[16] The Century Magazine, December, 1901.
[17] Nicholas J. Roosevelt, a great-uncle of President Theodore Roosevelt, was one of the owners of the New Orleans, and commanded her on the historic voyage down the Mississippi, it being the honeymoon trip for Mr. Roosevelt and his bride. Eventful enough it proved, this early voyage. As though in protest at this invasion of its sanctity, the wilderness broke out in cataclysmic revolt. The great New Madrid earthquake, which changed the contour of hundreds of miles of Mississippi valley lands, greeted the vessel upon its first night on the great river. “A strange, weird, thrilling moan or high keyed sigh swept tremulously across the forest and cane-brakes, ending in a tremendous shriek, which again dropped to a long, low moan.” This tremendous warning was followed by the quaking, the upheaval and the subsidence of the earth in such fashion that the course of the mighty Mississippi itself was for the time reversed, and afterward forever altered, while vast forests were sunk like so many ranks of toys. A great tidal wave swept the New Orleans from her moorings, and Roosevelt and his wife barely escaped with life. The end of an older world and the beginning of a new had indeed come. This first river-steamer was 116 feet over all, with twenty-feet beam, and was of only 400 tons burden; strange precursor of the swift and beautiful river-racers that were soon to follow, whose keen, trim hulls and dazzlingly ornamented superstructures were ere long to house another phase of transportation.
[18] Naturally, the down-stream and up-stream eras overlapped. Thus the cypress rafting of the Mississippi Delta, down the Sunflower and Yazoo rivers and to the port of New Orleans, was at its height in the years 1842-44. The rivers will ever remain the great downhill highways for heavy freight.
[19] The Independence, of Louisville, Ky., ascended the Missouri as high as Booneville, Mo., in 1814.
[20] As witness the following from the record of an early prairie journey: “Our route lay through all that vast extent of country then known as Dakota, including the territories, since formed, of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, and a portion left, still bearing the original name. The greater part of the distance had never been traveled, and we were obliged to pick our way as best we could. There was not even an Indian trail to guide us. We were twenty days in crossing the state of Minnesota to Fort Abercrombie, on the Red River of the North, at that time the last outpost of civilization. Remaining there a few days for repairs, we resumed our journey early in July over the trackless plains, certain of our point of destination, but uncertain as to the distance between us and it, the time to be consumed in getting there, and all the difficulties of the long and tedious travel. Conscious of our exposure to attacks from savages, we were on the lookout every moment. A trip that is now completed in five days and is continuously a pleasure-trip consumed five months of time, every moment filled with care and anxiety.”—(N. P. Langford.)
[21] The pack of the “timber-cruiser,” or “land-looker,” of the lumber trade is made of stout canvas, with shoulder-straps. When the cruiser starts out on his lonely woods voyage, his pack, with its contents of tent, blankets, flour, and bacon, weighs about eighty pounds, exclusive of the rifle and ax which he also carries. He may be absent for a month at a time, and he crosses country impenetrable to any but the footman.
[22] There were in all scores of these rude trading posts, whose history is in some cases obscure. Fort Union was one of the famous early stations, and was built in 1828, near the mouth of the Yellowstone, being known for the first year or so as Fort Floyd. Kipp’s Fort, or Fort Piegan, was erected in 1831 at the mouth of Marias River. Campbell and Sublette’s Fort, or Fort William, was built on the Missouri, at or near the site of the later Fort Buford, in 1833. Fort F. A. Chardon was built in 1842 or 1843 at the mouth of the Judith; it was removed to the north bank of the Missouri in 1844 or 1845, and was rechristened Fort Lewis, in honor of Meriwether Lewis. In 1846 this post was torn down and rebuilt on the south bank of the Missouri, somewhat farther down stream. In 1850 it was wholly rebuilt, this time of adobe and not of logs, and this was the beginning of the famous Old Fort Benton, so long associated with all early memories of the upper Missouri. Fort Van Buren was on the right bank of the Yellowstone, and was built probably in 1835, some say in 1832. Fort Cass was erected in 1832, on the Yellowstone, near the mouth of the Bighorn. Fort Alexander, also on the Yellowstone, was built about 1840, possibly in 1839. It was most flourishing in 1849, and was abandoned in 1850. It was located opposite the mouth of the Rosebud. Fort Sarpy was on the right bank of the Yellowstone, twenty-five miles above the mouth of the Bighorn. It was the last of the important posts to be built (probably about 1850), and was abandoned about 1859. (v. Chittenden, “American Fur Trade;” who, however, differs from others in certain dates; as v. Rocky Mountain Magazine.)
[23] “The principal articles of trade were alcohol, blankets, blue and scarlet cloth, sheeting (domestics), ticking, tobacco, knives, fire-steels, arrow-points, files, brass wire (different sizes), beads, brass tacks, leather belts (from four to ten inches wide), silver ornaments for hair, shells, axes, hatchets. Alcohol was the principal article of trade, until after the passing of an act of Congress (June 30, 1843) prohibiting it under severe penalties. . . . There was a bitter rivalry between the Hudson Bay Company and the American Fur Company. The Hudson Bay Company often sent men to induce the confederated Blackfeet to go north and trade, and the Indians said they were offered large rewards to kill all the traders on the Missouri River and destroy the trading-posts. . . . When the Blackfeet commenced to trade on the Missouri, they did not have any robes to trade; they saved only what they wanted for their own use. The Hudson Bay Company only wanted furs of different kinds. The first season the Americans did not get any robes, but traded for a large quantity of beaver, otter, marten, etc. They told the Indians they wanted robes, and from that time the Indians made them their principal article of trade. The company did not trade provisions of any kind to the Indians, but when an Indian made a good trade he would get a spoonful of sugar, which he would put in his medicine-bag to use in sickness when all other remedies failed.” (“The Rocky Mountain Magazine.”)
[24] In the “Montana Post” for February 11, 1865, there appeared the following advertisement: OVERLAND
STAGE LINE.
Ben. Holladay, Proprietor.
Carrying the Great Through Mail between
the Atlantic and Pacific States.
-----
This line is now running in connection with the daily coaches
between Atchison, Kansas & Placerville, Cal.
Tri-weekly Coaches between Salt Lake City and Walla Walla,
via Boise City, West Bannack, and
Tri-weekly Coaches between Great Salt Lake City and Virginia City,
Montana, via Bannack City.
Carrying the U. S. Mail,
Passengers, and Express Matter.
Also tri-weekly coaches between Virginia City and Bannack City.
Coaches for Great Salt Lake City and Bannack City leave Virginia City
every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday Morning,
connecting at Fort Hall; and coaches to Boise and Walla Walla,
and at Great Salt Lake City, with the daily lines to the
Atlantic States, Nevada, and California.
Express matter carried in charge of competent and trustworthy messengers. For further particulars apply at office.
Nat Stein, Agent,
Virginia City, Montana Territory.
[25] A large advance over the capabilities of the old Mackinaw boats may be seen recorded in the log of a Missouri River Steamboat: “Fort Benton, July 14, 1866. “First trip of steamer Deer Lodge, Captain Lawrence Ohlman, Clerk H. A. Dohrman, Engineer S. G. Hill. “Left St. Louis March 20, at 6½ o’clock p. m., for Fort Benton, lost 12 days by ice, and arrived at Fort Union May 1, where we laid 4 hours and then started on our way up the river. Reached Fort Benton May 18, at 4½ p. m. Discharged 200 tons of freight, and started on return to St. Louis May 21, and arrived there June 3, having made the trip down in 13 days and 15 hours. “Trip No. 2. Left St. Louis for Fort Benton Wednesday, June 6, at 6½ p. m., with 210 tons of freight, 60 tons for Randall, Rice, and Sully, 150 tons for Benton. Running time from St. Louis to Fort Sully 16 days; to Fort Rice 21 days; to Fort Union 27 days and 6 hours; to Milk River 29½ days; to the mouth of Judith, or Camp Cook, 35 days 10 hours. Discharged 147 tons of freight and laid there 12 hours, and started again for Benton. Passed Drowned Man’s Rapids in 2½ minutes without laying a line or working a full head of steam. Laid up at Eagle Creek 3 hours, and arrived at Fort Benton July 13, at 4 p. m. Time from St. Louis 36 days and 21 hours. “The round trip from Benton to St. Louis in 53 days and 12 hours, without setting a spar or rubbing the bottom.” (The “Montana Post.”)