The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-08-31
Palmy Days in
Old Fl. Benton
BY RICHARD r.. KILRoY

| iAfCl at Il VI DChAOn OF gtdiS 81
The first one l ever saw was stun
over the back of small Chinamar
1t was still and wet and slippery
The head, mouth open, a big hoo
fastened in the lower jaw, protrude
over the Chinaman's shoulder and a
he walked the tail dragged on tn
ground two feet behind him alonl
the main street of the old head 0
navigation. 1t was only half street
for it consisted of a row of house
on one side and the river on tn
other.
The Missouri in those days abound
ed in fish of many varieties. Be
sides the sturgeon, the big ones were
catfish and ling, particularly gooC
eating, and several kinds of suckers
some of which were edible and Others
good only for chicken feed. At darl
we baited the set lines which were
perhaps, $50 feet long and had 80 OF
40 hooks to each line. horseshoe
was tied to the end of the line and il
was hurled far out in the muddy
stream. There was always a rush be-
fore dawn because if you didn't get
there in time, some other fellow had
uO COnp uhCllOu duOuI TdlulHS yOul
nights catch.
If you sometimes didn't catch any
fish for your appetite, you always
had an appetite for your fish and /
| still remember the tempting flavor of
sturgeon outlet rolled in cornmeal
and Drowned in frying bacon grease.
1 am sure l have seen more than a
ton of fish caught at one haul. 1t
wasn't a spoftsmanlike method of
fishing, but there were lots of them
and the Missouri is big river.
Fort Benton even then preserved
much of the pioneer flavor. Sitting
under the cottonwoods in front of the
historic Choteau house or at gilbert
sons, Norris Gray's or Jim Bartley's
famous taverns of the town, were
men who had been buffalo hunters,
freighters, trappers or a part of that
quaint navy which sailed the tortuous
waters to St. Louis and the Gulf-at
one time the only direct line of com
munication from the frontier to civ
ilization.
Even they spoke of the days that
we're gone. People always seem to
think that the days that are gone are
so much better than today and tomor-
row. They talked of the great herds
of buffalo that used to jam the river
so the steamboats, couldn't get
through, and they pointed to the ford
just below the town which had been
for centuries crossing place for
these early rovers of the plains.
No matter where you stood in Ben
ton in those days you looked out on
the great coffee-colored tide which |
swept ever onward to the sea. Here
was where General Francis Meagher
stepped off the deck of steamboat |
one fatal night, his body never to
be seen again. Up there just above
the bridge was where the Indians
made their last sally and were re-
pulsed by comparatively small band
of soldiers in the 'dobe fort from
which the town was named.
Down river a mile or so, where the
Missouri slipped off into the blue
gray hills of the bad lands, was the
point around which the first steamer
whistled after the ice went out in
the spring. Old Norris Gray, his hair
white from many SHOWS on the from
Tier, would recall the winter when he
had hundred pokes of gold dust be-
hind his bar, all bet ON the date of
he arrival of the first steamer. That
vas the great gambling event of the
rear and there was nothing else to
10 for weeks but sit along the levee
and watch for the smoke of the ,
steamer before it came wheeling
Iround the bend.
1t is almost quarter of a century {
ince I saw old Fort Benton last. s
resume. like many another of the c
arly day settlements, it has changed t
lot, but / prefer to remember it as c
knew it-a remnant of the old l
Vest. It's people were picturesque in t
ress, in speech and in mannerisms.
hey had flavor all their own. To s
hem Butte, Helena and even Great {
'alls, city of white tents, we're far Y
way places. They lived in another t
Torld. p
In the spring there poured across a
lie bridge from the Judith Basin and n
honkin and the Highwoods long p
DOL trains. There was Press Lewis,
no drove 20 horses, all clear bays, a
i of size and so much alike that Il
)u couldn't tell them apart. The fs
eviathan coming into New York CT
arbor is no more imposing than was n
ress, as, cracking his long whip, M
,rched high on the wool bales in his
ad wagon, he swung around the
rner and came Gathering across the
idge. pa
be
The advent of the railroad changed M
e at Fort Benton. Those threads of ac
eel are necessary for development, W;
It they bring into quaint corners of
e world people whose lives are drab =
d commonplace and who soon de- r.
10Y, albeit unconsciously, the CLAM
and the color of the old front
lie.
persons are missing Ir
d at least 25 injured in a fire
Itch wiped out the Wawa hotel at | 6