The Last American Frontier

by Frederic L. Paxson

In 1852–1853 Congress worked upon one of the many bills to construct the much-desired railway to the Pacific. It was discovered that an absolute majority in favor of the work existed, but the enemies of the measure, virulent in proportion as they were in the minority, were able to sow well-fertilized dissent. They admitted and gloried in the intrigue which enabled them to command through the time-honored method of division. They defeated the road in this Congress. But when the army appropriation bill came along in February, 1853, Senator Gwin asked for an amendment for a survey. He doubted the wisdom of a survey, since, "if any route is reported to this body as the best, those that may be rejected will always go against the one selected." But he admitted himself to be as a drowning man who "will catch at straws," and begged that $150,000 be allowed to the President for a survey of the best routes from the Mississippi to the Pacific, the survey to be conducted by the Corps of Topographical Engineers of the regular army. To a non-committal measure like this the opposition could make slight resistance. The Senate, by a vote of 31 to 16, added this amendment to the army appropriation bill, while the House concurred in nearly the same proportion. The first positive official act towards the construction of the road was here taken.

Under the orders of Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, well-organized exploring parties took to the field in the spring of 1853. Farthest north, Isaac I. Stevens, bound for his post as first governor of Washington territory, conducted a line of survey to the Pacific between the parallels of 47° and 49°, north latitude. South of the Stevens survey, four other lines were worked out. Near the parallels of 41° and 42°, the old South Pass route was again examined. Frémont's favorite line, between 38° and 39°, received consideration. A thirty-fifth parallel route was examined in great detail, while on this and another along the thirty-second parallel the most friendly attentions of the War Department were lavished. The second and third routes had few important friends. Governor Stevens, because he was a first-rate fighter, secured full space for the survey in his charge. But the thirty-second and thirty-fifth parallel routes were those which were expected to make good.

Governor Stevens left Washington on May 9, 1853, for St. Louis, where he made arrangements with the American Fur Company to transport a large part of his supplies by river to Fort Union. From St. Louis he ascended the Mississippi by steamer to St. Paul, near which city Camp Pierce, his first organized camp, had been established. Here he issued his instructions and worked into shape his party,—to say nothing of his 172 half-broken mules. "Not a single full team of broken animals could be selected, and well broken riding animals were essential, for most of the gentlemen of the scientific corps were unaccustomed to riding." One of the engineers dislocated a shoulder before he conquered his steed.

The party assigned to Governor Stevens's command was recruited with reference to the varied demands of a general exploring and scientific reconnaissance. Besides enlisted men and laborers, it included engineers, a topographer, an artist, a surgeon and naturalist, an astronomer, a meteorologist, and a geologist. Its two large volumes of report include elaborate illustrations and appendices on botany and seven different varieties of zoölogy in addition to the geographical details required for the railway.

The expedition, in its various branches, attacked the northernmost route simultaneously in several places. Governor Stevens led the eastern division from St. Paul. A small body of his men, with much of the supplies, were sent up the Missouri in the American Fur Company's boat to Fort Union, there to make local observations and await the arrival of the governor. United there the party continued overland to Fort Benton and the mountains. Six years later than this it would have been possible to ascend by boat all the way to Fort Benton, but as yet no steamer had gone much above Fort Union. From the Pacific end the second main division operated. Governor Stevens secured the recall of Captain George B. McClellan from duty in Texas, and his detail in command of a corps which was to proceed to the mouth of the Columbia River and start an eastward survey. In advance of McClellan, Lieutenant Saxton was to hurry on to erect a supply depot in the Bitter Root Valley, and then to cross the divide and make a junction with the main party.

From Governor Stevens's reports it would seem that his survey was a triumphal progress. To his threefold capacities as commander, governor, and Indian superintendent, nature had added a magnifying eye and an unrestrained enthusiasm. No formal expedition had traversed his route since the day of Lewis and Clark. The Indians could still be impressed by the physical appearance of the whites. His vanity led him at each success or escape from accident to congratulate himself on the antecedent wisdom which had warded off the danger. But withal, his report was thorough and his party was loyal. The voyageurs whom he had engaged received his special praise. "They are thorough woodsmen and just the men for prairie life also, going into the water as pleasantly as a spaniel, and remaining there as long as needed."

Across the undulating fertile plains the party advanced from St. Paul with little difficulty. Its draught animals steadily improved in health and strength. The Indians were friendly and honest. "My father," said Old Crane of the Assiniboin, "our hearts are good; we are poor and have not much.... Our good father has told us about this road. I do not see how it will benefit us, and I fear my people will be driven from these plains before the white men." In fifty-five days Fort Union was reached. Here the American Fur Company maintained an extensive post in a stockade 250 feet square, and carried on a large trade with "the Assiniboines, the Gros Ventres, the Crows, and other migratory bands of Indians." At Fort Union, Alexander Culbertson, the agent, became the guide of the party, which proceeded west on August 10. From Fort Union it was nearly 400 miles to Fort Benton, which then stood on the left bank of the Missouri, some eighteen miles below the falls. The country, though less friendly than that east of the Missouri, offered little difficulty to the party, which covered the distance in three weeks. A week later, September 8, a party sent on from Fort Benton met Lieutenant Saxton coming east.

The chief problems of the Stevens survey lay west of Fort Benton, in the passes of the continental divide. Lieutenant Saxton had left Vancouver early in July, crossed the Cascades with difficulty, and started up the Columbia from the Dalles on July 18. He reached Fort Walla Walla on the 27th, and proceeded thence with a half-breed guide through the country of the Spokan and the Cœur d'Alene. Crossing the Snake, he broke his only mercurial barometer and was forced thereafter to rely on his aneroid. Deviating to the north, he crossed Lake Pend d'Oreille on August 10, and reached St. Mary's village, in the Bitter Root Valley, on August 28. St. Mary's village, among the Flatheads, had been established by the Jesuit fathers, and had advanced considerably, as Indian civilization went. Here Saxton erected his supply depot, from which he advanced with a smaller escort to join the main party. Always, even in the heart of the mountains, the country exceeded his expectations. "Nature seemed to have intended it for the great highway across the continent, and it appeared to offer but little obstruction to the passage of a railroad."

Acting on Saxton's advice, Governor Stevens reduced his party at Fort Benton, stored much of his government property there, and started west with a pack train, for the sake of greater speed. He moved on September 22, anxious lest snow should catch him in the mountains. At Fort Benton he left a detachment to make meteorological observations during the winter. Among the Flatheads he left another under Lieutenant Mullan. On October 7 he hurried on again from the Bitter Root Valley for Walla Walla. On the 19th he met McClellan's party, which had been spending a difficult season in the passes of the Cascade range. Because of overcautious advice which McClellan here gave him, and since his animals were tired out with the summer's hardships, he practically ended his survey for 1853 at this point. He pushed on down the Columbia to Olympia and his new territory.

The energy of Governor Stevens enabled him to make one of the first of the Pacific railway reports. His was the only survey from the Mississippi to the ocean under a single commander. Dated June 30, 1854, it occupies 651 pages of Volume I of the compiled reports. In 1859 he submitted his "narrative and final report" which the Senate ordered Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, to communicate to it in February of that year. This document is printed as supplement to Volume I, but really consists of two large volumes which are commonly bound together as Volume XII of the series. Like the other volumes of the reports, his are filled with lithographs and engravings of fauna, flora, and topography.