Downstream (MT)

Downstream Campground is located just below Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River in northeastern Montana. Fort Peck Dam, which impounds Fort Peck Lake, is the first dam built in the upper Missouri River Basin. The area surrounding Fort Peck was first charted by Lewis and Clark in 1804, and the pristine natural condition of the river and surrounding area awed the renowned explorers. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the Fort Peck project in 1933, thousands of people from all over the country migrated to Montana during the midst of the Great Depression in hopes of earning a living. The vast size of Fort Peck Lake and its remoteness from major population centers provide a variety of high quality outdoor experiences: camping, boating, fishing, hunting, sight-seeing, picnicking, biking, hiking, photography, watching wildlife and just relaxing. Fifteen hundred miles of pristine shoreline serve as a haven for those wishing to get away from the stresses of modern life, and there are 27 recreation areas around the reservoir. The areas near and around the dam offer paved roads, electricity, showers and playgrounds, while facilities around the rest of the lake are more primitive with gravel roads, picnic tables and vault toilets. Access roads to many of the remote areas may be impassable in inclement weather. Fort Peck Lake enjoys nationwide recognition as a hot spot for walleye fishing, and also offers excellent fishing for sauger, smallmouth bass, lake trout, chinook salmon and northern pike. The introduction of cisco as a forage fish in 1983 proved successful and has increased both the size and number of game fish. The Fort Peck Lake area and the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge provide superb hunting of deer, elk, big horn sheep and prong horn, and the Missouri River Breaks are known for producing large elk and other game animals. Three miles of paved nature trails wind along the Missouri River and through the surrounding wooded area, a popular birding and wildlife viewing spot, and a disc golf course, The Fortress, was installed in summer of 2021 with discs available to check out at the gate house. The campground offers 86 family campsites, 71 of which have electrical hookups; 16 sites are tent-only. One large group campsite is available with electrical hookups. There are flush and vault toilets, showers, playgrounds, cornhole boards, a basketball court and horseshoe pits, plus an on-site dump station. A shady grove of cottonwoods covers the grassy campground, making Downstream a pleasant place during the heat of the summer; in autumn, the leaves turn a beautiful golden yellow. Three fishing ponds, including scenic Winter Harbor, dot the landscape below the dam. Six recreation areas within a few miles of the dam provide access for water sports, fishing and hunting. The Fort Peck Dam Interpretive Center and Museum, just downstream of the dam, offers displays of wildlife dioramas, aquariums, dinosaur fossils and dam construction history. The Leo B. Coleman Wildlife Pasture, just outside the town of Fort Peck, is home to Fort Peck's bison herd and provides an excellent wildlife viewing auto route, and the historic Fort Peck Theater in town is a popular destination in summer months. The 1.1 million acre Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge surrounds Fort Peck Lake and helps preserve the natural habitat for numerous wildlife species.