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Transportation Around the Missouri River

3-5th Grade Social Studies

Content Topics

  • Settlement patterns based on geography.
  • Reliance on rivers and how movement around those changed with technological advancements.
  • Montana Highway Commission
  • Economic opportunity with technology advancements.
  • Civilian Conservation Corps, Works Progress Administration.
  • How national agenda items improved, changed or developed
  • Montana, specifically Eastern Montana.

Duration 4 lessons (40-60 minutes)

Objective: 

Students will explore the historical development of transportation in Montana, mostly bridges, ferries, and highway systems. Students will understand developments and advancements in transportation and how they shaped Montana’s economy and either helped or hindered rural areas and communities. Students will analyze settlement patterns pre and post advancements.

 Students will go through a DIG. Students will collaborate to figure out the theme of the DIG. Students will watch a video on ferries that still operate in the state. Students will learn how technology improved transportation which in turn boosted the economy in Montana. Students will participate in a field trip to the historic space of the Jimmy Ferry. Students will create a replica museum exhibit or documentary.

Overview and Purpose:

As we learn about technology advancements it is important to understand how these impacted our region and communities. We will explore the development of transportation in Eastern Montana. We will highlight the role of roads, bridges, and ferries along the Missouri River. We will discuss the impact on communities and individuals as well as economic and population implications from our region to others. We will also look at how transportation shaped the development and settlement patterns in our state. River ferries were a common way to cross the Missouri and Flathead Rivers in Montana even before European settlers arrived. Ferries were a necessity for transporting people and goods across treacherous waters. After the arrival of settlers in Montana the area's most common form of crossing the Missouri River was by ferries and in the winter by foot over the ice. Ferries and steamboats continued to be used as methods of transportation for some years even after the arrival of the Great Northern Railway in 1887. Montana had to keep up with bridge construction to meet the demanding population growth during the Homestead boom. Progress must always be made, and once the first automobile arrived in the state there was a growing demand for highways and roads.

Guiding Questions: 

  • How has transportation allowed Montana to develop over time?
  • How did the geography of Eastern Montana dictate early transportation?
  • How did the development of bridges change Montana's lives?

Education Standards:

  • SS.E.3.3 explain economic interdependence within historical and contemporary contexts
  • SS.G.3.1 examine maps and other representations to identify historical and contemporary political and cultural patterns in the Americas
  • SS.G.3.2 identify environmental and technological events and conditions and how humans and the environment impact each other
  • SS.E.4.1 identify the various pressures and incentives that influence the decisions people make in short-term and long-term situations
  • SS.E.4.2 identify basic elements of Montana's state economic system including agriculture, business, natural resources, and labor
  • SS.G.4.4 analyze environmental and technological events and conditions and how humans and the environment impact each other with relation to settlements and migration in Montana
  • SS.E.5.2 identify positive and negative incentives that influence the decisions people make
  • SS.E.5.3 identify resources and labor that are used to produce goods and services

Materials and Resources:

Local Resources:

Part 1 (40- 60 Min)

Introduction/Hook

Set out the items for DIG: (In the trunk) and print worksheet for students to use.

  • Historical image of the JIMMY Ferry crossing the Missouri River in 1934
  • Image of Culbertson bridge (construction, post construction)
  • Articles related to ferry, and bridge construction
  • Ferry model
  • Bridge model
  • Modes of transportation- horse, wagon, car
  • Population maps

Part 2 (40 Min)

Presentation

As we learn about technological advancements, it is important to understand how these have impacted our region and communities. We will explore the development of transportation in Montana, highlighting the role of roads, bridges, and ferries along the Missouri River. You will learn about the impact on communities and individuals, as well as the economic and population implications for our region and others, and how transportation shapes development and settlement patterns in our state.

  • Video of ferries as transportation in past 
  • Lecture/Presentation: Presentation on transportation surrounding the Missouri River

Part 3 (40 Min)

Overview

  • Student Narrative 
  • Primary source/ artifact: Image, articles, and models of transportation inquiry.

Part 4 (60 Min)

Activity

  • Recreation of transportation individually or with a partner- model, image, or other.
  • Students will share their project with class- Rubric

Extensions

  • Create Propaganda Piece that would influence/ deter the movement of advancement.
  • Field trip/ GPS