construction of Canyon Ferry Dam.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History student Jane Gagne.