Smith River State Recreational Waterway, popularly known as the Smith River State Park, is a protected river corridor and "virtual park" owned and operated by the state of Montana in the United States. The site is not officially a state park, but rather a State Recreational Waterway and managed River Corridor. The park consists of the state-owned Smith River; a Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) put-in access point, Camp Baker; 27 FWP-owned and -leased boat camps on the shore of the river; and the FWP-owned Eden Bridge take-out point. Little of the area is owned by FWP. Much of the surrounding shoreline is owned by the United States Forest Service, United States Bureau of Land Management, and private owners. Through management agreements with other government agencies and private landowners, FWP manages the Smith River Corridor as a "virtual state park". The Smith River is the only river in the state of Montana where a permit is required to boat or float on the river.
About the Smith River
The Smith River is a long river which begins about southwest of White Sulphur Springs, Montana, and continues on a north-westerly and northerly course, passing between the Big Belt Mountains and Little Belt Mountains, before reaching a confluence with the Missouri River at Ulm, Montana. The river is generally divided into three sections. The first begins at the river's headwaters and runs for through a high valley between the two mountain ranges. The second, about long, runs through the Smith River Canyon Valley and features spectacular mountain scenery. The third, about long, begins at the canyon mouth and ends at the river's confluence with the Missouri. This final segment passes briefly through the foothills of the mountains and then onto the Great Plains, the water's speed slowing significantly as it does so. For nearly all of its length, the river is too shallow for motorized boating. Water flows are highest from mid-April through early July, with levels usually dropping too low by late July to permit boating.
A very limited number of roads and private ownership of most of both sides of the river limited public access to the Smith into the 1950s. Some recreational use, primarily fishing, unpowered boating, and "floating" began on the river in the late 1950s. As the public sought greater access to the Smith River for recreation, conflicts with private landowners emerged. Although the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) owned some of the shoreline, these federal agencies were not very responsive to local demands for access. The state of Montana stepped into this leadership vacuum to seek a mutually agreeable solution.
Creating a recreational waterway
Proposals were first made by citizens of Montana in 1953 to turn state-owned school trust land on the Smith River into recreational areas. Although the Montana Department of Fish and Game (DFG; the predecessor agency to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks) supported these recommendations in 1954, and the Montana Wildlife Federation lobbied for them in 1954, 1956, 1957, and 1958, no action was taken by the state legislature.
In 1960, the DFG purchased a site, now known as the Smith River Fishing Access, about north of Fort Logan (accessed today via Fishing Access Road, off Smith River Road north of Montana Secondary Highway 360). Public use of the Smith River increased significantly in the 1960s, creating issues of safety and worsening the conflict between private landowners and the public. To create a new public access site, the Camp Baker Fishing Access Site was purchased from private landowners in 1968. The site, which provided boat launches ("put-in") as well as fishing access, was named after Camp Baker, the original military facility at the site of Fort Logan. DFG attempted to purchase other sites as well, but these efforts failed.
Two subdivisions in the Smith River Canyon, one at Castle Bar and another at Two Creeks, occurred in the 1960s. These deeply alarmed recreationists, who feared despoliation of this most scenic part of the river. Private landowners also worried about additional development, fearing the loss of the farming and ranching lifestyle to urbanization as well as the loss of the scenic viewshed they treasured. In response to these concerns, in 1969 the Montana Fish and Game Commission (the rulemaking body for the DFG) designated the Smith a State Recreational Waterway. This banned motorized boating on the Smith.