The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-05-28

Forty years ago the Yellowstone
valley for nearly it's entire length
was the thoroughfare of the overland
stages, having it's eastern terminal
at Bismarck and its western at Hell
ena-a long stretch of country, meas
ured by the wheels of Concord
coach. The Yellowstone valley was
also in communication with Bis
marck through the medium of stern
wheel Missouri river steamboat from
May to September-if depth of water
permitted-as far up the river as
. junction City, the entrepot of Fort
Custer. These boats were extreme
ly active during the June rise when
the river was at it's full, and the
trip up the Missouri to Fort Buford
and thence up the Yellowstone to
Miles City was made in about 10
days; but in May it required as many
as "a days of tedium and discomfort
to accomplish the passage.
The coach offered a much speedier
mode of conveyance, but this was
offset by the danger from small bands
of marauding Indians officially
presumed to be safely confined to
feeding on the Yellowstone in great
numbers, it was impossible to keep
the young bucks at the agency under
the restraint of their elders, who, |
since the Custer fight, saw the fu-
tility of warning with the whites and |
running the danger of being sent to |
the Indian Territory land with |
doubtful Happy Hunting Ground"
70 ROD nC oil hi o1
cluded the possibility of luggage lar
ger than Valise or roll of blan-
kets. The menu at the stage sta
lions, as rule, was far from elabor-
ate, out of an excusable scarcity of
edibles other than buff the short
term for buffalo meat. The modern
lied packages and canned goods were
then dream rather than a reality
and freight via the bull trains ran on
a slow and irregular schedule. The
stage coach trip to Miles consumed
many hours of days and nights, du- [
ring which it was impossible to sleep 3,
unless one, gaining the favor of the {
driver, was allowed to curl up in the
boot at his feet. s
The river rate for a first-class pas t
sage from Bismarck to Miles was as c
low as s21.00 in the spring of 1879, b
and included three good meals each v
lay, provided one was fortunate e
enough to sit at the first table, the S
meals being served in relays. For v
his amount one was also permitted s
20 bed down" on the floor of the il
main cabin and dining room, after C
he cabin passengers had retired, to Y
'e rousted out in the early morning "
hat the breakfast tables might be tt
prepared. Cabin accommodations a
we're at premium and had to be en- a
jagged weeks ahead The cabin pas p
enger paid in accordance with his W
privileges and was a person to be r;
nvied, for he was treated with con- Sc
liberation, ate with the captain, army tt
fficers, post traders, men with big az
reight contracts and with pull" Ell
Below, in cramped quarters, amid lie
be freight, the roustabouts, usually
s tough bunch as the upper coun- in
~ afforded, were CHARTERED; also dc
ne army recruits being forwarded til
Keogh and Custer. But few la b,
les Travelled on the Yellowstone CHI
but those who did we're ne
'eated with courtesy and proverbial ne
estern chivalry. an
Making Roadway against the i'm on
stuous Yellowstone in a long, heav- of
Y laden boat, not too amply pro- Sc
ded with motive power, generated Be
18th cottonwood, was exasperatingly TIL
ow, especially the first trip up. Co ste
g down stream was different, for ro
e stream carried the boat at head WI
ng pace that sand bars could not thu
eak. An example of this was once WI
tnessed at Junction City, when VII
at coming downstream approached ed
e cable used by the ferry. The cap on
in whistled long and often as he tai
AIRED Junction, but the owner of at
e ferry paid no>heed and as re- er
1t the smokestack and part of the