The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1928-11-22


the park will be found in the chapter
of this volume entitled "Reereational
Resources suffice to say that Cot
er's description. though reasonably
accurate, was thought to be the ray
ings of an insane person when it fill
tered back to the eastern part of the
country. Chittendale says, No au-
thor or map-maker would jeopardize
the success of his works by incorporat-
ing in it such incredible material as
Golfer furnished. His stories were
not believed, their author became the
subject of jest and ridieule, and the
region of his adventures was long
derisively known as Golfers He'll.
For 50 years development was slow.
According to the record of the Mon
tana Historical society, Manuel Lisa
in the fall and winter of 1908, estab-
lished at the junction of the Yellow
stone and the Big Horn river the first
fur trading post in Montana. Two
years later in April, 1910, Lisa pro-
noted a second post, the first of i'm
portanee in interior Montana, located
at Three Forks.
In 1929 Kenneth Mckenzie estab-
lished post at the mouth of the
Yellowstone river. In 1881 the same
company established trading post
below Fort Benton, known as Fort
Mckenzie. The present city of Fort
Benton was established and built in
1916, by Alexander Culbertson, for
the American Fur company. With
the fur traders came missionaries and
explorers; Montana became the battle
ground for competing English, French
and American fur companies, noted
only for the quality and number of
skins sent out. Fabulous profits were
made by some of the companies, per-
hitting them to erect substantial
buildings in which the traders lived
the virtual rulers over areas larger
than the whole of New England They
lived, "like king in his fort as Pal
ladino remarks.
Fort Union, just inside the Montana
border, but three miles from the
mouth of the Yellowstone, was prob
ably the most pretentious establish
ment 1t was palisaded fort, built
30 feet high with stone and pierced
for cannon. Here the Factor reigned
supreme over an empire as large as
: Europe. To this place came the In
dams from all the northwest tribes,
while the Factor entertained from
time to time many great scientists and
, men of letters, among them Maximi-
liam, Prince of Weld, Catlin, English
artist, Audubon, naturalist and Father
De Smet, who came to this region to
study the aboriginal red man and
the wild game that then swarmed over
this region in countless thousands. .
These adventurous spirits who set
up their lonely outposts and roamed
he uncharted regions Of Montana used
the Missouri and her tributaries as
an aid to transportation. Up its boil
ing course came canoes and bateauX,
keel boats, scows and RATS, manned
by traders an dtrappers. The head
reaches of the mighty river spoke of
new and untried fields. The swift,
gurgling current sang a seductive
song to men of spirit and FASTENED
the exploration of the state. Later,
the miniature whirlpools and myriad
eddies whispered invitingly to steam
boat pilots and captains.
1t was not until the discoveries of
gold at Gold Greek, Bannack and Vir-
ginia City, 1885, that large num-
bers were attracted to Montana Then
this state began to play her destined
part in what was probably the most
momentous immigration movement in
history, the settlement of the Amer
lean west. The immigrants came
partly as back wash from California
and the Pacific coast; overland by
OK team from the middle west; many
came up the turbulent expanse of the
Missouri. Then began the golden age
of the Missouri.
Mark Twain, in the best of all his
books, has immortalized Life on the
Mississippi" The glory of life on
the upper Missouri during the gold
rush to Montana remains to be writ
ten, for this steamboat era is among
the most picturesque in the states
history.
While steamboats, had been used
around st. Louis since 1917, the first
man to try the Missouri was Pierre
Chouteau, fur trader. In 1882 he ar
rived at Fort Union. Nearly 80 years
later, his son, Charles P. Chouteau,
found that boats could go as far as
Fort Benton. What a shock to the
Indians, the Yellowstone, first steam
boat to ascend the Missouri into Mon
tana, must have been as she steamed
into Fort Union at the majestic rate
of two miles per hour
Steam boat days began in earnest
about 1859 and belong to part of the
story of the prospectors. The boats
all looked much larger than they were,
because they rode almost wholly upon |
the surface of the water, drawing only |
three or four feet. The top deck, I
known as the Texas, was small and
contained the officers quarters. On