The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1924-06-13
HOW MONTANA BORDER WAS
SURVEYED DIM 1872; SURVIVOR
EXPEDITION MONTANA MAN

: binary laborers engaged in the sur
: vey were paid $50 and rations pc
. month.
: According to Guillot the British
: party was split into two chief fielC
: parties, one under Captain Feather
l.stone, and one under Lieutenant Gall
: way, both astronomers, he being at
Z tached to the Featherstone party. The
) American party came in about the
same time and all were camped al
Z Pembina until late in the fall.
Run Into Prairie Fire
The line of survey was divided VI
: into blocks of 20 miles each, the
American and British parties alter
mating along the line. When winter
came on the American surveyors sus-
pended operations until the following
spring, while the British party re-
NAMED on the work, covering that
j stretch of the country between the
Red river and the Lake of the Woods,
this being a swampy section which
could not be surveyed until after it
had frozen up early in the winter.
Gin the spring of 1873 the survey
was resumed westward from Penn
bina. Along in August of that year,
when the survey had progressed to
a point somewhere east of Woody
mountain, the party was travelling
with its train of from 10 to Is wa
CONS over rolling country when it
ran into prairie fire. The members
of the party became panic stricken
and started to run in all directions
to escape the oncoming flames.
81 was in the rear of the train with
a light wagon carrying the instru-
ments," says Guillot, "and had with
me young fellow named Tracy. I
drove to the right on a run and then
stopped and set a backfire. Captain
Featherstone, on saddle horse, came
galloping up and began to upbraid
me for my action. I told him to get
he did, and after getting the fire well
started we rounded up the rest of the
party and got them safely on the
ground we had burned off with the
backfire. After that when anything |
went wrong the old man always came
to me for help"
Indian War Parties
According to Guillot the surveying
parties never had any trouble with
the Indians, although on one or two
occasions they ran into war parties.
zone day, when we were on the
east side of the Milk river, party of
80 painted warriors rode across the
line just at the head of our train.
They were travelling in single file and
paid not the slightest attention to
is, never stopping or speaking to any
If our party, nor giving any intima- I
ions of even seeing us. One of our
.opographers, Wilson, was about
nile north of the line taking some
totes, his pony grazing short dis I
ance from him. The war party rode
within few feet of him but paid not
he slightest attention to him. Will
on's pony, which he had bought |
rom some Indians, started to follow t
he warriors and Wilson called to t
hem to drive it back. He might as I
veil have called to a rock or tree.
hen he stripped off his coat and q
tarted on run after the party, fl $
ally succeeding in catching the ami p
nal in the midst of the party. Still
he Indians paid not the least atten- v
ion to him and, mounting, he rode L
ack to the line angry and disguised. I
"On the east side of Poplar creek, =
n the Montana line, some of the sur
eying party discovered the body of n
man tied to the only tree visible q
-ithin miles. 1t appeared to have O
cen dead for couple of months and 81
as entirely dried up. 1t could not n
Q ascertained if it was the body of o.
white man or an Indian and it look So
/ as though the man had been tied Sc
lere and left to die. al
"Out north of the Sweet Grass p'
ills, about 100 feet north of the line, al
e found the bodies of 81 Indians. / tf
link they were Crees. They were te
ltirely naked and the head of each tI
ad been scalped to the extent that tn
appeared the heads had been skin M
I'd. About four or five miles south
the line others of the party found &C
e bodies of seven Blackfeet, which tn
Id not been scalped, an indication ns
at in a battle between the Black IN
ct and the Crees the former had OF
en victorious Ia
Work Started in 1872 an
The survey of this stretch of the ~
ternational boundary was made by pa
joint party of Americans and Brit III
- UhoCl LILO plOflo1OuO VI q wi
ntion between the United States w
d Great Britain held in 1918. ny
Upon recommendation of the presi- "a
mt of the United States in his an AT
al message to congress, December tn
1870, during the third session of III
Q 41st congress, the house adopted ~
joint resolution appropriating III
100000 for the survey, but it failed
pass the senate. At the succeed w;
g session, 1871-72, congress APP wa
opriated $4,000 for the purpose, the
lereupon the chief of engineers, of COZ
> war department, detailed Col. F. wa
Farquhar, Major w. J. Twining, the
cut. James F. Gregory and Lieut.. VIII
V. Greene to carry on the work Ma
the American commission. ma
Early in July, 1872, Colonel Far
har, with his assistants, went from the
arlington to St. Paul and there ga1
yanized a train at Fort Abercrom- act
and on August 20 the train was poi
rted out for Fort Pembine, reach the
that point September 5. Camp eng
8 at once established in the Vicin- the