The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1865-10-07
[WHOLE NO. So.


Tho Probability of secnrina me
! BlackfoOt Trade HIITIi
We are pleased to know that some of our,
business men are alive to the interest of
securing to themselves and this section, the
trade of the Blackfoot mines. Some few
have already forwarded stocks of goods in
that direction, and when it is known by the
miners and people there that they can secure
what they want from this side better than
from st. Louis, or elsewhere along the MIS-
sissippi, it Will not be very long before a
trade, that will be unrivalled, can be per-
manently established and secured for this
section. Heretofore the mines Of Montana
have procured almost ali their supplies from
the Missouri; but now it is a fact well au-
thenticated that the trade of that river is
not, and cannot be, able to aecommod all
the persons there. The past season twenty
steamers left st. Louis for Fort Benton-of
these, but six reached their destination-two
were lost entirely by casualties, and twelve
were compelled to discharge their cargoes at.
Fort Union, and at the mouth of Milk river,
from which PLACE shippers were compelled
to pay from fourteen to twenty oents per
pound to have their goods landed at Fort
Benton, 2,4l5 miles, from st. Louis. The.
Blackfoot mines, which, are now thought to
be the richest in the country, ere but sixty
seven miles of land travel farther from the
head of navigation on the Columbia river,
than they are from Fort Benton. Now let
us see the advantages of reaching them from
here. Goods can be shipped to Wallula,
and are being shipped there, for Blackfoot,
. at this time. We see it stated that between
four hundred and FIVE hundred pack animals
!, left during the past three weeks for that
region. gentleman who has travelled the
entire route, and who is a careful observer
of things, has given US the following table
of distances to Blackfoot City, in the heart
of the mines:
. Miles.
4 From landing on Snake River fourteen miles
D above Peluse Ferry, (called Ruark's Ferry to
the bridge on Spokane, good wagon road 70
, From this bridge to Pen dOreille Lake, good
From Pen d'orsiie Lake to Horse Plains. mos:
of the distance navigable. ...... l2s
o From Horse Plains to Indian Agency, on the,
: Jacko Fork of the Bitter Root, easy land ;,
}, From the Agency to Hell Gate, land .. 40
:, From He'll Gate to Blackfoot City, by land 30
: ......--.........--.-.. 392
r VI actual land travel Observation-Disclosures. 267
= From Fort Benton, in case steamers could
get there regularly, and at all seasons, the
e travel by land would be something over two
Il hundred miles. On page 246 of the Stevens
q Explorations for Railroad Route from st.
o Paul to Puget Sound. we find description
of the Pen d'Oreille Lake and the river, to
e Horse Plains, distance of about l25 miles,
which, it is stated, the Hudson Bay Company
e were in the habit Of ascending with their
o large freight boats, from the lower end of
IF the Lake. 1t is asserted here ia this report
that steamboats, could we'll ascend to a point
min rp.lo ahnu II Oh Il a.
e in all from below, and at high water thew.
d could ascend much further. To build wagon
h road from He'll Gate to Pen d'Oreille Lake,
E, in 1858, Lieut.. Donelson estimated that ten
men, in 7S days. work, Of ten hours, would
complete it. By transporting goods to the
,f point at which the Hudson Bay Com pany
d formerly landed their freight boats, Horse
h Plains, there would be actually but 25 miles
s. of wagon road TO construct, through prairie
country, to connect boat navigation with the
Indian Agency, from which point there is
now an excellent wagon road via He'll Gate
W to Blaekfoot City. On page 10, of the same
m report, Lieut.. Saxon, speaking of the coun-
IS try along the Blackfoot Fork, after passing
d He'll Gate, says: 81 think it decidedly a
IS misnomer to call this beautiful region BY so
n unholy a name. The sun does not shine on
of a better spot on earth, and found that my
j. previous ideas of the Rocky Mountain Range
I'd were, as far as this section is concerned,
ez entirely erroneous. Instead of a vast pile
We of rocks and mountains, at most passable,
,u | found a fine country, well watered by
at streams of clear, C Id water, and inter
al spersed with meadows, covered with the
er most luxuriaut grass" Nature, the report
ch SAYS, seems to have intended the route for a
of great highway across the continent, and it
wv appeared to offer but little obstruction to the
construction of railroad.
Parties are now energetically at work tc
YES s place steamer on the above Lake, adapted
all to the trade. We have no doubt but that il
gu will be completed the coming winter. The
's' machinery has'all been arranged for, and
will be sent forward from this city within
II II ten days. This is magnificent undertaking
10 and one destined to be of great advantage
a7 to this country, and especially to this COM
81 unity-is will be another wide step in the
OF direction of uniting the Eastern and West
Al ern slopes Of the Rocky Mountains, and
as being private enterprise is actually greater
IS than the immense work of the Central Pacific
IA Railroad. The trade which will be secured
AZ to US by the success of the project, will be
% of far greater value than any we at present
~ enjoy Oregonian. .|.'
90 gr ------- ---------- ....F
IS Orr For MoSrASA.-Msssrs. Jesse F.