'I. I ! I '¦HSLm- u. I,' -fet ti, ii::» ^m '1-* h-'. D!^ ¦ " Vi < ii' «' 'fc V 1 ¦! J "I give theft Boah for the fau,nding uf a. College in this Colony' 'Y^LH-WIMUVlEI^SflirY'' :jQOio IV AMERICAN EXPLORERS SERIES Batls Steamboating on /DMssourt IRivec VOL. II KENNETT MCKENZIE HISTORY OF EARLY STEAMBOAT NAVIGATION ON THE MISSOURI RIVER LIFE AND ADVENTURES of JOSEPH LA BARGE pioneer navigator and INDIAN TRADER FOR FIFTY YEARS IDENTIFIED WITH THE COMMERCE OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY BY HIRAM MARTIN CHITTENDEN Captain Corps of Engineers, U. S. A. Author of "American Fur Trade of the Far West," "History OF THE Yellowstone National Park," etc. WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS IN TWO VOLUJWES VOL. 11. NEW YORK FRANCIS P. HARPER 1903 Copyright, 1903, BY FRANCIS P. HARPER. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER XXI. The Civil War, . . 249 CHAPTER XXII. Gold in Montana, 265 CHAPTER XXHI. Incidents on the River (1862-67), 277 CHAPTER XXIV. La Barge again in Opposition 287 CHAPTER XXV. Voyage of 1863 — The Tobacco Garden Massacre, . 298 CHAPTER XXVI. The Blackfoot Annuities, 315 CHAPTER XXVII. Collapse of the La Barge- Harkness Opposition, . . 324 CHAPTER XXVIII. Captain La Barge in Montana, 331 CHAPTER XXIX. Captain La Barge in Washington, . . 340 CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER XXX. The Indian of the Missouri Valley, 35i CHAPTER XXXI. The Army on the Missouri, 365 CHAPTER XXXII. The Steamboat in the Indian Wars, .... 382 CHAPTER x£xill. The Peace Commission of 1856, 394 CHAPTER XXXIV. The Murder of Captain Spear 408 CHAPTER XXXV. The Battle with the Railroads, 417 CHAPTETRr XXXVI. Last Voyages to Benton, . . .... 425 CHAPTER XXXVII. Declining Years, , 438 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Destiny of the Missouri River 445 Index 445 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. II Kenneth McKenzie, La Barge Rock, A Steamboat at the Bank, Removing Snags from the Missouri, "Improving" the Missouri River, Steamboat Wreck on the Missouri River, . Frontispiece Facing page 299 331 " " 421 , " " 424 " 439 HISTORY OF EARLY STEAMBOAT NAVIGATION ON THE MISSOURI RIVER CHAPTER XXI. THE CIVIL WAR. In a ^reat many -way.t! the Wqr_of_the Rebellion affected....thfi . cnnaserce of the„ Missouri River. Missouri was a slave State, and most of her citizens. along the river were Southem sympathizers. It is stated that all the Missouri River pilots except two were in S3nnpathy with the South, and that General Lyon had to go to the Illinois River for pilots when he wanted to move his troops up the river in June, y86i. V»-The steamboat business on the river felt the weight of the war almost immediately upon its breaking out. Most of the business waSi-with the lovalpeople and legitimatejiibjjECt of ^confiscation. Guerrilla bands in fested the country along" the river, fir§3[jS1o Jhe boats, and did all they could to break up the business. .250 GUERRILLAS IN MISSOURI. They succeeded in driving most of the traffic off the lower river; but at the same time the demands_of^he war stimulated" the trade higher 'up." There was an JHcfeased movement^ of ^^^^g^ troops and stores, and in the later years of the war manyrefugees Irom both armies passed up the river to the moun tains. The discovery of gold in Montana added greatly to the river commerce during these years. The injurious effects of the war, therefore, were mainly confined to the river below Kansas City. The peril t^ navigation due to the • operations of the guerrillas was J. formidable~oner~~Wherever the channel ran close to the high wooded banks or other sheltered localities, ambush and attack could always be expected. The danger was mainly from the south bank. It became necessary to tie up at night away from this bank, and Captain La Barge fol lowed the practice of anchoring in mid-stream. The pilot-houses were regularly equipped with shields^ boiler iron, semi-cylindrical in form, inclosing the wheel, and capable of being moved so asv to be ad justed to the changing course of the vessel. * These shields were of great service on the upper river also, for the Indians at this time were as dangerous in that section as -were the guerrillas farther down. Occa- ;sionally, when there was much government freight aboard, troops were sent up on the boat until Kansas City was passed. AFFAIR OF THE SAM GATY. 25 1 The passions aroused by this internecine strife deadened human kindness, and made men as fero cious and brutal as wild beasts. This was particularly true of the lawless bands of guerrillas whose desul tory operations have been in all wars the most cruel and most difficult to suppress or control. Brigadier General Loan, of the Missouri State Militia, in report ing the tragedy which we shall next relate, said: " The guerrillas and Rebel sympathizers are waging a relentless, cruel, and bloody war upon our unarmed and defenseless citizens, and are determined to con tinue it until the last loyal citizen is murdered, or driven from the State for fear of being murdered." Such was the true situation along the south bank of the Missouri River, and it was only by the most vigilant precaution on the part of the steamboat men that they did not suffer more than they did. We shall relate one instance in which these precautions Sdid not avail. Vin the latter part of March, 1863, the steamboat Sam Gaty was on her way up the Missouri with a heavy load of freight and passengers, bound for the far upper river. There were on board several persons of wealth on their way to the newly discovered gold fields of Montana. There were besides quite a num ber of paroled Union soldiers and some forty con-^ trabands, as the negroes freed by the war were called. While passing under a high wooded bank near Sib- 252 AN ATROCIOUS CRIME. ley. Mo., the boat was attacked by a band of guer rillas under the leadership of one Hicks, who had for some time been the terror of the surrounding country. The boat was ordered to come tO' the bank and promptly obeyed, whereupon the guerrillas im mediately boarded her. The attack was unexpected, and the passengers were seated around the cabin en gaged in games and conversation when the appalling fact of their situation dawned upon them. A rush was made to conceal valuable property, and the paroled soldiers made haste to get into citizens' clothes. The poor negroes could do nothiilg, . The guerrillas made quick and heartless work. % They robbed the passengers of all the valuables to be found on their persons, and one man narrowly escaped summary death for attempting to slip his gold -watch into his boot. All the property on board that seemed to be of any use to the govemment was thrown into the river. The safes were broken open and robbed. Some of the paroled soldiers were taken off the boat and shot. All of the contrabands were driven ashore, where they were shot "down in cold blood. Their shrieks and cries were plainly heard on the boat. After this attack the boat was allowed to proceed. Vengeance followed quickly in the wake of this atrocious crime. A body of Kansas troops under a Major Ransom pursued and overtook the guerrillas, A UNION MAN. 253 attacked and destroyed their camp, took twenty- one horses, killed seventeen men in combat and hanged two, and completely dispersed the organ ization.* Captain La Barge had his full share of troublesome experiences that followed the outbreak of the war. As a slave-owner in a small way, and as a man born and bred in the old ante-bellum atmosphere that sur rounded the institution of slavery, his natural sym pathies were with the South. But when it carne^o- a-deeision- he did hot hesitate a moment. As between union and disunion he was for union. It required a degree of self-denial and patriotism which many Northerners have never fully appreciated to stand by the country when one's training and natural sym pathies would have led him to the other side. Cap tain La Barge remained a Union man, took the oath of allegiance, and throughout the war rendered con stant service to the government. •>^e soon came to see the wisdom of his decision, and before the war was over his sympathies had swung into full line with his action. In 1861 Captain La Barge was coming down the river on the Emilie from Omaha, and, as usual, stopped at St. Joseph for freight and passengers. A * The fact of this attack on the Sam Gaty has been questioned by some; but there would seem to be no doubt of its truth in all essential details. 254 THE GALLOWS CHEATED. good many people got on board, most of them Southern sympathizers going south. When the boat rounded out into the stream the passengers went up on deck and cheered for Jefferson Davis. The news of this event was telegraphed to Colonel R. D. Anthony of Leavenworth. This distinguished agitator and ardent Union man called a meeting of the citizens, and it was decided to hang La Barge the moment the boat arrived. The Captain had a stanch '\friend in Leavenworth of the name of Alexander Majors, of the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell, overland freighters. He was waiting to take passage to his home in Lexington, Mo. When the boat approached there was a great crowd on the levee. The instant the prow touched the bank Majors leaped on board and told the Captain not to make fast, as the crowd proposed to hang him. The Captain asked the clerk what business they had for Leavenworth. He replied that there were only a few bills to collect. " Let them go for now," said the Captain, and tapping the bell to depart, drew back into the stream. When the crowd saw that they were outwitted, they swung their rope into the air and yelled that they would get him at Wyandotte. " All right," replied the Captain, " I expect to stop * Brother of Susan B. Anthony, and at the present date editor of the Leavenvrorth Times. SERVING UNDER DURESS. 255 there," but when he reached that place he kept right on. On one of the down trips in the season of 1861 the Emilie arrived at Boonville just as the Confederates were evacuating that place upon the approach of the Federals under General Lyon. La Barge knew nothing of what was transpiring there, and his first intimation of any unusual state of things was a volley of cannon shot whistling over the boat. The Captain signaled that he would halt, and rounded to above the to-wn. The Confederate General Marmaduke came on board and with him Captain Kelly and a company of troops. " I knew Marmaduke well," said La Barge, " and asked him as soon as he got on board what the matter was. He replied, ' I want you to turn around and take General Price up to Lexing ton. He is sick and cannot stand the Qverland ride.' I replied that I could not think of such a thing; that I was in the service of the government.\He then took possession of the boat, placed me in arrest, and forced me to take the boat back to Lexington. I protested again, saying that the crew would look to me for pay for this extra work, and the govemment would hold me responsible for failure to fulfill my contract. Marmaduke replied, ' I -will pay you every cent you have to disburse on account of this trip.' After Price came on board Marmaduke left, and we 256 AN UNPLEASANT DILEMMA. then steamed up to Lexington, where the boat was turned over to me and I was told to shift for myself. I suppose they thougjit I ought to consider myself fortunate to get off at all^^3?hey never paid me any thing, although they might easily have done so, for the first thing done upon landing at Lexington, as I was told, was to sack all the banks of that to-wn. As to my getting away, that was far from being a matter of much satisfaction. It was, of course, known in the Federal lines that I had carried Price up the river. How should I answer for myself upon my return? I went to Price, told him the dilemma I was placed in, and asked him to help me. He gave me a very strong letter, stating that I had acted under duress, and had been forced to go back against my repeated protest. " It was with no slight misgivings that I turned the Emilie downstream and started in the direction of Boonville. I knew that there was trouble in store for me. When I approached the Federal lines a volley was fired at the boat, apparently -with the definite purpose of hitting her. I promptly rounded to and the firing ceased. A young Lieutenant by the name of White came on board with a guard of a dozen men to arrest me. I had known White in St. Louis as a commission clerk, a young man of no account, but who, having now some authority, felt disposed, like GENERAL LYON. 257 all inferior men, to exercise it with a severity in in verse proportion to his ability. He doubtless thought it a great feather in his cap to have as prisoner a man who would scarcely have deigned to notice him in any other situation. He was insolent and arbitrary, and lunging his sword toward me, would order me to walk faster. I was taken to General Lyon's quarters, and when in that officer's presence, he said to me : ' You are in a very bad scrape here, sir.' I took Price's letter from my pocket and handed it to him, saying, ' General, please read that; it may help to straighten matters out.' He read the letter, but pretended not to think much of it. After hemming and hawing over the matter for a while he said: *Do you know anyone here who can tell me who you are? ' He knew very well who' I was, for he had been with Harney in the Sioux War of 1854- 55 and we had met then. I asked him to name the members of his stafif, and I could tell. He finally mentioned Frank Blair. I said with some irony, * I know Frank Blair very well, and I think he knows me.' We then walked up to Blair's quarters. He shook hands cordially and said, ' I understand that you are in a bad fix here.' ' It looks like it,' I re plied. ' Rather be at home than here, I presume,' he continued jokingly. ' Much rather,' I replied. Lyon showed Blair Price's letter. They consulted 258 LA BARGE RELEASED. together for a little while and Lyon then said to me, ' You can take possession of your steamboat and go home.' J found the boat in Lyon's fleet where it had been taken, and all of her provisions confiscate^S- I was not long in getting up steam, and left the in hospitable region with the utmost expedition. "I did not like Lyon. He was a Yankee, and his disposition seemed to be to crush everyone who did not think as he did. His language and bearing toward me were so insolent and exasperating that they left a lasting rancor in my mind.* " This affair cost me about five thousand dollars, although I was partially reimbursed for the stores taken. I did not go up the river again that season, being too much vexed and disgusted with my late experience. I sent the boat up under charge of a man of the name of Nick Wall, who ran her until my gov ernment contracts were completed." In t^hg^year J862. Captain La jBa,rge -was again im- jpressed temporarily into the service of guerrillas? On October 16 of that year a body of Confederates was at Portland, Mo., when the steamboat Emilie •This was the opinion naturally held by Southem sympa thizers in Missouri. The unbending will of this stem and ardent patriot would overbear and crush without compunction anyone who had even a taint of disloyalty about him. Though La Barge had taken a stand which was quite as honorable, and more self-sacrificing than that of Lyon, still the latter could not UNITED STATES VOLUNTEERS. 259 came along. The Emilie stopped to put two men ashore, when a gang of Rebels concealed behind a woodpile took possession of the boat and compelled Captain La Barge to setUhem across the river. He was forced to unload his qeck freight and take on 175 horses and as many men. VScarcely had they started across when a force of Union cavalry of the Missouri State Militia arrived, but not in time to arrest the operation. These were the only occasions on which Captain La Barge had trouble on the river on account of the War. Like all other boatmen, he welcomed the close of this conflict and the tranquillity which it brought to the river business. There was an organization in the military establish ment of the United States, growing out of the progress of the war, of which very little is known. It was called the United States Volunteers, and con sisted of six regiments and one°Tn3ependent com pany. It was composed chiefly of deserters from the Confederate army and prisoners of war who had taken the oath of allegiance to the United States. forget that the Captain's environment and training had made him more sympathetic with the Southern cause than a North erner could possibly be. Lyon's temperament, moreover, aggra vated the severity of his patriotism. He was not popular with his associates in the old army on account of his overbearing dis position. 26o A NOTABLE CHARACTER. These troops served continuously on the Western plains and in the Northwest, except the ist and 4th regiments, which served mainly at Norfolk, Va. On the Missouri River, and perhaps elsewhere, they were commonly spoken of as " Galvanized Yan kees." In 1864, when Fort Rice was established near the mouth of the Camion Ball River, it was garrisoned by the ist Regiment of U. S. Volunteers under Colonej,. Charles A.,.JS.- Dimon.; This officer was one of the remarkable characters of Missouri River history, and made a great impression along the valley, considering his brief service there. He was the particular bugbear of the traders, and the charac ter which they have given him can be best expressed by spelling his name with an " e " in the first syllable. It was said that he ordered his men shot down on the least provocation, and that many of the regiment were slain in this way. Numbers of his men are said to have deserted through fear of his tyrannical and ungovernable temper. One of the traders has left a record of his own special grievance. In the winter of 1864-65, as already stated, the American Fur Conipany~"sold "'out "to" the North- westerrTFur Company, more commonly known as" the firnT^f . Hawley .„& Hubbell. In the follow ing spring these two gentlemen went up the river with Mr. C. P. Chouteau on the American Fur DRASTIC MEASURES. 26 1 Company boat, the Yellowstone, to make the trans fer of the posts and property. There were many passengers of different political creeds on board, including a number of ex-Confederates. At a point about one hundred miles above Fort Sully news of Lincoln's assassination was received, and the passengers of all shades of opinion expressed their horror of the event. When the boat arrived at Fort Rice, Colonel Dimon, according to this authority, came down to the boat with a large guard of soldiers and placed the whole party under arrest on the charge of jubilating over the assassination of the President. The traders thought the whole proceeding was a scheme of Colonel Dimon to advertise his intense loyalty. He told Chouteau, whose Southem pro clivities were well understood along the river, that he would take him out on the bank and shoot him like a dog. Chouteau was thoroughly frightened and trembled like a leaf, for there was no knowing what the impetuous officer might take a notion to do. Hubbell and Hawley determined to go down to Sioux City and report to General Sully the detention of their boat and the conduct of Colonel Dimon toward themselves and others. Chouteau gave them a yawl and wrote a letter to the General. Dimon ordered them not to go without first reporting to him. Although his authority to give such an order 262 FACT AND FICTION. is doubtful, the men did not dare to disobey for fear of being shot. When they appeared they were re quired to submit all their letters to his inspection. The particular letter he was after was one he believed Chouteau had written, but Hubbell and Hawley had slipped it into the breech of a Henry rifle and left it in the boat. Finally they were permitted to go. They made a rapid trip, partly by river and partly by land, and immediately reported their grievances to General Sully. The General promptly gave them a written order to Colonel Dimon to release their boat. Armed with this they returned to Fort Rice by the steamer G. W. Graham, and in an incredibly short time, considering the distance and mode of travel, appeared before Colonel Dimon. General Sully's ¦order eased matters up somewhat, but still the traders had a good deal of trouble with the irate post com mander. How much there was in the stories about C^ondDimon is doubtful, but probably about an equal mixture of fact and fiction. Certainly the view of the traders concerning him was not shared by General Sully, if we judge from the foUo-wing extracts from his own correspondence with General Pope. Writing from Sioux City under date of June lo, 1865, he says: " I admire his energy and pluck, the determination GENERAL SULLY's VIEWS. 263 with which he carries out orders; but he is too young — too rash — for his position, and it would be well if he could be removed. He is making a good deal of trouble for me, and eventually for you, in his over- zealous desire to do his duty. . . His regiment was raised and organized by Ben. Butler, and he is too much Uke him in his actions for an Indian coun try, but he is just the sort of a man I would like to have under me in the field." Upon his arrival at Fort Rice a month later he thus commented upon Colonel Dimon: " I am much pleased with the appearance of this post and the way military duty is performed. Col onel Dimon is certainly an excellent officer. A few more years of experience to curb his impetuosity would make him one of the best officers in our volun teer service." Pope in the meanwhile authorized Sully to take such action in regard to Colonel Dimon as he saw fit. A board of officers was convened to investigate com plaints against him, and on the strength of their re port he was relieved July 21, 1865. He resumed command of the post, however, October 10, 1865, but was mustered out of the service on the 27th of the following month. He was subsequently brevet- ted Brigadier General of Volunteers for gallant and meritorious service during the war. ] 264 A FAIR PROBABILITY. Colonel Dimon probably showed an excess of severity toward the traders where the average officer showed far too little. That explains their chief ground of dislike of him. Add to this the " im petuosity " of temperament referred to by General Sully, and we have a pretty close analysis of a situa tion which caused a great flurry on the Missouri River in its day. As a matter of fact a great many of the men in the ist Volunteers died at Fort Rice, but from disease, and not by execution under Dimon's order. A number of men did desert, and seventeen of them walked all the way to Fort Union. One of these men made a pen drawing of that post which is probably the most accurate now in existence. CHAPTER XXII. GOLD IN MONTANA. If the Civil War operated to drive commerce from the lower Missouri River, other forces were at work at the head waters of that stream to multiply it many fold. At the time when the attention of the nation and of the world was centered on the tempest that had burst over the eastern portion of the Republic, 'a. few hardy miners were prospecting the country around the upper tributaries of the Missouri in their ever-restless search for gold. It is a singular fact that the gold-bearing regions of western Montana, the very first in the mountain country to be exten sively frequented by white men, should have been the last to give up the secret of their hidden wealth. For nearly twenty years emigration had been pour ing into the West. The Mormons had settled a few hundred miles to the south. Settlement had gained a permanent foothold on the Pacific Coast from Mexico to the British line. The Pike's Peak gold discoveries were rapidly filling up Colorado. The 26s ^66 FIRST GOLD IN MONTANA. reflex wave of emigration was rolling back from the Pacific Coast across the Sierras and the \ Cascades into Nevada, eastern Oregon, and Idaho'.|/-But as yet there were no settlers to speak of in the mountains of Montana, and that country was still practically unknown to the general public. It is a remarkable fact that a section of country in that neighborhood, which is now considered the most wonderful in the world, was the very last of all the national domain to be discovered and explored. The wave of gold discovery in the Northwest moved from the west toward the east. In 1860-61 it made known the rich deposits in Idaho on the Salmon and Clearwater rivers. Next came the find ings just west of the Continental Divide, and then the rich discoveries on the head waters of the Missouri. The existence of placer deposits within the limits of the present State of Montana had been asserted as early as 1852. A Canadian half-breed of the name of Beneetse is said to have found pay dirt, in that year on a small tributary of Deer Lodge River, one of the sources of the Columbia. The stream has since been known as Gold Creek, and the place of dis covery is about fifty miles northwest of the modem city of Butte. Four years later, 1856, the discovery was confirmed by a party who were traveling from Great Salt Lake to the Bitter Root Valley. In the FIRST SALE OF GOLD DUST. 267 same year a man turned up at Fort Benton with what he asserted was golddust. He came from the moun tains in the Southwest, most Hkely from the Deer Lodge Valley. None of the people at the post were gold experts, and they hesitated about receiving the dust; but Culbertson finally took it on his own responsibility, giving for it a thousand dollars' worth of merchandise. Next year he sent it down the river, and it was found to be pure gold, worth fifteen hun dred dollars. This was the first exchange of gold -dust in Montana. The next step in the progress of discovery must be credited to James and Granville Stuart, two of Mon tana's most distinguished pioneers. They had been spending the winter of 1857-58, with a number of other people, in the valley of the Bighole River, a tributary of the Missouri, and in the spring of 1858 went over to the Deer Lodge Valley to investigate the reported findings on Gold Creek. They remained there for a time and found paying prospects, but were so harassed by the Blackfeet Indians that they were compelled to leave. They moved to a safer locality, but here James Stuart met with an accident which came near proving fatal, and the two brothers left the country and went to Fort Bridger. Although they had made no great discovery, their report was considered as confirming those already 268 BEGINNING OF MINING IN MONTANA. made of the existence of gold in the Deer Lodge Valley. Before these prospects were any further developed attention was wholly diverted to the important dis coveries in Idaho already referred to. A great stam pede to the Salmon and Clearwater rivers began. "Emigrants poured in both by way of Salt Lake and the Missouri River, and an even larger inflow came from the Pacific Coast. But before the rush from the East had gathered full force discoveries in Montana arrested its course and held it permanently in a new and greater Eldorado. In the -winter of 1861-62 a considerable floating population, among them the Stuart brothers, re mained in the Deer Lodge Valley. The Stuarts commenced sluicing in a systematic way on Gold Creek, and their work was the beginning of the gold- mining industry in Montana. Although nothing particularly remarkable was found, it was enough to attract attention, and reports soon got abroad that the findings were very rich. The greater part of the emigration from the East in the year 1862 was bound for the Idaho mines, but did not get beyond the Deer Lodge Valley, or other points in western Montana. Among these parties was one from Colorado, includ ing J. M. Bozeman, for whom the town of Bozeman, in the beautiful Gallatin Valley, is named. , The new- BANNOCK CITY. 269 comers made a rich discovery on a branch of Gold Creek, which was named, from the place whence the party came. Pike's Peak Gulch. Another party from Colorado, bound for the Idaho mines, were deflected north by the difficulty of get ting through the Lemhi Mountains and by favorable reports from the Deer Lodge Valley. Two of their number discovered gold on Grasshopper Creek, in the southwestem corner of the present State of Montana. They carried the news to the main party, who had gone on to the Deer Lodge, and all returned to investigate the discovery. The report of the two men was found to be true, and prospecting in that' part of the country was carried on extensively. This work resulted in the finding of a very rich deposit by a party under one White, for whom the spot was named White's Bar. Here the town of Bannock sprang up, and before the end of the year boasted a population of five hundred souls. Other rich dis coveries were made in that vicinity, while far to the north the'Mmosits on the Big Prickly Pear Creek were foundN' It was now apparent that the whole country on the head waters of the Missouri abounded in gold, and the work of prospecting assumed enor mous proportions. Two other important expeditions came from the East this season, bound for the Idaho mines, but 270 NORTHERN OVERLAND EXPEDITION. were stopped in their course, like that from Colorado, by the new discoveries in Montana. One of these was the firm of La Barge, Harkness&~Xor~of~ St. Louis, 'Si"d~Eh'e'orheT"-vvas. a todynof emigrants who- accompanied what was known~Tn " ifs^ day as the Northern Overland Expedition from St. Paul. This expedition was of a semi-official character; under a Federal appropriation of five thousand dollars, and its ostensible object was to open a wagon road from St. Paul to Fort Benton. It was under the command of Captain James L. Fisk, who, a private soldier in the 3d Minnesota Volunteers, was appointed Captain and Quartermaster and placed in charge. About 125 emigrants accompanied the expedition. The journey was made in safety, and was full of interest ing happenings. It contributed one of the most im portant additions ever made to population of the rising State.* The spring of 1863 was marked by one of the most noted gold discoveries^ ever made. During the * Fisk repeated the expedition several times. It virtually amounted to emigration at government expense. The military authorities did not think much of either Fisk or his scheme, and officially denounced both. Thus General Sully, September 9, 1864: " Why will the goverment continue to act so foolishly, sending out emigrant trains at great expense? Do they know that most of the men that go are persons running away from the draft ? '• ALDER GULCH. 27 I previous winter a considerable party, under the leadership of James Stuart, was organized at Ban nock City, to explore and prospect the country on the sources of the Yellowstone. A portion of this party, including William Fairweather and Henry Edgar, went by the way of Deer Lodge Valley to secure horses, having fixed on the mouth of the Beaverhead River as the place of joining the main party. Through some unavoidable delay the smaller party did not arrive on time and Stuart went on without them. The Fairweather party discovered Stuart's trail and made forced marches to overtake him. The route lay up the Gallatin Valley and across the divide to the Yellowstone, and thence down the valley of that stream. Soon after reaching the Yellowstone the smaller party were plundered by a band of Crows; of everything except their guns and mining tools. The Indians had the generosity to give them in ex change for their mounts old broken-down horses of their own. The party gave up their pursuit of Stuart and started back for Bannock City. On the 26th of May, they stopped for noon on Alder Creek, a little branch of one of the main tributaries of Jefferson Fork of the Missouri. ^Here, as a result of a chance examina tion of a bar by two men, Fairweather and Edgar, the famous Alder Gulch discovery was made, and the 272 LAST CHANCE GULCH. richest placer deposit in the history of gold mining camejo the knowledge of the world. The news' of this wonderful discovery drew to the spot a large part of the population of the Territory, and the town of Virginia City sprang up as if in a night. For several years it was the principal town in the Territory and became its first capital. In less than two^ years it had grown to a city of ten thousand souls. The next important discovery was made in the fall of 1864, in what was named at the time_Last Chance Gulch. The deposits were very rich, and the history of Alder Gulch was re-enacted here. The town which arose on the spot was named Helena, and soon outgrew its sister to the south. It became, and for many years remained, the principal town of the Territory. In 1874 it was made the Territorial capital, and after Montana was admitted to the Union, it was made the permanent capital of the State. Other discoveries followed those here mentioned, many of them rich and of permanent value, but none equaling those of Alder and Last Chance gulches. The Territory at once took rank with California and Colorado as a gold-producing territory, and has held its high place ever since. The mighty metamorphosis which, in the space of fiveyears,came oyer the counfiyirt the headwaters of HIGH WATER MARK. 273 the Missouri, produced an equally marvelous change i^Jhejcpmrnirci^^gave a sure highwa-y for tra-vel to within one hundred to two hundred miles of the mines. There was no other route that could compete with it, for this could carry freight from St. Louis to Fort Benton, in car goes of one to five hundred tons, without breaking bulk. The emigrants themselves went in large num bers by overfetmTfoutes, but a great number also by the boats; while- neariy^att- merchandise, including every necessary of life, and all mining machinery and heavy Treight, came by the river. The steamboat tradejumped suddenly to enormous proportions. Prior to 1864 there had been only six steamboat arrivals at the levee of Fort Benton. In 1866 and 1867 there were seveiity arrivals. The trade touched. high-water mark iri 1867, and at this time presented one of the most extraordinary de velopments known to the history of commerce. There were times when thirty or forty steamboats were on the river between Fort Benton and the mouth of the Yellowstone,* where all the way the ? In 1866 the Deer Lodge, which left Benton about May 20, met the following boats on her way down: St. John and Cora at Fort Benton; Waverly at Eagle Creek; Mollie Dozier and W. J. Lewis at Fort Galpin; Marcella at Fort Charles; Big Horn, above Big Muddy; Only Chance 30 miles below Union; Favorite 274 AN EXTRAORDINARY SCENE. river flowed amid scenes of wildness that were in the strictest sense primeval. To one who could have been set down in the unbroken wildemess along the banks of the river, where nothing dwelt except wild animals and wilder men, where the fierce Indian made life a constant peril, where no civilized habitation greeted the eye, it would have seemed marvelous and wholly inexplicable to find this river filled with noble craft, as beautiful as any that ever rode the ocean, stored with all the necessaries of civilization, and crowded with passengers as cultured, refined, and well dressed as the cabin list of an ocean steamer. What could it all mean? Whence came thifi hand ful of civilization and what brought it here? v Cer tainly a most extraordinary scene, flashed for a moment before the world and then withdrawn forever. It was not the steamboat alone, however, that and Ontario 70 miles below; Tacony and Iron City 130 miles be low ; Amelia Poe and Walter B. Dance near White Earth River ; Jennie Brown, Peter Balen, and Gold Finchm Big Bend; Miner below Fort Clark; Z«JJie._ river and back at three hundred dollars per day. One of the Cromi5ris"sioners wanted the daptainto hire his son as clerk, or in some other capacity, at five dollars per day. The Captain had made up his crew and did not care to go to this extra and unnecessary ex pense. But as the Commissioner rather insisted, the charter price was raised to $305 per day, and the young man enjoyed a fat sinecure during the trip — an instance of the kind of corruption which was almost universal in the period following the war. \, To Captain La Barge the voyage seemed more like a pleasure excursion than a business enter prise. The boat moved by very leisurely stages. 398 PEACE COMMISSION A FAILURE. always tying up early in the evening and start ing late in the morning. Whist and other games were the order of the day. Long stops were made at all interesting points, and the party enjoyed excepttonal opportunities of seeing Indian life in all its wildnes\/ As a means of accomplishing any good, the Commission was looked upon from the first by the people of the Missouri Valley as little more than a farce. No end of ridicule was poured upon it, and it was held up to the general contempt by those who had any definite acquaintance with the situation. The Indians were generally loath to negotiate, fear ing that the Commission " would want them to sign some paper that would take from them their lands and houses and oblige them to seek new ones farther west." It cannot be said that airy good came from this Commission — certainly nothing to justify its great expense. It did without doubt create new complications, lead to increased dissatisfaction on the part of the Indians, and, on the whole, aggravate an already serious situation.* Some of the jjicidents on this trip had a flayor of danger about them, and we shall narrate one as given • Charles Larpenteur, who was interpreter for the Commission in their negotiations with the Assiniboines at Fort Union, says in his journal, " The great Peace Commission was a complete failure.'' Such was the general sentiment along the valley. A VIGOROUS REMONSTRANCE. 399 US by Captain La Barge. It related to an interview of the Commissioners with the Yanktonais, who were well known as the most relentlessly hostile of any of the Sioux tribes. " Some twenty miles below the mouth of White Earth River," said Captain La Barge, " I saw two Indian hunters on the hills. I hailed them, landed the steamer, asked them on board, and after feasting them (an indispensable preliminary to the transac tion of any business), inquired if they were Yank tonais, and if so where were the rest of the tribe. They replied in the affirmative, and said that their camp was about ten miles off, on the White Earth River. The Chairman of the Commission asked them to go to camp and tell the chiefs to move their whole village down to the mouth of the White Earth and there await the arrival of the boat for the purpose of holding a council. He inquired the size of the village, and found it to be six hundred tepees, which meant about three thousand Indians. " I remonstrated at this proposition, strongly urging that only the chiefs be invited. Should so powerful a band of these hostile Indians get any ad vantage of us they would certainly use it. We had no power of resisting them, having only thirty people in all, and they were poorly armed. The Indians would, I feared, make a rush and attempt to capture 400 AFRAID OF INDIANS. the Steamer as soon as we landed. Our interpreter. Zephyr Rencontre, seconded me in this opinion. I had been in the power of these Indians once before, and, thanks to Rencontre, I was wearing my hair on this occasion. \ " The Chairman of the Commission said he per ceived that I was afraid of the Indians, but not tO' be alarmed; he would answer for all harm. The Indians would never dare molest a govemment officer. To me, who had spent all my life among the Indians, this gratuitous insinuation from a mere novice in Indian experience cut me to the quick, and I replied: ' Very well, I will land as you say, but before we get through we shall see who is afraid of Indians.' "This was another instance of the mistakes made by our government in Jhe, selection, to treat with the Indians, of men without knowledge of the native chai-acter. It was a universal rule that such men would treat with contempt the cautious bearing of those who knew the Indians; and this ignorant bra vado has many times led to disastrous consequences. It is very unpleasant to act with such men, who ridicule one's honest knowledge of peril, and are powerless to help when they get you into danger. It was also a common observation with me that the volunteer officers of the war were always more haughty and overbearing than those bred to the pro- MATTERS BECOME SERIOUS. 4OI fession. They loved to assume, assert, and display authority, where the trained soldier would see no occasion to do so. " I said to Curtis on this occasion, ' This course is contrary to my judgment. General; and in order not to be responsible for the consequences I desire a positive order from you before I adopt it.' He gave me the order. The Indians arrived just as we were tying up the boat. The women immediately commenced setting up the lodges and the men began to rush on board. They were all armed. Curtis had said, when I foretold this : ' We will keep them off, only letting on those we want.' I replied, ' You will see. General. It will be impossible to keep them off.' ^ " As already stated, the Indians at once rushed on board, and unfortunately did not congregate in one place, but scattered themselves in every direction. Matters at once became serious. I was thoroughly alarmed for the safety of the boat and her passengers, but remained perfectly cool and indifferent in out ward appearance, and did not permit myself to re sent the actions of the Indians. An act of that sort might hav? precipitated difficulty. We were over a powder mine, and a spark was liable to fall at any moment. The Indians became insolent, would elbow us around, sneer at us, display their muscular arms, and try in every way to provoke us to action. One 402 FUTILE ATTEMPT AT NEGOTIATIONS. Indian, an ugly fellow and noted villain. Crazy Wolf, followed me everywhere I went, armed with gun, pis tol, and bow and arrows. He tried in every way to get me to notice him. At this time I consulted with Zephyr on the situation, saying that I feared trouble was brewing. He replied that he thought so too, and that I had better prepare for prompt measures. I had steam kept up. Pilot and engineer remained at their posts, and the mate was kept forward. He had been instructed to cut the line whenever he should hear a single tap of the bell. " Meanwhile the Commissioners had been attempt ing negotiations, but to little purpose. In front, on the boiler deck, there were a table and seats for the principal Indians. Curtis tried to call them to order, but without success. He then summoned Rencontre and tried to talk to them. He told them he was about to roll some bales of goods on shore and re quested that they would withdraw and distribute them. They answered to roll them on shore; the women would take care of them; for their part they would remain on the boat. " Nothing whatever could be done. Matters be came dubious. One by one the Commissioners slipped away and locked themselves in their state rooms. General Curtis was finally left alone, and after a while he also withdrew, and told me to get out A SUDDEN PANIC. 4O3 of the scrape as best I could. He fully realized the gravity of the blunder he had made, and his own in ability to cope with the situation. " The Indians as yet had made no attempt on the staterooms, but they were incensed at the withdrawal of the Commissioners and might do so at any moment. Rencontre said to me, ' The Indians don't like this, and will give us trouble. We had better do something right away.' ' Is it time to cut loose? ' I asked. ' I think so,' he replied. I gave the signal, the line was cut, the wheels began to turn backward and the boat slid quickly from the bank. The sudden move astounded the Indians. Those on shore seized the line and began pulling before they discovered that it was cut. I knew they would not dare to fire, for fear of shooting their own people. Those on the boat were panic-stricken and began to leap over board. I caused the nose of the boat to be held close to shore so that they could get to land without drowning, and in a few minutes the boat was clear of them. Then, reversing the engines, we steered for the opposite shore and made the boat fast. The danger being over, I went to Curtis' room and told him it was safe for him to come out. When he appeared I said : ' Who is afraid of Indians now, General Curtis? ' His only reply was : ' "V^ho would have thought that the rascals 404 ENOUGH OF A GOOD THING. would dare molest a government officer? ' They cared a good deal about a government officer, in deed, and the remark showed how little he knew of the Indian character. I asked the General if he wanted to make another trial, but he replied that he had had enough. " No further attempt was made to treat with these Indians, and we went on up the river. As on a >p-revious occasion, the Indians followed us. Dur fee & Peck at this time had a post on the site where Fort Buford later stood. The Indians made a signal from the opposite side of the river that they had robes to sell, and the agent at the post wanted to borrow our yawl to go across and get them. I consented, but advised against it. They crossed and actually bought several hundred robes, but just as the boat was about to put back, the Indians jumped upon the crew, killed one, severely wounded another, and would have killed all, had I not promptly crossed 'over with the steamboat to their assistance. Mr. Durfee afterward thanked me very heartily for this action." The Commissioners then went on to old Fort Union, where they remained for a time treating with the Assiniboines, Crows, and Grosventres. The Crows and the Grosventres came down by the steam boat Miner, under promise that they should be taken CROWS HAVE TO WALK. 405 back to their camp on the Musselshell by boat. The river being too low to take so large a boat as the Ben Johnson farther up in safety, the Commission impressed into their service, for the purpose of taking these Indians back, a small boat, the Amanda, which was in the employ of the War Department. She was then on her way up the river to meet Colonel Reeve, who was expected back from the Judith, where he had just established a post. The Crows and Grosventres, with their presents and with copies of the new treaties, got on board and started up the river. The agent for the Blackfeet, George B. Wright, was also on board on his way to Fort Benton. At the mouth of the Milk River the Amanda met Colonel Reeve, who promptly took the boat into his own charge, put the Indians ashore with their presents and other property, and left them to walk home. vThe anger of the Crows was fired to a desperate pitch by this action. They refused to take the presents, tore up some of the treaties, and sent others back to the Commissioners, and de clared that they would henceforth fire upon every boat going up the river. Agent Wright thought the situation too critical for him to attempt to go on overland to Benton, so he returned with the boat and went to his station by way of Omaha, Salt Lake, 406 MERCENARY PATRIOTISM. and Helena. The Commissioners criticised him severely for this action, and he, on the other hand, charged them with positive misrepresentation in re gard to their work. They had already prepared a report setting forth in glowing terms their success in treating with the various tribes. Agent Wright had likewise written a report of his experiences at the mouth of Milk River and the action of the Crows in repudiating the treaties. As the two reports con flicted in important matters the Commission re quested, and finally prevailed upon. Agent Wright to modify his report, so as to be in harmony with their own. - After the business was completed at Fort Union the Ben Johnson turned her prow downstream and proceeded homeward by leisurely stages, stopping at the various camps, agencies, and military posts. The property remaining on the boat was put off partly at Yankton, partly at Sioux City, and partly at Omaha. At Sioux City it was put off at night. Captain La Barge knew nothing of it. Hearing the noise of unloading he arose and went to see what was going on, and found the crew unloading freight. He asked by whose orders they were doing this, and they replied, those of the Commission. He said no more. It was clearly the intention to conceal this move from him, and again he saw ^ow.mercenary THE OCTAVIA FINISHED. 407 was_the patriolism„-of many of our govemment officials. The boat pursued her way safely to St. Louis, where she arrived late in August. Captain La Barge turned over the steamer to her owners and took possession of his new boat, the Octavia, brought her to the wharf, finished her con struction, and left on her first trip October i. He ran in the lower river the rest of the season, and then on the Mississippi until ice closed in. He laid up the boat for the winter at Kimmswick, twenty miles be low St. Louis. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN SPEAR. The voyage of the Octavia in the summer of 1867 was one of the most successful aiid important in all Captain La Barge's career on the river. It was un happily marred by a most revolting crime, committed on board, but in other respects passed off without any untoward incident. Its narrative will be pre sented in the Captain's own words. " Early in the spring of 1867 I started in the Weston and St. Joseph trade, and about April i ad vertised for a trip to Benton. Business on the river seemed rather dull at this time, and people ridiculed me for attempting a trip. But within two weeks my boat was filled; in fact it was the largest trip I ever had up the river. I remember that one morning, about two days prior to our departure. Captain Walker S. Carter, a merchant of St. Louis, who was on the levee, said to me, ' Have you got a trip? ' I replied, ' More than I can carry.' ' It is astonishing,' said he. ' Anybody else than you could not have GENERAL SHERMAN. 409 "'V got half a trip.' That shows the value of a reputa tion,' I replied. " This trip of the Octavia was a very profitable one.. The cargo was composed entirely of private freight, Mr. W. M. McPherson having been the successful bidder for government contracts. I had freight for nearly every firm in Helena, besides a good list of pas sengers, among whom was Green Clay Smith, newly appointed Governor of Montana, and also the Sur veyor General for the same Territory, Thomas E. Tutt, now of the Third National of St. Louis, and Robert Donnell, now a New York banker. " An interesting incident took place just before the departure of the boat in which no less a personage than General__SherniMi was concerned. Colonel Thomas, Sherman's Quartermaster, had contracted with W. M. McPherson, as I have said, for all the season's business up the Missouri River. The Octavia was to leave port on Tuesday, and on the Saturday previous General Smith came on board and said to me, ' Did I not understand you to say that you had no government freight or troops to transport this year ? ' I answered in the affirmative — that McPher son had the contract, and I would not carry for him. ' Well,' returned General Smith, ' I am just from General Sherman, where I went to apply for an escort. I was told by the General that I would not 4IO THE MCPHERSON CONTRACT. need one, for he was going to send a hundred men by the Octavia to Camp Cook, near the mouth of the Judith River, under Lieutenant Horrigan.' To con firm his statement he showed me a dispatch that he had just sent to Omaha to have the men all ready, so as not to detain the boat beyond a few minutes. This was a good deal of a surprise to me, as I had had no intimation of such action, and had my boat about full. I told Smith I would go and see Sherman about it, and did so at once. I found the General in his office, and before I could tell him my business he said, ' I know what you want,' and he took down his dispatch book to show me that he had taken all precautions not to cause me any delay. ' But that is not the question, General,' I said; ' I cannot take the troops.' ' Ah ! that alters the case. Haven't you room? ' I replied that I could probably make room, but understood that this shipment was under the McPherson contract. The General said it was. ' Well then,' I said, ' I will not carry them, for I will not work for McPherson.' The General asked my reasons. ' Because McPherson will not pay enough for the work,' I said. * He gets a good price from the government, but the poor steamboat man who does the work gets nothing for it. For example, he gets fifty dollars per man to haul the troops to Camp Cook. He will pay me fifteen and pocket thirty- THE SHERMAN CONTRACT. 4II five, and do no work nor take any risk. I will not work for him on such terms.' ' I think you are perfectly right,' said the General. ' In your place I would do the same thing. But you will carry the troops up for General Sherman? ' I replied that I would if he would contract with me individually and directly and pay me the McPherson rates. ' That's fair,' said he, and he called iri Thomas and told him to draw up a contract. ' Well,' said Thomas, ' this work is for McPherson to do under our con tract with him. If you pay La Barge you will also have to pay McPherson.' Thomas wanted to arg^e the matter, but Sherman shut him off by saying, 'It's no use, Thomas; you just draw up that con tract as I tell you to.' And he did. XThe Octavia left St. Louis Tuesday, May 7, 1867, on the most important trip I ever made up the river. There were no incidents of note until the boat reached Omaha, where the troops were taken on board. We also received at this point a passenger in the person of a Captain W. D. Spear, 79th Royal Rifles, an officer of the British Army, on furlough from India. He was on his way to Salt Lake via the Missouri River, and was going thence to California. He seemed to be a man of means. This embarka tion of the troops and of this officer was the prelude to one of the most distressing tragedies that ever 412 CAPTAIN SPEAR SHOT. occurred on the Missouri River. The troops were mostly Irish Fenians, and the Lieutenant in charge was an Irishman, all intensely hostile to the English. This fact may in part explain what subsequently transpired. Spear himself felt doubts for his safety, and one day remarked to me that he would be lucky if he got out of this scrape without accident. I did not know what he meant, for he was a very fearless man, going on shore frequently in spite of danger from the Indians. Just after midnight of the 7th of June, or more precisely about 12.30 A. M. June 8, as Captain Spear and Joseph C. La Barge, my son, were going up the steps to the hurricane deck. Cap tain Spear being a little ahead, a sentinel, William Barry, stationed near there, fired at Captain Spear, the bullet passing through his head at the base of the brain and killing him instantly. The following d^ an inquest wasJield-b¥-g' committee oflhe passengers consisting of Thomas E. Tutt, Green Clay Sjmith, /fegiguHJcI-ea%- Richard Leach, T. H. Eastman, Geo. W. JylcLean, and W. J. McCormick, Secretary. Several of the passengers and crew were sworn and their testimony taken'.; No motive could be discovered for the deed. The sentinel's orders required him to challenge only parties approaching the boat from the shore, and it was expressly agreed with me, by Lieutenant Horrigan, as a condition of permitting NEW METHOD OF EMBALMING. 413 sentinels to be posted on the hurricane deck, that they should not interfere in any way with the passengers. The finding of the committee was that " the shooting was not in accordance with any instructions given to said sentinel, and that he deseiwes the most rigid punishment known to the law."\jrhere was indeed a strong sentiment among the passengers in favor of lynching him, but the mili tary could easily have prevented it, and everyone believed that he would meet with due punishment in regular order. The sentinel was of course at once relieved from duty and placed under arrest. " Our trip up the river was a dangerous one, owing to the intense hostility of the Indians, but by taking great precautions no accidents happened. I put off the remains of Captain Spear at Fort Buford to await my return. I asked the commanding officer if he could suggest any way of embalming the body. He advised the construction of a large box and the filling of it with green cottonwood sawdust. The experi ment seemed to work well, although I had never heard of such a thing before. The post commander refused to receive the prisoner, who was taken on to Camp Cook. The commanding officer there refused to try him on the ground that the crime had been com mitted in Dakota. He held him for us to take back to Yankton. 414 TRIAL OF spear's MURDERER. " The troops W^e left at Camp Cook and the boat went on to Benton^ I found many passengers for the down trip and great quantities of golddust. I filled the office safe and every other available recepta cle with it. There were no incidents of especial importance on the return trip. The soldier, Barry, was taken down to Yankton and there turned over to the United States marshal, who held him until orders came from Washington for his release, when he was sent back to his company. " I took Captain Spear's remains back to St. Louis, where I found telegrams directing the ship ment of them to Europe. A Lieutenant Terry of Spear's company came to St. Louis tO' get full par ticulars of the affair. I was then living with my family on the Octavia, and invited him to stay there with me. He did so, and I gave him as full an account as possible of Captain Spear's death. When the news reached England that the assassin had been released without trial, the government promptly took up the matter and I understood that a demand was made upon our government through Minister Thorn ton for a civil trial of the soldier. This demand was complied with, and the man was tried before Judge Kidder at Vermillion, Dak. Myself and several others went up as witnesses. The evidence seemed to me over whelmingly against the accused, there being nothing in TRAVESTY UPON JUSTICE. 415 his favor except his own statement that he acted in the line of his duty. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, upon instructions from the judge that the man had simply obeyed his orders. They were given a verdict to sign written out by the judge, and thus the culprit escaped. ^.i To us who knew_^the facts, this travesty upon justice seemed the crowning outrage of the whole deplorable affair. 'yHere was as deliberate, cold blooded, and unprovoked a murder as the annals of crime afford, actuated unquestionably by the national hate of the murderer for the country of the victim. The crime was considered by the passengers as merit ing the severest penalty of the law. The pretense that the sentinel acted under orders had not the re motest foundation,Spr if it had, it only made the officer particeps criminis^ The final outcome was the grossest miscarriage of justice which even frontier annals afford, and it was unquestionably a justifiable ground for reprisal on the part of the British govem ment. Let those who lament British obduracy in the case of Mrs. Maybrick ponder upon this far more lamentable case of the unavenged death of Captain Spear. " Upon my return to St. Louis I called upon McCune, who advised me to attend promptly to my obligations for the construction of the boat, which had ¦4 1 6 PHENOMENAL SUCCESS. now about matured. He offered to help me get them renewed. I told him it was unnecessary, as I should take them all up and clear the debt off. He was greatly surprised and delighted at the success of my trip, which was indeed almost phenomenal. I made a clear profit of forty-five thousand dollars be tween May 7rEKe^at"e*of leaving iiJt. Louis, and the date of my return. Yet it was a hard trip. The responsibility was very great. I was heavily in debt for my boat. I had on board three hundred passen gers and three hundred tons of cargo. The diffi culties of Missouri River navigation, the dangers from the Indians, and the many other contingencies of such a trip made it wearing in the extreme. Many boats that had set out weeks before us were passed on the way.* On the trip I was awake the greater part of the time night and day. I kept up all right and stood the strain so long as the excitement was on, but the moment we landed at Benton and I knew the danger was over, I went to sleep and instructed my wife not to awaken me even for meals. I slept almost continuously for twenty-four hours." *The Montana Post is authority for the statement that this voyage of the Octavia was the quickest ever made from St. lyouis to Fort Benton. CHAPTER XXXV. THE BATTLE WITH THE RAILROADS. The great enemy of the Missouri River steamboat _vg[S' ' tlig^rallroad. The impression now exists that the river has ceased to be a navigable stream. It has ceased to be a navigated stream, but it is as navigable as it ever was. Let it be known that all railroads in its valley will cease running for a period of five years and there will be a thousand boats on the river in less than six months. It is not a change in the stream, but in methods of transportation, that has ruined the commerce of the river. The struggle between the steamboat__3ndjthe^ rail road lasted iust about -twenty^-eight-years. or from- i8|qH--when the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad reached St. Joseph, Mo. — to 1887, when the Great Northern reached Helena, Mont.V The influence of the railroads had beerrTelTto some extent before this on the lower river. The Missouri Pacific railroad, which parallels the river frcrRi"'St:—i3e«is-.to -Kansas City, was opened to Jefferson City, March 13, 1856, hut did not reach Kansas City until ten years later. This road did not have much effect upon the steam- 4l8 ADVANCE OF THE RAILROADS. ( boat business of the river. Most of the boats ran far beyond the points reached by the road, and would have kept on the river whether the railroad were there or not. Being there, they secured a large part of the freight, even along the line of the railroad. When the Hannibal and St. Josej)h railroad reached the Missouri River at St. Joseph in 1859, that Town became an important t^aMlintis, for,., riyer commerce connected with the railroad. A line of packets including three boats ran south to Kansas City and north to Sioux City, with an occasional trip to Fort Randall. The first service of Captain La Barge's boat, the Emilie, was in this trade, in which he remained for two years. ,..The next point on the river reached by the rail roads was at Co;4ncil Bluffs and Omaha. On the 15th of March^f^6^ tlie*TCtncago and^Northwe^te railroad reached"Tirfe former place and on March 15, "1872, the Union Pacific bridge was opened across the river. ¦* Omaha largely supplanted St. Joseph in the upper river trade, and still further restricted the busi ness from St. Louis. sj The Sioux City and Pacific railroad entered Sioux Cityjn 1868 from Missouri Valley, thus connecting with Omaha and Chicago. In 1870 the Illinois Central reached the same place directly across the State. Sioux City became, and for a long time re- FINISHING BLOWS. 4I9 mained, a more important river port than either St. Joseph or Omaha. All during the period of the Indian wars, in the decade from 1870 to 1880 it was the great shipping point for the army in all its work on the upper river. Even the trade to Fort Benton was in great part transferred to this point, and the St. Louis trade with that port suffered another severe falling off. And now its bold antagonist attacked the steam boat business on every side. The Union Pacific rail road was opened to Ogden in 1869, and a freight line was at once established through to Helena, thus di verting south a large paSjt of the business which had before gone to the riverKj In 1872 the Northern Pacific reached Bismarck, and cut o& nearly all the upper river trade from Sioux City.Vdn 1880 the Utah Northern entered Montana from Ogden and captured a large share of the trade of that Territory. In 1883 the Northern Pacific reached the valley of the Upper Missouri, and virtually controlled all the business that had hitherto gone to the Missouri River except the small proportion which originated at Fort Benton and below to Bismarck. Tbe-fea-ll^arw^as d^vered^to the river trade in 1887, when the Great Northern reached HelenaT" / This was practically the end of the steamboat busi- Tiess on the Missouri River, and the doom of old Fort 420 DOOM OF OLD FORT BENTON. Benton. A new town arose at the Great Falls, under the fostering care of the railroad, absorbed most of the former trade of Fort Benton, and grew into one of the largest towns of the StateTN-Fort^ Benton dropped rapidly into a condition of decadence from which it has never recovered. In the meanwhile all the regular steamboat owners withdrew from the river except the Benton Transportation Company, which has maintained to the present day a very small fleet of boats at Bismarck, N. D. It was a sad day for the marine insurance companies when the fate of the river commerce was settled by the railroads. Ac cidents occurred with astonishing certainty whenever it was found that boats were no longer needed; and it was left to the underwriters to close up the final account of this record of disaster. The last commercial boat that ever arrived at Fort Benton left that port in 1890. The~victory of the railroads was complete, and every year since they have extended their lines still further into the valley and along the shores of the river, gradually cutting off the small local trade to points not yet reached by rail. The boat was never able to compete with the locomotive. The river did not run in the right direc- tionV Mile for mile the tra^portation of freight up on it cost more than by rail. vAs to passenger traffic — ^what could forty miles a day do against four hun- & O H W HoBi 0)O go IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSOURI RIVER. .,r 421 dred! Nothing but the absolute exclusion of rail roads could save the steamboat, and the development of the country made this as undesirable as it was im possible. In this long and hopeless stmggle the steamboats f6mrd~iritreiirom''lLlTy' iri the '"'government of the United States, which cheerfully undertook to alter the course of events and "maintain" a freight traffic along the ri-vrr. - The ' histdfy^f government im provement "work upon the Missouri River is an in- structive^one ^ For many years it consisted solely in the removal hi snags and obstructions, and to this extent was a great and unquestionable benefit. Of the hundreds of steamboats lost on the river about 'seventy per £.eiiL--.^w««*48st, from, strikii^ .S.nags^ and tjie.. removal of these obstmctions was therefore an obvious step of good policy. Appro priations began to be made for the Missouri River jointly -with the Mississippi and the Ohio as early as 1832, but the first actual work seems to have been done in 1838. In that year two sgagboaiSi. the Heliopolis and the Archim^des^ ran up the river 325 miles and 385 miles respectively, removing alto gether 2245 snags and cutting 1710 overhanging trees from the banks, at a total cost of twenty thou sand dollars. In this same year the river was ex amined as far up as Westport (Kansas City), with a 422 A DOUBTFUL POLICY. view of taking up the question of its general improve ment. The officer of Engineers who made this ex amination was Captain Robert E. Lee. From this time ori JtQ- 1^79 appropriations con- ,_tinued" to,. be ,4tiad«- jointly for the Mississippi, Mis souri, Ohio, and Arkansas ..rivers, with occasional lapses of one or more years. The work done under these appropriations was exclusively the removal of snags, and was undoubtedly of great value. It was done when the traffic on the river was at its height, and it was therefore applied when and where needed. There can be little doubt that the property saved by this -mjrk many times repaid its cost. Ir/'^i879 th,§,J^oy^'''^"^^nt began a general improve- menttrf-the river by contr-actingits°cRanner,' so asrttT prodtite a^gre^ter^^ dejj.th .,at jow water andtfiake nayigari(3ii,4jassiJble.-at,aILstages. . It .wasaHoufiSul 1 policy^ at best,, in view of the rapid and inevitable decline of traffic, but this consideration seems only |o have increased the determination to keep boats fcn the river whether the interests of the public /required them there or not. The policy was kept up in ever-increasing measure, and in 1884 Congress created a Commission of five members to take the matter in charge and conduct the work in a systematic way.\'*A more fatuitous course has rarely been adopted by any government than this attempt to DEAD BEYOND HOPE. 423 reverse the decrees of destiny and accomplish the im possible. Even at that time the fate of Missouri River navigation was to most men as clear as the flash of light in the night. It was dead beyond the hope of resurrection, at least within another century. The desultory traffic which existed here and there would not amount, in the total value of the freight carried, to the appropriations made for facilitating its trans portation. Nevertheless, in face of this inevitable march of events, the problem was taken up in earnest. _™^1- Jjons of dollars were appropriated, a^vast accummulap tion of plant was made, and an astonishing amount of actual work accomplished. The result? ^ So far as its influence upon the commerce of the valley is con- \ cerned the same as if this money had been used to build a railroad in Greenland. Not a boat more has followed /the river than if the work had not been done. From tfaat point of view it has all been wasted effort. From anbther viewpoint, however, it has been of great bene fit, yft has protected many miles of river front, saved from destruction thousands of acres of valuable bottom lands, and millions of property on city fronts and along the lines of railroadsX /It has developed some of the most effective methods known to en gineering for the control of alluvial rivers, and has made a solid contribution to the advancement of 424 MISSOURI RIVER COMMISSION. science.\ From a purely engineering point of view and its great value in the protection ot "property, the work may be considered a success; from its influence upon the commerce of the country, something very different. For seventeen years the Missouri River Commis- Sion dragged out an unnecessary eSstoice, aHd "was ^^inally abolished by Act of Congress, June 13, 1902. But the lesson, if a costly one, has been well leamed. So far as government work on the Missouri River is concerned, it will, in the near future at least, be con fined to two purposes. On the lower stretches of the river it will be devoted to the protection of property along the banks; in the upper course to the building of reservoirs and canals, for the utilization of its waters in irrigation.* Thus the battle between the railroads on the one hand and the steamboats, with their government ally, on the other, has resulted in overwhelming victory for the former. It is a victory not to be regretted. It is in line with progress. The country has passed beyond any use that can come from transportation methods like those of the Missouri River steamboat. It served its purpose and served it well. It filled a great place in the early development of the Western country. But its day has passed, and henceforth it will be of interest only to lovers of history. * See footnote at end of chapter xxxviii. o s: w od