VISIT: Sacajawea Hotel

Refinement in the West

By Taylor-Anne Smith Mountain Outlaw magazine Staff Writer

Three Forks, Montana sits at the Missouri River headwaters and is home to the historic Sacajawea Hotel. Built in 1910 as a rest stop for travelers and train crews settling the West, the hotel is named for Lewis and Clark’s Shoshone guide who provided protection for the expedition to pass through hostile, native territories.

Comprised of two buildings, legend claims that a contractor was ordered to drag the main structure closer to town with a team of horses. Hotel construction was delayed when he gambled away his horse team in a poker game, but the building eventually made the journey.

The hotel closed in 2001 until the Folkvords, a three-generation farming family, purchased and renovated it in 2010. Boasting 29 luxury rooms, two bars, and one of Montana’s premium steakhouses, Pompey’s Grill, the Sacajawea Hotel is now one of the West’s finest historic inns.

This story was first published in the winter 2015 issue of Mountain Outlaw magazine.