During the 1877
Nez Perce War, Chief Joseph's band of
Nez Perce camped along Big Spring Creek on the night of September 21, 1877 while trying to escape U.S. Army forces pursuing them. The campsite was near the stockade of the Reed and Bowles trading post which they had visited many times during summer hunting expeditions in the Judith Basin. They visited with Reed telling him about the encounters with the soldiers during their flight from Oregon. In 1879, what became known as the Spring Creek Band of
Métis migrated into the Judith Basin from the
Milk River region north of the Missouri River to hunt
buffalo in the area. The extended families of Pierre Berger (1879) and Francis Janeaux (1880) established a settlement on Big Spring Creek where the Carroll Trail (a freight road from a steamboat landing on the Missouri River to
Helena, Montana) crossed the creek. The site became the town of Lewistown, Montana which was formally established in 1883. As the town of Lewistown grew, the creek, especially sections south of town began to degrade through water diversions for irrigation and power as well as some channelization to straighten sections to reclaim land and mitigate the effects of annual spring flooding. Progressive-minded settlers modified the meandering creek in favor of transportation and agriculture efficiency. Irrigation ditches were dug as early as 1884. By 1886 water was being diverted to power a flour mill. Around 1910, a section the creek was straightened to create a switching yard for the
Milwaukee Road, an area that eventually became known as Brewery Flats. By 1922 Lewistown authorities had tunneled the creek through an 840-foot long concrete conduit beneath the central business district. The hatchery had contributed to a serious pollution situation when in 2003, high levels of
PCBs were found in the creek downstream from the hatchery. The source of the PCBs was found to be from the paint used on the hatchery raceways which entered the creek when paint flaked off in the raceways. The hatchery ceased production for several years while the source of the PCBs was eliminated. Between the early 1900s into the 1980s the Brewery Flats section of the creek south of Lewistown was the site of various industrial activities including a rail yard, coal mine, oil refinery,
feedlot and a brewery. The meanders of Big Spring Creek in the section were straightened and channelized into a ditch that diverted the creek away from the developments. In 1985 the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks acquired of the Brewery Flats section to establish a fishing access site. Although nature had begun to reclaim the developed land with cattail marshes, cottonwood groves, and willow thickets, natural reclamation was impeded by the creek's channelization which eliminated annual flooding and siltation that fosters stream health. After a slow start in planning and securing funding, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks initiative the reclamation effort in 1998. A coalition of local citizens, educators, civic groups, and government agencies—the Brewery Flats Planning and Development Committee—built community support for the $365,000 restoration project. The restoration design called for re-establishing stream meanders that mimicked the historic course of Big Spring Creek. The new channel would meander across Brewery Flats replacing the straight channel where the creek had been flowing for at least 80 years. In September 2000, water was diverted from the old channel into the new meandering course. Today, the Brewery Flats section of Big Spring Creek is much as it was in the 19th century. ==Angling==