The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1902-03-13
II Renaissance Of 1850.
A TRIP UP THE MISSOURI
RIVER WHEN THE WEST
~ - ~ ~
WAS YOUNG.

first of the coming month that
two young men then residing in
Omaha became possessed of the
mining spirit which was pre-
valent throughout the land. This min
ing excitement had been famed to a
white heat by the discovery of i'm
mense bodies Of rich ore at the hither-
10 unknown mining camp of Leadvirie,
Colo. Montana had for a number of
years been factor IL the production
OF placer gold but at the date of which
/ write quartz mining was beginning
20 take the front place in the terrific
ry's flor Montana was then territory
industries. The young men after
careful consideration of the matter
came to the conclusion that Montana
altered the widest field to men whose
capital could be counted in two figures.
They had no sooner came to this con-
eiusion than they began to weigh the
merits OF the two routes of travel open
10 them. One route was west over the
Union Pacific railroad to Ogden, thence
Dorth by narrow guage road and by
stage to Butte City, the rising mining
camp of Montana. The other route
was by boat from Sioux City, Iowa, up
the Missouri river to Fort Benton,
d distance of 2,160 miles. The latter
proposition had the most elements of
adventure in it, and accordingly on
April S, 1880. these two young men
together with 149 other seekers of for
tune found themselves on board the
steamer Helena. bound for that golden
Eidorado which they all fondly be-
Iieved would reward them a thousand
fold for the privations which they were
destined to undergo.
The steamer Helena was a fine boat
but she was overloaded and the conse-
4uence was she always got stuck liz
the shallow spots of the river, or else
during heavy winds she became I'M
manageable and had to be tied up to
the bank. The steamer did not pretend
10 run at night at all.
the first stop 10 unload freight was
made at an Inuian agency on the Ne
braska side OF the river At this agency
live the remnants ofthat portion of the
Sioux nation which devastated sec
tons of Minnesota in the early SOS.
One Of the stops made was at Pierre,
now the capital of South Dakota. but
at that time simply a freighfing point
for the Black Hills. Tie place was
then composed of general store,
blacksmith shop. two saloons and a
dance house. The three latter places
were doing rushing business as the
town was filed with muie-skinners,
bul-whackers, cowboys. etc. 1t was a
tough crowd, so tough in fact that the
captain dropped down stream a couple
of miles before tying up for the night.
The scenery along this section of the
Missouri, or until the mouth of the
Yellowstone is reached, is anything
but grand. The river wends its way
between high banks composed of a
clay soil called by the natives sgumbo..
1t is the continual washing of these
banks of earth into the river that gives
to~the Missouri its muddy, turbid
waters. These banks were broken here
and there by dense growths of cotton
wood trees. These groves furnished
the fuel supply for the steamers plying
back and forth on the bosom of the
river. The wood WAS chopped and
piled up on the bank in the winter time
by squaw men, "a term applied to white
men who married Indian women who
made good thing out of the business
as the timber cost them absolutely
nothing.