Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-12-03
VNTHEN the United States
[YY bought the Louisiana

OF lana, Tor 1t Stlll mac mlIllOnS
of fertile acres cast Of the Mis-
sfssippi. The purchase was
made to forestall complications
with foreign powers, either Ma
poleon, himself, whose ambition
was supposed to be the mas
terry of the whole world, or with
Great Britain, to which the
western country was sure to
fall in case France should be
defeated. Possession of Louis
lana was necessary to our free
navigation Of the Mississippi.
The vast domain thus added
to our boundaries was terra in
cognita. Aside from it's stra-
tegic Importance, no one knew
what it was good for. So Lewis
and Clark were sent out from
the frontier post of St. Louis to
find a route to the Pacific and
to report on what the new coun-
try was like. The only COM
mercial asset these explorers
found which was Immediately
available was an abundance of
fur-bearing animals. Fur may
be called the gold of that Pc
Rod, and the news that there
was plenty of it in the Rocky
Mountains lured many an in
trepid spirit of the border. Com
panies of traders proceeded at
once up the Missouri river to
barter for peltries with the In
dians, and posts were built and
rendezvous were arranged in
remote fastness Of the noun
tains where they carried on a
perilous but very profitable
traffic. Al the same time there
went into the Far West many
Independent adventures to
hunt and trap on their own ac-
count.
In the motley ranks of these
soldiers Of fortune the free
trappers were the boldest and
most romantic characters. They
were their own masters and
were confident and self-reliant,
while the employees Of the fur
companies were under strict
discipline that checked personal
initiative. They were the type
of men who work for hire and
were bound by the habit of
looking to their employers for
whatever they possessed.
But the free trappers were
accountable to nobody and each
went his own way, taking the
full amount of whatever profit
his labors brought. Going alone
or in small bands who acknowl-
edged no captain and would
split up whenever they were
moved by a new mood, each was
a law unto himself and relied
on his trusty rifle. They were
men picked by nature, as Hor-
ace Kephart said in his book on
trappers entitled In the Old
West, for great enterprises and
great deeds.
II was not any love Of gain
for Us own sake that drew the
free trappers into the wilder
ness. To them a pack Of beaver
skins was a mere gamblers
stake, e be squandered riotous-
~ after the fashion of Jack
ashore. What did compel them
to a life Of endless wandering
and extreme hazard was sheer
lust of adventure and a passion
for that absolute, irresponsible
freedom that can be enjoyed
only in a state of nature. Never
in our history have there been
pioneers who took greater haz-
ards or who endured greater
hardships, or who cut them
off more completely from
civilization in which they were
Nowhere and at no time
have men Of our race been
thrown more upon their indi-
vidual resources in unknown
regions, and through periods of
greater peril, nor have there !
ever been characters more fifty |
developed to stand such a
strain.
Cut off from the influences |
of civilization, forever warning S
with one Indian tribe and liv- /
ing with another, it was inev-
that many of these men {
should revert toward the status I
Of white barbarians. And yet |
it would be a grave error, an I
injustice, to rate them with t
mere renegades and despera- t
does. The trapper, whatever b
faulfc mnc still ayovy- inch G