The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-07-20
The Routes to Montana and Idaho.
Correspondence of II. Y. Trit

It York to San francisco; to Placerville an
J. by overland stage to Salt Lake CITY
about 65S miles, from which point ther
d is stage line to Virginia City and Bat
mock City, which are about 500 mile
e north from Salt Lake, Or if the destlna
tion be the Boisee mines, or Idaho, tn
traveller will find the route from the nort1
via, Nevada, where at a place called Sta
: City, a wagon road turns toward th,
southwest when near to Idaho, and con
tinues thence to the Boisee district.
For those setting out from the seaboard
and from the interior, this will prove the
easiest and cheapest if not the most ex
peditious way. The next route is by the
overland stage from Atchinson, Kansas,
or from Omaha, Nebraska, to Salt Lake
and Montana. The distance to Salt Lake
is ,255 miles, and to Virginia City 500
miles further, requiring at least II days
d nights continuous travel in coach gen
orally crowded to its utmost capacity, with
only 25 pounds of baggage allowed to
each passenger, except by paying 81 so
for every additional pound
The stage fare to Virginia City is 5000 F.;
the price of meals on the way is from 81
to So each. These high rates, more than
double what they were year ago, are in
consequence Of the troubles with the In
dians, who for time completely broke
up the line between the Missouri River
and the mountains. Even now an escort
OF soldiers is sometimes found to be ne
cessary, though it is very rare that the
Indians have ventured to attack one
OF the coaches which are always filled
with enough we'll armed men to make
stout defense. Their depredations are
rather upon the defenseless stations of the
stage line, which they have at times des-
troyed with the supplies of hay collected
for the stock.
The other route is from st. Louis by
steam boat up the Missouri River to Fort
Benton, and thence overland 2S0 miles
to Virginia City. Healthy passenger boats
commenced only last year to run through
this long route of 3,175 miles; there
are now about 20 employed, II of which
had left St. Louis before the first of May.
Each boat carries from 40 to more than
100 passengers and from 800 to 400 tuns
of freight. Drawing not more than four
and a-half to FIVE feet of water they as.
cend the river with tolerably safety TAX
ing advantage of thespring freshets caus-
ed by the melting of the SHOWS on the
mountains, and which raises the upper
portions of the river the latter part of May
and early part of June. These boats take
up an immense amount of supplies for
the mines and also of machinery for
which they charge from to 10 cents per
pound from Fort Benton to the mines,
it is probably as much more.
The charge for passage on the boat is
5000 which pays for state,room and board.
The time spent on the river may be from
40 to 60 days, but this may be lessened
by meeting the boat at one of the upper
towns on the river. Stages run as far up
the river as Fort Randall, leaving Sioux
City three times week.
The distance thus saved on the river
is 1855 miles. One might leave New
York week after the boat had left St.
Louis with perfect confidence of overtak-
ing her if not at Sioux City then at Fort
Randall for the river is so circuitious in
its long bends that the stage goes as far
in one day as the boat makes up stream
in two or three days.
The least time these boats, always heav-
lily laden require to reach Sioux City, l.
010 miles from St. Louis, is ten days, but
the writer has waited there week long
er than this, and has known the boats to
be more than three weeks in making a
trip to this point.
The quickest route to Sioux City is not
easily found, there being no advertise
ment of it in the newspapers, nor in Ap-
pleton's Railway Guide. By the Chicago,
Iowa and Nebraska hallway, called in
that work the Chicago and Northwestern
Railway, one may leave Chicago III the
evening and reach Boonesborough, Iowa
the next day, and proceed at once by stage
to Sioux City, arriving there in three
days from Chicago, Not knowing of this
route the writer went to Dubuque, and
taking the railway to Cedar Falls on Mon
day morning, and proceeding thence by
stage with all expedition, did not reach
Till Oatufday evening.
The stages nearly all the way have on
ly two horses, with load enough for six.
This railway from Chicago crossing the
Mississippi river at Clinton, Iowa, prom
ises to be the first, passing through this
State to the Missouri river, and your train
stops, making the first communication
with the Pacific railway at Omaha. 1t is
likely to acquire new Importance by the
developement of the Missouri river, trad
ing with the great mining regions and all
the Northwestern Territories. Whenever
shipments can be made to d high point
on the Missouri by railway steamboats,
will no longer be required to descend to
st. Louis, but will receive their freight
and passengers above, and save at last
| one third of the tedious voyage. From
Fort Benton which is the head of naviga-
tion little below the great Falls of the
Missouri, good road passes through the
mountains toward the South west, and
hranohas of to the varions aettlaments