Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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THE RIVERMEN
s-
s.
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THE RIVERMEN
By
the Editors of
TIME-LIFE
BOOKS
with text by
Paul O'Neil
TIME-LIFE BOOKS,
NEW YORK
"
TIME-LIFE
BOOKS
Hemy
Founder:
THE AUTHOR. Paul O 'Neil got a first-hand taste of steamboating in the 1930s when, as a
he worked summers aboard Alaska Steamship Company vessels shuttlmg
goods and passengers between Seattle and Alaskan ports. After spendmg more than a
decade as a Seattle newspaperman, he moved to New York in 1944 where he was successively a staff writer for TIME, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and UFE before becommg a hilltime
collegian,
R. Luce 1898-1967
Hedley Donovan
Chairman of the Board: Andrew Heiskell
Presrrfen/; James R. Shepley
Edilor-in-Chief:
freelance in
much
Assistant
T.
Dobie
Kerwin
Assistant Art Director: Arnold C. Holeywell
Assistant
became
workaday
part of
in his
1847
along the
life
painting. Lighter
rest of his
illustrator.
lection,
vice,
Dons
Production,
Norman
Time
LIFE
News
Ser-
Murray J. Gart.
Mary Y Steinbauer
Moolman, Gerald Simons
Designers: Herbert H. Quarmby, Bruce Blair
Staff Writers: Lee Greene, Kirk Landers,
Robert Tschirky, Eve Wengler
Chief Researcher: June O. Goldberg
/?esearc/iers; Jane Jordan, Nancy Miller,
Picture Editors: jean Tennant,
Thomas Dickey,
HUMAN BEHAVIOR
THE ART OF SEWING
THEEMERGE.\CEOFMAN
EDITORIAL PRODUCTION
Graham
Gennaro C. Esposito.
Quahty
Feliciano
Director: Robert L.
Madrid
Young
LIFE
LIBRARY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
THIS
FABULOUS CENTURY
Cox
J.
Cambaren
Copy Staff: Eleanore W. Karsten (chief),
Barbara H. Fuller. Gregory Weed,
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OF AMERICA
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J.
THE
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LIFE
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Published simultaneously
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WORLD LIBRARY
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HOW
1975 Time
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Littles,
LIFE N.ATURE
LIBRARY
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THINGS
WORK
IN
YOUR HOME
75-7913.
"
CONTENTS
The great
44
3 "Steamboat acomin'
I
83
121
159
6 In service to the
'
Army
200
Credits
234
Acknowledgments 236
Bibliography 236
Index 238
St.
Louis levee
in the
1850s,
beginning to
!
1;
,J
>>
It
imi) ^'?
?*<r^
'^ .^-^.(W/^S .-^
.
'>'^.
,f
Vl
"^
..2.
':'
^^
.^
r*
--^
^^
tiUh-^^t
-[^';^;:::-^
1
"A
Rock-
later,
it
provided
thousands of prospectors to
ies"
men from
the Mississippi
all
the
way
first
and
Mountain
The
promises.
a mile
ploiters, the
the West.
1
It
Missouri was
the key to
Rocky
voyage.
nvermen. Beginning
in
1859,
railroads
wrote
1857,
"The broad
mud
its
ornenness matched
current,
Richardson
flowing
conveyed
it
gold.
river's
journalist Albert
"is
War,
in
"
a stream of
"
Yet hun-
ry days
like
were
river
The
its
east of Fort Benton, the river has retreated (at right) from
furthe flank of the main trough to form a narrow channel
ther constricted
';W
'W)s.-,ir
at the left.
>*
Kw
like
Flat-bottomed Mackinaws
Chance, about
to leave Fort
cheap alternative
Benton
in
1878 provided
downriver-bound
passengers and cargo. After the one-way journey, the makeshift craft
10
r >i
of Bismarck,
Dakota
Territory, in
its
187
The
elk antlers
of the steamer
v-
t T
7.
,x
;;,
-^'
^
^v
A\
i:
STKll
BI
Mr
NTGM
The
ramshackle
boomtown
gable point on the Missouri, appears deceptively sleepy during a low-water spell in 1868. When the river was high,
as
many
dock
Montana
to
unload
gold camps.
^--^^^
^OXJBT
'^'/
l-i
MOaiCAI* I4MB
'^t
\L\V, "-TAX
III II
II
-TtXlI
ak-%sr>an 'rHAiw>r>a
H1T
amason:q)
ISABEL:
WM.
111
Law
MX
CHDUTEA1I. Huttr.
r cBonuir, Oak
B MILLER, Master,
t-IH\.
i&.l
p.
l"*l
lli<-
r 1^ L-<u^-m.J ^-.-.nNl"'"f
"t
o'ci
ft. F. M.JH
l'->-i..-.-,--*l^ilW"'"?"''y
rornvlsMor PMa<e
,\^
3j J >^
5Foa arissouRi
xtivi-.r.,
^>ij
~
- iS
j^"
'
* 3!j^'
*u 'ji
'
~>
Jt^^*^
-'^-^
,-.,.,
i*
*i/
BEiui llAY
Tilt
Pffiiffl Pimt.
M.w. i:u:-;.\M
-\\ ::
SAM
-.1
\Mi;!
(il.OOl'.
X'
ysas
ssaw isii
IHtl.LAM)
^n^tt-Ui*-^ Z""
H,
-1.
Will leave
III!
At
inst
at 4 o'clock, P.
I'll)'
^sv e7x^u8Si,
i'
Xi
o'clock.
NlM-lHr.
llie
4.
/^
^hhl.,
c-^ M.
M.
[BlMMlIsfimf
On Monday,
_^
and Leavenworth.
Atlantic and
M^^-.^^i^l-i^>yi St.^aiii,liii>
C'ojnpHny.
COUNCII. BLUFFS
& OMAHA.
'
r^ '.aBbbr
i-JT
K.
VVLII
!'.
OWKN',
Leave on
Apply on Board, nr
Steamer JUIalA!
JOS. WIDEN, MASTEP.
-Mnstei-.
at
l
^:^^-^^JL:'-
TS'T
P.M.
Anent.
'A'iMa-^,^^^^*
Lmrts
APPLr
Ihr
0.\
BO.\RD OR TO
at
o'rIOrk.
ing
Squads
cap, "early
&
Prowling
in
of
this spring
fools-
"
Such
Lurkif
they
displays of
to the unsettled
West by
earlier.
the second
Edwards, then
(or
mud)
clerk of
the
was a riverman
the Montana-bound
just
9,
West
as
it
looked to
men who
Indians
Muddy
by land.
rather than
seemed
like pirates
when
anchoring offshore
"24 Musketts
their Racks. The
&
ready
for
an attack.
Our Fource
could have
fired
trade,
Missouri River
their rivals.
3,000-mile
most
by
solely
but a prairie
Horse,
wagon
al-
trains
1880s.
When weighed in conjunction with its network of westward-reaching tributaries, the Missouri River was,
for
Men
ical
kingdoms,
The
followed
tunes, adventure
and
glory.
and those
who
Red River
of the
South
and
into
in
the burning
of these
Muddy
in size or
who
it
rivermen
its
strategic role in
American
it
was
truly
The
vastness,
its
its
its
wild-
history of the
might believed,
in-
to the
it
Gulf
of
Mexico.
It
was
17
Unable to ford the river, trappers and their Indian helpers use
a buUboat as a ferry. Such crude, short-haul craft, invented by Indians, were constructed by lashing water-soaked
buffalo hides over a frame of willow saplings.
was recorded by
18
artist
The
in the
scene
1830s.
To
To
the
mighty
It
West //To
fvlissouri rolls
was the
down
of
the free!/
West!
the
Where
the
to the sea.
the land
and the
23
the Mississippi
led the
It
state of
Kansas
right at the
miles, dividing
allel
of
Montana
elliptical
Rocky Mountains.
Muddy and
men who invaded the vast wilderness it embraced. The Missouri Valley cradled some
of the most warlike of American Indians: Osages, PawBig
of
band
nees, Arikaras,
band
after
of Sioux,
and
finally,
And
the
gref^t
who
stream
used
it.
itself
"I
demanded
har-
wrote the French Jesuit Jacques Marquette when he and his fellow explorer Louis Jolliet ap-
more
frightful,"
at
"A mass
The
water began
in
April
when
The
first
period of high
snowmelt raised the levels of its tributaries, often drowning the main valley under endless vistas of hurrying
June when
rise
occurred
in either
May
rising
and
fall-
upon
19
!.,i"
WASHINGTON
i-^ER R T O R Y
I
Though
it
work
of
flatboat
hauling
to the
Pordand^^he"Da"ile5,,,~"~
major waterways.
1819
vast watershed
six feet of
portals to the
wealth. In
all,
ways
to exploit
ly
on the upper
river in
1859, a true
these corridors.
2,000-mile net-
ready-made pathways
could carry up to
350
drawing only
inches
tons, while
of
water
_^
Dugout canoe
Keelboat
Mackinaw
A C
OCEAN
Side-wheeler
MILES
Stern-wheeler
20
100
200
A K t
-J!!-?
CANADA
^
rorl
Cooke
Camp
"^
r,
Benton
DAUPHIN RAPIDS
,
Great
Fall;
m Cow
'c.
^''5
_:,=,
rort btevenson
^.
S^'""'"i""''
'i:iiir
-F^rtRice
PON^^vs
4^.
MINNESOTA
-^
sUPtRfo^j
Fort Berlhold
<?^^ /"^.e/,/,^,! R-
Buford
Fort
FortUniA
'^/,
.-^'t
J-
.'
Island
MONTANA
TERRITORY
Helena
Tk ^^ c,L^
IhieeForks
"T-
__l
-5-.
DAKOTATERRITORY
>
WISCONSIN
1^
BLACKMltts
im'^
*^.k!
"\
Fori Randall
Yankton \
i
1
"'</
/
"^'p---
Y"
WA
NEBRASKA
\.)
Omaha.i.
^,
Council Bluffs
IN
ikh
*'l
WYOMING
TERRITORY
-LakeiCfty^,ij
Fort
Thompson
(-
kl
^1
Fort Pierre
>^
-/-
Fort Sully
TO R Y
Nebraska City
i-
'^
/
St.
^
^/
J
Joseptr
Independence
"^
Westport Landing
Cincinna^#
*Y
C.I
.L w*
rort Leavenworth
-^TO L R A D O
v\*' '^ERR TOR Y
j.0^
DIANA
ILLINOIS
.^-
^-
Lexington
pi
'
X\
c. c\
. Charles
^^
If St.
'
Jefferson City*
r'
Louis
'
di;'
KANSAS
l^A.,
MISSOURI
"
Vr--
KENTUCKY^
^^---
4^-.i-'.L.L*Jlo]
r"
TENNESSEE
- ?
ARKANSAS
INDIAN
TERRITORY
NEW MEXICO
TERRITORY
Louisville''
J
A^
rr:
Tfn"f>i,.
"
___
'y
\
-1
MISS.
J
j
ALABAMA
T"
1
'
TEXAS
J
( Natchez
\
V
:;"
LOUISIANA
New
MEXICO
Orleans
\
GULF OF MEXICO
N
ti
21
A helmsman wields a
Mackinaw on course m this sketch by artist William Cary. With a fresh wind fo
help the oarsmen amidships, the craft was
a
able to cover
wmter, and
The open
of vessels that
rent.
fires
Dense clouds
to the
bank was
sinking, allowing
lit-
their eyes."
Its
great
northwestern arc not only led on to the Rockies, but enclosed an enormous system of tributaries; these streams
Colorado
Wyoming and
usefully sited
300
every other
which con-
oming plateau.
It
Wy-
Valley of the Great Salt Lake, and by most of the fortyniners pursuing California's golden dream.
Two
hun-
the wilderness
of traders
The way
men
Muddy. Cunning,
boats up to
in
"bullboats
circular,
clumsy
little craft
made by
(which tended
to
work
22
of
little
coracles could
down
short
infested bars
were
70
feet
long,
given
downworked
stream. However, Mackmaws could not be
against the current, and the long upriver voyages were
big oar at the stern
of cargo
negotiated in but
two kinds
of craft:
Keelboats ran as
1
5 to 18 feet
much
as
70
feet in lengtfi,
were
on
either side,
by a narrow, cleated
walkway on which crewmen labored in poling the vessel upstream. There were seats for oarsmen from six
to 12 of them forward of this enclosed storage space.
A small brass cannon was usually mounted on the keelboat's
bow and
its
graceful keelboats.
from
shout
aft,
to
ment
for a
keelboat also
of this type
rowed, poled or
tow
The
sail
which was
had a mast which
a steering oar
sailed,
necks
bank.
ly of
craft
in
for
one
most-
23
from 1682
covered"
was
a French stream
nine years after Marquette and Jolhet "dis until 1803, when was ceded to the
it
it
Mormons came
Iowa by water before
all
And
toil
inland waters.
river
and
by the
bars.
The
hrst
little
whiskey and
iron castings
May
own
down on
as
following In-
them
if
St.
gradually,
and Missouri
managed to
not a few of
in
Army
invasion of their
at
began to respond
in force.
Dakota,
to Fort
hunting grounds
Scores of steamboats
posts in North
of
Army
at the head
200 miles
river in
These Missouri steamboats were ingeniously conceived: shallow-hulled, broad-beamed, multitiered craft
(as they finally evolved) that
way
last
many operated on a fleet basis by new business combines churned upstream from new railheads at Sioux
the
It
was drawn into its new role for a multiplicity of reasons: gold was discovered in Montana and Idaho, the
the steam-
in-
Louis Frenchmen
keelboats
pilots
if
Sioux rebelled
proved,
decades as an occasional,
re-
after
250
1860s,
to
1819
peated.
dependence
In the
souri's snags
the
got a
Union,
in
paddle-wheel
little
present-day North
would
float in shoal
water
to the
The
smoke-plumed new vessels became the real key to exploitation and development of the northwest before the
in
The
Rockies, with
their
promise of
was devoted
furs
most challenging
War
and gold,
goal.
paddle
Nevtraffic
ter
ern waters.
were
Its failings
for the
used on the
And
were
smaller, ruder
and
far less
waves of Western emigrants to rude river camps (Westport Landing for the forty-niners. Council Bluffs for the
Mormons) which became springboards for overland
travel. This burgeoning trade, like the lesser traffic to
the mountains, stemmed from St. Louis
the French
town that became an American city and the gateway to
the West for travelers who came down the Ohio from
lore as
migrants bypassed
U .S. at New
24
New
German
im-
East-
all
characteristic of
linger in
American
folk-
Twain, was
Some
little
mosquito
Mark
netting.
added to
"settle the
mud")
En
route to their
Salt
Lake Valley
the side-wheeler
in
Omaha
Ne-
at Florence,
^"
^a**';**-'''^''"*^'*'-
:*^f'
TaMAn/n
f^lP*L
^'1
*r=^
c:c.
L&
.^
J?
I''
tfie
moving
Squalor
thirsty a
he lobbed
it
was the
portion of
on the
for sleeping
jostle roustabouts
own
and hremen
cats,
which were
in-
crucial to
summoned by
It
bottom
at
sand bar.
poles, or spars,
back, crutch-fashion
hull.
passing scenery
two huge
new
barns as
if
far
powered by
known
by movement. This process
more colorfully, as "grasshoppering
first,
the captain
And
ves-
river in
25
-tW-HHM'QIr
aying
lowstone sand
bar.
was
able to
wash away
the
silt
beneath.
^in';3u^2i::-*
Steamboat
with
upriver.
channel.
struggling
25
U
Hermann
31
Osage Kiver
30
8
78
95
68
33
Mouth of Missouri
St. Charles
Jefferson City
Glasgow
Lexington
Kansas City
Leavenworth
Saint Joseph
03
1^5
175
Omaha
Sioux City
Vermillion
'.12
Yankton
53
96
90
Fort Kantian
BnileCity
Brule Agencv
31
7
FortThompson
Head of IJig Bend
40
=i
'^
25
Fort Sully
12
Cheyenne Agency
Grand River Agency. 18
Stand'g Rock Agency..56
34
40
5
110
Fort Stevenson
25
FortBerthoM
White Earth River.... 20
125
FortBuford
Fort Rice
Fort Lincoln
Bismarck
to
1906
2016
2040
211%
2.'i
ISG Spread Eagk104 Wolf Creek Agency. ...26
3ii
242 Porcupine Creek
25
3.17 Milk Kiver
10
4i 5 FortCopelin
I.'i
4(8 Kort Peck
40
5ul Rouche's Crave
37
080 Round Bute
40
8lil Trover i'oint
43
!i5:; Mufciesliell Kiver
37
llawlcy
KKMi Fort
2i
lliS Cnrri.ll
2121
2147
45
W
]2"
Ii!i2 r.iltle
Two Calf
Island
l2S(i Cow Island
,,,. Bud's Rapids
"auplun's Hapids
1240
KortClaggetl
1479
Arrow Kiver
Steamboat Rock
Hole in the Wall
Citailel Uock
l.ii9
lOn'J
18il
Fort Benton
2
14
251)3
26
2577
2581
25s 7
2.590
2.598
2613
2637
2663
1994
OVERLAIVD DISTATVCES
From FORT BENTON
Sun River and Fort Shaw.
Helena
Blackfoot
Diamond
175
193
City
Deer Lodge
to
60 Phillipsburg
140 Maria's Cros'g,
170 Fort Belknap
2 iO Cypress Mountam.
240 Fort-McLeod
265 Fort Edmondton
Missoula
Boseman
Virginia City
285
75
90
140
Simmons F'y
Blackfoot Agency
Fort Walsh
I
)
B A
"
"
160
225
475
with less outward tribulation than males. Pilots and captains occasionally took their
ing the
Montana
by "planting
ber
dead man"
m a ditch ashore,
if
up the
against
by
rifle fire
recalcitrant Indians.
rest.
settlers
And
the wives
were treated
such.
They seemed
like ladies
in
doing
so:
perhaps with
assumed
that
"the
wrote
killed
in
"unpacked the
fruit
m Omaha)
to
is
soon noting
She seemed more disturbed by the all but unnoread by the capticeable attendance at Sunday service
fastening a cable to
1860s even
its
hrst
hll
to
swept stern
2v!K7
2501
3
S
13
24
<
2227
23
Eagle reek
1724 Coal Ranks
1749 Monlh of Marias
lOli
.'212
2.523
2.538
02
15
15
1.35!i
2-.!
20
15
12
15
12 3 Harriett's li-land
2177
2304
2344
2387
2424
2446
2461
2473
2488
251 8
Kocky
Mouth of Yellowstone 2
Mouth Little Muddy. ..20
30
Mouth HigMudily
Moulh Poplar Creek... .50
2(i
up
and forcing
in a reckless
if
when Trover
later
sitating repairs
vessel), fires
onds).
28
If
(steamboats went up
bottom out
river ob-
of a hull in sec-
was
her ladies
'
its
guard
rail
broken"
Mrs. Sanders'
Men were
in
on
hit
neces-
"three of
call.
usually
more
restive.
One R. M.
Whit-
irri-
"
promised only
tated
the
at
1872
sparring in
he began to
nigger!"
constant
yell,
clatter
damned
named Al Leigh-
A trader
of
"Stop
that
at
Will
'
break-
Qw^jnh,
.v.
I.
lljp
it
"with dispatch.
to depart
iU
Ih,'
r r
Ti-
KioDT, i&Mtr,
BLd ltlt^lmtdi<
I jr
all
night.
passenger
Some
hold.
all
blowing up.
Still,
^-
wilderness
dreamy beauty
vistas
through
Apiil
.[[
Ulh
k1 4 p.
flected
them
Few
or
the backhanded
Kpply oD boud.
AdTrtling Ag^
and
!<" raiS
DAVUITATCM
SleAiiiei
t.alrg,MiMtar,
^^'1' '**
jfWg^^H^ !.".
00
for
J.
ll)i
TU13 DAY
A WllBumi.
muK-,
SUam^r
_
^>I.>UTI1
it^^r
WKiliB
WiU !,*
fc
r(,r
iba
i*ii,iTa
April, ISlh at 10 a.
f"_Piu apply
'?'ilT'''"
AUION
L. EYLAMD.
,,
_1'P
P-cifl; liaiiriAj
u 'ard
AdverUaui Ag't,
cbin3,;D,
April
Uth
at 10 a.
It.
_LiP
L.
RYLAWD Adrenlalm
Ag't.
'"Mn"
_'"iP
SI.
Jon|>k.
ilF.TE-.U
DralfcD, maater.
thp bIioto and lDtra>dUt
"porn. THUKSOAY April Uiu at 1 p. M.
For fr-ibi or pa.afc,. apply on board.
A. L BYLANU Advcnialbg Ag't.
111
hay*
f.,r
<il.an_^Ni;WWAREAOI.K
White, tnvter,
Wf> 1^ Wdl l*.aTe f.jr the ^U-^b and tnt^rmediata
jg_^^ TU -n FKIUAV April, liih al 10 i. .
For ftolgbt or paauga apply on board.
A. L._BYLANI)^_Art^j^iij 4^.,.
1 1.
_'3ap
SDITOB
^\t
as
law
ticed
apli
a.aamer
ii-'s-
M.
C^:;;i;rEi5S,
FL/RILDA
-
ALSIO.V L
tinc-
Missouri,
in
Shreve
in
1869
his tablets of
of the Boil-
way Home
their
Ualdaiu, oiAafcr.
to tie
with a bright
lightfull
&
Shining
fast
Ranges
boat."
&
the Senery
Picquereste
&
Sun
Grand &
genial
is
&
of Hills
High Roolling
ing
down Sweeping
111 I.A.ND.
Shore
Art t^.-tlaiiut
Ag't
until her
Rudder.
to be detained a day or
looseing the
Rudder
two
at least.
entire
We are now
it.
Woods
to get
Timber
&
terred
Edwards soon
be-
large
enough to make an entire new Rudder.' The second engineer then died of "Typhod Fever in his lungs and
good
This misfortune of
yellow paper.
well as
City,
q^,,
"
"One
Seam 6
IZBAbft.
th AlmTvftnd iDtemibdlAto
DAY. April 1311. >l 1 P ,.
"ap
lap
a time
for
got Yz
ers
BYLANU
Blttll-,
JTBEAD EAGLK
^^'^1 imvolor
M
fj/^^jL
di-
glid-
tot Irclght
A. L.
!"*'>'
TUta^UAY
forC'DDCil
roruin
?y
He was
Mates drank on
W. S-JU&AiiT
,
gtelmcT
all
"The
it.
nal who slyly reported these personal peculiarities also offered his
personal answer to river travel: sleep
11 -i.ii illi".
8ttiiijer vj.
night.
8taii>tritOK)'l.VO fcTiH
Wilhrow, nj.ait<.r,
^>in leavo r.r the aVx-To and InterniodUta
poru, uo THIi DAY April lath at 4 p. M.
Fur rr.lK .1 or pMKigo apply on bganl.
_iap
ALJVIIN 1. RYLA.VD AdttT:lBlQg A i^t
.
same engine sound. Dan Scott, correspondent for the Sioux City Jour-
L- \iu,;L--u.
iftji
l^Bv.-
"
on Pochahontas Island
&
&
followed to
Passengers
as
took a
channel. Emilie
won
boats
fast
and
were
for
side, in the
sonal waters
wake.
cut passable.
ending
after
became
down on
At
their
a no-
pilot
a few miles.
As
and
brief
pilot then
was indeed
let
One
it
was
gle
railroad builder,
first territorial
in
1870s
Montana took
place on the
1862,
off
we
each
folfig
Accumulated steam
us past them and such
puff.
soon cairned
lat-
who was
The
from their
rejoicing
to brighten.
all
way
finally
Now,
the
in the hrst
glimmerings of
dawn
Benton began.
"Our
shoved
30
off,
"
Hauser
recalled.
"Gath-
The two
and Emilie
enraged
pilot,
according
holding him.
Pandemonium swept
"
point
steam
damage.
lot,'
was
boilers, she
on Emilie's decks
passions for a
deliberately
of impact
"
into Emilie,
1885.
in the
and Montana's
governor
bow
Montana
to become
for the
and destined
the rival
"He
pi-
talked
us
faces
began
helms.
"Fortunately,
ported, "the
their
own
"
"
last
in front.
petition.
"
Emilie cirnved
at Fort
ton on June
submerged because
waters.
to star-
rival,
Ben-
of fleet-
owner (none
compensated
more than
damage.
at
H.
in
Half Mast
funeral
ceremoney
in a
Interest
&
Solemnities of a
more appropriate
place. Capt.
it
in a
&
Humain
man-
Manly
The
their
drift
in
were
duced
difficulty
often re-
"
on sand
bars.
Edwards was
grateful,
half cords of
tonwood
St.
Louis
Hot
at
it.
critical
dickered for
and oth-
But scarcity did not entirely blunt Edview of the people with whom he
fuel.
The
Dog
24 days out of
&
poor cotton
wood
at
$5
Canadian French
&
Benton and
his
on
its
process of evolution in
hnally
large vessels
come
built to
greed
into use
on the
and
grief.
Missouri
for
In the late
"mountain
"
trav-
1860s, however,
dozen.
They were
they drew
six or
seven
feet,
a great deal
were lured
to Fort
of the
down
"
or
Some
cords of Cot-
five
Yard
er staples for
Yz
Wood
($62.50)
wards'
hardwood and
Springs
it
prompted: as high as
$300
bound
to the
all
for a
cargo
"
up a
all
to flinders,
rapids, putting
60
bill for
cords
the trip
number
of these lower-river
when
"
"
"the Sport
all
approached
Riffles,
&
Crew.
&
When
Sharps Shooters
Passengers
or were so victim
ized by rascality and ineptitude
as were the 275 unso thoroughly miserable a voyage
wonderfully persuasive
for all
town.
at
the
was underway.
young prospector named John Napton who had
their vessel
We
organized and
They
275
passengers
One of them:
"everyone
in
order to lighten
men when
plans
it
all
we were
headway, some
little
away
we
concluded to cut
all
Napton
which head-
floor.
ed downstream without a
pilot,
of amenities
when
which snapped
bar; the
man
tention.
The
if
as Imperial
off
a sand
around
in freezing
if
plight
up the
and on
their
way down
their
like
5 passengers
to
fee for
who
decided, wisely, to
which Benton
cision caused
out to follow
howls of
in
Benton
skill for
second
This
pilot
last
de-
safely returned
We
was confusion
in the
morning
way
that
in
to bring in the
Arnold had
Most
of the ar-
from what
"
Imperial, for
all
month
32
and hor-
criticism
of arrows, scalped
full
could
And
ribly mutilated.
money
who
Yellowstone
sand
wade
since the
and would
would be over."
The restiveness of those on board was assuaged at
this point by a vast herd of buffalo which began crossing the river just below the vessel. "Everybody was
eager for the chase. Both yawls were soon full of men
bring
and
shift
hull.
was almost
hides stowed
more than a
would come
to our relief.
sig-
We now
at
to give us
all
full
last
was
them.
They were
remarks made.
in
An
old
in
served as long as
Mormon who
worms
generally sat at
would
give us a dis-
bad but it might be worse. I landSalt Lake Basin in '46 and lived without flour for
ed
six
in
months and
it
little
is
lined
with bull berries and rose bush balls and they are both
good
is
little
thin
flesh,
"
who
"a
man named
in the
Pitcher
morning
sleep
how
is it
satisfied
said to
The
with the
He
sit-
lowliest
regular berths.
never
answered, 'To
tell
you the truth. Jack, I have had bread all the time, and if
you will properly approach the steward and at the right
time, you can get bread too but it will cost you something.' This I immediately did. The steward, realizing
whither we were drifting, had cooked up a lot of bread,
how much 1 never found out. He had taken off some of
the weather boarding and stowed the bread away in the
side of the cook room and was selling it to passengers.
He handed me a loaf that in any bakery could be
bought for five cents and would only charge me five dollars for it. Where could I eat it? My cousin, Lewis
Miller, suggested that we go to bed, and if anyone came
upon us we could hide it under the blankets and we
finally did, although it was only about 4 p.m. After this
33
Overlooking no ploy to
attract
new
business, steamboat
owners made sure that the mail they carried bore their vespassengers,
sel's name. Special stationery was supplied to
aboard.
came
that
letters
all
hand-stamped
purser
and the
'i^^
^^^^'^i^vv^'
>:
,va:
^^- ^'Ou/e
\^
^tV B-^v^'*r^
**.
**
l^jf^^j
i\. \^
^. ^^^^^^r. ci'1%1-
34
^^--<**<^
Northwest
Trrti>s|Mrfati<>n Td.
I'erk Lin>
H.
*
BELK. Muter.
J
C.
E.
WOOD,
BISHABCK, D.
T.
Clerk.
A bluff of sandstone,
82
miles downriver
from Fort Benton, so impressed artist Alfred E. Mathews that he sketched the land-
mark
low
fol-
^jau
..iv>?!!f-j.i
'^^il%j'^
was
satisfied in
it
was
a fight to the
Bismarck
is
now
The
Lewis and
boat tied
It
Two
extending
life,
its
One
in
was one
every direction.
silence
of the
It
The want
of
all
animal
men
said,
'Look
at
tell
you
right
in
a derelict
The
halt
Mackinaw's
made
36
Mack-
men went
ashore and
trees.
of the
whether the
"The
surrounding country.
-j:-;'fir'>
us
left
until they
river
was
on the bank
reached a
it,
seemed
buried
that they
in four or
raft.
to discover
wide and to
would miss
hve
it,
feet of sand,
mud and
down
The looming
formation
known
as Citadel
channel of the
time than
in
a helpless con-
we could and
river.
They
could
in
hunting
make
better
rial's
and
how
down a
souri,
was resigned to
who
fretted at interminable
own
left
to
eptitude, cynicism
pilots reacted
his cousin
an ex-
he seldom gave
But
if
a pilot
when
by
ply ordered extra fuel into the hreboxes, tuned their senses
to the resultant
vibration and,
with
their
ears.
37
At
feet
and pours
its
lesser cataracts.
bound
for the
From here
Rockies had
on, travelers
to
go overland.
it^
single
day exhausted
and they were treated with some care since the boat
in
like
slow cannonading
The
a cacoph-
was always
ony that could be heard for miles under even normal operating conditions, and this attained a howitzer-like
intensity as pressure mounted. The racket would some-
lost.
"it's
times culminate
in
together.
fast
noisily
in fact,
Linesteamer/aco6S/rac/er
low-pressure engines
&
up through
The
public,
Louisville Packet
"Oh,
hell!" cried
one
pilot,
steaming on
after
only an Irishman!"
men
called in
life.
Fire-
mained on
call
day and
night, slept
when
at
At the same time that Missouri River steamboatmen were catalyzing America's posture toward engine
The
power and speed, they were magnifying other American attitudes. Steamer ofhcers, for example, were cer-
contempt
for ethnic
ger
ice.
was frequently execrable though bigpackets served them pans that were full of passencrew's food
when summoned by
"
their
hands
and upper-
ally
bias
38
in
coming upstream.
re-
they could
toil.
German immi-
The
is 2
miles above
where three rivers from the
Rockies join. Lewis and Clark named them
Missouri's origin
Great
for
bers James
^^#
of
whom
were thought
forgiven for
were
it
since they
all.
Steamboat mates
no part
in
mem-
Gallatin.
M^^.^''f
many
Falls,
little
managed with
their hsts
and
or
vessel were
Some
a continuous administra-
them used clubs (and carried pistols since the roosters carried knives) and there
were a brutal few who were not above shooting a recalcitrant deck hand and heaving the corpse overboard.
tion of profanity.
But most
of
"kicked
Still,
in
working conditions
least
if
they
went on strike during the harvest season, when alternative employment abounded. Moreover, roustabouts
were not as discontented with their life as some of these
and since they were paid
episodes would suggest
(though badly) in actual cash, most of them skipped
every third or fourth trip to heal their bruises and blow
their
money
in
on a steamer was rude, and if the vessel herself was a dangerous contraption engaged in a frustrating and unpredictable contest with nature, she was
But
if life
and was
re-
ceived uncritically and usually, indeed, with admiration by people for whom risk and hardship were the
street hght in
warp and woof of existence. Captains, pilots and owners were not only adventurers but men of dignity and a
certain sentiment. Listen to the names of some Missouri steamboats: Arabia, Andrew Jackson, Daniel
most.
The
practice
Sioux City
in
deck hands
who
left
the boat at
39
>>ff?-
*"^
'^^f^::^
fA
YA^
an
i*!>
c-^-/
.'
**ji
iimjiiiiuijiiumHijii^
f-^:i.
'
::v-
a plate
ist
he interpreted
his sketch,
magic
as Indian
it
make
to
the
And
no
pilot or captain
could
up the endless stream every year, covering regular beats or "trades" in the process, and stopping every
Most
farther
like Bellefontaine's
tleville
Bend, Overall's
Wood
Yard, Cat-
to the frontier
who
mooring
in
up
Benton
And
landing
for a night at a
in
Missouri watershed.
upper
river:
and striped
and loahng.
duplicity, in begging
human
itself.
Some 700
different
of these about
300 were
destroyed
after
in service
trees.
1900;
and
after
left
being
ad-
to
the
who
pilot or captain
But the
"
They seem
resentful.
main the
of Indians
stops on the
and
wood
at
But no
let
stealing
there
of these people
a trip to
her up
filled
Arrow Rock.
water
rising
must... re-
until
our gov"
when
a grandeur,
was blue
it
led the
along
many
leagues of
its
valley, as to
lows.
Enormous
deer, elk
rafts of
and battlements
ers
ducks floated on
flight,
its
shal-
and countless
tow-
its
eddies and
sheep
it
Rocky Mountains.
The river itself grew increasingly
to the
There
its
Cow
threatening in the
soft
which
were
Ben-
sand to hard
1
5 stretches
continuous dan-
them sank in the narrow channels at river bends and became impediments to navigation themselves. Wrecks
were so much a part of river life that they were sometimes received with a certain ennui: a report on the sinking of the steamer Washington stated, "Two sisters,
large and fat, floated and were picked up by a skiff
another woman, thin and lean, sank and drowned.
of white water in
The
.
"
hulls
in
Mecca was
pilot's
Benton.
And
won
through to discharge a
$40,000
The steamboat
"
filled their
hulks with
mud and
bottom, but
ef-
$80,000 a
a proht of
on
offered such an
forts to raise
42
alas,
on a
barrel of
whiskey
re-
1866
made
Few
amalgam
small fortune in
of danger,
when
the
,>^f-
^**-
.X
^
\y
E-Vv
^5
u
\
43
St.
Louis
ported exultantly:
"We
view
this pas-
in
logs.
Rowing,
than not
sailing
hauling
and
their
more often
clumsy
craft
immence advantages
pended an
Their glowing
to the hr trade."
tales of the
beaver
in
-*
Muddy.
Entrepre-
entire
summer
in attaining
in
But
beaver coun-
120
worth
the then-
tidy
hrst journeys.
tetic
German
imilian,
But
in
1833, a peripa-
naturalist.
Prince
Max-
artist,
it
was before
-JT
--T9"e*t"
44
'^^
With
Karl Bodmer,
life
on the Mis-
The
>w^--_ 3&<:v
camp on
the Missouri,
is
for
brandy.
Mm
mm
in for
woods
to
check
^^..;*:
?i^.:^^".
r-'r-M
^-
<V^^v-.,.
%^.M
^n*2%'
.
\ w-' ^ V'
^ii.^i
*j.'
:k .*.
"^>Ai
y/r^-^
'
>v
,are
'V-
;%t-^
'"
..I
<
-
I-
's
rM
i^ii.(
^1
48
>F?';^j^
^.M'!'l.'iiolS^'-
"
sited
midwinter
on a
visit to
thickness of four
it
feet,
fl^sST^'^a*
Bismarck.
The
ice
could
November, reached a
and did not break up until April.
formed early
y'^
in
In artist
unpleasant
ous
grizzlies
little
left
by an ad-
A^
r--
Manuel
Lisa:
were received
more than
as
7th
World and
materialized, after
The
bees
sumed
in the
New
in the
that nature
white invaders.
moved upstream
just
The
with
traits
man who
Beyond
all this, in
re-
gions that were the arena for his dreams, he proved himself
craft
Few
of the
as dramatically,
troversial
who
Mud-
to go upstream
on the
of attack
affairs of his
own
company
fur
ure,
life
or death,
with
compelled to gamble.
skillfully
or
more
larger
It
and Americans
galling yet
was
in St.
Louis) but
seldom wrong
in
his
first
mad
it
as protective cover
idea.
His
his
beyond the
Platte.
of
fleet
It
and
was
him when
aware of his
pursuit.
But
his
men
became
craft
some
narrow a view
To
rivals
first
North-
1811.
of him,
But
this is
too
he
utilized.
If
enterprises,
Manuel Lisa
led the
first
com-
first
entrepreneur of the
Rocky Mountain
he was also
53
25
for
silk,
gemstones
of the Orient.
ex-
crown
only as a rumor.
The
men
like a mirage
and thus
its
its
existence.
The
first
1673
white men to
hear of
handle and
was
into
to myth, there
Coronado and
less a ruler
though Coronado proved otherwise, Castaneda salvaged something of the dreams for easy intercourse
with the Orient by postulating the existence of a stream
verified
It flick-
a mi-
laid
the southern mountains. Although Castane presumably from Indians had posi-
da's information
it
dillera"
all
and tea
who,
precious metals,
ter corridor
for
the
in
The
save
Spaniards stayed
for a
in
overland expedition as
far as
Meanwhile, the
early
in
Pans and
way
when
Versailles,
the St.
Law-
Pekitanoui, for
At one
pire.
river ran
part,
east,
assumed
that the
quette and Jolliet found that the river flowed east after
assume that
a sinhis river and Coronado's were one and the same
were quick
to
gle
in the
West,
passed through lands to the north of Quivira and emptied into the
Gulf
of
Mexico.
in or
was con-
54
far,
all.
The
Muddy 's
"
into that
"discharged
The
getting there: he
In-
which suggested
salt
Muddy
water
Water.
it
a lo-
This 1796 map. which charted the Missouri with remarkable accuracy,
was drawn
campaign
He
rivers as part of a
sur-
French
from Spain.
55
56
New
Orleans
763.
La Clede extends
his
hand
friendship to an
Osage
rise.
This re-creation
artist
Charles
Wimar
a century later.
57
The
only pro-
full
dwarfs
who had
since each
lived
ally
far
it
had sprung
it
it
also produced
a fore-
Manitoba.
the nearest
mud
water, edged by
It
lay
southwest of the
all
sorts of
that they
selves
although
wild
flight of
somewhat
by English pirates
Sieur de
la Salle
after service
an
explorer
Jolliet.
But
that
58
met with
much greater suspicion. Such was the fate of one Mathew Sagean, a French marine who delivered himself of a
mouth
in
failed to
and wore
ny peninsula
lake.
dow
on the inland
now
he
felt
the
Marquette and
during
20
years
among
He
"heretical foreigners,
"
as
paddled upstream
for
500 miles
about
had
said,
lions
and
tigers
solid gold.
inside walls of
en had huge
between boards
ears;
and
in infancy; their
wom-
iron
who
ion, left a
they sent
Still,
and
steel in
20
on an island
Lake
in
1736,
his
other men,
of the
wrapped
skins.
La
find
tempt,
heads
their
beaver
in
of
400
Winnipeg
of
in
positioned at last
Assiniboins
friendly
refused to
And
daggers.
they gave
ried off
away
60
girls
parrots and
when he
of these bars
left
monkeys.
(amid "terrihc
alas, lost
them
all
to
his
World was
Ponchartrain
credulous
Comte de
the
way
as ever. Ironically,
it
was
men
Missouri
In
to the upper
Quebec-born
de Varennes, Sieur de
la
Gaultier
become one
of
He
pursued
it
the French
Army
War
self
so doggedly as
(incurring nine
who
served
in
who devoted
him-
Quebec.
He
spent seven years cultivating the Crees and Assiniboins, and building a series of trading posts (Fort St.
Pierre, Fort St. Charles, Fort
Maurepas) north
of the
La Verendrye
clear
Pacific lay
a white
ters
La Verendrye had
white men ever blended
that
at last
drifted
"
fur trader, Pierre
was
been seen
toward
its
wa-
No
at last.
727,
it
hnd
keen
world. But
at
sent
30,000
de bois
literally,
the Missouri in
"runners of the
woods
"
who rode
is
no way of know-
two
river
it
for
who
it
is
were
known
that
of
swal-
lowed French Canada, and the Dakota prairies swallowed the lead tablet the brothers left behind to claim
for France all that they had seen. (The tablet was rediscovered in 1913 by a 14-year-old Fort Pierre,
59
South Dakota, schoolgirl.) Their father's work, howhave to wait that long for a degree of vin-
When
dication.
way on the
Missouri.
And
The
countryman
crit-
perior person,
heart."
should
is
who
at all
won
shown
his
good
a promise to
show
times has
his release.
Manuel
Lisa, one
New
show
was born
that he
ill
monopoly over
Spanish
to the
rul-
young
in-
The official
"Osages
of the
Missouri"
and a knack for stepping on the toes of oth were well developed by the time he arrived in St.
cendancy
ers
Louis
in
political
798
at
And
so
was
gift for
maneuvering.
St.
under Spanish
rule,
the result of a
1762
treaty by
it.
He
on a par-
in
plum
Osage
tribe.
The
many conhrmed
least a
ily of St.
beneficiary.
onstrate his
was
more deserving
In his petition, he further proposed to demloyalty to the crown by making a $1,000
he, as a fervent
Spanish
patriot,
was
less
of a sneak trader
for pelts.
the matter
good
some
much
of
its
territory
1800,
west of the
gion
inhabitants,
its
natural resources
and
its
potential
He
1804, the explorers began to assemble men and equipment outside of St. Louis. They purchased some of
60
in
and
for litigiousness
enemies.
million. President
of his customers
ticular
Many
in
their supplies
Benoit.
Somehow
the
incur
In the
the wealthy
Chouteau clan
fur-
of St. Louis
and John Jacob Astor, head of the nation's biggest fur company. Things
were simpler
for the
generation of fur
men
whiskey
sold illegal
to Indians;
and
divert cinnuities
The Chouteau
Company for
$250,000. Although
felled
an estimated
It
Chouteau was
model of
gentility in
Louis
This
St.
at a
near-total profit.
was
by
dying
little
fur
market
mourned.
It
"the most
One
down
in
1865,
few
of the
its
bribes
corrupt
insti"
first
1820s
61
The
steering oar
ly
shown
unusual
in this
bow -mounted
Harper's Week-
Lewis'
he wrote.
"
B.,
lives
Whether or not this action had an ulterior motive remains unknown. In any case, Lisa dropped the Santa
Fe plan and it would not be revived until 1821, when
He sued
ire:
"
are worth.
think
them both
great scoundrels.
that spring.
20 people for debts that totaled several hundred dollars. At the same time, hungering for new helds
more than
Santa Fe
trade
between
ta Fe,
900
St.
silver-rich city of
San-
But Lisa did not have to look far for a suitably promising alternative. Lewis and Clark arrived back in St.
Louis on September 23, 1806, and reported that the
new
gov-
scheme
open up
to
Wilkinson, decided
to the
it,
it
will de-
personal interests.
The
head some
of the general
down on
his
own
the
62
Trail.
mors that
for
in
made ready
fortune.
He
many
them veterans
50 men,
Lewis and Clark expedition, to serve as crew. Once they had reached their
destination these men, according to Lisa's plan of operations, would slip into the role of trappers. This was
of
of the
normal
fur
business practices:
chased the
lot of
woman
in confusion.
minimal
interest in pursuing
such an odd
beast
little
Manuel
as the beaver.
For
all
among
ers
his fellow
merchants
in St.
Louis; they
felt
gion
was hopelessly
risky.
his
Lisa.
ther upstream
it
was
Lisa's
own
brash
expedition past
These
chcirges
Still,
He
there
was no denying
he met to
rie,
bows
distract
of boats
a great
mass
painted
them
").
He
were preparing to attack, he pointed his keelboat s bowmounted swivel cannon directly at the crowd. The Indians scattered in terror, and hnally a few
Ankara
chiefs
it
was only
for
when
approach
to the shore
in St.
Louis,
"
for
November
their heads.
river tribes,
made
at
could summon,
for the
at last,
warm
sun of spring.
beaver; the
ed)
lives of oth-
own. Chief among these detractors was EnNathaniel Pry or, a veteran of the Lewis and Clark
sign
It
mob and
proceeded past
his boat
themselves
when he reached
commanded
far-
of scattered
apprised of his
the gesticulating
was
them while
of Assiniboins
at least,
Mandans
That,
by scouts
When
shore, he
of the Platte, he
them
vessels.
mouth
straight
8 7 At
met and recruited John Colter, who had gone to the Rockies with Lewis and
Clark and become so enamored of the wilderness that
small party set off up the river on April 19,
the
stemmed
The
mission to
business
left
a bit of
Mandan
chieftain
company with a
Chouteau Jr. and bound for
homeland.
He
trav-
eled upstream in
Pierre
the
Mandan
villages.
fleet, killed
three
men and
Company.
Pierre and
All the
new
stant wealth
1809
the
hrm
in a fleet of
sent
In the spring of
no fewer than
3 keelboats and
550
63
fortified
post
Sioux country;
in
stone as
far as
ters
fol-
November 1809
furs
manner,
his
body hacked
head cut
off,
"
Between 20 and 30
$15,000 worth
way to market.
more
specifically, against
United States
American
fur traders.
of
or,
John
in fur trading in
to pieces.
about
Fur
led
Company
by
for the
New Jersey
at
the
his
destroying
to
fruitful
Henry
Crow
all.
and
trap-
Moving
a ten-ton keelboat
up the
Missouri called
delle.
pulsive methods
"
The
all
the mast to
human brawn.
at the
was only
iliary
intermittently
river's
practicable
meandenngs.
the crew
But
lift it
end of
it
was
the
"cor-
clear of
bushes along
were used
trians.
in lieu of straining
The
hundred
feet
skiff
was rowed
pedesseveral
crewmen on
forward by reeling
in the
towline on a
was
it
hauled forward.
The men
Warping might
was
a towline
line
because of the
soft alluvium,
cordelling
many
as
20 men
64
upstream with
dy shallows.
When both
banks
mudof the
which
day
somehow averaged
18 miles a
Missouri Fur
to
wonder
if
the fur magnate might not also have his eye on their
whether
own
The prospect
war and
of
in
of 1811, he
all
control of the
fect,
washing
hrm
their
hands
felt this
likely
thus,
in ef-
whole enterprise
until
them
without a
by
this time,
and only
20 men
to
work
trip;
its
but he
oars
felt
and
duty-
By
cordelling. poling
and
sailing
all at
once
uplifted
those
who
made ready
for
in the spring
It
was never
accepted sense,
at all.
for survival:
would have become an easy target for the wartribes that roamed the banks of the river above the
boat, he
man who
good heart
and
"A
Quixote,
com-
Don
possibility of ruinous
Louis investors
it
like
Platte: but
if
was
Hunt, having managed
four keelboats, he
Hunt
s fleet of
wanted
to stay in front for a kindred reason: he had heard Ensign Nathaniel Pryors story that Lisa had bought safety from the Arikaras by sacnhcing boats in his wake.
8th Century
make
excellent progress.
65
i
66
Wilson Hunt,
ployed by
fur
New Jersey
merchant em-
sued by
rival
Manuel
Lisa,
pur-
1811
who made
the
with the
upriver
for defaulting.
was
after
on the bank
until
Hunt came by
the law
to pick
him up.
to
20
tons;
burden
that
by a rule of thumb
headroom.
The
or
hrst
perched on
lieutenant,
roof to
its
crude enclosure
made
Lisa
often
in a
but
mast stood
just
normally Lisa's
himself
oar pivoted at
goods
blan-
were concealed
On April
of St.
river's
muddy
there for
fairly
came
underway and
a different
at grips
man cheerful,
tireless,
river,
he be-
sensitive to
every change of water, wind and weather, and the personification of boundless conhdence.
28
hamlet, situated
miles
The
He
Charles a
above the
ly
were
Henry Brackenndge,
water was
(Wilson Hunt,
uralists,
Thomas
to the
longings of one of
lard
who
"
The man's
estate consisted
"all
list.
A scrawled document m
"
He
is
at
one moment
at
67
Trappers unload pelts to be exchanged for gunpowder, whiskey and other staples
68
at Bellevue. a
compound
of traders' cabins
The
Bodmer, was
built in
1810 by
St.
Louis-based
fur
merchants.
69
ians,
are
believe there
in
imperiousness, was
commanded. He was that
and demanding leader who could be
often
all his
anomaly, the
fiery
led.
And
he
now
by force of example.
It
would be hard
more
to conceive of labor
in dragging,
brutal
olent thunder
borers.
The
and rainstorms
Gallic crew
was
by the
vi-
able to
their poles
was attached
Miseries and hazards abounded. Submerged waterlogged trees threatened the vessel as they would later
threaten steamers. Drifting trees
boat,
and
and crew.
at
The weather
at night
on branches jammed
under
little
tents
made by
ax.
The
spirits.
fully
voyage.
much
in
Hunt
mouth
to ask
low
for
tal-
supper."
sail
fore a following
ed time to
let
of rescuing
had sunk to
its
shoulders
in
settler's
And he yelled
"
Brackenridge put
70
to a rendezvous at the
Lisa's
of
crewmen, now
approaching
in
open
prairie
of the Niobrara
And
peril
unspeakable luxury
ment
physical weariness.
after
The
The
part of
im-
for dinner,
"
crew celebrated by a boisterous ritual: they seized anyone who had not passed the Platte and shaved his
head. "Much merriment was indulged on the occasion,"
do not believe," wrote Brackenridge, "an American could be brought to support the fatiguing labors
"I
10.
May
row on occasional
stretches
"
it
"the shouts of
15 or
20
barbar-
insufferably hot.
members gathered duck eggs along sand bars and augmented their mush with venison and wild fowl. But
they endured blinding sandstorms and rapids "agitated
as
by violent wind."
Brackenridge stood
souri's
power.
"A
in
continual
delightful day,
its
"
awe
of the
Mis-
rapid, in
terrific
some
violence.
Amer-
all
ican frontier,
in
Mike Fink,
the sto-
Unlike
many
with a gun
was
(from an
flesh-and-
protruding heel.
buckling picture
at
right
by shooting
often expressed
of his peers in
thology, the
regularly used
women. Fink
his
them
who
dir
actually performed
the levee in
Without
rifle
word.
and shot
off the
which
his legend
is
based.
MikeFmk he insisted on
his victim
spelling
ly cost
incident,
militiamen at
790s,
ended
a sedentary
life
death. In
Fabled keelboater
Mike Fmk
and
new nickname:
ter vied
It
was
said
still
tail off
and Fink
paces;
a pig at
himself pro-
To
in the
roughhewn keelboatmen,
man usually meant stopping
licking a
When
ing "rough
and tumble
'
as
fight-
other's eyes
and used
was
it
ears.
their teeth to
Ccir
maim
a reputation as
"Enough!
his ad-
an
oft-
cups of whiskey
women. Fink
also
most
a
woman
arily
in
trial
off
of
staged in
losing
walked
the
coin
toss,
af-
blithely
cup carefully on
each
nose or
for
or
loss of an eye
mere
the
called
lick
country."
sometimes venomously
woman.
The resolution of their quarrel came
during a drunken spree, when Fink
any man
to the
as a farmer. Instead,
90
the region
key and
it
When
Fort Pitt.
that
Fink, like
into
in his
Hauled
to wccir a fashionable
It
and
foot.
"
but
unique.
was
er
Once when
foolish
man, he
enough
to
Fink damsel
To
brains
his
out.
"Carpenter,
"
spilled the
who
riv-
much
for Talbot,
pistol
blew
71
The
Swiss
dian
artist
women
One
Union on
the Missouri.
1851
R.
F.
who
Kurz,
decorously
of these places,
European
in
garb.
elbow
at
the termination of
some bluffs;
suf-
forms an
the water,
com-
The
before
We
completely to
down
effect
it
it,
we
being swept
of drift
wood
of pleurisy,
fell
had gained
full force,
and were
able,
that they
72
in
dence of
their toil:
(here
All along
is
lo
a pond.fal la de
swim
ra.
thereon:
my
shepherdess dear.
was impossible
outward ebul-
the curiously innocent songs with which they set the ca-
Lightly,
by every day."
Some among
ra-
bitterly to
to stand
for so
it
"
Brackenlong
They found
it
using with the Arikaras: "telling them that a second trader is coming on with goods.'
Lisa sometimes expressed indignation toward those
who accused him of rascality: "I go a great distance
self of
day or tomorrow.
tions.
Ten months
start to-
The
of the year
am
satisfactions of
making
trouble.
river.
inhibit
He
had
me
Father!"
fur trade
of the forests.
Cheat?
The
Indians call
of suspicion
and
their boat.
It
brought good
sail
crew
was not
whenever
Under such
75 miles
in
own party,
into his
Lisa ran to his boat, blind with fury, and came running
back with
Hunt's
Hunt
his knife.
pistols.
a duel.
off in
Hunt
another direction.
the
all
directly at the
of
two
stream
in concert,
move up-
when
the Arikaras,
whom
moved to discretion by the size and strength of the keelboat fleet and welcomed it and its men with assurances
of friendship. Ankara chieftains went so far, in fact, as
tled warriors.
pitiful
Then
he commenced,
in sign
star-
language, a
blame
and
whom we
that
safely
and ordered
it
away upstream.
The crew
and
one
IS
impelled to conclude
such
it,
bloody
"
Hunt decided
mouth
affair of
in
his
planned rendezvous
at
and
the
on these mounts
their destination in
in vain.
Astor's plans
War
of
for a fur
it
as a fort;
new
post in the
he retreated from
September,
Henry had
his friend
left his
Andrew Henry
Snake River
rejoined him;
73
"
An
To boatmen
that
who worked
ground as
called,
italists
it
to the trad-
for buffalo
fit
was one
for eating
human
bodies
had fed on
that
a not infrequent
cir-
Bears, a
scribed
the
monotony
sometimes accom-
Indian camps.
life
He
was the
Henry
chronicler,
travel:
soon discovered
all
had preternatural
and gntty
lucid
that not
made 20
his horse
quicksand,
fell
backwoods
skill at
steps
and rolled
got into
it
its
rider off."
for
at
250
lay
the
mouth of
Yellowstone River. His new hfe
miles below the
He
noted
in
one of many
letters
home:
my body was
"
Nor was he
diet of "biscuit,
dried buffalo
gustingly.
"
beans or
meat
In a
fat
it is
and
rice,
more
in-
pleased by a
alive
believe, of
cind
fciint trail
rent with an
to
lump on
When
too.
"The
a chilling celebration.
in
locity, fully
some
young men would jump from
others would swim.
piece to piece
Though
lenge, he found
many other
the wilderness
life
are so stormy
style
lodges
in four feet of
Toward
brought
in
thicker
loads
of
buffalo
hides
and they
also
"I
and clothes
shirt
aspects of
style contagious.
he wrote:
for
my
When
week.
voyage,
go
it
Indian
ket."
added.
later
he
down
his side."
we
Assini-
of his dai-
sewed up the
To break
"Some
guts and
walk back
ly routine. Boiler
for pelts
walked.
it
entrails
its
of river
society's pol-
turned to Philadelphia
the
In
Montana
no
rush to
tried cattle
himself,
ly,
it
stinks
As storekeeper.
74
re-
was gored
During
so badly
as the frontier
became
settled,
he
1902.
the Missouri.
With
new
He acted
it
trading
Omaha
Fort Lisa.
as a
havoc
Santee Sioux,
in
U.S.
Sioux
by the Teton
buying
in
way with
him
The
befriended, stayed
good stead
after the
chiefs
Mandan
He
on a
far
re-
upriv-
villages
in
Lisa traveled
26,000
descending
ing health.
it
But even
illness
its
trip, in
of
fail-
many
of
fists
violent
"
old
ended
his
dream
days
later
and
on the head-
river to
earlier, in
1860s.
in his journal:
distant,
"
75
An affectionate tribute
breed
to a vanishing
The
who
hardy boatmen
fought the
were on duty
to subsist,
6 hours
much
a day
of the time,
and had
on pork,
made up
than
hours of
for the
toil.
it
of-
more
This
tion to
taught frontier
who grew up
artist
When Bingham
1845 on
town
Trail.
began to work
the canvases
in
was
in
the
at
Muddy
The
on the shoal-
mouth
of the
future
Benton.
was not
of the
muscle-powered
quite over.
Mackinaws
and
flatboats
est
Mackinaw
freight
still
able to haul
could be hired
for as little as
$2
15
tons of
crew
and
all
a day. Despite
Washington
it,"
Bingham's
a
into the
fixture
1870s.
pipe-smoking master
76
last
of
driving ev-
boatmen remained
march
is
buy
muscle-powered
craft
Missouri River.
- r-iw" ai
iiniiiiMMMr-'HiTiai
77
The
78
crucial
moment
a
in a card
crewman
to handle
liavigational chores.
i
the craft
risks
on the
river.
79
80
their ease
on
bank
of the Big
Muddy
and prepare
for their
evening meal
,'
jf
81
Loaded
a full
head
of
in the
1880s.
"
3 "Steamboat acomin
Steam power scarcely tamed when it
came to the Missouri in 1819 was
traveler
Rockies.
river
lers,
By
the late
1830s
to
the
the lower
"steamboat acomin'!"
It
was
wrote of
to the broiling
their
One
"cracked roofs
of passengers
in
fair
in foul."
when
in spots,
"
the
Big
little
200
if
tons,
condi-
of
a no-frills
ty stern-wheelers
Big
and
far
were
Muddy when
still
busy on the
83
ilifMiJiilMtU^^iiiiHHiill'tliii
^sesfe*
.r^'^.
wheeler
like Silver
Bow, shown
at Fort
;/'
PACKET,
^^
c\:--
v
_' -
'^
-^^i^
-~M
The
A few years earlier, she set the upstream record from Bismarck
to Fort Buford:
307
miles in
55
hours,
25 minutes.
Ti5?aE53Sr-^
MIJ^SOtJRI
RIVER.
SAINT LOllI
FREIGHT AND PASSENGERS FOR
TAKING
MiHer's Land
PInkney.
Ousley,
Luppold's,
Cottleville,
Howell's.
Hamburg,
Stallard's,
Coshaw,
Mlssouriton,
Augusta,
South Point,
Washington,
Jfctfferson City.
Claysville.
Old Franklin,
Arrow Rock,
Lisbon,
Saline City,
Mat'irtn
Eu
Sandy Hook,
Straube's,
Portland,
Providence,
Bruce's Land'g, Keytesville L'g,
Whist's Land'g, Brunswick,
De Witt,
Rocheport,
Miami,
Overton,
Pohlman's,
Deerlng's.
Barl
Ui/
Aubert.
St.
Boonville,
rnia,
Hermann,
Gasconade.
TImpes,
._-y-r.
'e.
Glasgow,
Cambridge,
ST
JUDD
ARTWmO
P'^'
^aster
'\
^'
NANSON,
Clerk.
E,
On
For FrfioUt or
o'clock
P.M.
H. r.
DRILLER, Genl
Agent,
Street.
"Fill
The
Big
Muddy
thrust
its
tide against a
wide
turned aside
torrent
by
down
bend on
their
1852 and
reacted
on being
brown
way
Captain
upstream.
The
side-wheel steamer
Francis T. Belt,
skirt
double-boiler
power
plant
was
She hurried
into
just
which she
washed
astern.
in the end,
and
thrust her
it
in
bow.
the cur-
Captain Belt
fell
back on Lexington
was outraged
Good
pull
its
He
as
trail
to the Salt
Lake
Valley. Cold,
restive.
in-
On April 9,
Saluda
by beating
weight.
newspaper account
up
water
hell trying."
after a
bow away
called for
two
revolutions
Saluda
The
ward of the engine room and half the upper works went
skyward
accompanied by tumbling human bodies and
the two iron chimneys
in a great, concussive blossoming of steam, bales, splinters, boiling water and
They complained.
Belt took the side-wheeler out into the stream again
was driven back once more. Saluda's machinery was old and worn; she had been
snagged and sunk two years before, but Belt
having
bought her for a very low price after she was raised and
patched
hoped to make big profits from her. Now he
600-pound
Early steamboats on the Missouri followed
no
geoning passenger
traffic
spawned
the
Line
to
He climbed
at
been chained to
its
a mul-
companies
like
200
in the air;
was dismembered by
river.
local
a flying boiler
*^
ii>fi<ii;;iiiiiiiiiiiii
5;.N^^^::^^.
90
The
of
May
17.
Cloud, spread from vessel to vessel along the crowded levthen Ignited adjacent buildings. Twenty-three steam-
ee,
%^^
>
r..^'
*^,'JUJ^
91
of another
chunk
of boiler iron.
The two
pilots
were
hull
which
Si.
down
human
warm
blood, just
from
device.
who were
of the spirits
and
it
was
left
alone
Its
Ohio
known
to
man.
It
banks as
vast,
a wasteful
they
little
trait,
was
travagantly as subsequent
burn gasoline or
electricity.
it,
erful, as
piles of wreckage
move through
than to
water as possible.
bers,
To
would draw
as
little
"
in the
cil
More
aboard survived.
out of "wood,
craft
as
far
far
from Eng-
The
lived the
town.
disaster at Lexington
Saluda
was representative, nevertheless, of every paddle steamer that operated on the Big Muddy. Like all such vessels, she offered a matchless boon of mechanized ease,
yet engaged in a constant flirtation with sudden violence: Missouri steamers blew
Still,
was capable
had known
it:
"
of the
as 14 inches.
The
and
pilots to
become
the
pilot
a con-
dilemma as soon as he steamed into the upper valtrees were scarce along great stretches of river, but
stant
ley:
was
was worth
Babylon.
little
to the nearby
fry of the
tin, shingles,
a prodigal use of
which
in
his vessel
surmounting
was
forced to
fuel before
reaching
some stream-fed side valley where trees did grow or before coming upon a bar where "racks of driftwood had
collected. All tried to find some such source of wood be"
fore tying
up
it
by the
beginning of time.
Two
influences
forced
riskier
pilots into
known:
ing
ture that
92
was designed
which the
pend on
and
all
wheel and
their
judgment
clerk of the
moun-
10 cords
or
1,280 cubic
feet
of fuel at
woodyard on the Yellowstone. Steamboats usually made two such stops a day.
a
BENTON
Ca V.
Steamer
F.
P LINE,
>i
Uus.
BLACK HILLS,
ROBT. F. Wkiobt,
Master.
Jas. B.
C^
-1
l-C-^-t
Kkknas,
Clerk.
\^^y
$--ic-
CL^
-CC/^>-trz/^
<^fzriU-^Z^
^
^^<^^.^ ^%^^/y!U^
^^^u*^i^'
in ringing
commands
to the engine
it
them
left
mountains. With
its
in their
was
lots
steamboat
it-
who
of rock
voyages to the
self
ters,
mercy
at the
in
all
the Western
wa-
commanded salaries
as high as $1,500 a month, and made no secret of
their condescending view of counterparts on the Ohio
selves princes of their profession,
They were
for instance,
who wore
kid
his neck,
for his
Summoned
at
full
24
hours by hrst
for a single
week's
trip
(^/^
previously
at a
one of the
Ben" Jewell
saw In-
them
after
river
in
ham
could take a
all
that
was asked
of
them
or,
indeed,
black
who was
to the Civil
even prior
War.
dead
cliffs,
and outcroppings
at
prin-
its
93
of the
rivers
One
used
er ever
it
He
mounted atop
problem it was
However, it was less
than some shallow-water
to avert.
ators
panaceas. In
849
od of
to patent an
in
"Improved Meth-
Inspired
by the old
river trick of
designed a
sible
ter line.
When
later,
roll
along the
Storm called
paddle wheels
a certain William
replacement of
for the
tion
tothe bottom of
When
basics,
came
it
other angles.
to getting
back to
zelman.
He
problem: the
focused on a
specihc
im-
was
His
air
at
by the
of stout poles,
and presumably
94
Anchor Wheel"
them with
model
or
downward movement
would be expanded
thusiasm
as a "Pedestrian,
made of water-
filling
described
the top
wheel
per-
"expan-
to be carried
would
Gideon Hotchkiss,
set of bellows-like
'
nautical heretic,
buoyant chambers
for
Lincoln
it
pat-
example, a
1836,
free,
Chase
of Hull
meant
farfetched
name
promising
of the best
no steam-
sole-leather, or other
terial."
A boat
fit
flexible
ma-
so equipped, boasted
water
faster
Not
all
inventors
travel. In
last
felt
that
word
the
in river
saddlebags.
and
rider
With them, he
could effortlessly
the water.
And
185
7,
said,
horse
float across
he even threw
in
an
than a locomotive.
solution, patented in
be lowered by pulleys to
to
inflate
"buoyant chambers
hu
were
far
countered on other
If
flected
the
at night;
en-
pilots
moon
its
a boat
full,
load of
silt,
re-
pilot tied
up
at nightfall
unless a
at-
in the
weighted by a stone
of the boat.
called
while
to shore
of steamboats
ing
when
left
of
Army
ofhcer
who
split
seconds
hour or even
10 miles per
faster;
The steamboat did not assume its role as the dommode of transportation on the Missouri without in-
inant
prompted torrents
pulpit;
of remonstrance
accommodations and the rudeness of propulsive equipment provoked endless complaint from writers, engineers and travelers from abroad. But the operators of
maneuver-
as well as the vast majority of passengers who risked their necks on them responded to
None
who
to decide
took the
tex of Niagara."
crucial; the
for
had only
an
of the vessel's
pilot
might run
that
rivers.
it
first
New
of
Western
all
Orleans
could be done
181
in
at
Pitts-
named, with
did so.
Wind sometimes
ruffle
and
45
so also, during
was
helm.
local
nvermen
at
too,
drifting
a two-mile stretch where the Ohio River below Loudropped 22 feet over limestone ledges but to
isville
Orleans,
dunelike bars.
river's
New
underpowered, deep-
windy days
to accept such
when
its role:
the
masked them,
forthright optimism.
wonderfully unsuited to
heaving a lead-weighted
line,
rath-
crew
to share the
pilot, six
boats
fate:
a captain, an engineer, a
to say,
later
pended on the
behaved
"feel
"
of the
differently as the
steamboat as well.
A vessel
"
on
sailing
in "jolly fashion
"
at
day
in late
crowds
Tiger was
95
far less
glamorous
Un-
as
her
is
for air,
as
20
was
when
the
that stacked
80
From
its
dle
wheel
to
its
huge pad-
few inch-
was
built for
muddy
going.
typical
like
rectly
its
vir
was
loaded
'
hull
that
housed
and
affluent travelers
was
were
Some
for
in turn
was
house, windowed on
ways
at
the peak
all
four sides to
As
be steered around,
id pilot,
96
30
200
cabin pas-
slid
dy wooden spars
cutaway views on
al-
in
by an
promenading.
as-
bottom.
so
Its draft
flat
shallow-water design.
slight that
little
where more
mud and used like giant crutch"walk the boat" to deeper water.
into the
es to
stur-
Smokestacks
Running
light
IVest's
left, was a simply conwooden cylinder 18 feet in diamand 24 feet wide and belted with cast
structed
Sleam escape pipe t
eter
iron.
20
times
about
overcome
cur-
Paddl
Paddle
Paddle
Rudders
STERN VIEW
Shaft
!'''!
10
15
1
20
Cast-iron flange
feet
1-
97
Boilers (3)
Derrick
Wheelhouse
Steam capstan
(for
grasshoppering)
Mam
98
Mam
stairway
steam
line
Connecting rod
Engine
Paddle wheel
Shaft
Wheel support
Connecting rod
Hog Chain
99
An
1844
flier
in the chanciness of
up
is
for sale.
a harsh lesson
steamboating on the
m wo years.
t
ADMINISTRATORS
SALE.
IIk'
wm
On THURSDAY,
in frani of
^lifiiuiboat
P
at 10 A.n.,
OF THAT DAY.
the Store of Jflessm. ^cCatifttef
Co,^
ON WATER STREET,
Being the interest in said boat belonging to tise Estate of
niatthew Hogan, deceased.
Ml BLAIR| AclUlilll^t rUtOIS
1844
SAINT LOUIS. Meh
6,
Roo-
fully as
New
Or-
sevelt
at
falls
draft to spare.
the boat.
ez,
caused general
New
after three
100
rivers.
of intermittent
12, 1812.
War
Secretary of
early versions
were
fort
almost instantaneous-
The
feat.
lowstone, where a
months
proliferating,
Roosevelt's
according to the
Orleans on January
Steamboats began
after
seasickness aboard
the Mississippi
steaming, at
seven years
in
ly,
They weathered
built to
sixth.
resemble
its
nos-
trils
and thus
any Indians
frighten off
who
might be
in-
chned to hostihty.
The
fleet
River craft.
make
ters, failed to
past the
it
deeper wa-
for
Kansas River,
400
miles
only as
far as
managed
Omaha
to get
1,135 miles
when a second
islators
Legend
Shreve
pensive
plied the
It
most snag-infested
was
crackery to add an
air of
among
river of
who
light-draft,
multidecked suc-
one
Virginia, in
1816. Shreve put the boat's boiler (though not her engine) up on deck, thus anticipating the idea
soon uni-
the
men who
all.
Most
wooden
named Henry M.
whom Shreveport, Louisiana, is named)
credits an ex-keelboater
(for
wooden
ors
on
their
alone before
lute
in
primary col-
this, or
when meeting
85 O's boats
come
into
sa-
its
after
manufacturers produced
and could
raise echoes along miles of winding river valSweetness of tone was prized in both signaling devices: Captain John C. Elliott melted 500 silver dollars
er respects,
from her
versally
adopted
Western steamers,
period of
many
The
C. EUiotl
1870s.
in fact,
still
its
final
form,
was
and possessed a
bars.
It
had ac-
also
main deck,
lothouse
upper-
in
upper-river boat, in
and
pi-
by the
makers
of
getters of
try,"
flatboat builders,
backwoods
of captains
and owners
"
They worked by
was
which the
cast,
steamer
Emma
ened by such
water,
"
theatrics:
"The
habitual traveler by
article,
"should
means
for in-
seemed
it
for swiftness
servers as a
means
is
vain to supply
life
inducement to passengers
of
if
pre-
an-
trial
of speed.
to achieve
it:
amalgam
of rashness
No
single aspect
"cut and
stills.
ley.
who
new methods
of
^JV
!*
-^4,
^i..
ts^
:i
^1
"-ap^^fi^.?-.
'35:
.-;
using
it,
dangerous
ical
Evans engaged
in
War
pre-Revolutionary
when he was
1814,
was set by OHver Eva Delaware farmer's son who combined mechanskill with an imaginative mind and who vastly
The
ans,
new
ex-
It
fast
water, and
made
it
light-
weight and
on
he died in 1819.
as the "pitman.
its
side
known
"
in
low
pressures,
and
because
moved
drivers
Steam was generated for paddle-boat engines by batteries of two, four or more long, cylindrical wroughtiron boilers. They were mounted fore and aft and in
parallel, and were perforated lengthwise by two or three
which hot gases from the hres
were led to increase heating efhciency. Their hreboxes
to utilize the
opened toward the bow end of the boat
and were surmountbreezecreated by forward motion
ed by a pair of iron chimneys (never called stacks or fun-
up through the
vessel's superstructure
ideas
in
it
to per-
the half
light,
cheap, simple
factory engine with a small piston could exhaust directly into the air
and
still
produce
output
if
it
far
if it
rising
through
"hard hring
"
five tons, as
The
Young Steam Engineer's Guide: Con-
Abortion of the
taining an Investigation of the Principles, Construction
and Powers of Steam Engines.
of Pittsburgh
century ahead.
er
risks
many decades
and
Thomas Copeland
"They
use your
foot of
brown
Mis-
silt
Muddy
by
free
into general
mostly on instinct
in
detecting
when
boilers
No
were
levels.
was
increased.
There were
ex-
"
at all.
Mul-
104
became doubly dangerous when a boat dethey were connected by pipes calculated
tiple boilers
veloped a
list;
variably drained
est
by wind
away from
all
the one
was
that
tilted high-
when thus
it
in
The
by that
side-wheeler
for
many
years
it
would
of superheated steam.
and collapsed
in
minutes
deprived of internal
of engines
and
men whose
human
carelessness of
one pleader
for
"The
entrusted," wrote
is
David Stevenson
"to
boilers
life
1838,
in
equalled
is
few years
later,
man who
grant a pilot
if
saved weight, protected the paddle from snags and permitted a broader-beam hull
level of
if
run
in
at
times
all
in tricky
men
engine throttles of
at the
negotiating
as
all
when
it
"a
among reefs and bars and the bells coming faster than
you could answer them." There were times when the
most conscientious of engineers became so involved that
or very probably even
they could not have rectihed
ignorance in a
and
skill
The
as a blacksmith.
if
They
make temporary
$200
him with an
anvil
and a
forge,
repairs.
was
commend him
to
applauded him
for
a simple
sensed
an overproduction of steam that was going to
kill
them
for deal-
and were
bravery
if
al-
he blew
in
he might survive.
bracing.
ment were gradually eliminated particularly after Congress voted for federal inspection
1838. But
steam
at
century
of
steamboats
or
far
160 pounds
in
Engines used
thrown
Boatyards found
grew shallower,
Most
in
increasingly difhcult,
it
to achieve rigidity
by internal
lines
were
by mid-
originally pre-
through the narrow gap between the hull and the bot-
40 pounds
And
seconds.
trade.
as hulls
failings of
30
certain fatalism
in
month, provided
ways ready
in the wil-
Missouri
star-
when
on the deep-water
to get
"wad
of
steam"
fast
water.
There
as rivermen put
And
it
there
It
was hard
side
to guess
which way
to
jump
if
all
when
a pro-
things
105
A side- wheeler slips cautiously through a cluster of snags sunken trees that often weighed tons in this panorama by Karl Bodmer. Many snags
106
ere
alert for
warning
107
An
1838
"
a double-hull vessel
sunken
trees,
It
ran
scooped them up
a windlass.
bangs
in
Belle of Jefferson
1874. The steam blew harmlessly upward and
spared his mates who stayed aboard. Fifty-five German
immigrants were scalded to death, however, when boil-
Edna
Western
in
history.
when
without incident
she went
down
of the
to shore
it
heating at
pilot
wood
near Jef-
Indians
August 1854; they were picking wildflowers on a bluff above the river when she went up,
roped the
er
ferson City in
safe
landed
among them
like a gigantic
crew
of the
man when
cannon
ball.
Passengers and
she caught
108
stallion,
The
for
hauled
it
the
cowboys
tied
to a stanchion.
demolished moments
by a tornado
from which
hills
it
lat-
satisfaction
stallion, as
hull.
Drifting ice
was
also a
back downstream by
late au-
The
steel-hulled
Horalio G. Wright, an
1880 embodiment
sign, lifts
of
Henry Shreve
de-
away.
worst of the
Still, ice
river ports.
kindling
Gorge
of
river's
wood
at St.
1856.
"
Louis during
down-
ground to
"The Great
in
solid,
Ice
heavy
huge sections
of
ing
ject
they encountered.
their
moorings
steamers for
"The
Dozens
at the St.
20
of boats
solid
with
blocks.
ice at hrst
moved
slowly," reported
The Mis-
Paul Jones,
ice.
The
hrst obstacles
with
land
Mary were
and
after
as
carried off
them Lamartine,
both
total losses
and Jeanie
Westerner
huge
piles of ice
twenty
and
At six o'clock P.M. the river had risen at least ten feet.
The current was now much more swift and the night
very dark, a heavy and steady rain having set in. The
sweep of waters with its burden of ice, the mashing to pieces of boats and the hurrying on shore of the
excited crowd was one of the most awful and imposing
terrible
scenes
we have
"
ever witnessed.
Grant Marsh,
mous
later to
upper-river pilots,
109
Army Corps
of Engi-
Liai of steamboat
A.B. Chambers
that day,
ice
trees.
ing as steersman
to
The
floes,
The
abled boats.
When
But the
ice
jam
and
other dis-
H. Trover
pump and was caught immobile
eastern Montana Territory in
the bank in
1867, the stream abruptly altered its course, leaving
her high and dry forever.
But if the steamboat was subject to constant tribuagainst
lation
on the Missouri,
was
it
offer.
1859
The
bend.
was
Western
men who
of coarse
mind,
"
all
its
mishaps
is
significant only
created for
it
history.
after
in
bend
things considered,
paid by the
alone
grasses, bushes
simply
river
river's
but
mud
were lucky; A.
B. Chambers was borne gradually back toward shore
during the night and came to rest, still afloat, three
his ship
as an
critics forgot,
indeed served,
habit,
in
recklessness,
1838 government
report declared.
men
But
like these
gineers with
that fewer
it,
"
through to safety.
But
much
ice,
1867
that
out of
some
the side-wheeler
perversity of their
New Sam
control near
Arrow Rock,
own.
In
suddenly
veered out of
fire
all
Yet
it
its
own
potentialities in the
the hands of
did
had
it
to
even
it
been
builders did
those designed
swift, rock-
and,
damned
if
Cow
Island
it
a flimsy
even
if
bank or sand
the
feet.
The
was
also a salvager
of the steamers
ities:
apart
were consumed by
they
crushed by
Even on
hre,
were
ice,
to smith-
rected vessels
to an igno-
she
minious end
with sturdy
paired, she
life
Passengers and
to the high,
crewmen learned
to flee
boon;
20
at least
river
easily refloated.
Many
wrecked on the
Benton. She
railroad bridges.
would prob-
in collisions
quickly
on the nearest
craft
hit
was
first
a snag in
until
came
to grief
when
re-
Benton
lasted another
two
shown
here.
-'^'ffmi
I!
1897. While approaching a drawbridge, she ran into submerged pihngs, careened out of control, slammed into the
bridge and drifted to her final rest not
far
downriver.
>^
x>:^
St.
much
in a
drawn-out
of the winter of
di-
1863-
of
%
Beset by a savage storm
at the
most
Bismarck levee
covered
500
yards away.
in
1879, the
She was
Some
fatal
mishap (over).
.yl.
um
"M|
<
'
''
-'"IHeilinimmirttm..nM.iiniiiiirinMi.i.i..l
The
luckless
Montana
rests
1884,
after a capricious
the boat
Hung up on
1833
scene by
artist
Karl Bodmer.
the
words of
"know
was expected,
a veteran riverman, to
knows
a path to the schoolhouse, upside down,
the river as a schoolboy
endways,
inside,
outside and
world's most
cross-
in
ter,
ting a steamer
were shrugged
salt
any
pilot
worth
his
off:
even begun
lower river
af-
by
Without buoys,
to guide
them
to run the
It
last as
could rarely
Icix
on a
let
down
his guard
river regarded as
and
re-
one of the
sand bars
when
they could
The
full
or
ran
steam ahead
if
inevitable groundings
was
a risky technique.
One
pilot, in
121
Marie La Barge
Captain Joseph
handsome,
muscular, vigorous
eage
was the
and one
his day,
of the
him
Few
equaled
the
ruption
hand.
at
gusts whipping
its
common feel
ashore.
beneath his
feet,
and he em-
that
qualities
beyond
these.
La Barge was
1847, he took
with him
in the
showed her
with them
so conthat, in
upper
river
side-wheeler
a corner of the
was
Martha up
at
Crow Creek
in
Da-
kota Territory.
Tribesmen
government "annuities"
away from
began delivering
woo
Indians
life style. Crow Creek's Yankwere not pleased when the government
agent aboard
92
sug-
their warring
Martha
intri-
safer to stay
rest
could be avail-
miles upstream.
"
graft: fur
companies bribed
In-
hne,
wheelhouse,
was
river's
40
feet
unpredictability,
hold a course
for
he could rarely
more than
,000
yards.
smoke
grasses
it
wood
piled
on the bank
fuel he had originally intended to pick up on his return trip and, having seen Indians react before to the
kind of miserable
little
Sioux
hit
farce that
had
just
wood on board
In addition to
it
on
been enacted,
fire.
Martha was
men
their command-
cargo of annuities,
its
er,
for
Etienne Provost
plorer
and guide
and jerked
his
head
at the Indians:
"We
are going to
men;
at that
flailing at
dens
in all directions
getting
told
in
back on deck.
tall
of the
La Barge
seen before). But he found himself in trouble with Indians after he tied
whom
place. Disgruntled
first
at
now
Sioux
in
you
at his
place beside
he yelled. "I
said, "Now, men, come back out here and get this
wood. " The wood gang returned to the bank and loaded
up again. "Now go on board," said Provost. He turned
and
123
"
Captain Joseph
worked
La Barge studied
law
in a
office
This 1840
time he
to the Indians.
won
in
country
at
to Indian
portrait
theology,
and dabbled
dry
1
afraid of
7.
the
bell
down
all
Indian
in his
The
off
guard by
first
and only
were
"
mountaineers.
opened the
and
La Barge returned
to reality
its
man
door.
When
fur
company boss
Martha
bring
it
's
damaged
into play.
"
down
try to
walked
to the engine
a "brave
he later said
and began stuffing pow-
Nathan Grismore
the
weapon up to the
it,
lowered
124
it
rigged a pulley,
swayed
it
into
thick as sardines
was so disgusted
in
all
that
we had no
La Barge
the
the
steam.
as
many of
Martha s
his peers,
captain
administrative matters
he
the
all
everybody."
ing
dercarriage of
they hid-
scram-
into
wheels
bled out the cabin's after door, ran to his wife's state-
Where had
it. If
fired a volley
dles.
its
in full flight
seized buckets,
through
one another
La Barge and
was over by the time the two steamboatmen swung it into position to
learned something of
mattresses against
they
of
if
blow them
having
that
and
gesture
I'll
to hell!"
The
to read and,
them
an
said, "Tell
and
me?" Not
that
demanded
emerged
Two men
the great-
summer
were
alike in
many
two men
in
tribe
con-
its
fined
The
such an
steamer,
St.
The
among the
Clark when a chief
outbreak began
Mandans
at Fort
about.
St.
trieve
able Joseph
Three days
be-
was checked.
Nor were the dangers confined
fore
the
it
to
It
Mandans began
falling sick.
their
Hun-
bodies
dians had
ial
little
or
St.
meanwhile, callously
Peters,
pressed on upnver
all,
Union
the cargo.
victims were
who were
employee with
live virus.
a vaccine
More
the disease.
As the stricken
Crows and
By
Louis to Fort
had run
tribe that
fate
corpses
the
cliffs
30
survived of a
was wreaking
its
of the
of
made
Assiniboins came to
trip of
The 1837
disposed
be made
profits to
to the
Paw-
by
a cholera epidemic.
then com-
of so
ing
was swept by
to die
to
Si.
the vessel
home
home
no resistance
and
St.
staggered
Peters steamed
Blackfeet.
at
remaining
62
125
first
years of steam
as
a steamer up
and
ting party,
cried:
waved
revolver,
grand old
sir,"
he said
was
later, "it
a boat for
is
20
dimensions
violence.
air
roughnecks
who
deal,
stilling
though
this
was not
caution in those
became
a captain
who
his intention,
dealt with
on the upper
Marsh
mountain voyage.
He
river.
at Fort
carried
toward
Marsh
after
life
after
swore revenge.
126
was about
to
tie
do
up
at
so.
On
a day
He
tion.
When
Marsh
when
con-
all
the boat
Gilmore among them, to a waterfront saloon and inall present to advance to the bar and allow him to
vited
buy them a
drink.
This
making amends
effort at
col-
The Marsh
new
"
News
word
was
La Barge
Marsh became
as ac-
And La
Barge
himself.
his
first
his reac-
owed
He
if
be invited to
threatened to throw him off and leave him for the Indians, but publicly
right here
ers, scientists
miserable for
his
his head.
he
Gilmore came
downstream on
said,
a fair chance."
in-
Benton, attracted a
made
you
claimed, in time, as
you
men among
teous
give
"Now will you fight ?" and, as the trembling man backed
himself to
left St.
I'll
boat
fight.
passengers
boats.
and
their
way
of the
to
meet him on
Union
flattered to
Louis; and
War became
many
his ad-
So did
Thomas Hart
Senator
Benton, and
Bluffs
Council
and one
who made
followed, but
was
also a
man whose
pi-
who
family background
The
map
surveyor's
show
the river's
made
fiim a link
who
derers
the
eye
for the
in
He
the end.
settlers
never
who
took
cold
lost a
it
re-
The
Norman
in
Quebec
peasant
1633, but he
since
cel-
He
canoe to seek
on the Missouri.
his fortune
no back
hned him
man handed
talk from
any man.
When
whip the fellow all over again for taking him to court,
and saw no point in sitting through a second trial.
All three of his sons became steamboat pilots. All
three seem to have possessed his extrasensory feel for
moving water as well as his sense of command, but Joseph, the oldest, was shaped by an apprenticeship unusual even in that rough day and, having lived through
it, seemed to carry some unique and permanent gift of
survival with him through the rest of life.
Young Joseph began his career on the Missouri at
the age of 16 as a fur trader for Pierre Chouteau Jr.'s
American Fur Company, which exerted something close
to dictatorship in the upper valley, and he quickly
achieved a reputation for hardihood and wit. Stragglers
from a Sioux war party spotted him on an open plain as
he headed for a trading compound with a companion
and hve mules loaded with buffalo meat.
He
leveled his
down
safety,
The redoubtable
rifle
pound.
He
seized
La
com-
with
it,
too. In
ner
to a conciliatory meeting
as the
was
wilderness grapevine
glad
Etienne
the trading
at
at
instructed to murder
him
He
away
"
La Barge
come to his
at Fort Pierre.
after
they set
cals.
pilot
off
under some
fort.
foliage,
slipped
rifle
and hid
it
alone, back-
over again.
He
be-
127
A desolate depot,
60
by wagon
ceries, furniture,
is
train to
the riv-
;^gr^:^^
"^
*<*'
at
after
monolithic unscru-
point of anticipating
its
equally re-
mouth
of the
Cheyenne River.
in
still
including her
The
pilot,
La
her firemen.
all
Kaw
River,
St.
local
Missouri
settlers
in
left,
Kansas
La Barge became
managed to
tie
her up in
moved up
to the wheel-
$12,000
built
in
pilot
on
building, chartering
and
for
selling,
vessels.
His
ca-
the wilds.
He had no quarrel
at all, for
example, with
whiskey
130
to Indians; he
was
He
delighted, in fact
when
traffic into
the Rockies.
after
stopping
at
the boat
m charge of inspection to
that
trip,
search
thetic attitude
and had
sympa-
his
self to
the young
officer,
asked
was
led, instantly,
man was
"
of in-
stationed and
who was
its
captain,
cle
only lighted
down
The
inspector
was not
by candles on
La Barge had
than the
shore.
spectors
to outwit in-
Army
trusted, indeed,
Sioux,
by many
who were
stormed
his
Martha
No
in
1847,
Missouri
was
mer
Robert Campbell, in the sum1863. This was a year of low water and in-
of
La Barge took
the heavy-laden
Campbell
to Shreveport
river.
He
when
presumed,
that the
for the
itself;
he had ship-
when it was
their an-
ly ,
onto the deck: "I had to take to the water. There were
too
many
for
"
their
He
M. Latta, an
for all tribes
There
he tied up
at Fort Pierre,
He
told
them the
truth: that
no control over
its
division
among people on
mounted
The
and
their horses
set out in
for
dogged
wood
piled cargo
at a
La Barge
They chased
fire.
600
to
miles,
wait
m ambush
against the
bank
at this spot,
The
channel curved
in
fates
known
for his
daring and
in the
to provide
proached;
woodsmanship
in
the
of the
He
up with him on
upstream
La
Barge,
floating oddly
it,
in
still
La Barge
Now
on the
river
upstream.
it lift,
saw
his
too.
wanted nothing
to shore "for
to ride
600
them,
and asked
"
hard
at
slight-
"
and refused,
seek vol-
staring
Here the
tale diverges as
Henry A. Boiler (page 74) insisted afterward that members of Campbell's crew ran to the opdo. Passenger
toward them,
They
when
ler,
re-
been
them waiting.
of the shore.
of
give up.
pursuit.
without endur-
1,500
"
shore.
are
let
the seven
men
set off
wise,
if
all
unpraiseworthy, decision.
at
131
learn
all
over agam
"He must
in a different
24 hours."
The captains learned
way
every
the fundamentals
renown
their
one
beyond no place."
As
Captain La Barge, he
tively
affected by the
His
Grant Marsh,
of 3 2 years
reply: "1
"
a total
river's
No. 2
his
was ever
O nly
lost:
it
132
ac-
river's dangers.
a cabin boy at
2, spent
on the Missouri defying the
Mis-
am
Muddy
in
894.
made him
the
m command
on the
of Fontanelle,
river,
one of
before leaving
fleet
its
from a desk.
Charles Blunt Sr. rose from deck hand to captain in just three years.
But
and another
in
War
claims.
133
"
for
45
years. Imper-
ture
was cleaned
Carrol
J.
Atkins,
off right
who
left
Vermont
for the
bluff
mand
oi
Live
luring lady
on
Oak
a
'"
in
134
stand.
He
got his
first
experience
when he
at the
wheel
Evening
signed on
him
tablishing himself as
in
1869 and
just es-
age of
15
river.
He
began
as a cub pilot
Sr.
135
away from
horses
40
20
Sioux and
and directed
bar.
left
boat,
its
its
arrival there,
retrieved, the
Sioux further discouraged with cannon fire, and Campbell churned on to the mouth of the Yellowstone with
mired
who
fired at
passing vessels
had usually done so out of individual pique, or as a matwhich proster of casual sport. But Montana gold
at
state of affairs
when the
anguished
Two
Kettles band
was moved
its
to
if
last,
domains
vast Indian
It
as a
few
turned bands of
who
and did so
launched a new
Army
posts alike,
to a
traffic
and of
Confederate sym-
whom La Barge had extricated from federal authorities in Missouri, and whom he had grubstaked and
pathizer
kept the
The company
damage
Montana
suit in the
ultimately collapsed
having
courts.
cost
La
Barge $100,000.
set forth
a gallant fight of
864, took
made
He
it.
$40,000
scraped up
buy
to
Deans
a
in
when
it
was
stalled
by
$100,000
in
gold dust
men
in the
if
they
He
dropped
in
on
his
old
for Salt
it
Lake
City.
Brigham Young,
friend,
and
sure
of his
$10,000
in
its
proposed to deal
own
upstream
1862 was an
to new times in
in annuities
as well as cargo
and
for
last
Effie
traders.
Montana. The
dian war party, got back to the Missouri with his trea-
that
take goods of
Wall
136
mountain voyages
IS
La
as a matter of principle
sible occasion.
This
mining
at big profits in
startled by
heeled
to
emies
in financial disasters.
He
new
battle reflected a
in
them
to sell
This
and
to the
all.
back into
customers
newly gained
He
remained
river until
St.
Louis
profit
and
his
haunted him
remaining energies
he died
in
in
1899
at
on the
streets of
La
Luella
at
pilot
to delay until
vessel at the
when he
of
him
or his steamboat
Lu-
triggered such
crowds
into
August, decided
September
of miners
who wished
mind made up, he headed into the Highwood Mounand hunted deer for a week with a party of his officers and passengers-to-be. Luella headed for home, as
tains
most valuable
$1,250,000
gold
in
Miners paying
dust
for tickets in
made
a practice of
debasing
and they now lay bow to stern along a half mile of riv-
Huge
erfront.
freight
and
rutted lanes;
wagons stood
in Fort
its
Benton's
halls
were
soldiers,
who went
unheeded
any company.
in
man
open young
He was
he was, as well, a
who wore
muscled fellow
a clear-eyed and
voyage to
St. Louis.
an unmistakable
air
of
who found
down at her
the
Marsh simply
called his
230
once to
first,
noisy fusillade.
He had worked
of an Indian
war
in the bargain
accorded
new
party,
all
of
river,
and made a
Union
done
at
so,
the
mouth
of the Yellowstone.
And, having
ents'
home
$24,000
He
admirers realized.
profit of
rairely
up the old
off
got boat,
He
bluff.
incident.
Milk River by
bring
its
of the
decision and
mouth
Indians,
the
it
in
the fundamen-
many
of his
new
near Pittsburgh to
He had served
as
some
hdence to assume
river
would be
Captains
around
after
downstream
beyond
that, the
con-
made
unloading
in a
at Fort
Benton and
of
heading
"
137
138
Northwest
its
burden of
and
settlers
fic
churn-
ing
on
freight.
Unfortunately,
was blocked
it
traf-
at several points
hned
on which
was
it
built.
Passengers and
One
was
obstructions
The
a town called
midway between
appearance of
hrst
1836,
Cascades
1858
in
as
the stern-
Her
setting off
pilot,
above the
rapids,
upstream from
failed
to
call
for
Venture fetched up
who had
in
first.
Incred-
that the
the river,
make
the run at
ton Hassalo.
calm water
Emboldened by
the
news
it
encour-
On
26 thousands
May
(left) bar-
bow
first
moved on
Pacihc trade.
Prudent
of the
Cascades
high; but in
1888
British
to seek
scrapes.
new
Columbia, and
wound
Troup
challenges
in
a canal-and-lock system
was
built to
139
An
Congress
act of
in
185 2 made
pilots'
was
to
"provide
sels propelled in
Mark Twain in Life on the Miswhen she hnally sank in Madrid Bend it
whole or in
part
by steam."
sissippi, "that
was
owners heard
She
of it.").
following year.
The
Pittsburgh Landing,
300
42,000
The
itated
Marsh watched
in
admi-
General Grant's
staff
by a Confederate cannon
ball.
John
J.
fered
nearly as
good
soldiers
and by a personal
olution during
and a sense
of
duty to them,
moments
of stress or danger.
and
These
res-
traits
of
and
soldiers.
Red
Reno and
Smith so successfully in 1866 and 1867 that
the government was forced to close the Bozeman Road
Sioux war
C.
chief,
F.
With east-west
Army
Bull of the
log-built
logical warfare
on the garrison
a kind of psycho-
Buford
at Fort
ter of
inside
its
Dozens
er
its
in
the win-
shivering soldiers
glided into
if
140
in
Luella.
was compelled
to
riv-
just in case
is-
stayed
bottom
for
awful seconds
jutting
and
of Indian
who had
fact that
lowing year
it
when
liver annuities
Cloud
at
he had made a
voyage on which
it
Marsh attached
less
impor-
occurred.
$24,000
And
during the
he agreed, the
fol-
had pledged
in
an Indian agency
in
Dakota
stockade.
rest
River
hostility
and the
post
This
their
bluff;
go
horsemen swam
where they
were. No steamer had ever chanced the fast, narrow
chute between the island and the southern bank; but
Marsh, watching the hurried deployment of the Indians,
decided to risk it
and accept gunhre aimed at river
level rather than expose the boat to fusillades from on
high. He headed into the quickening water of the chute,
scraped across a sand bar with bullets clanging on his
land;
fort's log
of
at
man
armies
en roofs of armored wheelhouses were exposed to snipa point where an island divided the river and pushed
miles upstream.
Union inDonelson to
of
acter that
at
the
Territory.
ect.
"^^n
^^..
*i3S:
J.
^-^-LUy)
3rrr^j^i
^r<?^t'j
rr^
rr
^a.(Iho
/"^
y&-^^?^y-,'
nllrCo^/nht^. S/
te-iiMt^t
^//Ce
<taetr
7(A.^
-^^iK^y^!d
WM/n.rzt^
^/^l./
^tr
'(^X/a
/1r^->^
.2>^.^,^^/. ^'
yC
Jfi^4^^
<ii^
&
m ^f*c **cc
.-.^'
</
i^/(r
ttfe^,~^
i^lMz--^^nl
^^c^
>^ ^tmfc/,
#i)@^
ttft,
(-*<
'^ i<<f
^/f^^i
^>/
t^-^/f^l
^^=?:
would be construed
river
as an act of patriotism
Army
by the
on which the
it
is
drama
of the proposal.
at-
The
odds against
his returning before spring were astronomand no steamer had previously weathered a winter
ical
on the upper
membered
river.
his earlier
if
escapes from
ice; to
to
have
have
felt
that
re-
became the
exile in
far short of
the
on an island
just
first
forced him to
above Yank-
mouth of the Cheyenne River. But he got less than 100 miles back
downstream before closing ice forced him to choose a
mooring against the east bank and there await the coming of warmer weather.
M7e came to rest near an encampment of Lower
at the
well-armed and empty steamboat. Marsh, as a reable to devote himself to heroic walking ex-
was
Thompson, which
and a
lit-
discover
match
with him.
strides
They
dinner at the
cial
dish" of
fort,
To
relieve
boredom on
the Big
at
ondfrom
left),
and included
M.
143
An
nated
an hour.
but
er Brule Indians
little
were duly
He
enlisted.
Fast Walker,
ran.
it
other
up
in a
he
at all;
after
only a few
20
miles more,
fort
went
two miles behind. Some Low-
skinny
fell
Marsh accepted
Fast
good
defeat with
it,
24
fort
Marsh won the friendship and admiration of an innumber of Army men in the West and not
creasing
who were
winter voyage
in
Nile.
indebted to him
There was a
certain
skill,
And
he had a
way
of
^X'hen 20-year-olc]
Columbia
Marsh
ran
liver
all
to
in
skills
able to
tain
first
1886
she
was
in
downriver
and Charles
in the
bells. In
salt
mensions to
but
provided increas-
made him
for the
who
and ship-
Army moved
144
meat.
and
An
1872
receipt for
Nellie Peck,
lists furs
City
goods freighted on
its
Sioux
to
died in
the
1860s.
0^
ITX
OEAKT KASSB. KuUr.
Clerk.
Trip
Jfo.
/ /^
Pro. JTo.
H.ldmh.
MARKS.
(-r<f>'*r
M*i
aaJ
Vron4
Mra#i*,
til.
L<iaw
For Freight on
^^^^ 4^^.
were coveted by officers charged with carrying out tickhsh amphibious missions. These expeditions grew more
crucial and more dangerous with the passage of time.
the
explore
his free-roaming
ed possession of
all
of
this
treaty
Black
Moon
itself for
inevitable
and
Army
Abraham
began pre-
final conflict in
southern
Its trib-
ing grounds.
Army
it
its
hero
of the Missouri,
by steamboat:
Powder River
of
War
Army's Division
460
miles to the
mouth
of the
ferried
1876. Both
marked
in
"hostile
much as an
exercises
of
"
all
unfriendly
shot.
They were
essentially
of
Grant Marsh.
seemed
to
have come
to the
first
had walked
on the morning
its
was navigable
for
its
valley in plotting a
more than
stream
its
of
May
6,
low and Marsh found himself facing a labyrinth of shallows and sand bars that spread from shore to shore. He
set forth in Key Wesli yawl to seek some semblance
145
p&if
BOi
^
COTTON'
f-:i*---.
AREDROPt
-<'#^
i'^
146
OAT STO
On
of available
commands
ship
company's ledger
crews' salaries
the
in
hit their
Pilots
lets.
steamboat
lists
1890s. by which
in
wal-
month,
float his vessel but simply water that would permit her
of a channel
some
buoyancy
essential
structions.
as she
These bars
finally
gave
way
And
there
ofgravel, and
sel's
bottom
its
bars
as
charmed
as his
crew and
his
two com-
The
dered
of buffalo
water.
riv-
The
in
alry, at
for
some grandiose
sporting expedition.
its
commander
The
cav-
in the river
as
for
crew and the silent hills by the light of a summer moon.Three packs of hounds one owned by Lord
Clifford, an Englishman whom Custer brought along as
came into the valley with the troops. The
a guest
captain,
paws from
little
moccasins to pro-
when
Two
summers
later,
be necessary,
at
Marsh
He explained
some time
in the
on another ex-
in a letter: "It
immediate
may
future, to
occupy by
however, and
in these skirmishes,
in his
in
New
who
subsequent
his
instrumental in rous-
Army
Yorker
little
ploratory expedition.
his business.
Marsh was
moved on
during the
who knew
though
it
this
voyage,
unknown
of dis-
along the stream for one another, their wives and friends:
tier for
adventure,
even
"
Forsyth Butte,
Key
Mary
Island,
De Russy
Rapids.
And
and back
to the
Missouri
mouth
of the
Powder
148
back up-
idyl.
It
presented
it
Marsh with
also presented
chains of
him with
his
into the
Yellowstone
at
at
the peak of
its
came
not only passed serenely over the sand bars that had de-
layed
dreamy summer
Key
West
in
all
the
way
to
PORTAGE BOOK.
OCCt'PATlOV.
/ >
/
?J
C
Cr
/ a
c>
^-o
-> r
< ^-v^
cT-/
n
</
'71
'7
3
%-(,
> 6
>6
v5
.
'^
>
3 J
6
/ J'o
41
//<;3
iJ-5
149
150
Luther Kelly,
at
five
usable
more
if
187
3.
on and on through
reef-bordered channels, and its valley grew
pilot
steam-
in
river led
The
hands toiled
left
Wooded
"They
set spars
its
great stands of
steamboat
The
ther
frantically
sel's
islands appeared
with
on wild
and on
fruit
fresh
Charley Reynolds.
timelessness of
sense of
voring
all
of hunter
rifle
little far-
for
sa-
aboard as Josephine
aboard her
all
at last.
Easier water
were
reset
hour after hour as rock walls sent back echoes of his ves-
way to
much
as
are so
at
lay ahead,
midstream.
back,
fall
to see:
Marsh
tied
up
at its
69
years earlier.
base
in
"Wm.
Clark, July
climbed
it
25,
himself, erected a
on
for
Montana
on
1806,"
two U.S.
miles, sparring or
and
head of a savage stretch of rock and foam the crew christened Hell Roaring Rapids. The pilot went ashore with
Marsh,
his
this
hand
bluff
Then
left
deadwood
at
to the left
between two
General
bluff.
"Run
river:
named Crittenden
islands (first
L. Crittenden,
7th
Island for
second named
Inf.;
He did
to a right
mouth
of the
ilar
for
Marsh kept
on the Yellowstone.
He
"
point within
Park
grew gradually
faster,
it
gradually narrower,
this
its
enormous
millrace,
cliffs.
miles of
at
two
in the afternoon,
and
notic
still
communion with
reeling
his
own
skills
that seemed, to
as
river
60
own primacy
faster
quits at the
eventually chartered.
The
it
would
it
it
prairie bend.
a pilot
ers
hand
faster
finally called
'
Marsh
some
pace
at a
This
marvelous use of rudders and engines went on: Josephine averaged more than 100 miles between each
of
knowing
that he
had sim-
was
the river he
and
real
now knew
fame
still
awaited him on
man
alive.
151
who
the captains
the
next.
awesome steamboats
first "fire
sketched
might be
The
who
But to
who
bushwhackers the
all
grateful consignees
embodied
lot
whiskey
were a perfidious
thirsty
canoes
"
brought the
who
the
it
was
van-
to the
upper Missouri
in
1861, caught
as a symbol of "friend
truth
and
foe,
1/m
Watched by
a gesturing brave, a stern-wheeler steams through a herd of migrating buffalo that might take hours to cross the river.
45r-
Wl
*J!ii.
"
.\^^
^y-rrr-
*>^
jtjp***
ik
.^-n
'^*^T[i<
.MsB^^SSh*.
-**4
i.
J*-*^**^-
<
J*^^^ kJ^
sits
on
his freshly
un-
--#^
July Fourth celebrants enjoy sunshine and ice cream while strolling aboard the garlanded
Newella
at
Leavenworth, Kansas,
in the
860s.
The tempo
of
life
touched
off a
moods of
what newspaperman-humorist George
was
The
perity to
others.
ter
like
in
cen-
1870s,
provided
the
towns
"
for its
wide-open ways,
Many
disaster to
A well-located steamboat
like
the
river
nate.
"
society.
zesty
"
tied to
for
course
tana,
its tail.
less quantity of
dubbed by one
as "this best of
all
fishes."
fancier
And
every
first
four hotels,
73
one ice-cream
stores,
parlor.
30
saloons and
Yankton
also
^^?
il"'^
''^
Its
in
1874. Stuck on a
saw no inconsistency
that
it
was "one
in
acknowledging
around were
in
Carroll
"and they
v<^'
'4'
tling Fort
wrote
9^
.i^.
in
8 7 5 As for Carroll, Monwhich once hoped to rival bus-
all
told."
Completing
and
their
Territory.
tolls that
Such
ferries did
for
The inevitable saloon, with the owner's wife standing demurely beside the doorway, beckons from the riverbank at
Rocky
Point,
restaurant,
at the site of a
its
guests, staff
concernedly.
Named
:^!s?^":
^-^> ^ v<^^?tr^'
^i^>m
166
%>_f
sprang up at the
during the
150
rest
on the levee
Montana
From here
Chance Gulch.
167
surrounding
half bloods.
is
The
chief
more
familiarly
improbable
known
as
D.C.
political consultations to
"Old
for
Strike"
one of those
occasionally subject in
his
white
Chief Strike-the-Ree
men
best terms
are
we
coming
like
maggots.
We
must
to
"The
get the
can."
one aspect
of the wilderness
had belonged
ities
distance or peril
facts: that
He
1859.
in
got
later
Old
first
legislators con-
making
it
the symbol
Strike's augury,
and em-
men,
the banks
all
annu-
creatures of
to be dammed back by
would forever aher the simple
patterns of life, commerce and travel that had prevailed
since the day of Manuel Lisa.
a "manifest destiny
"
no longer
who
furs; that
channel of
certain
immutable
Rockies was financed, supplied and controlled by businessmen in St. Louis. But these assumptions were undermined, one by one,
St.
Louis
when
the Missouri
itself;
the
the river
to river tribes.
railroads reached
and
new
citadel of
ports (at
boats
Members
had no idea
when
March 1862. The town
made
of logs or
whipsawed Cottonwood,
plus a dis-
plain.
The
village
scat-
and
its
in fleets
Heavy
freight
wagons linked
An expert Allegheny
he
later
for
bested
of stagecoach
And
Fort
Benton with
network
of the river.
The new
fed
off,
on reservations.
the pumps, as
it
169
On
a visit to
away
his
people's
BothSioux
set
credit
and
who
ers
political
engaged
hopes of getting
One James
a small fortune
connections of speculators
promot-
in a
the
in
rich quick.
father-in-law bought
of-
$24,000 to charter a
and another $70,000 to load
steamboat
at St. Louis,
hardware, machinery
ceries,
for a
for a store
and
instant houses.
away
were, by which white civihzation was pushed up the
river
The
di-
entertainments and
which the most remote of mines and settlements drew
for new attitudes and new styles
contrived an increasretail stores, their
No
keelboater or
had imagined so complex and overwhelming an exploitation of the Rocky Mountain West,
early steamboater
or
his
own
who
last
170
it.
and dan-
generation of pi-
it
two
river town
isolated
was annually
lay so long in
in
it
was not
fore the
All
first
this
really
had
new
that
changed, however,
March
that
while carrying
ton.
"Saved
be-
steamboat of spring.
way
and
of the
West during
and a triumph
difficult
of
and a draining
interest in the
at
Last!
"
7,
to the
when
the hrst
train
West
"
1,100 miles
"Look
New
fleet of five
steamers
after
dollar in
at
making a
fast
Mobile, Al-
at
were 20 days
fast-
New
lation,
which stood
at
1,030
in
Dodge was
York
itself.
some of
The
March, began
blocked,
popu-
new
by im-
and delivering
their era
on the
river.
the
common; both
a great deal in
town
of
modore,
and doubled his fleet in 1869. Sioux City now received furs, and monopolized shipping to seven Army
posts and eight Indian agencies that had sprung into ex-
They launched
Optimism
reigned:
Min-
from "gasoline
oil.'
it
distinction.
The legislators soon concocted a new scheme: they proposed to build a railroad of their own with local money
and to connect
City's
own
it
road.
East and
spirit
it
ah,
with
Sioux
by
be waiting to haul
rail
it
to
farther upriver.
$200,000 bond
ed a
ultimate insult
The
issue, bridges
citizenry vot-
were
built, rails
were
laid and, in
C.G
all
but
si-
on a contest
This
settlers,
for
rivalry,
) a
or subsided
commerce fell
Peck Line, the
all
op-
new
to swell:
at times,
sort of
fleet
"
title
"Com-
Coulson at Yankton
1873, Kountz at both Bismarck and Sioux City during the same year. But there their natures and methods
diverged. Kountz, a bearded and patriarchal hgure, may
well have been the most experienced and, in many ways,
the most efficient and practical operator of river boats
in the U.S. when he advanced on the upper Missouri at
the age of 56. But he was also one of the most bullheaded, opinionated and tactless men ever born; and he
handicapped himself on the upper river, as he had on
in
his
William
that
life:
J.
Kountz was always right and the Army, the government and his competitors almost certain to be wrong.
It
more
Kountz
after
Army
his
War
derstood
seemed
all
to occur to
him
it
never
Army was
Kountz).
He
was
tireless in
the taxpayer's
tion
J.
and waste
to
He
command
be corrup-
speed
in
171
"
all
such stealing as
for three
days he
"
Reputable
officers
were almost
as appalled as the
crooks:
"
at a loss to
met
his
"
in the interest of
pub-
morals.
"
eness
172
drank with
At
another
that
Kountz continued
firing off
field of usefulness."
but he
returned,
still
Sanford
rolls
life
Il-
and was
and the
own vessels.
Coulson, known as "The Napoleon
management
ac-
of his
of the
and de-
m 1866
included
Territory in
and
manding
human
as
nature and
achieve his
own
was
goals.
wilier,
by
far, in
of
using others to
company
in
at
pilot
not, he
and
a captain
had a voracity
of ambition
and
a flexibility of
dividuality
and eccentricity
He
m those who
worked well
for
him:
West,
many
of his boats
Rosebud,
named because
liam S. Evans,
sa-
officials
found
it
ungenteel.
including Far
Western and
his
two
West,
Key
Montana v/ere
so
was allowed
to exercise a superstitious
no trouble
money to hnance
men of talent to put
at all in raising
None
of these associates
was more
his
com-
his sub-
useful to
him
Dan" combined
gregariousness.
for
He
loved to
wore
flashy clothes,
talk,
had a compulsion
"The Old
Maratta
fleet as
at
room at a local
hotel. "Everybody on the Missouri slope knows me,"
the paper quoted him as having told the clerk, "and you
being asked to pay
ought to
know who
in
advance
am
to lay his
head
"that
why
if
for a
without an autobiographical
this
more
tough and
realistic
mind.
He would
gotiate contracts,
as well as
pany
not be pushed: he
at funerals,
and acted as
church socials,
in line,
political rallies
and im-
^K
An ungamly pontoon bridge spans the Missouri, linking Nebraska City, Nebraska, with settlements across the river
174
last
Reliable Line."
courted publicity,
in
'-' -'=
Iowa. Built
in
1888.
the
there.
irascible giants
were to
were
its
its bitter-
alliance with
on the
river.
one
Second Lieutenant Drubb who was empowered to reassign Dakota cargo if an original contractor
failed, as was often the case, to load it aboard a steamer
cepting a
structure
was designed
to
like
of troops
Grant Marsh,
view
of military
win an
for
Army
men.
He
lost his
temper
his dire
after failing to
1873, and
in
if it
pleases you."
tlood
the
wrecked
it
after
tai-
par-
175
A river
ad
in
this
1858. emphasizing his goods as recent arrivals. Apparently the ad pulled well; it ran
without a word of change
rather
water
in the
They
were quick to cut prices for big shippers, though with provisos for pro-
dian trouble.
They
stream
for
customers of
infuriated
BrownTllle September
if
steamboats
end, to
in the
move most
Army became
1870s
of his
so heavy a user of
and he was
forced, in the
The Coulson
its
Line
competitors,
corollary to
fuel as a
2, 1858 .
more flammable
cedar,
shallows
squatted up
water to create
at
ground one
But
if
I&-Iy
waved
passing steamers to
for a
quick
raid.
best to avoid buying fuel from Indians, they also tried to avoid paying cash to white
own
roustabouts as cheaper
wood
gath-
The
Koch, a Danish
mouth
of the Musselshell River in 1869 and 1870, reflects
the misery, discouragement and occasional peril that
were the lot of many such toilers. There is an inconat their risky trade.
youth
who
cut
wood
diary of Peter
men
life
in
need-
coping
my hands
as a rat.
Cut
down
he died. River
Gale
"Nov.
camped abt. 10 days
7.
of wind.
at
Dick
all
wet.
full
of ice.
deny boats
proved, however, to
to simulate
"
often, a sui-
business them-
Tong^s.
176
tonwood
in
Some dyed
"
news-
They
wood
At one
and
into the
selves.
The Old
Kountz.
went
AIm.,
velN
1868
Jnpnned
Reliable Line.
They
during
SfcbraKka.
Plymouth Rock,
Elevated Oven, New E?
Chicago to
woodhawks
seven
A KNOU.NCES to thepublic that be has just rexi- ccivcd, per Steamer Ryla:id, a very large, and
well a<st.rtcd stuek of Parlor and Cook .Stoves, of
new and improved pat terns, aa follows:
Buck's Pattern,
or In-
dramatized the
years.
DElStK.
rHl{ISTI.\N
Bi'otviiville,
two
NEW ARRIVAL
OF
Two Hundred
for
He
had
B.M.
says 3 cords.
Squaw
Creek.
The
AMUSEMENTS.
in
first
this
ad appeared
The copy
1859.
in
\;^:
in
the
hills.
"Dec.
Joe and
10. Sick.
found 4 wolves
No
our baits.
at
meat.
CIRCUS
CompriBing the ceifc of
(lie
Eump'-an CifuTa.
FROM FRAIfrE
MONS
Awful
"Jan. 16.
"17.
Froze
Too
my
No
wolves.
cold. Froze
cold to work.
my
ears.
Went up
nose.
CAIVE.
to Musselshell.
avenge the
river after
killing of
Sioux
look-
all
KUIlM liFilMANV.
MH. F. DONALDSON,
MB. -W F. CAVENAGH,
MR. -W WALTERS,
fUDll .SI'AI.N.
SENOB SABCEDA3.
SENOB CARLOS.
SENOR COilDELLA,
MB
FRO.U A.MERICA.
E.
OMAR,
MASTER BARBY.
and
7 P.
!>I.
l.\
SATURDAY, JULY
23, 1859.
cuut:?.
huge
CAMPBELL MINSTRELS.
Comprising the cream of Christj's. Malt Peol'a Newcomb end Runiso^'g and other pupuUr Min^treU.
Admission each.
25 Cf^nl.*.
....
Managing
Prop'r,
Interpreter,
Treasurer,
French Clown,
German Clown,
SPALDINd
MONS. VALEK
G. R.
\\
H.
WELLS
MONS. LOVAl.E
cut,
"May
bank.
One
9.
We
put
got
it
20
fire
50
and burnt up
left
on
Wind
off,
their hngers
and faces
their faces.
cords.
The
We were played
checked. Nothing to
"13.
At
spread
fire
out before
we
eat.
About
cords burned.
in
"23. 40-50 Indians showed themselves at Musselshell the 20th. The crazy Frenchman started toward
them and was badly beaten but when hring started they
turned and ran.
"24. Raining. The Ida Reese' passed about daybreak without our knowing it.
"28. Sold 'Deerlodge about 10 cords of wood.
"June 13. The 'Sallie' passed after midnight and
took on 5 cords of wood.
1
"16.
The
We threw
without stopping.
to
keep
it
from
and
all
we
The
Cottonwood
balls whistled
We
and threw
We
bow and
body
his
in
his
headed southwest
to-
companions; he gave up
ward
in
the
fall,
became an Indian
trader
177
Fort
Benton in 1880 still maintained the illusions of a growThat year, 30 million pounds of freight were
busmess,
rebuilt
it
with brick.
..:^lkjL
and surveyor
National Bank.
First
ropean background, of
drifted into
was
Eu-
woodcutting
for
rate, celebrated
None
lar.
who
got in his
trapper,
way than
men.
He came up
ring at the
fore later
less
wily
in
last
woodhawks
materialized in the
taken on a partner
Notes by
him very
a traveler
bank on both
and a
ambush
more
sensitive to the
the
in the
He
Crow war
had invaded
his
party
his
riors
Crow
tribe
charged
down
20
picked war-
gly
ter
prove
at a
Crow
error, for
or, at
Johnson
any
rate,
killed,
scalped
reported having
livers
down, "only
spitting
this
was
of stakes
to one side, as
if
Montana by
He was
the so-
leaning on a
crutch with one leg bandaged, and the day being hot his
entire dress consisted of a scant,
below
his hips.
un-
an un-
War,
Montana
with
its
too, as
valor.
row
Leaders of the
make
They were
quicker, stronger,
upriver on
little
difhculty,
little
who came
skull.
new
man
at disposing of Indians
fact,
was
pause
in his
ever, that he
Eating" Johnson.
tain
mentos
the bloody
who
of these achieved a
nor
meagreement, how-
fast dol-
But
it
was
life
satisfactions,
in a diary
Andrew
she
Canfield, a
came up
girl
school-
dians,
who
that he
brave
who had
liver of a
smoking
commandant,
noting:
down and
of Slipping
dis-
"
wore
pictured paper
there.
all
becoming to
quite
for that
tin
To add
which was
a touch
his style of
nverbank and
made
dried,
had
it
it
and he
"
Owly' Appearance.
But
life
when
Montana
became
at
Camp Cooke,
"This
Territory, in July.
design like
all
she wrote on
fort,"
river
rows
of
tions.
'adobe' bricks.
and a
of
foot or
The
more
wood and
made
roofs are
Had
When
make
carpeted they
The
walls
floors of
rough
all.
boards.
hlled in with
nice,
(no
cozy homes.
salt), a
meal
this
morning, but
we
enjoyed
it.
Our
for
can of
our
table
first
was
"
steamboat Deer Lodge and was dismayed by the landscape through which the vessel bore her. "This
little
of.
Nothing but
is
hills
She was
de-
60
lighted after her long trip to see "the dear old flag" fly-
officers'
"we do
"with
my
dear husband"
(to
whom
she
referred,
"were more
signs of civilization"
been alternately
startled, fascinated
ercise
our rooms
.
Still,
ties to
down
"we see
walking up and
"
and
that
we have had
New
little
for
miles,
"
that
"The
on
settled
in full
She
stared in
three tribes
uniforms."
Whiimitt
Sf^^
M.CnpbriI
J.
4* -^
i^
JB^
J
Rr*:-!"!;
A
>
Paul M. C-.iniuk
S^
*-
v3
*u^
i ^i
J
WfcTT
D BrwTton
A C Jobnsvn
Jobc
-V^
M Swwqv
I
J
R Mignclon
E.
Byrne
'^ 1^
A
-,ill. r\
182
ol
Ban4 BiWB
f.
*^
^A
t'^
T. C.
Power
Wkt
Horace A Groelcr
r*.
1^
A.
(center, left)
and
BISMARCK.
FORT BENTON
1870s had
Not
for the
was one
far-flung enterprises
for
tion
among
At
first,
possibility of a merger.
But
win them.
to
Power
the wily
not
did
their relations
from
idly
1880
detenorated rap-
of
Benton
its
wagons
that,
steamboats, connected
upriver
freight
1,100
to haul
miles
at
to
In this fashion,
Montana and
west
territories of
Canada.
North-
steamboats
the brainchild of
With hordes
to Fort
to
who
Benton
open
in
a general
Fort
Bismarck.
its
and did
it
fleet of
without enrag-
cess.
assist
Power
his
in isolated
As his
souri
and specialized
in
government
were
re-
systematically under-
tion
Company
to
become
11 r"-'
Si
in
financier,
with an
(^1
and sheep
Benton Transportation,
abundance
ers
own
in
it
steamboating, as well.
It
number of
among them the
for a
his
was
T. C.
Power's headquarters
in
Helena
it
right.
a suc-
its
out of
Power went on
some
freight
flourished in
With
Power
settlements to
earnings.
instant suc-
to dis-
company
line
John to
him, and immediately set up
Canada.
branch stores
Power only
whose
of miners passing
was an
against
what business
was
war
rate
rail-
was
As for
great
steamboatmen,
fabled
Grant Marsh.
183
One of Power sfreight wagons, loaded with goods for remote northern
184
was one
of the
first
trading posts
Power
Benton
established on the
the
Montana
870s.
frontier
line,
docks
in
880
at
460
185
we
that
preferred to be shot
The of-
Dr. Por-
was
to see to
.
or Narcotic
far.
still
drew water from wells or the river. The streets were unpaved, unlighted, and subject to disturbances. "Three
dog hghts occurred simultaneously on Broadway
and Dakptian
the Press
forenoon,'
this
No-
reported on
had a habit of
on cold
starting
nights,
"
streets
on holidays.
all
new
steam-
The
real future of
Sioux City,
"
wrote a
ruder aspects of
its
in front of
1870, "and the crews and passengers turned themtown in gangs. There
seemed
killed, as
was taking
of railroad builders
in
in-
and
Sioux City,
city
to
become
the
"Queen City
"
of the
in full blast
when
were
there
Steamer
All three straggling river villages had set out with solemn, if rather schizophrenic, vigor each beadily watch-
as
it
licosity at
members
officers
times even
of local "society.
"
The
when
a U.S. mar-
shal arrested
be shouldered aside,
fully
in
many
permanent buildings
of
to
brick.
cases,
by ugly, wonder-
sawed chalkstone
or red
contingent of "Rooshian
farmed
in
"
settlers
after
being
the brick
him
at
Yankton
throwing one of
for
The
marshal, lacking a
jail,
placed a friend on
and proceeded
officers
the part of
186
'
who
The town
Oxide
dis-
moved
the landing.
ness factory.
threw the
away from
trial
tist
his
sidered,
in the
was con-
many
West.
Its
local citizens, to
if
in
the diary of
outraged, eye
one
"
of Sioux City's
most
citizens
first
was John H.
and
that
fore-
Charles, a
drafted.
training
eled to
wrote.
on December
two years after its
just
"I'll
Moore appointed
"They asked
put
"
us,
Charles
us only one or
we were
be
consequence.
little
F.
committee to examine
two
1856,
"Judge Marshall
in California before
I,
That
was
or,
as the
'admitted to be eternally
it,
boys
at
law
"'
Sioux City on the morning of January 1, 1900 and as the sun rises I'll
in
"
Charles
In the years
was
as
good
here.'
still
word.
as his
grow from a population of a few hundred to 44,000 and chronicled his experiences in a volume of
On
wry remin-
River town.
was
raging and
was
the
Hagy House,
dinarily referred to as
but
'The
name
was or-
Its
"it
Terrific,'
no
in the
860s
Crow
who un-
though
He was
to
night
He
awakened
self
in the
morning
to find him-
"
"I
other's.
They
however, under-
did,
bowl
of
ed beaver
As
Charles concluded,
thought
ice.
of roast-
tail.
"
two
cabins connected by roughhewn
The
infant
town had
was "only
went
no
log
man
sat
jail; its
"stagecoach
"
But
it
certainly
had a going
into the
real-estate
Iowa was
snow
for sale at
Sioux City
men
land
"and even
Hagy
how much
of the
"
changed the
1860s and
"
of
li-
a sheriff but
manager
of
C. Power's Ben-
ton Transportation
182, pictured
Company
in the third
left).
To
(page
row, sec-
em-
He
itably in land
and
gust
ness, they
I'd
mines,
"
"
Con-
in the California
alderman's seat.
won
an
profit.
dourly,
would stand
to
make no
"We
staying at
187
BIG
iG<
3>ai.
D[^[^IS
|LyJ
DIRECT RAIL
froiii
DULUTH
For FOBTS
ini1t1rm
1.t*
BERTKOUD. B1TFOBD and BENTON, and aU ptinU <m the TfOlovstose ud Vmn Miuonri Bima.
ifaver^
BIQ HOBN CITY. BOZEMAN. HELEN., and the Big Horn KoS^tajST^^
-^^
> W\ WVf A A n
llKAll Willi
IJ STANDING
Concord Coaches
to
ConnectioDB are
with
all
tha
ff
T.ywrjjp ^f
od the
tha
s*^xt.
H.E.SAR6ENT.5-:nHii|ir
188
L. P.
fOXAXj xsrx^o:
MILLIARD.
Ual.
W.C. ANDRUS.en'lEaTiW
tfl.
G.
G.SANBORM.Sa'imiPiaU'l,
H.A.TOWNElHt
Northern Pacihc announces 1870s service to the West by steamer and stage from Bismarck.
Montana
Territory, to
to
rail
to
Sauk
way
1881 on his
FT.
To CHICAGO,
Ills.
ed
it
now contains a
population of
and manners indicated the life of immorality which they lead. The scenery
on stage was of the most primitive na-
BEHTON TSANSPOETATIOH (
Ob first CIASS Paxaco
to Fort Benton.
Form A.
vu si4f,-. SIT. HP. i-iDl*sP*p. Out. viiasp.
pi-
followed,
tempted a vulgar
Having
places of amusement.
days to wait
for
One
three
we
our steamer
took
show
by
In
Gevmi
visit
CDICAG0.1III.WAUKBK4
was
to a 'keno'
Manmgrr.
gambling
air
and
away.
still
We
No!
We could
abandonment depicted
in
tr
(><x>il
trU<LKl
bn~FZRSirciiASS VmnU^P^
|,1slDiv,SI,&P,Dep,tQCMM,&S.P,0ep.
!
^i
j
Form
A,
VUU){c.
Str.
Net
the
iMMrdiifrr.itt:yTo\TitAysi'ouT.tTtosct>.
wooden
'opera house,' a
entrance of which
is
was
to the
structure, the
a barroom.
At
Oj
the
It^K.^^
We
a
Kui
A.
(iiNNl
IT (Iclflctird
I
JT. JIK.VrO.V
Uin.
all
with
pit.
VI9U!R>,
all
which are
in
which
BK.NTON LISE
by beer or cham-
About
CAIUN
dozen
sTE.\ilKfi.'i.
10
BISMARK.
MEALS INCL1/DKD.
A.
Nat Uuort
1/
dftscbML
mEKAtOFT.BEllTOU.r3
j
half a
BENTON
Form
CMASP
FT.
ac-
their
spend
tresses
S-ir.
large,
but not
member
from a leading
Form
A.
VI8fafl,Ru KP.
J**-'
Gi^vi
if
ter
Wintermute.
when
dri*rh<t
utUhSfAP. Ou.CVaM'.
the bar of
which stood
next door to the courthouse. But when
Wintermute discovered that he was
out of cigars and asked the other man
to loan him one, the general turned
him down; and then, after an argument,
beat him up.
General McCook was a man of robust instincts
the Dakota /^era/c/ regarded him as an "ignorant, vainglorious, drunken lout, who is an eyesore
to our people and a depression upon
the good morals of this community."
Peter Wintermute weighed only 135
pounds, and the general proceeded, acthe St. Charles Hotel,
TN.t>SfORTATJOy CO,
i!BlSMARKloSAEEAPIDS.J9|
weeks
bitter objection
iHi ir<ipt>(iii-rt.
or fifty frontiersmen,
for
without
UHASP.!
floor,
i-
politely
'
sawdust covered
MMMf k|/
~1
cents.
Om
Form
Here we saw
||SADKRAPIDStoST,PADL.k;
fifty
Paul* PAClPIf
"Our
War
territorial
ex-Civil
ttoori ir cteiarlwd
meeting
1873, merchants
juut^b0*T.Mi^r7uxru.tssi'fmTATioxco
OMMBi;S UNE.
in
cuss a
CHICAGO.
to
in
Mc-
loo
PAE
ST.
I'
PAULKV.
8T.
in
Oaa
and
first
pression of
fry (Ji
COUPONS ATTACHED.
its
Ills.
us the 'city
gaslight.'
"Our
The
TO
CHICAGO,
and Oysters.'
gambling houses or
'Champagne
ditty,
"
The vic189
190
A
1
workmen
In winter, as
many
and
ice.
191
but
with a
anyhow
pistol,
tormentor as soon as
Lieutenant
was still firing, and tried to throw him through a window. But the general was mortally wounded and died
were
Wintermute innocent
dank
cell that
of the deaths
was received by
trial.
of
the
in
roustabouts caused
ambitions
cial
little stir,
ducing
and,
harbored so-
decade before.
Yankton's leading
lights
boasted
90
in the
mid-1870s
who
opined:
in a circuit
which
sion; the
islature
way
prohibited
Sunday buggy
riding save
by those on
their
But
yeastier impulses of
citizens in other
affairs of
Yankton
steamboat towns
as did
solid
style;
The
stores.
for
fancy groceries
al-
and
matched wits
at weekly meetings of the Literary and Debating Club.
But they were also privy to social intercourse with the
brandied cherries.
fair
Young men
of promise
towns and
who
were
fringes
all.
rail
on April 9,
later.
fell
The
storm lasted
36
for
cover
for
in dire
civilians
stables
came
warmth
to their bodies.
But
this
townsmen
time
suc-
one
whom
el-
re-
in the
to
at
town
hunt wild
fruit for
tier ladies
192
in polite
carpets to restore
embosomed
river
by which those
1876
safely
"
The
who were
his
wife, Elizabeth,
News
rights.
charged once more though this time with blood dripbanker, who
ping down his coat front seized the
little
women's
it
not match.
The snow
Carroll,
in
was expedient
the best people were jostling each other to plan and pre-
its
gaudy com-
in
was
certain to provide.
the
Yankton
"The
social event of
1873 occurred
in
Yankton on
were
When
was
violinist, in
his
the
forgotten.
by our former
music which
by
it
from
fully represented.
led
that
wonderful
much
skill as
"
Thursday evening
last
Yankton
to the of-
7th Cavalry.
"The Reception
Ball
was
a far
was held
at
Stone's Hall,
was hung with like emblems gracefully fesThese striking ornaments with the bright fulluniforms of the military gentlemen present was
"leading com-
wanted
to obtain white
mercial
men
"
government bounty
the ceiling
warehouses along
tooned.
cavalrymen paid
dress
mind Byron's famous 'Battle of Waterloo.' There were present about 120 couples embracing the leading commercial men of Yankton with
sufhcient to call to
the Yank-
The
that
their levees.
for the
and
liv-
forced the
and en-
A few embellishments
commerce
to lure
By
the late
ports
had begun to
settle into a
river
comfortable
commerce
their
show
often sought to
off
view created by a
a bird s-eye
skilled
artist.
in
many
tent railbeds
The
fac-
industry,
homes and
ofhces.
maps
handsome
Ruger, a German-born artist who produced no fewer than 198 such panoramas during the course of a long and
prolihc career.
The
of the three
result, as
maps
seen
in
of old river
each
towns
and on the
fol-
which
all
streets,
churches,
were
labeled,
ways
present,
whether
it
was
al-
existed or not.
"^v^:-^
I
194
The
^*
-^
t
COUMTTT O'flCd
old
when
this
^^^^;;:
V.
^ST
CHARLES
CO. J /
'
r
^^___
panorama appeared
in
railroad bridge,
one
of the longest of
its
type
in the
country,
eOUKT MOUB
until
two years
later.
^:
-^,
"
^'
*'
--*-
V-
^:%C,
-^^^^
MJ^^
..^
'!
>
j^^^*^
!*
^^.
'-m
196
Once
prosperous Lexington
1852,
killing
illusion given of a
busy
T.
..I. iu
river port.
The
walled area
at left is the
Cdinpub
ol the
world's
first
Masonic
college.
197
198
Atone
lor the
868
to pin
Its
future
hopes on the
railroad.
into
town
map
199
In service
Army
to the
who employed
,^feWW^
campaignmg
supplies while
against the
1860s,
ly
in the ear-
later
different
matter had
important aid
The
in its operations.
steamboat's role
of the Indian-fighting
ied as
in the service
it
this long
main
the
where
food,
left
it
The
strategically:
way
ed
it
move
to
down,
on the march.
soldiers
to points
in a hurry,
fastest
upstream or
but
also maintained
it
deep and
fast to
be forded by mounted
was
and
riflemen
Army's
in
In a
after the
debacle
at
wounded
survi-
Custer and
his entire
column
of troops.
The
880
at a
200
i^mm
5!
^^^H..'^*--
-^^a!^r3?^'-
^'iiSi&^-.
rJ5.*-
.^.fc^**^
.'^f,'"
v*^'^^.
-J
'^N*^
^^;
'^^-^
'%^
t
v*^i*V.
<^^.
-t^^
k>
-<
if'^.
Men
are
volved
in
out of
May
in its
Dakota
17,
The
fates.
own mundane
in-
of being cast
it
rode
Abraham Lincoln on
fare
George Armstrong Custer would soon plunge the regiment into suicidal defeat, allow the Indians to demean
the
Army
voyage
in
American
its
fastest
steamboat
way
into a
after his
it
exasperations as
Territory's Fort
1876,
themselves
immersed
find
after the
at Fort
Lincoln 10 days
He tied up
at
its
master and
Marsh
pilot, to select
command
paign.
felt
well prepared.
No
pilot in
he
felt,
was
it
America
No
vessel,
history.
Forty per cent of the 7th's troopers were raw recruits who had been brought in to replace "snowbirds
on being given his choice, from all the steamers operated by the Coulson Packet Company. But if Marsh
men who
was ready
winter but
no thought
"
and
at Fort
Lincoln to prevent
their drinking
whiskey "to
"
They were
first
was
Among
artist
Wilham Cary
during an
pencil by
money was
to
hnd
adversary:
Knots of officers' wives approached the riverbank alas soon as Marsh put his boat against the shore to
begin loading. He asked them aboard, instructed his
steward to give them as "dainty a lunch as could be
managed, excused himself, and went back to work. He
was interrupted at noon; Mrs. Custer and the ladies,
the steward informed him, would be desolated if the captain did not preside at the luncheon table. Marsh was
busy; proper loading was crucial to a vessel bound for
shallow water. But he broke off, went to his quarters to
make himself presentable, and joined the women in Far
most
"
Wesl'%
1874 voy-
for the
right,
little
cabin.
herself
on
his
women
left.
Marsh began
203
vlous admiration.
get of female
He did
machmation
was
a tar-
until
turning,
stiffly,
to go ashore.
cast off
Far West's
lines;
Marsh
ward
The
crew;
in
H.
Terry,
whom
she was to
Gibbon was
leading
The
all
down
river.
in-
A bracing
aboard.
southwest
204
at
an angle of about
45
commandmg
officer
was famed
for
70-man
quarters
Company
in
garrison
m
I
meet
865. Taken
864, the ram1
it
was deserted
in
867.
205
sprawl of Fort
Abraham Lincoln
below Bismarck.
3, the post
like pieces
The mouths
of
the
River,
]ib stay.
map)
Bozeman
Trail.
7th's cavalrymen.
mouth of the
George Custer's tragic designs thereafter.
It was the assumption of the Army, and
this
Terry
who commanded
when
attacked.
moving troops
all
would
U.S. troops
try, as
into the
maneuvering.
General
in the
cam-
always, to scatter
con-
column while
it
still
Little
it
six
on
companies
1,500 men
had churned up
206
all
was
of
of
He
outcome
in their
Sioux
..Mb
11
MJMtWMMWWiWIgyi n
i
VI
I)
Kfl^11 l
II
<"
'J
n iii<WiiiMi-Mli
''
!.
"*"?y"''
fig
< ML
l ff
^mm*^
his cav-
were holed up off to the south, somewhere between Rosebud Creek and the Bighorn's eastern tributary, the Little Bighorn River. Major Marcus
Reno, who had been in command of the scouting force,
was able to tell him that the Indian trail was extremely
wide. But neither Terry nor Reno realized that they
were talking about one of the greatest concentrations
and
his followers
Wyoming.
down
to be ferried across
it
for a
"
to be
He was to pounce
if
the mice
stayed
if
the
showed
signs of straying,
prey as
safely
down
Terry believed
their hole.
Terry
main
theoretical
was
and
207
Custer was given liberty by Terry to ignore these strictures if he "saw sufficient reason for departing from
'm
"There
up.
are Indians
enough
for
all.
Wait
for us."
One
of
deck, guessed
fantry
men who
to the
ter will
all
is-
The
the laurels."
in-
Cus-
utmost to win
to lend
him
He
now
expected a long
sponded
irritably
He
when
his
for
every trooper.
commanders suggested
50
He rethat
would break down under such loads: "Well, gentlemen," he said, "you may carry what supplies you please,
but you will be held responsible.
we
catch them.
have
to live
You had
We
we may
on horse meat.
family.
brother. Captain
Thomas
officers
ry
of the
7th.
Custer
civilian relatives in
7-year-old
nephew Hen-
his light-hearted
Tom Custer
less
and James Calhoun were among a reststaff officers and cavalry com-
throng of scouts,
manders who
drifted
into
Far
West's
cabin
after
and Marsh
Marsh was startled at
ensued. Rescued by duty, he
208
to aimAm^
The famed
Far
West,
stacked, prepares to load freight for an upriver run. Chartered by the Army in 876 for $360 a day, she served galI
who
treated
and
later carried
209
well,
also
It
talking
of riding
men
suffer
left
hun-
sit-
mother when
against the
Boss
Marsh
it
finally agreed.
He
brothers.
and
left
goodbye to his
George Custer's
to say
at
goodbye
himself.
"
The
flood, but
Marsh who
presented
it
military guard of
his
unloaded
their stores,
their
had eavesdropped on
cils
and
ironic wilderness.
camps, had
their
coun-
silent, sunlit
in askiff
Three
soldiers
who had
set off
downstream
feet of the
50
was
full
with awesome
rowness
of attack that
Horse.
Terry
210
very nar-
The men
yards
spent most of
two
or three
hundred
the
cliffs
about
50
feet.
unless
He
the
reached
it
tributary,
and Marsh
At
nightfall,
inal destination
widows, were
The
he
7th's
difficulties. It
Baker a falsehood
finally
its
of the river,
move
summer
itself
that lay
sponsibility to his
means
as a
and
is-
smoke
ern sky, and he assumed that Custer and Terry had at-
The
rest of the
crew loafed
in flight.
The elegantly
ing room,
tained,
fill
set tables of
where Mrs. Custer was enterthe main cabin; the doors lead to
chamber
~?A3ksMA.^^,
211
Baker
left
at
fire at
if
pony
up a carbine
that he
in
wore the
Crow
erect
Curley, a scout
forward
his horse
and bellowing as
if
in
He
their
threw himself
flat on
drew a careful circle. He made a larger circle outside it and began
jabbing dots into the space between them. "Sioux, he
cried. "Sioux, Sioux, Sioux!
He twisted up to stare at
them, and then, making dots within the inner circle,
began yelling: "Absaroka! Absaroka!
"By Scotts, said Marsh. "1 know what that means.
It means soldiers. That Englishman, Courtney, who
runs the woodyard at the head of Drowned Man's Rapids told me so. Some Crows were there one time and
he told me they were going to Camp Cooke to see the
Absaroka. "Absaroka was, in fact, the word
meaning
The People by which Crows dehned themselves, but
which, because they admired the Army for shooting up
Sioux, Blackfeet and others of their ancient enemies,
they generously used to describe U.S. soldiers as well.
"Absaroka! "cried Curley, leaping to his feet on hearing Marsh use the word. He poked his hngers at his
chest and yelled: "Poof! Poof! Poof Absaroka!
Baker was the hrst to understand the import of this
pantomime. "We're whipped, he said. "That's what's
the matter." The news seemed worse as they labori-
use,
to him.
"
"
"
"
"
"
them
that he
battlefield
212
his
head
He
on the
(it
told
Little
was
later
in
previously
officer.
213
Grant Marsh
in
54
in a
hours.
in
"As
700
miles
is
how
St.
feat.
lodge poles.
of
Gibbon's force
freight. Soldiers
wounded
at
midnight
The
gave
more
It
was sundown
be-
its
slow
way down
the valley.
Then
Marsh now
at
it
The
rained.
pro-
He
was
and draped
black
in
become
wounds. Comanche,
led
all
who
midnight.
intervened.
tractable
him
lied
wounded
With them came a hagbewhiskered Army physician. Dr. Henry R. Por-
would have
not dissipated
rode up
gard,
who
must,
in retrospect,
It
was
dawn,
di-
ter,
at
man
for dramatics,
Marsh
but he called
a pro-
"Captain, this
is
You have
a bad river.
is
the
man
after
him.
Reno
jor
led his
men
hit
in a
and
and
their stand;
having
fire
them
to rejoin
had
one
wounded once
of
Far West
One more
you possess.
"I will give you my best," said Marsh. But his nerve
failed him after he climbed to the pilothouse. Far West
I
had then
pilot
to
"I
be headed into
felt
sick
"
to the
water downstream.
moment
situations without a
in
it
The
off, al-
hundreds of similar
of conscious thought.
and the mate, Ben Thomphad seated themselves on the bench at the rear of
the wheelhouse. "Boys, Marsh said, turning to them,
"I can't do it. I'll smash her up.
"Oh, no you won't," said Campbell. "Cool off a
son,
up
fast
cabins.
led
skill
was now
the
refugee of battle
all
pilot,
"
"
steamer: a lurching,
wounded
named Co-
sorrel stallion
to Custer's hght
by
"
it.
dered a grass-padded
Marsh took
wounded down
living creature
him
aft,
who had
found
against the
silently
ahead.
He
followed the
after a bit,
a hysterical vetertoo.
man
Marsh leaned
all right.
and sorting
him aboard,
"He
I
"
"
was,
ever saw
Marsh
bul-
his
field
of vision
by
215
The
In
the
of
the
upper
Army
were towed
ment
finally felt
compelled to reduce
self.
Engineers.
The
Army's Corps
as
of Engineers pinpointed
the
specific
of
played an important
working platforms
who
it-
steamboats themselves
216
that
early forts.
scows
as
1839, symbolizes
barracks-like
beside her.
more im-
supplies by steamboat
in
Baby Josephine
for labor
crews,
when onshore
choked steam-
at
Sioux
was used
in
water too
si
in
1879
that
wags
ed to commit suicide by
jumpmg
into
two
feet of
mud.)
effective
was
structures"
an eroding shore
line.
These
away from
structures
for
steamboats.
A U.S.
217
Crews surveying
218
cilficers
of the
Corps
their
wives
in Josephine's,
spacious aftercabin.
Maneuvering
in
shallow water
clost- In
tlit-
Mis^ouii
sliDii-,
men
in relative comfort.
wheel.
219
T3
220
Omaha in 880.
I
U.S. Engineers, supplied by steamboat, supervise the weaving of a huge retainer made of saplings and
had to
Itbe "learned" twice going up and going down. NeiMarsh nor any
ther
wheel
of the
once
movement
instinct alone.
was sometimes
It
wheels
pilot
for
on
larger
in reverse;
time
possible,
descent of rapids
at times,
than her
Marsh covered 53
spent, and tied
was
up below the
river's
who
shortly died
real danger.
though
his
He
decided,
two days
Army
headquarters at a riverside
in order to ferry
depot.
now
on the
not,
down
because of
and astonishing race to Fort Lincoln. It is doubtful, nevertheless, that any other pilot ever covered such water
at
such speed.
since men
that Marsh,
odds
It is
and determination
in
hrst, fright-
The
less precipitous
know
it
well.
But
it
was
a difficult, dangerous
and Marsh
come
and
to
reef-
the
it
in place.
Army
221
of the
Crushing
ervations,
Army
was forcing the Sioux onto resthough a number held out in Canada until 1881.
pressure
AV.,
^A
rVl/
-
^^ "V
^%
<r
.-^^-^tf^.
f_i\\i
^^^r^'^i'^^^.-^-.'y^^^^
in negotiating
it
by resolving
day and
to crack
on
set off at
early as
who
tricks at the
gloom
as the boat
She paused
venson.
At
at Fort
board clamoring
for
as
Marsh waited
morning
guess) in
mind would
was
unknown
river,"
wrote
running from a
havoc to a station
steamer!
of mourners.
is
man to abandon
was
done
FINISHED
down
WITH ENGINES.
at
among them
Gangs of
empty
Smith,
who
Army
carried a bag
headquarters in
Mark Kellogg
Lamps were
body on the
battlefield.
The
Lives were
at stake.
keep up steam
at
marked a pressure
The
instructed
rapher
the gauge
correspondent
The
crisis
The
annals of boating.
It
rate of
was
in the
There was an Army depot at the mouth of the Powder. Its garrison, which had been lined up to fire a ceremonial volley (this being the Fourth of July) was
the steamboat tied
officers of
New
after ask-
it
to
companies were
killed.
Reno
with sev-
The
Bismarck. Tribune
special correspondent
was
"
M.
teleg-
handed
and man
a thrilling voyage!"
J.
for the
named
was
Once
engineer
224
diers surged
miles an hour.
to
home
full
ders.
aide-de-camp. Captain E.
down
not
Down
im-
her race
last lap of
the bank
tate.
on the
was done.
trip
Ste-
leaped on
facts
at Fort
men
ru-
dawn came
late,
mors
They
killed.
to
that
fight
down
until the
day
of the
nahan then dispatched a long account of the battle written by one of Gibbon's commanders. Lounsberry went
J.
V.
We
on our sad errand a little before 7 o'clock on that 6th of July morning. I went to
the rear of the Custer house, woke up Maria, Mrs. Cus-
ter's
ter's
22
West, as well as
Mrs. Custer.
started
to rap
on Mrs. Cus-
in the parlor.
She
sum
gering
of
$3,000)
greatest stories in
U.S.
sel
tolls cost
the stag-
in giving the
history.
He
left
called
early visit.
me by name and
I
asked
me
Calhoun
But Mrs.
in the hall.
the cause of
my
made no
lowed by the
ladies of the
we
told
to
them
stricken
Wives
fort
two
days.
The
was headquarters
fort
detachment
for a
women,
down
tatives of the
complishments.
that these
grip
"and rumors
"
ing,
of a great bat-
last of
wood
No
mounted on
all
was
stifling.
ficers
were
'
Now,
at
citement
when
women
"
eties,
til
news by
asked to break
widows.
tell
ed and waited
It
sig-
for tidings,
Edward
later,
ac-
fleeter
own
little
two
nals,
tle.
IVest's
sit
become aware
was hot on
wounded men
Far
had been taken ashore and Marsh and
the river before the
of Indian police
gradually
at the
of disaster for
forts
13
age to
New
Pow-
made
his
voy-
Orleans.
were symbols of the past by the time their wounded soldiers had been taken ashore. The Sioux had sealed their
S. Godfrey,
who
how they
wait-
her anxi-
"and
each afraid to
tell
My
of the
long, brave
ator
her
killed?'
"
forever.
The
now impeded
railroad construc-
was
225
...
than a match
is
more
and from
rail-
this relation-
1870s
was gradually turning
into an
all-
By 1887, when
the
ship
most
over.
But even
They were
this
For more
out rivalry.
ers could
Even
able to prosper
on trade
between ports and with upriver settlements not yet approached by rails. But
With
ever-in-
more frequent
first
trains
was
virtually
role in
opening the
And
a few
were
still
projects.
threading the
had
in the
just as they
Steamboats
line
up
at
an
Omaha
dock
in
1865
to
Union
Pacific Railroad.
months. Here, in 1879, freight cars are hauled from a sidewheeler used by the Northern Pacific as a ferry between
railheads
at
.-if'-
230
During the winter, with the Missoun frozen solid, steamferries were of no use to the Northern Pacific. But it
made no difference to the inventive railroaders: they simply
boat
laid tracks
on the
ice
river
on
their
own.
231
Outmatched by
steamboats
Here
still
managed
1880s, Missouri
Bismarck
to
Mandan because
flooded, surrenders
its
side
were
passengers to a stern-wheeler
ferry.
tracks on the
far
fi^
'
*!?
* T "
spr
TEXT CREDITS
For full reference on
Chapter
1:
specific
page
"
this
Trans-
"The
Montana. Vol. VIII, 1917; William J. Petersen, ed. "The Log of the
Henry M. Shreve to Fort Benton in 1869," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, March 1945. 30 Samuel Hauser quotes from Samuel
T. Hauser letters in Samuel T. Hauser Papers. The Beinecke Rare
BookandManuscnptLibrary.YaleUniversity.May 20. 1862. Chapter
Brack2 Particularly useful sources for information and quotes: Henry
A Journal of a
er quotes,
3: Particularly useful
sources of in-
Navigation on the Missouri River: Life and Adventures ofJoseph LaBarge, Ross & Haines, Inc., 1962; Joseph Mills Hanson, The Conquest of the Missouri, Holt, Rinehart
&
McDonald. "The Missouri River and Its Victims," Missouri HisReview \^o\. XXI ]an. 1927. pp. 215-232; April I927.pp.
455-480; July 1927, pp. 581-607; John H. Morrison, History of
American Steam Navigation, Stephen Daye Press, 1958. Chapter 4:
Particularly useful sources for information and quotes: Hiram Martin ChitJ.
torical
&
Haines,
1962;
Inc.,
Joseph Mills Hanson, The Conquest of the Missouri. Holt, Rinehart &
Winston, 1946. Chapter 5: Particularly useful sources for information
F.
1856-1873,
thesis,
Karolevitz, Yankton:
Mae
Dept.
Iowa
of History, University of
South Dakota,
190-220; 192
Panorama,
Chapter
p. 21
I.
and quotes: Joseph Mills Hanson, The Conquest of the Missouri. Holt,
Rinehart & Winston, 1946.
PICTURE CREDITS
The sources for
shown below.
Credits from
left to
Cover Lighter Relieving a Steamboat Aground. George Caleb Bingham, copied by John Savage, courtesy Private Collection. 2
Missouri
Roustabout at the
Tiller
The Thomas
Courtesy
Topeka. 8,9
1
F.
The Thomas
Gilcrease
George
Bluffs,
Iowa. 26,27
H&
234
stitute
of
to
bottom by dashes.
Tulsa,
Oklahoma.
44,45
Courtesy Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library, Astor,
Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 46,47 Paulus Leeser, courtesy Rare
Book Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations. 48 through 5 Courtesy Rare Book Division, The New
York Public Library Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 52 Courtesy Missouri Historical Society. 55 Courtesy Rare Book Division.
1
New
Courtesy MissouriHistoricalSociety. 66 Courtesy Risvold Collection, Minneapolis. 67 Courtesy Missouri Historical Society. 68,69
Courtesy Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library, Astor,
Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 71 Courtesy Department of Rare
Books and Special Collections, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. 72 Cree Chief Le Tout Pique and Fur Company A gents
at Fort Union, Rudolph Friedrich Kurz, copied by Oliver Willcox, courtesy The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art,
Tulsa, Oklahoma. 75 Throbeck, courtesy State Historical Society of
North Dakota, Bismarck, N.D.
ciety of Missouri.
84,83
Society.
13 3
The Fire
David R.
86,87
tion of
Montana
Society of Missouri.
torical
brary, Astor,
10
L.
C. Cooper,
14,115
Courtesy
16,1
N.D.
Orlando
N.D.
18,1
ciety.
123
Courtesy
Smithsonian
Institution,
National Anthropological
Historical So-
160,161
Society. 164,165
Lee
Corrigan.
F.
torical
Montana
Historical Society. 21
dation.
Courtesy State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck, N.D. 38,1 39 Courtesy Oregon Historical Society.
41 Courtesy The State Historical Society of Missouri. 42 4 3 S.
,1
Dr.JamesK.
Thomas
homa. 132,15 3
fiu/i'ia/o
CroiJing
//le
N.D
State His-
212,213 John
F.
and
Map by
Nicholas Fasciano.
Courtesy
235
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The
Mankato State
of History,
The
Min-
College, Mankato,
man, Department
of the book.
Yeatman Anderson
III,
Curator of
Ann
Reinert, Librarian,
Oklahoma; Mildred Bradley, Assistant Libranan, Leavenworth Public Library, Leavenworth. Kansas; Dr.James Blunt. Bismarck. North Dakota;
Herbert R. Collins, Assoc. Curator, Div. of Political History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Maud Cole, Rare Book Room, The
New York Public Library, New York City; Eugene Decker, Archivist,
KansasStateHistoricalSociety, Topeka, Kansas; William Diamond. Director. Sioux City Museum, Sioux City, Iowa; Richard H. Engeman, Pho-
Francis
tographs and
Maps
Librarian; Craig E.
McDermott,
Huntington Station,
Morrow, Photo
Overholser. Editor,
The River
Missouri;
Montana; Norman
River,
Il-
of
New York;Jack
Rex Myers,
Dakota, Pierre, South Dakota; Tracy Forbes, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland;JohnGardner, Assistant Curator, Mystic Seaport, Inc.,
Vaughan,
C. Meloy, Librarian,
Archivist,
Riley,
Community
Museum, Yankton. South Dakota; James Goodrich, Lynn Roberts, Alma
Penn-
York; John
New
St.
Illinois;
Pennsylvania.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
George
Abdill,
Company,
960.
ed.,
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/.
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Its
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by
Ray H.
Mattison. North
Dakota
the
Upper Missouri,"
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20, 1953.
the
Kansas
"A
the
Academy of
H. Charles," Proceedings of
1905-06.
1904.
Meine, Half Horse Half Alligator. The
GrowthofTheMike Fink. Legend. TheUniversity of Chicago Press,
Walter and Franklin
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St.
Joseph News-
Hiram Martin:
The American Fur Trade of The Far
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1956.
236
J.
Blair,
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kota.
sity of
well,
Brower, Hon.
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Bradbury, John, Travels in the Interior of America. Sherwood, Neely &
souri,
A Journal of a
Voyage up
the
River Mis-
The
West, Vol.
and
II,
The
La
Daye
De
/ec/rons, Vol.
Ill,
Nos. 3 and
Y. Crowell
Com-
Dunbar, Seymour,
of Travel
y4 History
in
B.,
Max
E.,
2,
Upper Mis-
Spring 1974.
to
Yankton and
Vicinity. Thesis.
Department
of
1932.
Oklahoma
Trade.
1963.
J.
Hunter, Louis
in
H.
Petersen, William
Benton
1945.
Porter, Dr.
sician,
Winston, 1946.
Hauser. Samuel T, Samuel
Steamboats on
An Economic
Press, 1949.
erich
to the
Graham. Colonel W. A., The Custer Myth: A Source Book ofCusteriana. Bonanza Books, 195 3.
Hanson, Joseph Mills, The Conquest of the Missouri. Holt, Rinehart &
Jarrell,
1867." Contributions
Parker,
souri."
Special Reference
University of
Company, 1937.
Gerber,
in
pany, 1966.
R.
1880.
4, 1911.
Forbes,
Press, 1958.
Napton.John,
R udolph Fried-
Jennewein.J.LeonardandJaneBoorman,
kota Authors, Inc., 197 3.
As
Fall
197
2.
Historical Society.
Department
Rossi, Paul
of History, University of
A. Knopf,
the
1971.
Montana
the
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Oklahoma
University of
Taft,
T C T C.
editors,
Power,
Press,
1965.
Old
West.
Scribner's.
1953.
1972.
Kingsbury, George W., History of Dakota Territory. S.J. Clarke Pubhsliing Company. 1915.
Koch.
prints.
Koch- 1869
T, Lloyd's Steamboat
Directory. James
1856.
Mathews, A.
Mattison,
E.,
Ray
H.,
The
author,
1868.
ed.:
Henry A.
The
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pp. 455-480, July 1927, pp. 581-607.
McEachran. D.. Notes ofa Trip to Bow R iver. The State Historical Society of North Dakota. 1881.
Morrison, John H., History of American Steam Navigation. Stephen
1969.
The
Vestal, Stanley,
Lloyd, James
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of
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Way,
Frederick,
Gallery,
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FWay,Jr 1950.
Wayman, Norbury L.,
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1971.
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retary
of the Smithsonian
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Wood, Charles
R.,
Street
of
the
North-
237
INDEX
Numerals
in italics indicate
an
illustration
Boiler.
61.
63.
Boulton
&
also
58
BozemanRoad. 140. 145.206
Brackenridge. Henry. 67-75
de.
3. 61.
64-
65.67. 73
Astoria. Ore.. 64,
Atkins. Carrol
64-65
176.
216-217. 219
Belk.JohnM.,
62
la..
Evening
T. 89
60-62
Benolt. Francois.
Benton,
Sen/on.
Thomas
Hart. 126
32, 112-113
72,
C. 100
Canfield.
Andrew. 180.
180.212
180-
186
scout).
200.203.204.206-214.
224
S.. 31
202
Custer. Capt.
Thomas. 208-210.
214
54
Chase. Hull.
Forsyth.
94
24.31.42.76.
De Courcy,
186
Fort
181
Fort Leavenworth.
Capt..
Desire. Jacques.
De
93
Chouteau. Auguste. 63
De
Black
Moon
Dorion. Pierre.
Cincinnati
&
63. 127
Louisville Line.
38
204-205
214.
224
Dodge,
la..
170. 171
84-85
Fort Lisa. 7 5
River. 17
Hills.
Jr.. 6/.
93
Smel. 40-41
Des Moines
Chouteau. Pierre.
226
111. 124.
13!
Black
238
chief), 181
178-179. 189.
214,224
134
Fooldog (Sioux
139
Jr..
208-210.214
Blunt. Charles.
212-214
203-204.2//. 225'
42
131.212
(Crow
Carnahan.J.M.. 224-225
111, 125,
Curley
159.252-255
44-45
Flora.
Fontanelle. 133
Custer. Boston.
H.
131.
181
67, 73,
Creek. 123
212
152-157.
159
T. L., 151
29
steamboat. 28.
Crow
Mont.. 181-186.
89
chief). 145.
Camp Cooke.
Carter. Capt.
Blackburn, Jonathan F,
Fink. Mike. 71
Carroll.
200-201
228-229. 230-233
208-210
221
224-225.226.228.
la..
163; railroad.
Ferries. 160-161.
206-207
202. 203-204.207-223.
W.H.H.
214.
172-176.203
Gen.
Crittenden,
86-87
Y.Baichelor.
208-209.211
Island. \\\,
Cromwell.
206.207.210-212.2/4,
F.
58
221,224
181.
176
54.
64-65
de.
203.206-207.210
24
173
S..
135
145.207
3.
172-176. 183
CouncilBluffs.
BigHalchie. 108
Cow
5.
Star.
Calhoun. John
65-69. 130
101
215
(stallion).
passim. 171.
135, 142-143
Capt. John
Evans. William
Beaudoin. Antoine. 73
Becknell. William.
36
22
Effie Deans.
Elliott.
Coronado. Francisco
Baby Josephine.
95
mi7e. 30
64. 73.
17.
Cordelle(rope). 2
177
Comanche
Columbia River.
lights."
Colorado River. 17
Cora Island.
Cora Number
73
134
J..
55
138-139. 145
See
"Bridle."
Collot, Victor.
passim
Bridges: pontoon. 174-175.
74. 125
104
Bourgmont. Sieur
89
Clancy, Josiah.
131
"Eating up the
Edna. 108
Edwards. Nelson Green, quoted.
17.29-31
Abeona, 28
Assmiboin
89-92.
109. Ill
37
Citadel Rock.
106-107. 120-121
A.B. Chambers.
Fort
54
67. 73
Soto. Hernando.
Fort
Rouge. 59
66
224
Thompson. 142-144
Foulk. George.
137
204. 212
France. 2 3-24.
54-60
29
104
Leighton, Al,
Fur
3.56-57,
Lewis, Meriwether,
Army
Lewis
traders, -^-^-i/. 5
58.
vs..
144-151 passim.
200
181-186. 193.
Irving.
Washington, quoted, 76
64
223 passim
Godfrey. Edward
quoted,
S..
Governor Newell.
225
44
Great
Falls.
Green
38
Island.
James H. Trover,
James River. 169
Jefferson. Thomas. 60. 63
1
Little
Livingston. Robert.
Jewell. "Silent
Louis
180, 183
95
wheelers
(France).
59
60
Mountaineer. 39
"Mountain men,"
180
218
Judith River, 181
62
Kansas River, 70, 101
Kale Sweeney. 17, 108
94
race.'
64.65-73
94
3.
Stanton.
Napoleon
I,
60
198-199
Newella, 158-159
29
M7e. 140-144
155, 181
Niobrara River. 70
224-225
Key
Mandan
River, 130
Mmnie, 144
50.5 3,62-63.64-65,7/.
Kaw
189
5 3. 123. 131.
180, 181
19,24,54.58
Hauser. Samuel. 30
Kountz,WiIliamJ., 171-172,
24.54,58
Marsh, Grant, 109-111, 124126, 144. 137-151. 175.
183.203-204.208-225
67
230-231
passim
Kurz, R. F, 72
Ice,
180, 181
204
Hotchkiss. Gideon,
XIV. King
Hill,
127
214
64
Ben." 93
in.
42
Jefferson River, J 9,
Hassalo. 138-139
Hill, Charles,
193,200,203,
148, 151,
206-225,2/-/
Josephine. 148-151,2/6-2/7,
Heintzelman, Samuel,
Jacob Strader. 38
225
Harper's
151
Jolhet, Louis,
Hardy. John.
Lincoln.
Mollie Dozier.
42,44,53,60-63,
(see a/so
&
of,
60
231
La
La
Barge, John,
Mary McDonald 29
36
Mane,
La
Imperial. 31-37
Barge. Harkness
&
Company.
Bill,
Mathews, Alfred
39
44
La
La
Miller. George.
53,54-55,59,60,62-63,
for,
rush,
Lake Winnipeg.
Middleton. Dr.J.VD..
58
Samuel N.,
131
59-60
La Verendrye,
Sieur de,
225
169
Latta,
100, 137;
19.28,31,32.36,
42.61.74,94. 108, 152-
Indians, 17,
Ohio
29
136
Independence. 24, 31
Massie, Capt.
29
37
Mississippi River. 17.24.54.
71.93.95, 126, 137
Missouri Fur Company, 63, 65,
67
Missouri River, 55, 214: origin
falls of,
95-100
Oldham. Joe. 93
64
Peck Line.
171.
176
239
Peler Balen.
42
S.D.. 73
Pierre.
Smallpox. 125
62
22.5
PlatteRiver. 20.
3.
54, 63,
Pillar.
Ponchartram.
"Snowbirds."
de.
59
139
Powder River. 145. 148.206.
224.225
210.2/4.
Joseph Gazelle.
St.
St.
176.222-225
91:
founding
Ice
Gorge
Quincy
{\\l.)
Herald. 176
R
Railroads: bridges
for.
194-193.
of.
(Sioux
chief).
140.
56-57; "Great
1856." 109.
214.215.224.225
Wabash
War
"Warping." 64-65
Stinger.
Andy. 131-136
Saloons. 162-163
Storm. William.
29
Santa Fe
Trail.
Dan. 29
Sheridan, Gen.
22. 62. 76
Sully.
148,
175.203
of.
137. 140
Terry. Brig.
206-225 passim
Thompson. Ben. 215
Timour. 108
Tongue River. 148.206.210.
228-229
225
Army
vs..
144-
See
a/so
Fur
W.
/55-/59
28
1;
Li/e on
140; quoted.
132
142.
226
Twilight (steamboat),
42
31.
32.63.64,76.95. 100-
130
3.
27
traders
Trover.
62
214
N. D.;
Bow. 84-85
Yankton. S. D.
214
Taylor. "Muggins."
130-136
la..
161
109
Silver
194-
Roping. 28. 37
Wheelhouse, 122
170-171
Rocky
94
17
Trapper.
la.;
1812.64.65. 73. 75
of
Sl.Pelers. 125
140
60
216-217
Troup. James
also Bismarck.
River.
See
199.
193
221
139
224
SiouxCity.
Venture.
112.
disasters. 110,
Sioux City.
25.
of.
').
186-193; panoramas
passim
Shreoeporl.
River.
90-
145
Red
fire,
of,
of
Shiloh. Battle
Red Cloud
203
Scott.
Steamboat
137
Si.
7 3
Spread Eagle, 30
Steamboat companies. 28. 88.
92
Lawrence River. 54
Louis. Mo.. 6-7, 24. 127,
136. 146-147. 169;
72.73
36.
28.29.32.37.96
194-195
Si.
St. Charles.
203-204
193.
85.89.95.
Sparring ("grasshoppering
St.Arxge. 125
Portland. Ore.,
176;
58-59
Sagean. Matthew.
Sacramento River. 17
rush.
151
Comte
224
Power
Smith. Capt.
Porter.
203-204
E.W.. 224.225
65.70. 136
Poling. 64-65
Pompey's
38-39.92.95.
Roustabouts. 55.
214
Cow
140
224
Young, Bngham. 126, 136
X Printed US.A
in
240
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