The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-03-04
FIRST SCHOOL DM MONTANA TAUGHT BY
LUCY DARLING AMID WILD SURROUNDINGS

In the early SOS gallows frames
on which the vigilantes hung road
agents were more conspicuous than
either school houses or churches. Ac-
cording to history, there were 20
dance halls and saloons to one edu-
cational institution. Yet the first
thought of the pioneer was, 1--WE
must educate u young"
Mrs. S. w. Park (nee Lucia OAR
ling) of Warren, o., writing to the
Montana Historical society, told how
the first schools were established in
Montana as follows:
Interesting Journey
A journey to the headwaters of
the Missouri river across the plains
and over the mountains years ago
was n of strange variety and much
adventure and interest. From Cleve-
land, Detroit and Chicago to Quincy
and st. Joseph, then the western
limit of railroad travel, many objects
of curiosity were presented to the
residents of the west, as Ohio was
then called.
From st. Joseph to Omaha, the
great muddy river, sweeping down
the valley from remote springs, made
an indelible impress upon ones
memory. Omaha itself was an iso-
lated frontier town, built largely of
logs with few houses more than one
story in height, but the great terri
torial capitol on the bluff looked
down upon the little hamlet, keeping
watch and ward over it's citizens.
Five miles out of Omaha was the
open, undulating prairie, vacant, ex-
cept as an occasional log house, usu-
ally deserted, demonstrated that the
occupant had been lured yet farther
west. Fremont and Columbus were
two settlements containing perhaps a
dozen houses, implanted and unen-
closed, and the great valley of the
Platte stretched thence westerly for
six or seven hundred miles, unoccu-
pied, save as Fort Kearney and Fort
Laramie interrupted the solitude. An
Indian war interested us along Loup
between the PawneeS and the
Ogalallah Sioux, in which a few
whites, loving adventure, were TAX
ing a hand. The Platte valley SEEM
ed a useless waste, incapable of
growing anything more than coarse
grasses, sage, s~unflowers and small
er blossoms. Day by day the slow
moving trains were lifted higher and
toward the mountains until
Laramie Peak and Fremont's Peak
into OUT view. Chimney Rock,
Bluffs, Church Butte and In
dependence Rock were great curiosi-
lies to the pilgrims, exciting an abb
,orbing interest, and we did not
we we're in the South Pass I'M
comparing a woodcut in Ere
nont's Expedition" with our sur
'oundings, we recognized that we
we're on the roof of the continent.
owe the Lander road and
through a confused mass of noun :
aims to the Great Snake river plains
lead waters of the Missouri gave the I
a surfeit of travel and made |
i'm sigh for rest. G
Arrival at Bannack e
In looking back to that journey /
rom Ohio, I think of nothing that a
Interested us more than our arrival t
t Bannack-the growth of a day, b
hose existence and fame went hand S
l hand and spread V e the entire b
ointment in a single season. After o
lree months and a half of slow ira u
cling over plains and mountains, a
trough valleys and across rivers, b
ur party was looking forward to o
annack as a place where we might Il
EST. perhaps for the winter. Start 81