The Bozeman courier., 1927-03-25

ONGI 4OSOVV LILIES
of navigable waters.
There is little doubt that had the
Missouri river been discovered before
the Mississippi, the name of the for
mer would have been applied to both
streams, the Missouri being consid-
cred the main stream and the upper
Mississippi the tributary. From the
mouth of the three forks in Montana,
to the Missouri's confluence with the
Mississippi, is a distance of 2,547
miles, and from the three forks to the
gulf of Mexico the MissOuri-Missis-
sippi has a length of 1928 miles.
The Missouri drains a watershed of
$4,000 square miles.
Marquette and Joliet
When, about July /, 1913, the Jesuit ex-
DlOrers, Marquette and Joliet, the first
white men to descend the Mississippi, ar
rived at the mouth Of the Missouri, they
found it to be the same ugly, muddy,
treacherOus stream that it is today. They
were astOnished to find flowing in from
the west a torrent of yellow, muddy water
which rushed furiOusly athwart the clear,
blue current of the Mississippi, boiling
and sweeping in its course, logs, branches
and upr0Oted trees. Marquette in his jour
nal says:
81 have seen nothing more dreadful. An
accumulation of large and entire trees,
branches and floating islands was issuing
with such impetuOsity that we could not,
without great danger, risk passing through
it. PekistanOui is a river of consider
able size, coming from the northwest from
q great distance"
The Coureus Des BOis
1t is not definitely known just when the
first white men asceGded the Missouri above
its mouth, but as early as 1lOO It was re-
ported that there were not less than 1OC
cOureuEs des bOis, trapperS, living
among the different tribes along the Mis-
4, Fng- q
type of the earliest pioneer, now long
since extinct. He was a French Canadian
sometimes a half breed, and in his habits
were blended the innocent simplicity of tn,
fun-lOving Frenchman and the wild traits
and woOdcraft of the Indian. Born in th'
woods, he was accustomed from childhood
to the hardships and exposures Of a wilder
ness life and he was invariably sktllfu
hunter and trapper His free and easy
going manners, peaceable disposition an(
vivacity qualified him for association will
the uncivilized Indian, whose customs h'
adopted often even marrying into the tribe
Route Of the Explorers
For 200 years the history of the Missouri
river has been the history Of the countr!
through which its flows, and the inhuenc
of this mighty stream upon the develop
ment of the United States as a world pOwe
cannot be Overestimated. In the first place
the Missouri river made possible the ex
plOring of the vast area between the Mis-
sissippi river and the Pacific ocean b.
Lewis and Clark in 1SO4-O5-O6; by MajO
Long in 1S19-20.
Secondly, the introduction of steam nav
cation on the Missouri in 1929 and the us
Of that stream for passenger and freigh
traffic as far west as Fort Benton durin
the ensuing half-century, was one of th
most important and farreaching events
the history of the United States.
The general invasion and over -runnin
of the immense region west Of the Mis-
sissippi by English speaking American
took place, roughly speaking, between Il
years 1899 and 1870 beginning with II
establishment of steam packet service b.
tween st. Louis and Fort LeavenwOrth
1929. This was followed three years lat,
by the arrival of the steamer YellOwstOI
at the mouth of the Yellowstone river
what is now Montana.
The New America
Then, within a period of 20 years, Z
people of the United States added to the
domain and settled a quarter of a milliC
square miles of territory known as Il
Oregon country of the northwest; too
about 100000 square miles of territory