The times., 1899-03-12
BUFFALO STORIES OF
THIRTY YEARS ago
Lively Days Along the Upper
Missouri River.
Herd That Jumped Bluff TO a
Steamboat Deck.
How Pilot Dave Campbell stopped
the Far West to Collect
Few ScnIps.
CFrom the New York SUM


1t seems scarcely credible now that with
in the past twenty five years buhaloe5
could be counted by thousands within 400
miles of st. Paul but it is true About
the time that Jay Cooke began building
the Northern Pacific Railroad west from
the western boundary of Minnesota there
was not a railroad west of Fargo to the
Pacific Coast, and there was but 60 miles
of road within the territory embraced in
the two Dakotas. The great thoroughfare
for passenger and freight traffic to the far
Northwest was the Missouri River, then
teeming with life and activity from st.
Louis to Fort Benton, distaEce OF 1900
miles, over which the sternwheel steam
boats were fortunate if they were able to
make one trip in a single season. 1t was
long and tedious journey from Sioux
City or Yankton where civilization prac-
.,cally ceased, to the military posts and
= boSsg stations along that river, through
.Lins Indian country. where the red
pilot, as the hHd g.. in target practice on the
ploughed their wsXyheezy steamers slowly
or lay for hours or daytehae the swift current
sandbar at the mercy of the -'aI ol =
| wards. Some of the steamboats, L.
tion at that time carried small howi1zt."
and at times they were called into use to
| check the Indians.
| To return TO the buffaloes. II was in
| the summer of 1872 when the old KountZ
| line steamer Peninah, Capt. Tom Mariner
| left the terminus of the railroad at Yank-
! ton, laden with through freight for Fort
Benton. and grading outfit and crew,
under Contractor W. A. Burleigh, then
| Delegate in Congress from Dakota Terri
! tory, to work upon the Northern Pacific
| grade east from the Missouri River, from
where Bismarck is now located.
The Peninah had been obliged to lay up
for repairs under bluff few miles above
Standing Rock Agency for a couple OF
days. About noon OF day in the latter
! part of May the passengers lounging about
| the deck OF the boat heard Il noise resemb-
| ling the rumbling of distant thunder Ev-
cry man instinctively sought shelter.
Heavy Fail of BuTnIoes.
Indians" was whispered throughout
the ship, and even the ld-timers grew
pale as they realized what a war party of
this size meant for them. The noise came
closer and closer and resolved itself into
wild roar. and then hundreds of buffa-
lOes came tearing over the bluff at a mad
pace, falling into the water like sheep.
| The landing place of the Peninah was
close under the bluff, with scarcely more
than dozen feet intervening, and ma
jority 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 tumb-
ling over the bluff.
The sandbars were covered with the big
shaggy animals, who began to climb up
the opposite bank, where they stood ex-
hausted. 1t was nearly an hour before
the last Of the herd had plunged over the
bluff Then the deckhands set about pro-
viding the boat with fresh meat and them
selves with buffalo hides. which they sold
al a good figure. When the Peninah pull
ed out next day the buffaloes were seen
spreading out over the hills on the eastern
side OF the river. An average estimate
placed the number OF buffaIoes in the
stampede at 1000
1t may have been the same herd or an
other 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 al this point to
| jump from. the bufaloes were 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 fearful of an accident. the cap
tain turned her shoreward and tied up,
while the crew laid in a good supply of
fresh meat Some idea of the vast herds
that ranged that country may be CLEANED
| from the fact that on one trip down the
river about that time the entire cargo OF
the steamer General Meade was made up
OF dried buffalo tongues and hides
Pnimy steambontine Days.
From 1877 to 1879 were the palmy days of
steamboating on the upper Missouri, no
less than siXtyfve boats being engaged
{ in the service at that time but during
these years much business was gathered
at Bismarck, the Northern Pacific having
reached the Missouri The Kountz Line
owned by Commodore kountZ OF Pitts
burg, operated the Queerest craft that ever
plowed the waters of the Big Muddy r,y-
+ erybody along the river got TO know the
long, low, single smokestack. pratical-
looking steamers. They would come
wheeling up the river like a great monster
in the last stages OF asthmatic cOnvuI-
sions. and II seemed TO require the atten-
tion OF the entire crew 10 keep her boilers
supplied with sufficient steam to breast the
current. They were slow, and to cover
/ the distance between Pittsburg and Fort
b
/ obliged to run during the night. and it was
said of them that they invariably arrived
q 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 We're all first
class. The latter company put on two side
wheelers in lS16-the Montana and the Da-
kota. They proved an expensive luxury
one being wrecked by a cyclone and the
other going to pieces against bridge pier
at Kansas City. Experiments proved that
only the small stern wheel craft was suit
able for this river, and many small boats
were brought into service. The freight
business was good from 10 to so and boats
OF all descriptions came from the Ohio,
the lower Mississippi the Red. and other
streams. Many of these, however, never
returned. While those years were regard
ed as the best in the history of Missouri
River steambOatng, the losses were the
heaviest. Many of the steamers burned
some were caught in the ice in the fall
and sank in the quicksands. while a great
many found last resting place on the
sandbars with which their pilots We're I'M
acquainted. and were either burned during
the following winters or carried off by
frontiersmen and Indians. Had they re
maincd there until spring they would have
! been wrecked by the break-up of ice and
it was time saved TO abandon them where
they were. 1t has been said again and
again that a majority OF these vessels We're
| taken into the wids of the upper Missouri
and Yellowstone rivers heavily insured and
that their wrecks We're not always caused
by accident.
\ Typical Landing Scene.
The old familiar cry Steamboat is no
all ~.