The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-02-24
PIONEER DAY
ENCOURAGED
The Old-Timers Do Not Want to For
get the Past.
MONTANA WILD AND WooLLY
Even in the EARLY 70s-The Great
Event Used to be the Arrival of the
First Boat From St. Louis at Fort
Benton-SubsoiI Of Playing Cards.

The establishment of Pioneer day
in the schools of Montana is the pur-
pose of a bill introduced in the lower
house last week by Col. J. H. Rice of
Choteau county. For the measure,
the Pioneers association of this state
is originally responsible. The older
settlers feel that the younger genera
ton know too little of what the early
history of the commonwealth was.
There are few persons in Mon
tana today said Colonel Rice, who
have any real knowledge of what
happened twenty years ago. Now
the bill proposes to set aside one day
year for the discussion of these
things in all the grades of the COM
mon schools of the state. This day
is to be known as Pioneer day. l
don't know just what day will be
chosen, but l rather think the pio-
neers themselves could select it. I
think the idea is a good one. Mon
tana has so quickly passed from the
old days to the present times of civ
iization that in the sudden change
we have come to look at things as
always having been as they are.
Nov, just let me give you one or
two little instances to the point,
few examples of what happened in
the pioneer days of the state. And
7 hof hnor6 IF
them, nor did most of the people
who will read it.
THE first building in Montana was
put up in 1909 or 1910 by Emanuel
Lisi. 1t was known as Lists fort and
was on the Yellowstone river just
below the mouth of the Big Horn.
In 1910 Father De Smet and Father
Ravalli first came among the Flat
head Indians. In 1S41 they built St.
Mary's mission on the Bitter Root,
near Stevensville. In 1S45 they built
the first grist mill of the state where
Stevensville now is. and only few
years ago the mill stones were still
there. These stones were brought
all the way from Antwerp, Belgium,
by way Of the Columbia river. They
crossed the sea and rounded Cape
Horn in the hold of an old sailing
vessel. They came up the Columbia.
and then they went on that long
overland journey via old Fort Walla
Walla, across sagebrush plains and
snow capped mountain ranges, until
noccnA from tho thick
wooded evergreen slopes which Dor
der the Pacific to the wilderness
which has since become one of the
richest sections of Montana.
Gold was first discovered in Mon
tana in 1852 by halfbreed named
Francois Finlay, who was better
known as Benetsu.
You and many other people don't
know the meaning of Absorakee,
which one of the state timber re-
serves bears. Well, the proper spell
ing of that word is, l am told, 'Aupsa-
rokee,' and it means crow.
These are just a few little things
happened to jot down during the
past few days as they came to mind
Why, even in my time things were
| much different at Fort Benton and
many Of the people now living there
have no conception of the fact that
| this is so. l have seen the time when
that levee was piled high for mile
and a half with goods, when the
streets were so full of people that q
man could hardly force his way
through. That was the landing Of
the first boat from st. Louis in the
spring. Those were the days wher
gambling houses and saloons lined
the street, when you could often heal
the sound of shots. When the cards
thrown out from those houses lay
many inches thick at times in the
roadway. An army officer Of the
post said to me one day, Rice, in fu
ture days when people come to grade
streets or dig sewers here, they will
dig down and find substrata O
cards
"Now, it is funny. but people have
come to forget what those days were
like already and as for the oldel
days, when Lewis and Clark cam,
into the territory, when everything
was wild, when the bunch grass grew
rank, with only buffalo and wild dee
to touch it. why, we have all forgot
ten them. And the names of the oil
pioneers. the men who fought thei
way through the wilderness and be
gan to establish this civilization
which we now enjoy. why, thei
names have been forgotten by all o
U.S."
Dissolution Of Co-partenrship.