Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1886-11-13

Lewis & Clarke Not the First Explorers
in this Section-A Narrow Escape
From Becoming a Permanent
French Colony
| We happened to find in an old number
Of the West Shore Magazine an article upon
the discovery Of the Rocky Mountains :,
| We trust that we shall be pardoned for
| leaving Lewis and Clarke among the Man
| dams, in cold, cherries country, with
winter coming on, while we take retro
spective glance with the West Shore con
tributor, at some hardy explorers who an
tedated Lewis and Clarke three-quarters
of a century.
During the latter part of the seventeenth
| century and the first half of the eighteenth,
French explorers and Jesuit Missionaries
traversed the Mississippi valley, establish
ed chain Of stations between Canada and
Louisiana, among them the city Of st. Loais.
They even penetrated the dense, unknown
wilderness between the father of waters
ahd the. Rocky mountains.
The most noted French pioneers were
La Sale, Pere Marquette, Baron La Hou-
tan, Chevalier Ia Nerendrye and his sons
and Father Henncpin, who discovered St.
Anthony falls, two hundred and six years
ago. Nearly all of these wrote accounts
of their travels, described the country as
well as they could and made crude maps
founded upon their observations and what
information they could gather from the
Indians. Their felicitous imaginations
supplied the rest. One of these maps.
drawn in ITO is supposed to show the re-
suits of western journey accomplished
by La Hontan. 1t shows great river, call
ed the "Long River" up which he passed.
He represents it as uniting with the Miss
ississippi near Dubuque, Iowa. This was
no doubt the Missouri, though sadly dis
placed on the map. This peculiar plat of
the great west shows large lake which
the Indians told him contained bitter wa
ter. This was Great Salt Lake which had
been partially described years before by
the aborigines who fell in with the Spanish
explorers. All these early French explor-
ers learned from the Indians, of the exis-
tence Of a great river (the Columbia) west
OF the mountains flowing into the Pacific
Ocean. 1t IS said howeverthat with the ex-
ception Of the VerendEyes and their success
sore In command along the Saskatchewan.
none Of them went further west than the
Red River Of the North. In 1131 two sons
of the Chevalier Verendrye left Montreal
with detachment of fifty men, their faith |
er not joining them until two years later. |
They reached Rainey Lake in the fall, and |
there built Fort St. Pierre. The following |
year they established Fort St. Charles. |
named in honor of the governor-general. on |
the southeastern shore Of the Lake-of- the |
Woods. Futher on they built a post on |
the Assiniboine, five leagues from Lake
Winnipeg. In June 1886, a party of TWEEN |
ty-siS, among whom Ws3s a younger son Of !
the Chevalier, were nassacred by Sioux In
dlans, while eneanped on small island |
III Lahe-of-the-W Woods. In October, 1882
the Verendyres built Fort La Reine, furth
er west on the Assiniboine, which became
their base of operations. In 1542. two !
sons of the Clieyalier lett Fort La Refine.
with a amalI party for the purpose Of
Exploring the ''Shining Mount
anins' as the Rockies were then called.
They followed up Mouse River in a south
arly direction to the country OF the Man
dams (called by them Montanesl, crossed
the Missouri little below Fort Berthold.
and worked their way up along that stream
70 the canyon. They made a portage of
the series of falls, their description Of
which tallies almost exactly with the de-
scription of the same given by Lewis and
Clarke sixty-two Years later. From this
we see that our promising town of Great
Falls is not without its historical associa-
ions. At the point which is now we'll
known as the Gateway of the mountains"
hey ascended the mountains in JANUARY
l7433, not far from Bear Tooth Peak which
hey speak of as a tusk-shaped mountain.
From thence they made their way up
Deep creek and crossed the mountains to
he headwaters of the Masselshell and
hence across to the Yellowstone at the
mouth of Pryor river. They followed up
his stream to the Sinking Water and on
over the mountains to Wind river. Here
heir progress was arrested by fierce war
aging between the Snakes and branch
If the ferocious Sioux. They then rat,,rn. |