The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-24
STAGING IN MONTANA
The Palmy Days of the Business
in the North.
BILLIARDS. AND INDIANS
b Redskin, Guilty or Innocent, Was
Generally Made to Answer for All
Evils Tha Occurred-Stage
Ups Unknown.

SldBcS anu StdSt-uilNilS COhNcyS an
impression which varies as to the in
dividual who may chance to hear it.
To the recent arrivals from the Fast,
via Pullman sleeper, it recalls tales re-
lated by older persons of huge coaches,
glittering with fresh paint and var
nish, drawn by teams of sleek horses
along well-kept and easily-graded
tu%rnpikes; h~ospitable ~roadhouses at
short distances apart, where in frosty
weather an open fire blazed at n n
of the big, CHEEKY office and the Zip
iron" was ever heated for the thirsty
traveller and the shining pewter pots
hung in the glance of the flames and
not far from the cider tap. To the
man whose experience in Montana does
not exceed more la a half dozen of
years the word stage means a lumber
ing vehicle with an iron-railed top n
canvas curtains swung on a cradle of
leather straps and following our or
more or less dust-gray horses, a mode
of conveyance resorted to only in the
last extremity, plying through sparse
ly settled country or to newly-opened
mining camps. To the old-timer the
term has still a different meaning: to
him 1t is another feature of early days
which has been superseded by some
thing better and more convenient, and
If for a ONE he longs to catch
sight once again of old Bill Jones or
Antelope Smith. tearing through the
streets, cracking a 12-foot lash and
urging the horses to their keenest jump
with yells and occasional well-thrown
pebbles, it is only a fleeing sentiment,
and not for a second would he exchange
the modern, swiftly flying express train
of the transcontinental routes for the
plodding though picturesque methods
of earlier and, to him, perhaps, happier
days.
There has been but little omanc
connected with staging in Northern
Montana and but little of heroism save
that of the kind which falls to the lot
of the stoker in the sitting furnace
room of a warship in action. OF hat
there have been numerous instances,
but that is not the species of bravery
which makes columns of reading mat
ter. At the same time, the stage routes
of Northern Montana were second in
importance only to the lines of steam
boats which piled on the Missouri I'M
on which the settlers, he hunters of
the buffalo and the early stockmen de-
pended for supplies.
AS nearly as can be learned, the first
attempt at staging in this part of the
state began in 1864, when Malcomb
Clark secured a charter from h Ban
mack legislation to open, construct,
improve and maintain a toll road
through the Prickly Pear canyon. Clark
started upon the work, but in 1867 he
sold his rights to Messrs. King and
Gillette, who carried it out. Clark was
killed by the Piegans in a raid which
they made down through the canyon
and toward Silver City in 1869. He was
buried al what is known as the old
Fergus ranch, north of Silver, and his
grave may still be seen there. Alto
gether there was something like $780,
900 spent on the Prickly Pea road be-
fore the late Colonel Broadwater and
his associates put in the Montana Cen
trail railway in 1883 and forever ended
the use for stages along that line.
The route ran from Helena via Silver
City, where there was a junction with
lines running to Belmont. Magorville
and Vestel, to the old town of Sun
River. From hat settlement it ran
to Fort Benton and made connection
with two or three lines OF steamboats,
running down the Missouri to Bismarck
and connecting with other lines there.
A line which was run in part conjunc-
ton to this grand trunk line was that
between Fort Benton and Fort ASSN
nlDOlHt. Liz pdiIy udyS Vi NV oldSS
business were in 1880, when the
stages were under the management of
William Rowe & Co. 1t was their
boast that even in the stormiest of
winter weather the mails were never
more than two days late. seems
at the present day a somewhat pecu-
liar and ~equivocal boast, but when n
considers the difficulties which sur
rounded h trip the achievement of
such a record vas really worthy of the
boast. 1t was in the winter of 70 that
Jimmy Casey left Sun River for e
ton. The weather was so severe that
he had to abandon the stage at the
starting point for a light wagon drawn
by two horses and with only the mail
as freight. About two weeks later a
searching party from Benton found
him wandering about on the prairie.
still clinging to the line. delirious, and
his feet frozen solid.
Neither was ii always a pleasant
drive in summer weather. Those were
the days when Sitting Bull and his
Sioux braves were playing hide and
seek with General Miles, ranging from
Willow creek and the Cypress hills
beyond the boundary down to Fort
Belknap and other Montana points,
having matters much their own way
and soaring the settlers in a blue funk
every once in awhile. Our W In
dams were not much more friendly.
Miles lac just rounded up the Nez Per-
ces in the Bear Paw mountains and
sent them back to their reservation,
and at Fort Benton Colonel Moale, then
in charge of the post, complained that
1t was impossible to keep the Bloods.
Piegans and Gros Ventres in their
proper places so long as Benton mer-
chants would encourage their wander
ing by purchasing hides and pelts OF
them whenever they came to town, in
stead of leaving that business to the
regularly authorized agents who visited
them on their reservations. The In
dian was the personal demon of those
days. All evil where the origin was
not plain at first sight was ascribed to
him. and it is said that it was the rule
with many an old-timer to take a quiet
pot-shot at every solitary Indian he
,nipht meet nudAr prOnar conditions ap