The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1928-11-22
Montana's Romantic History
Reprinted From Montana issued by Publicity Depart
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group Of fur traders ana explorers
urged on their worn steeas in what is
now southeastern Montana. All day
they pressed westward. As the sun
hung low, silhouetting long shadowy
forms at their backs, to the west they
beheld marvellous scene.
A barrier of mountains lay across
their road. Far off they had been
blue, with a mantle of fog on top.
Now they lay in tumbled masses,
peak after peak banked high. one
summit berind another and hardly to
be seen with the naked eye, more
SUBMITS fainter in outline and mys-
FERROUS. As they came nearer, these
majestic hills covered with snow and
painted by dying sun, changed in
color TO pink and green and gray and
yellow
The view brought to the lips of their
leader the graphic metaphor, This is
the Land of Shining Mountains For
almost two centuries the expression
HAS CHUNG 10 N1Ontdla.
The leader of the party was Cheva-
lier De La Verendrye, 80 years of age
| Thus to the Verendrye brothers,
Chevalier and Pierre, Frenchmen
hunters, fur traders explorers, be-
longs the honor of being the first
white men to set foot on Montana
soil.
These Adventures had a great OBJ
ieet in view. They were seeking the
Pacific ocean and were lured on by a
tale often repeated by Indians of a
great river which flowed from far up
in the largest of all ranges of western
mountains and of another river run
ming in the opposite direction and
leading to great salt sea SO vast
that an Indian dare not venture far
out in canoe.
The Verendryes never reached the
Pacific. When they set foot on Mon
tana soil it was y years since the
start of their journey at Montreal in
1871.
On the 10Th of April, 1742, the party
left the Canadian Lake of the Woods,
where a fur trading post had teen
established. The journey of several
thousand miles to southeastern Mon
tana was achieved against terrific
odds. On the return trip, May 2,
1743, Verendrye raised a monument
on an eminence on the Missouri near
what is now Pierre, S. D., and plant
ed leaden plate bearing the date and
the arms of France
A hundred and fifty years later tive
children were returning to their home
from school at Pierre, S. D., when one
of them STUDDED her toe against a
protruding object. Feminine curiosity
won! They dug and found a curious
piece Of metal. 1t was the Verendrye
plate, now the property Of the South
Dakota Historical society.
AS a result of the exploration Of
Verendrye and others, Montana, in
common with all the states of the
Union included in the Louisiana pur-
chase, was a province of France and
became d pawn Of the European
powers.
At the beginning of the nineteenth
century, Great Britain and France had
long been at death grips for world
empire Clashing national ambitions,
religious antagonisms, dynastic feuds,
all played part in bringing on and
continuing the struggle. The battle
royal was waged on land and sea, by
statesmen and by warriors, by money
and by arms.
In the struggle the impotent Bour-
bon rulers of France lost Montana to
England; Napoleon determined to have
it back. In 1900, as one of the first
fruits of victory, he got it-with all
of Louisiana-an imperial domain out
Of which Ia of the best states of the
union have been carved.
In 1903, war between France and
England again breaking out, Napoleon
sold Montana, with the other states
included in the Louisiana purchase, to
the United States. The deal was con-
summated by the craftsmanship of
Thomas Jefferson. When jefferson
took office, the United States was
hemmed in by the Mississippi and the
Atlantic; by sweep of the pen he
flung our frontiers toward the sunset;
| he did not rest until the feet of his
explorers had officially touched the
! western sea, for an expedition was at
once set on foot to open up to the
knowledgelof the world the mysterious
regions of the west
Upon Jefferson's orders, Lewis and
Clark, both fellow Virginians, starting
from st. Louis crossed Montana in
1905, and made their way to where
the Columbia river enters the Pacific.
There were "a men and one woman in
the expedition. The woman was an
Indian, Sacajawea by name. She was
the chief guide. She knew the fords
and passes; for 1000 miles she led
the way, her babe upon her back and
when hope sank in the hearts of the
men she cheered them forward.
At a cost of $4,000, the work o
these explorers not only acquired
knowledge of the Louisiana purchase,
but laid the foundation to the Amer