CHOUTEAU BLUFFS.
The boat did not get as far as was expected on this trip. A little above the mouth of the Niobrara River it was stopped for a time by low water. Pierre Chouteau, Jr., who, with McKenzie, was the soul of the enterprise, was a passenger. Burning with impatience at the delay, he sent to Fort Tecumseh for lighters to take off a portion of the cargo. Every day he got out upon the high bluffs overlooking the river and paced up and down, watching for the desired assistance and praying for a rise in the river. The bluffs have ever since been known as the Chouteau Bluffs.
At last three boats came down and relieved the steamer of enough of her cargo to enable her to reach Fort Tecumseh, where Fort Pierre, S. D., now stands. No attempt was made to go farther, and in a short time she returned to St. Louis.
In spite of the failure to reach the mouth of the Yellowstone the experiment was considered enough of a success to justify its repetition. Accordingly, in the spring of 1832, the Yellowstone set out again, and this time reached Fort Union. The voyage was highly successful, and the return trip was made at the rate of a hundred miles a day. Pierre Chouteau, Jr., was again a passenger. Since the previous year Fort Tecumseh had been rebuilt in a situation less exposed to the ravages of the river, and was ready for occupancy when the Yellowstone arrived on her upward trip. It was at that time christened Fort Pierre, in honor of the distinguished visitor and member of the company. George Catlin, the painter of Indian scenes and portraits, was also a passenger, and his writings and sketches have added to the celebrity of the voyage.
SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT.
The success of the second experiment in navigating the Missouri gave great satisfaction to the company and to the public in general, for it had never been considered possible to take steamboats so far. It added seventeen hundred miles to the internal navigable waters of the United States, with every prospect that this would be extended to the very foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The voyage created great interest both in this country and in Europe, and John Jacob Astor, who was in France at the time, wrote home that nearly all the public journals of the Continent had made mention of it. Ramsay Crooks, general agent of the company in New York, thus expressed his pleasure to the house in St. Louis at the great success which they had achieved:
CONGRATULATIONS.
“I congratulate you most cordially on your perseverance and ultimate success in reaching the Yellowstone by steam, and the future historian of the Missouri will preserve for you the honorable and enviable distinction of having accomplished an object of immense importance, by exhibiting the practicability of conquering the obstructions of the Missouri, considered till almost the present day insurmountable to steamboats, even among those best acquainted with their capabilities. You have brought the Falls of the Missouri as near, comparatively, as was the River Platte in my younger days.”
The experiment thus inaugurated grew into a regular business. The American Fur Company sent up one or more boats every spring, as long as it continued in the business. In the spring of 1833 it sent up two boats, the Yellowstone and the Assiniboine. It was this year that Maximilian, Prince of Wied, went up and spent several months at Forts McKenzie, Clark, and Union.[20] The Assiniboine went above Fort Union for some distance, thus making another advance toward the head of navigation. It was caught in this advanced situation by low water, and was compelled to remain there all winter.
AN EARLY LOGBOOK.