The Dillon tribune., 1886-11-19
-. FIRST EXPLORERS OF THE
ROCKIES.
rro,n the Great Falls Tribune.

From the Great Fails lv'bNne.
n,ring the latter part ofthe seventeenth
century and the first half Of the eighteenth,
r..,ch explorers and Jesuit Missionaries
...rated the dense, unknown wilderness
...,ssn the Father Of waters and the
Rocky mountains.
~. most noted French pioneers were
:. Salle. Pere Marquette, Baron La Hou.
-. cheyalier La Verendrye and his sons
..d Father Henepin, who discovered St.
A,thony falls, two hundred and six years
.go. Nearly all Of these wrote accounts
oftheir travels, described the country as
,vpl as they could and made crude maps
founded upon their observations and what
,rformation they could gather from
~. Indians. Their felicitous imaginations
.,,n,ied the rest. One Of these maps.
drawn in 1910 is supposed to show the re-
.,lts Of a western journey accomplished
10 La Houtan. 1t shows great river,
called the "Long Rive" up which he
no.sed. He represents it as uniting with
the Mississippi near Dubuque, Iowa. This
was no doubt the Missouri, though sadly
displaced on the map. This peculiar plat
Of the great west shows large lake which
the Indians told him contained bitter water.
This was the Great Salt Lake, which had
been partially described years before by
the aborigines who fell in with the Spanish
explorers. All these early French ex.
nlorers learned from the Indians, Of the ex-
istence Of a great river (he Coumbia)
west of the mountains flowing into the Pa
ci6c Ocean. 1t is said, however, that with
the exception of the Verendryes and their
successors in command along the Saskatch.
evan, none of them went further west
than the Red River OF the North. In 1881
two sons Of the Chevalier Verendrye left
Montreal with detachment of fifty men,
their father not joining them until two
wears 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 govern
or.general, on the southeastern shore OF
Of the Lake of the Woods. Further on
they built a post on the Assiniboine, FIVE
leagues from Lake Winnipeg. In June
1876, party Of twenty.six, among whom
was Younger son of the Chevalier. were
massacred by Sioux Indians, while en-
camped on a small island in Lake.ot.the
Woods. In October 1892 the Verendrye'
built Fort La Refine, further west on ths
Assinboine, which became their base o
operations. In 174o, two sons OF tn
Chevalier left Fort La Refine, with small
party ior the purpose of thoroughly ex
ploring the "Shining Mountains" as tn
Rockies we're then called. They followed
up Mouse river in southerly direction
to the country Of the Mandans Called D.
them Montanes) crossed the Missouri
little below Berthold, and worked the'
way up along that stream to the canyor
They made portage Of the series OF tall
their description of which tallies almost es
exactly with the description of the sam
given bv Lewis and Clarke sixty.two year
later. From this we see that our prom''
in. town Of Great Falls is not without Il
historical associations. Atthe point wh'c
is now we'll known as the "Gatewav OF IT
noun, aims, they ascended the mountain
inJanuary Of 1743, not far from Bear l oo'
Peak which they speak OF as t"sks'hape
mountain. From thence they made Inc
way up Deep creek and crossed the mo"'
aims to the head waters of the Mnsselsne
and thence across to the Yellowstone
the mouth of Pryor river. They tol'o"'
up this stream to the Sinking Water al
on over the mountains to Wind rive
Here their progress was arrested bya hsr
war raging between the Snakes ana
branch of the ferocious Sioux. They IN
returned to the upper Missouri and ra's
monument Of stone near the mou'"
Jefferson river in what they called t
Choke Cherry country, as witness 10
fact that they took possessio" OF the c0un' N,
in the name of the king Of France. IL
they christened "Beauharnois" and
meath it deposited leaden plate bear'
the French coat of arms. This ceremo
Of dedication was performed May 49, II
1t seems that before starting upon IN
two years journey the explorers had DC
informed by the Indians that the "on'n'
mountains" were full Of gold. "Sh'n'r
had been the name of the mountains
piled because Of the fact that for hundr'
Of miles the lofty peaks reflected from IN
srow.clad submits, the golden "s