Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1885-09-12
THE UPPER MISSOURI.
Its Navigation Prsctieal.--The Dele
gates to Work Fer an Appro-
priation.

The city of Helena will be repre-
sented at the Waterways convention
which meets in st. Paul on Thursday
by four competent and able delegates
appointed by the Mayor and Board of
Trade. The steamboat navigation of
the Missouri river from Great Falls
to Townsend, a distance of 200 miles,
is only exceeded in Importance to
Helena by the Northern Pacific rail-
road itself, which has come SO near
our own doors, bringing trade and
commerce from afar from both east
and west. That the upper Missouri,
which runs within twelve miles of
Helena, can be made navigable by
steamboats, has been clearly demon
strated by the able report Of Thomas
2. Roberts, civil engineer of a recon
noisance made by him in 1872 from
Three Forks to Great Falls, and by
the many who have examined the up
per river throughout its whole length.
Since Mr.. Roberts report the United
States government has spent a Con-
gressional appropriation under the
direction of competent engineers of
over twenty thousand dollars In i'm
proving the river by wing dams and
clearing chutes at Bear Tooth and
Half-breed rapids. At the present time
(the season Of lowest water) the river
is navigable above Great Falls for
light draught boats, but in order to
facilitate traffic in passengers and
freight, and that there be no delay in
making a through trip, it will be nee
essary to spend consideral more mon
ely in concentrating the water wing
dams and deepening the channels by
blowing out rocks, as has been done
at the two rapids before mentioned.
This can be eqaitably done by
the aid of the government than by
private enterprise, because this part
| of the river for two hundred miles is
as much of a national highway as any
other river in the United States and
Of equal importance, mile for mile,
with any other not Immediately at
the sea coast. Our delegates, who all
know that this part Of the great Mis-
souri, penetrates a virgin country
were inexhaustible quantities of coal
and the precious metals lie waiting
Development and transportation, will
bring these matters prominently BE-
fore the convention and secure for
this water way, whose channels and
placid pools lead to the beautiful and
inaccessible canyons high up in the
mountains, where no steamer has
turned a wheel Or blown a whistle,
and where the American tourist Will
complete his tour from Wonderland,
saying, as he closes his remarkable
journey, that there is no wonder of
all geyser land that inspires the same
degree of admiration and awe as the
Gates of the Mountains on the upper
Missouri. By the convenience of this
river navigation the farmers in the
wheat belt Of the Missouri valley will
be enabled to transport their grains
to a near market at Helena. The
great lumber forests on the river will
be foated to market when navigation
is improved, and a general travel will
be inaugurated for passengers from
all parts of Montana and the world,
who will not have done all the routes
of travel until they have navigated
the waters Of the Upper Missouri, S.
600 miles from the sea.
In order to avoid delay at Half
Breed Rapids a lock and dam will be
necessary to facilitate quick transit
and insure complete safely in naviga-
ton. But 10 one knows the require
ments and advantages of the steam
boat navigation of the Upper Mis-
souri, better than does each of u
delegates to the Water Ways Conven-
ton, and to these we look with con-
fding expectations for our justice
and our cause.-Herald.
In all free countries an opposition
is an element Of the government. It
is as indispensable to the safety Of the
realm as a free press or a free pulpit.
To dispense with it is to endanger, if
not to dispense with, liberty.