Fort Peck Theatre

Fort Peck Dam

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided to build the Fort Peck Dam to make the Missouri River navigable, control flooding, and to provide electrical power and water for irrigation. Other major reasons were to provide jobs to local residents and boost the economy. Interestingly, calls for a dam to be built here started after the Civil War. A trading company's steamer got stuck on sandbar in 1866. Undeterred, the company built four forts in the area and started to trade with local Native Americans. Another company took over a few years later. In 1877, an ice gorge blocked the river downstream, causing a flood that damaged one of the forts. In 1879, the owner asked the federal government to build a dam but his efforts went unheeded. It wasn't until after the Great Depression began in 1929 that efforts to build a dam began again. This time, facing intense pressure to put people to work and support the local economy (among other factors), the federal government proceeded with the immense project. The dam was a project of a Works Progress Administration, one of the federal agencies that provided jobs to Americans. When finished, the dam was the largest in the world.

Fort Peck Theatre

Fort Peck was established to house the thousands of dam workers and their families. To give them a place socialize and be entertained, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the theater. During the construction of the dam (1933-1940), the theater never closed; it showed movies 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Workers paid 40 cents for floor seats and 30 cents for balcony seats (children's tickets were only a dime), and sometimes waited in lines that stretched for several blocks. The theater was meant to be temporary but it operated until 1968.

It is not readily apparent why the Swiss Chalet style was chosen but the theater features typical elements of this style including elaborate woodwork such as herringbone-patterned siding, jig-sawed trim, cut-out balustrades, chamfered beams, and false balconies. Inside, original handmade light fixtures still hang from the auditorium ceiling. It is not clear when the Fort Peck Fine Arts Council, which manages the theater, assumed ownership of the building. The theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

"Historical Vignette: Fort Peck Dam." U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. January 26, 2015. https://www.nwo.usace.army.mil/Media/Fact-Sheets/Fact-Sheet-Article-View/Article/562344/historical-vignette-fort-peck-dam.

The Montana National Register Sign Program. “Fort Peck Theatre.” Montana Historical Society - Digital Vault. Accessed July 23, 2020, http://digitalvault.mhs.mt.gov/items/show/20351.

Nickels, Jack W. & Moore, Mary. "Fort Peck Theater." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. June 27, 1983. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/83001077_text.

"Theatre History." For Peck Summer Theatre. Accessed July 23, 2020. https://www.fortpecktheatre.org/theatre-history