Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1907-08-16
REVIEWS THE PAST
Joe Lewis Continues His Story of
His First Trip to the West.
FIVE MONTHS ON THE ROAD
From Omaha to Virginia Gty--SpendS
Winter There and Starts for Sal
mon River Country.

on, crossing the Little Big Horn
and Big Horn rivers. A fort was
being established on the Big Horn
at the time we arrived there. The
country was full of all kinds of
game. Often large herds of buffalo
would pass so close to US that we
could shoot them right from our
wagons. Nothing OF any note oc-
Cured, except the killing of one of
our men by the Indians while out
hunting, until our arrival at Clark's
fork, where the boys killed three
bear, and that night we feasted on
bear meat; but did not fancy it
much, although it was a change from
buffalo meat, of which we had be-
come tired.
the next stream we struck was
the Yellowstone. AT the foot of
the hill near the river, we ran onto
an old rattle trap of a buggy, and
along the road and hillside were
scattered great amount of re-
ligious tracts. The horses, mules
or whatever animals that pulled the
buggy were gone and the owner had
no doubt been captured or killed by
the Indians. From the way the
4So.t, ,,,o.a .natta~al ah,,,9 tha raI
bkins had evidently been dispensing
the gospel TO their own tastes and
amusement.
Here. we found myriads of big
black crickets, which we used for
bal, to catch trout and the river was
fairly alive with them. In less than
an hour landed G3 pounds of fine
trout. The river bottoms were
covered with deer, antelope and
buffalo, while the coyotes gave US
plenty of Emusic" at night.
President Roosevelt describes
this coNntry in his "Winning of
The West" at the time the Lewis &
Clark expedition went through, and
il was no doubt very much the same
when we went through, for even at
that time there were no settlers in
the country. except here and there
an Indian Trader and few trappers
We camped on the river bank fol
two days to recruite our ANIMALS.
The ferry boat, which had beer
used in taking outfits across tbs
river at this point, was sunk the das
before our arrival and Ae had To- g.
q mile or SO up the stl cam to fore
IL, but the water was so deep tha
we had to block up the beds of oul
wagons to keep the water from run
ming Into the wagon boxes ant
spelling our goods. Two wagon
we're chained together and the team
were doubled up, making 90 yok
of oxen TO the two wagons. Al
being il readiness To start, the me
stripped 10 the waist as the rive
was very swlft and we didn't kno,
but some of US would get dumpe
into the stream and have to swim I
save ourselves. With q lariat o
the horns of the near leader an
each driver mounted on the nea
wheel OK, we plunged into th
stream. Below us the water dsshe
over boulders four or five feet higl
which made me quite dizzy. W
we're all day getting the QUIT
across. A few days afterwards '
arrived at Bozeman, which thea hs
about q dozen shacks. Il had bes
hard journey over poor roads n
through rough and rugged cou
try, sometimes having to make ne
crossings over streams and ne
trails through lofty sage brus
Oar oxen were 30 foot sore ~
weary as ourselves. HoEeman y
the only place We struck where the
was any sign of civilization, exec
the army posts, since We left ]
Laramie.
Our trip from Bozeman TO v