Park Pumping Station becomes the first building on college campus

By Keith J. Doll

Havre/Hill County Historic Preservation Commission

President William Howard Taft, by executive order, transferred Fort Assinniboine military reservation from the war or military control to the interior department in 1911. From 1911 to 1913, some people had different ideas of what to do with the empty fort. Under the Wilson, administration the 1913 legislature sold to the state of Montana 2,000 acres of land at Fort Assinniboine for $2.50 an acre, the buildings were a gift. The sale was made that there be an agricultural and industrial school established.

Meanwhile, the Clerk a...