Tourism Awards: Tourist Attraction of the Year

This site works closely with the Williston CVB and Chamber of Commerce as well as with the Fairview, MT Chamber of Commerce to market the site. These organizations' websites, along with the Sidney, MT Chamber website, carry the site's programs, open hours, and other information. Most of the oil field businesses have joined the Chamber so the information is disseminated to them. The site has also worked with Target Logistics and other housing companies from the oil field to provide information to residents about the site. Attendance has grown despite the fact that hotel rooms in the area are still hard to come by for tourists. This is a true family destination and the workers are glad to know of a place they can bring their families. Information at local day care centers, the Tourism rest stop program, and TV and radio spots, and social media round out the marketing for the site.

Activities in the summer include tours of historic Ft. Buford, living history during the summer encampment, the opening and closing ceremonies at the fort, History Alive presentations, a permanent exhibit gallery and a temporary or changing exhibit gallery. Year round activities include monthly concerts, Quilting at the Confluence (now concentrating on Civil War quilts), and Ft. Buford History Book Club. The site has great walking paths along the river with interpretive signs that talk about the flora and fauna of the area, as well as the historic significance of the Confluence area of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers.

Special activities include an Easter Egg hunt in the spring, paddlefish seminars at the start of the paddle fishing season in May conducted on site by North Dakota Game and Fish, school tours of the site, and in the fall, a cemetery walk where the dead come back to life to tell their stories from the Fort. The historic site is working with local Boy Scout troops with activities to help the scouts earn badges and with Eagle Scout hopefuls to complete projects. The site is involved in Project WET – Water Education for Teachers. A seminar held on site introduces the importance of water in everyday life to students and a weeklong seminar for teachers gives them information to use in the classroom.

The site works closely with Ft. Union Trading Post National Park, ND Game and Fish Department, and the MT Historical Society as well as other local museums and historical groups.

Fort Buford is usually the first or the last place people visit in North Dakota. They are one of the reasons the state has as good a reputation as it does. For this and for showing the oil field workers North Dakota's quality of life, Fort Buford and the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center deserve to be North Dakota's Attraction of the Year.

Visitation in 2010 = 12,000, Visitation in 2011 = 13,000, Visitation in 2012 = 14,000,

Visitation in 2013 = 14,170

Visitors come from all 50 states and 30 countries.