Fort Benton stands on the eastern bank of the Missouri, near the Great Bend, and three hundred and seventy-seven miles by the trail taken by me above Fort Union. The river is here perfectly transparent at most seasons of the year. The Teton River empties into the Missouri six miles below Fort Benton, the Marias twelve miles below, and the Milk two hundred miles below. The falls of the Missouri are seventy miles above this fort. The muddy character of the Missouri has its commencement at the mouth of Milk River, which takes its name from the whitish muddiness of its waters. The ascent from the wide, grassy plain in which the fort is located to the high table-land is somewhat abrupt, the only passage on a level with the plain being close to the river on the south and very narrow. Fort Benton is smaller than Fort Union. Its front is made of wood, and the other sides of adobe, or unburned brick. It usually contains about a dozen men, and the families of several of them. The Blackfoot Indians are the principal traders here. It is the custom of the several bands of this tribe to locate in sheltered and otherwise eligible places in the vicinity of wood, water, and grass in the early winter, where they remain as inert as possible until the melting of the snow. At such times the half-breeds of the fort visit them with goods upon horses and mules, and exchange their merchandise for the skins and furs captured by the Indians.
Fort Campbell is situated on the same plateau with Fort Benton, about half a mile above it, and is built in very much the same way as the latter place.
I was agreeably relieved by the missing gentlemen coming into the fort September 3. They were in fine spirits, although they had eaten but little food since they left me on Milk River, had traveled a very long distance, partly on foot, and had been a good deal annoyed at the loss of so much time.
CHAPTER XIX
WIDESPREAD EXPLORING PARTIES
For several days Governor Stevens was busily engaged in examining voyageurs and Indians in regard to the mountain passes and the general character of the country. Additional horses were procured, and arrangements made for sending out parties to explore in advance and both north and south of the route. Lieutenant Donelson with the main train reached the fort on the 6th. Dr. Evans arrived on the 5th, after an extended trip through the Bad Lands, where he made a large collection of geological specimens. The same day Lieutenant Grover was sent forward with a small party to the Bitter Root valley, crossing the main divide of the Rocky Mountains, for the purpose of ascertaining if Lieutenant Saxton had established his depot of provisions at that point. Thence he was directed to forward an express to Captain McClellan and return to Fort Benton.
Lieutenant John Mullan, with a party of six men, was sent southward to the Muscle Shell River, not only to examine the country, but also to convey to a band of Flathead Indians supposed to be in that region “a message of peace and goodwill, to express my desire to make a permanent peace between them and the Blackfeet, and to build up anew their beautiful St. Mary’s village.” Thence he was to cross the mountains by a more southerly pass and rejoin the main party in the Bitter Root valley.
The governor decided to send Lieutenant Donelson ahead with a party of twenty-five men to examine the approaches to Cadotte’s Pass, the main train to follow more slowly in charge of Mr. Osgood, and to dispatch Lander to examine a pass at the head of the Marias River, considerably north of Cadotte’s. “I gave Mr. Lander,” says the governor, “authority, with certain exceptions, to select his animals from my whole train, deeming it important that he should be exceedingly well fitted out, as he would probably have a long distance to make before he joined the main party in the valley of Clark’s Fork.” The governor was exceedingly desirous of taking his wagons across the mountains as the most striking demonstration of the practicability of the passes.
The following from a letter of George W. Stevens, of September 10, shows the high spirits and fine condition of the party:—
“We have reached this point with our full number of scalp-locks, and now are preparing to cross the mountains. Up to this point we have proceeded with wonderful success, and have done what no American expedition has done before us. We have not felt the slightest hardship, but the journey of over one thousand miles has been made with as much ease and comfort as we could possibly have experienced in traveling at home fully equipped. Our train, of forty wagons and carts, over two hundred animals, and more than one hundred men, has safely arrived. Not a man has died (except one who accidentally shot himself), nor has there been a single case of serious illness. Not more than a dozen or fifteen animals have been lost, and as a general thing they are now in as good condition as when we left the Mississippi. We are now eighty miles from the Rocky Mountains. On Monday we leave with a train of twelve wagons, with which we hope to make a comfortable crossing of the mountains in twenty days. Yesterday the fort was the scene of the greatest confusion, growing out of the preparations making to fit out four ‘war parties,’ as we term them. The first, under Mr. Lander, explores the Marias Pass, the most northern and nearly in the latitude of the boundary line. The second, under Lieutenant Mullan, goes to the Muscle Shell. The third war party is under the direction of Lieutenant Donelson, and is to survey the approaches to Cadotte’s Pass, the one which will be taken by the main train. A fourth war party is the major’s own to a camp of Piegan Indians. Lieutenant Grover is already in the mountains. The major’s health is excellent, and though the labor is enormous, he is the only man who could have carried the expedition through in so glorious a manner. If he succeeds in getting the wagons through, he will have opened a good emigrant road from the Mississippi to the Pacific, and you may be sure the attempt will be most vigorously made. If fortune continues with us, within two months we shall reach Puget Sound, that looked-for garden-spot. We have met the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre bands of Indians, and by both were hospitably received. Upon the Sheyenne River we first came upon buffalo, and from that point until a week’s journey back we have met them in the greatest abundance. Buffalo meat has, therefore, been our principal article of food, and we ask nothing better.”