Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1881-01-01
Written for the Herald
THE TOWNS OF MONTANA, PRESENT
And FUTURE.
BY p. KOCH.

In 1869 ] was walking along the levee at
St. Louis. when / noticed a small steamboat
displaying large placard with the inscrip-
ton, ''Ho for Fort Benton and the Gold Mines
of Montanaw | went aboard the ill-fated
boat (afterwar3 crushed in the ice at Fort
Peck. and for ninety and nine weary days
we plodded our slow way up the Missouri.
This trip gave me rather poor opinion of
that river as a navigable stream and a high
way of commerce. and yet at that time it was
the only highway connecting Montana with
the far East, and we owe it in great meas
ure to the old Missouri that our Territory
has attained even such degree of develop
mcnt as it has. When the Union Pacific was
completed, we imagined for year OF two
that we had no further use for the river; but
it took but little while to find out that she
was still our best friend and with the i'm
provements in the channel, the traffic over
the muddy waters has continually increased
with the growth Of the country. As we are
far from being a self supporting country, but
than any other community in the world of
the same size, the location relative to this
water way aslargely determined the growth
of four towns up to the present time.
At the head of navigation lies Fort Ben
ton. Here was Il trading post long before
the days of steam navigation. Once year
the Canadian royageurs travelled slowly up
the river banks, 'cordelling" the heavily
loaded barges, which afterwards foated easily
down the stream, filled with the robes and
furs collected at the forts From its position
OH the Missouri, Benton became the rallying
and outftting point for the fur traders and
the different expeditions sent by the gov
ernment to explore the country With the
discovery of gold and the influx of popula-
ton its Importance grew. It remained, how
ever, only a trans-shipping point until the
last few years, when its enterprising mer-
chants have built up large wholesale trade
With the extension Of railroads through
Montana, it will necessarily lose its impor-
tance as supply point for Central and South
ern Montana but it will continue to control
the large Indian and Canada trade, and the
wonderfully rapid development Of Choteau
countys great agricultural and grazing re-
sources will give Benton local trade which
will much more than compensate for the loss
of it's carrying and transferring business.
If we now follow the line of wagon trans
pOrtation from the head Of navigation on the
Missouri we reach Helena. Here the road
branches west, south and east, and here is
therefore, naturally located the chief CONNER
cial town Of Montana. Originally settled as
placer mining camp, Helena might have
shared the fate of many other similar settle
ments and dwindled into an almost deserted
village; but he rich gulch of Last Chance
and its adjoining quartz mines built up a
large town, filed with men of mettle and
enterprise, whD were quick to see the advan-
tages of it's petition as distributing center.
With all the leen competition between the
Helena merchnts, they have always worked
as unit when the interests of their town
were concerned, and the result has been that
up to very recent times they have virtually
controlled thdbusiness of the Territory. Here
was the centr towards which everything
converged. Iuring the summer and fall her
streets were crowded with trains, bringing
goods from the North and the South, and the
beginning Of winter found the capaciOus
warehouses of her merchants crammed with |
goods ad supplies of all descriptions. In
the wirer Helena set the price on agricul-
tural prduce, and the surplus from Gallatin
and MbOula was hauled to Helena as the
only maxet the farmers had away from home.
But fewDf the local merchants in the smaller
towns nd sufficient capital to buy all of their
goods in the States during the few months
when tinsportation up the Missouri was
possible,nd as the winter wore on nearly all
of thenooked to Helena as the only base
from wlch they could draw supplies To
wards spng one might meet any day on her
streets nr'chants from Deer Lodge Missoula,
Virginia md Bozeman, and if an exception
ally sevte winter blocked the roads and
made frshting impossible, supplies soon ran
short, an prices went up in all the minor
towns. his proud position Helena does no
longer bid. She is more prosperous than
ever, b more dependent on local trade.
With u advent of railroads the condition I
of traS and business is changing. The
freighti season has grown longer, local mer-
chantssre buying mostly in Eastern cities, I
Butte as become an important market for
the falers' produce, and while Helena is
still d financial and commercial center of ,
Monta, she is no longer absolute master of /
the station. She will have to rely more 1
and me on her own upland, and as the CEN :
ter. otn immensely rich mining country,
there every reason to suppose that she will I
have prosperous future. tr, u fss t
AcRs the mountains, ON the Pacific slope, !
lies = town of Deer Lodge. When first es- !
tabled, she was the supply. point for num- a
erouslacer mining camps, surrounding her b
ON alsides. These have all seen their best n