Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-05-03
"STORY OF THE
HIDDEN TREASURE"
CAPT. GRANT MARSH ExPLODES
SOME OF THE FAIRY TALES
OF EARLY MISSOURI
RIVER DAYS. g. ..
THE STORY OF THE MASSACRE
OF MINERS ON BURNT CREEK
BAR, NEAR BISMARCK,
IN 1868.


have not been student in that line
but know of what I have seen
and remember what has been told me.
This in answer to a somewhat verbose
correspondent of the Palladium some
weeks back on "The Story of the
Hidden Treasure"
General J. w. Forsythe, military
secretary on General Sheridan's staff,
was in military command of the mill
tary exploring expedition up the Vel
lowstone river on the Steamer
Josephine in the spring of 1875, which
steamer I had the honor to command
as it's captain. The steamer was built
in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and named
by me for General Staley's little
daughter Josephine. General Staley
was then in command of the military
forces on the Missouri with head
quarters at Fort Sully-about 200
miles down the river from Fort Rice.
During this expedition up the Vel
lowstone We made landing at Pom
pegs Piller and it was there in an
officers counsel that General Forsythe
had said that the Pillar was named
by Capt. Clark of the famous Lewis
and Clark exploring expedition of
1804-6-for the memory of an old
negro servant of Captain Clark. The
full journal of Lewis and Clark will
probably give all the information
necessary-I have only seen an alb
stracted history of that trip and they
make mention of Captain Clark nam
ing the curious isolated rock forma-
ton "Pompey's Pillar
On our trip up the Yellowstone in
1875 the boat had two flags and one
of them was taken a shore and a flag
pole erected on the Pillar in honor
of the event. The flag was given us
in honor of the naming of the boat.
And this steamer was the first of its
kind that had ever navigated the Vel
lowstone as high up as Pompey's
Pillar.
The Palladium correspondent who
signs himself John c. Winthno init
mates that he has been 40 years in
the wild west and might correct a
great deal that is now passing as cur
rent history-and proceeds in his
modest way of attempting some of
them.
The history of the Lewis and Clark
expedition as told by their journals
says Sergeant Floyd of the expedition
died and was buried on what is now
known as Sargent's Bluffs, seven
miles below Sioux City, Iowa, on the
Missouri river-the river Floyd at
Sioux City was named in his honor
as we'll as Sargent's Bluff.
The historical correction, Mr.. Whit
row says, however, that Sergeant
Floyd died on the Vermillion river,
South Dakota, thirty miles north of
Sioux City.
This corrector of historical events
again tells us that the man who got
the hidden gold at Burnt Creek Bar
near Bismarck went down to St.
Louis, chartered a steamer loaded
with whiskey and reached what is
now Popular River, Montana, where
his goods were confiscated by General
Hazen. Mind you the gold was found
shortly after the miners were killed
| in 1863. The fact of the matter is
General Hazen's first appearance on
the Missouri river was in 1S73-ten
long years after the massacre of the
miners. The reason I know is that
the steamer Miner brought General
Hazen, his wife and little boy I'D as
cabin passengers on my boat and this
was the first trip that they made on
the upper Missouri river-Mrs. Hazen
now Mrs. Admiral Dewey Of Washing.
ton, D. c. The little boy was killed
In an accident some few years later
so I am told-while riding a pony at
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