Omaha daily bee., 1896-02-02

IL Was Then One Of the United states
Army Posts.


OMAHA, Jan. S1.--To the Editor Of The
Bee: The Wisconsin State Historical society
has just Issued volume XIII. Of its historical
collections. Among other very valuable
papers 1t contains-now published for the
first time--a very Interesting account Of the
Cass expedition TO the northwest, made in
k2O, which brings up a matter of s5me
historical interest to people in Omaha and
Council Bluffs.
Governor Cass, with an exploration party
of some forty men, including the scientific
corps. Canadian voyagers. soldiers and
Indians, left Detroit in May, 1920, going by
canoes to Mackinac and the Sault Ste
Marie, and via Lake Superior, very nearly to
the headwaters Of the Mississippi. Return
ing down the Mississippi Injecting, by the
way, with large herds OF deer, bison and
elD to st. Anthony falls, Prairie du Chen
and then homeward via the Wisconsin and
the Fcx to Lake Michigan again, covering
the whole distance, except the various port
ages, by water.
Attached to the party were Henry r.
Schoolcraft, geologist, afterward the historian
of the expedition, and James Duane Doty
0hen young man, but afterward governor
of the territory Of Wisconsin, and in still
later life governor Ct Utah). MIR. Doty was
secretary to the governor and 1t is his
journal which is now published in the col
lections.
After leaving st. Anthony Falls on the
return trip the expedition came to Camp
Cold Water, St. Peters, at the mouth of the
st. Peters river (now the Minnesota, and
opposite where the city OF St Paul new
stands). There they found Colonel Leaven-
worth encamped, with the Fifth United
States infantry, which had left Detroit dur
ing the previous year, 1919, via Green Bay
and Prairie du Chen, and reaching st.
Peters in time to camp for the winter.
Here is where we have mention of Coun-
Gil Bluffs. Mr.. Doty says in his Journal:
Preparations are making to erect fort
(now Fort Snelling) en- high bluff at the
junction of the Mississippi and st. Peters
rivers. It's latitude is A deg,ees "a minutes,
as calculated by Lieutenant Talcott engineer
to the Yellowstone expedition. He had ar
rived at this point few days before We
did, having been two weeks from the Council
Bluffs. His object was TO ascertain the
practicability of making road from the
Bluffs to the st. Peters, distance about
300 miles. He states the whole country to
be almost an entire prairie"
Turning to Schoolcraft's Summary Mar
ratiye Of an Exploring Expedition" Phila-
delpha, Lppncott, Grambo & Co., 1860.
we find in his preface: 1.-The accession of
Mr.. Monroe to the presidency, March 4, 1877.
formed the opening of this new epoch of
II dustrial empire and progress in the west.
This period brought into the administration
man Of great grasp of intellect and energy
of character in Mr.. Calhoun. By placing
the army in series of self-sustaining posts
on the frontiers, in advance Of the settle
ments, he gave them efficient protection
against the still feverish tribes, who how
ered-feeble and detected from the results of
the war, but in broken, discordant and hos
tile masses-around the long and still dan
gerous line of the frontiers, from Florida
to Detroit and the Falls Of St. Anthony.
He encouraged every means of acquiring
true information of its geography and re-
sources. In 1919 the military line was ex-
terGed to Council Bluffs, on the Missouri,
and to the Falls of st. Anthony on the Mis-
sissippi. Major T. H. Long, of the topo-
graphical engineers, was directed to ascend
the Missouri for the purpose of exploring
the regions west of the Rocky mountains
During the same year, he (Secretary Cahoun)
approved plan for exploring the sources
Of the Mississippi submitted. by General Cass,
who occupied the northwestern frontiers''
1t seems, therefore-and here is the inter-
esting point-that Council Bluffs and ST.
Peters were each occupied by the United
States army in 1919, the two points selected
by the United States government as the ex-
treme outposts on taking possession Of this
territory.
This Communication is suggestive only, in
the hope that some of your readers who know
all about that early occupancy will give us
the benefit of their knowledge.
W. H. WYMAN