Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-05-16
BUFFALoEs FORD A RIVER
Wonderful Sight Witnessed by Tou.
on "a Missouri Liner,

Correspondence Chicago Record:
the '70s we boarded the steamer
West at Bismarck for Fort Bent
says the Anaconda Standard. The
week of our journey being in Dako
incidents would be Irrelevant here,
will mention tornado as we
lowed its track up through eas,.
Montana as it came down from Ma.
toba. The Missouri here runs throut
wide plain. with dense wood
hundred yards wide on either side, G.
we were In bend and did not see
storm approach until it was upon us.
III was perhaps the middle of the
ternoon but suddenly grew SO dark
could scarcely see the crew flashing
boat to the trees on the lee bank. Thu
great Wire cables We're strained to Ike
us from following in the wake of
wrecked pilot house. Men We're see
ing their own safety, women sheddi
nervous tears. The captains wife al.
L (she was an old sailor) sat on the lie
deck, she With fear born of wisdom.
ignorantly amused at the Weakness.
or my fellow travellers and really e
joying the grand panorama Gre
black and white clouds seethed, boilt
and rolled together, torn by the wiz
and pierced by trees carried along iii
feathers-a perfect hurricane. 1t woulS.
moan and roar like a living thing tor
tured into agony, then lull to a sob like
a hurt child going to Sleep We would
think the worst past, its fury spent,
when the trees would begin to bend as
/ II In supplication. then all the furies
would break loose. The boat would
rock and creak and pull on the cables,
beaten as we'll by the missiles in the
ofed crew began to pray and humble
that weird Incarnation handed down
from generation to generation, brought
over from the fatherland of ignorance
and superstition; tine captains staff to
swear and give orders that could only
be obeyed by the light of the great
sheets of lightning that seemed to en-.
compass the whole plain.
1T lasted about four hours The water
around the boat was 50 full of dirt it
took all the next day to clear it away.
retit the pilot house and get back in
the channel. Before we got fairly
we'll started the dead anG wounded
buifaloes We're floating by. The cap
tain, who had been on the river for
years. said he expected they were
crossing the river when the storm
struck them going from their winter
range on the Yellowstone to summer
pastures in the British possessions;
that they emigrated every year and
u.
our delight, just as we rounded the
great bend into Montana the river was
SO full of them we had to stop the boat.
On either side, as far as the eye could
reach. the earth was black with the
noble animals.
We anchored till perhaps 3 in the
afternoon, when they stopped to feed
and rest. They cared nothing for the
boat When they came to the water
they marched in like soldiers, looking
neither to the right nor left. They
made a path perhaps fifty yards wide,
as smooth as a street, and not an AMI
NAL went in or came out above or be-
low; swan across and out with mill
tary precision. We had read OF them
tramping trains of wagons to dust on
the old overland route with grain OF
allowance, but we doubted &c more
Here again we came to heavy timber
The storm had torn the great giant
cottonwoods up by the roots, some only
left holes in the ground, others lay
beaten in splinters. For miles there
was devastation. The captain said
here it was Il veritable cyclone, but
had spent part of it's fury before reach
inG us, and if we had been three days
earlier we would have been in the
midst of It,