Evening star., 1899-03-20
STOPPED a BOAT.
Herd of BuifaIoes Plunged Over q
Bluff Into the River

From the Chicago Chronicle
1t was in the summer of 1872 when the
old kouatZ Line steamer Peninah Cant
Tom Mariner, left the terminus of the rail-
road at Yankton, laden with through
freight for Fort Benton and a grading
outfit and crew, under Contractor W. A.
Burleigh, then a delegate in Congress from
Dakota territory. to work upon the North
ern Pacific grade east from the Missouri
river. from where Bismarck is now located
The Peninah had been obliged to lay up
for repairs ander a bluff a few miles above
Standing Rock agency for a couple Of days
About noon of a day in the latter part of
May the passengers lounging about the
deck of the boat heard a noise resembling
the rurnbling of distant thunder Every
man instinctlvely sought shelter.
"Indians." was whispered throughout the
ship. and even the old-timers grew pale as
they realized what war party OF this size
meant for them. The noise came closer and
closer and resolved itself into a wild roar
and then hundreds of buffaloes came tear
ing over the bluf at mad pace, falling
into the water like sheep. The landing
place of the Peuinah was close under the
bluff. with scarcely more than a dozen feet
intervening, and majority of the animals
plunged over the boat into the river. Some
fell on the deck and many lay along the
narrow bank, MANNED and bleeding from
broken legs or internal injuries.
Still they came tumbing over the blum.
The Sandbars were covered with the big
shaggy animals who began to climb up
the opposite bank, where they stood oX-
hausted. 1t was nearly an hour before the
last of the herd had plunged over the bluff.
Then the deck hands set about providing
the boat with fresh meat and themselves
with buffalo hides, which they sold at a
good figure. When the Peninah pulled out
next day the buffaloes were seen spreading
out over the hills on the eastern side of the
river. An average estimate placed the num-
bar of buffaloes in this stampede al 1000.
1t may have been the same herd or an
otter one of similar size that compelled the
steamer Miner to tie up to the bank for
two hours just below Fort Buford This
was in the fall of 1874, and while there was
no precipice at this point to jump from,
the buffaloes w4re swimming the river by
thousands. The Miner was in midstream
coming down the river like race horse,
when she ran into the herd and being fear
full of an accident, the captain turned her
shorew ward and tied her uD while the crew
laid in good supply of fresh meat. Some
idea of the vast herds that ranged that
country may he CLEANED from the fact that
on one trip down the river about that time
the entire cargo of the steam r en-. Meade
was made up OF dried buffalo tongues ana
hiGes.
From 1877 to 1879 were the palny days OF
steamhoating on the upper Missouri. no
less than siXty-five boats being engaged in
years much business was gathered at Bis
marck, the Northern Pacific having reached
the Missouri The kountZ line owned by
Commodore KountZ of Pittsburg operated
the uueerest craft that ever ploughed the
waters of the Big Muddy Everybody along
the river got to know the long low sin
gle smokestack, piratical-looking steamers.
They would come wheeZing up the river
like great monster in the last stages Of
asthmatic commissions and IL seemed to re-
quire the attention Of the entire crew 10
keep her boilers supplied with steam To
breast the current. They were slow and
II cover the distance between Pttsburg and
Fort Benton in a single season they were
obliged to run during the night, and II WAS
said OF them that they invariably arrived
II the landings along the river in the dead
of night, when all other vessels were tied
up. The Durfee & Peck Line, the Benton
Line and the Missouri River Transportation
Company were all first class. The latter
company put on two side-wheelers I'm 1S7C-
the Montana and the Dakota. They proved
an expensive luxury, one being wrecked by
cyclone and the other going 10 pieces
against a bridge pier at Kansas City.