Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-29
OF THE
H. RAILROADS, more than

80 years ago, over the
trade routes of the west, and
the evolution of the pioneer
railway from the narrow gauge,
commonly known as the turkey
trail" into the heavier and more
substantial standard guage,
marked the end of the bull and
mule trains of the prairies and
the passing of that type of
transportation, which had so
much to do with the develop
ment of the west. Little has
been written of the freightlng
industry of the west, and this
phase of frontier life has be-
come almost completely obscur-
ed by the passing years.
An epic of the far west of
half a century ago might be
written around the "bull" train,
which carried supplies Of all
sorts to the gold camps, the
frontier trading posts, the mill
tary forts and the Indian agen-
cies of the great area lying be-
tween the Mississippi river and
the Rocky mountains. Today
that wild and picturesque ter
ritory lives only in the memoir
les of a handful of grizzled
pioneers. The names Of towns
that were important as dis
tributing points have been for
gotten or are remembered only
as ghost cities of the west.
There were many of these, but
few achieved in their day the
Importance Of the town Of Car
roll, which for two or three
years made its bid as a rival Of
Fort Benton, which for two de-
cades, between 1870 and 1890,
was head of steamboat naviga-
ton on the Missouri river.
Carroll, which had an exis-
tence of only a few years, was
established by Matt Carroll, af-
ter whom it was named; E. G..
Maclay, George Steele and Col
onel Charles A. Broadwater,
owners of the great Diamond r
Transportation company, in its
day the greatest freighting
concern between the Mississippi
and the Pacific coast. It rep !
resented the second effort to
found a successful rival to Fort
Benton as a freight debarking
point for Missouri river steam
boats from St. Louis, Sioux
City and other down-river
points.
The town Of Carroll was
built in 1874, at a time when
river traffic had assumed great
proportions. In 1866, due to
low water in the river, steam
boats bound for Fort Benton
with supplies for the gold
camps had been unable to
ascend farther up the river
than the mouth of the Yellow
stone, and had unloaded at a
trading post conducted by
Major F. D. Pease. Colonel
Broadwater, who had charge of
actual freighting operations for
the Diamond r, took several
trains of wagons and went
down to Pease's post, near Fort
Union, to bring back the
freight from the steamboats, to
Helena. He located fords,
built grades up and down the
river banks, and built a road
along the line that the Great
Northern follows today. It was /,
while on this trip to the mouth
of the Yellowstone with his. wa
gon trains that the idea Of a
road from some point lower
down the river than Fort Ben
ton, south across through the /.
Judith country, to the gold
camps Of Last Chance, Dia-
mond City and Virginia City,
first occurred to Colonel Broad
water. He felt that it would be
easier trail to travel than
the road from Fort Benton to
the gold camps, and would also !
be shorter. Another great adj
was that a debarking {
place lower than Fort Benton {
be reached earlier in the +,
season and later in the fall by {
steamboats, than Fort Benton.
The arguments were exactly !
the same as those advanced for :
the establishment of a town at
the mouth of the Musselshell. s
But it was nine years before he
and his associates put his ideas I
into effect and established Car t
roll. i