Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-08-14
CAME TO STATE
ON RIVER BOAT
c. E. THOMPSON OF CARBON
COUNTY WAS PASSENGER ON
ROSEBUD IN 1880

c. E. THOMPSON OF CARBON
COUNTY WAS PASSENGER ON
ROSEBUD IN 1880
Arrived With Father Who Was Joining
Brother. An Old Time Prospector of
Early Gold Rush Days; Buffaloes
Were Everywhere Along Route.
Fifty years ago July %, in 1880,
c. E. Thompson, now Carbon county
clerk and recorder, accompanied by
his father, w. L. Thompson, stepped
of the steamer Rosebud at Fort
Benton after q three weeks journey
up the Missouri river from Gilman
City, Mo. Thompson was a boy Of
10 and the trip vas one Of the most
memorable to him. Many q wierd
tale had been related in his home
town about Montana, the rugged
Rockies, buffaloes and Indians.
His father was seeking a new coun-
try to benefit his health and decided
to come to Montana, where his brother
had lived for 20 years, being located
at Virginia City in 1862. where he was
engaged In mining. The prOSpectOr
crossed the plains from Iowa, which
required between three and four months
before he reached the little mining
town of Virginia City. During boom
days the mining nan had at one time
more than $4,000 in gold dust buried
under his kitchen floor.
You can just imagine how the trip
up the river appealed to me-" Thomp-
son said. THE boat was loaded with
mining machinery for the freighting
teams at Pierre, S. D., where they met
the boat to take a load of this machin-
cry overland to mines.
Indian Prisoners
1--WE stopped at all Indian agencies
along the river and left supplies, which
consisted mostly of beans, rice and
flour. At one of the forts near the
mouth of the Yellowstone river the
boat stopped and a troop of soldiers
came aboard with several Indians, all
having war paint On. They were under
arrest and being taken to an agency
further up the river. The Indians
surely gave me q thrill. One of the
many things I was looking forward to
was the mountains. One day the cap
tain called me and pointed over the
landscape. Far in the distance I could
see the faint outline Of an immense
mountain"
Thompson told of several hunters
leaving the boat before they had
crossed the present Montana bound
airy line and starting overland on a
buffalo hunting trip. The river at this
point made a huge bend, making a
total distance Of 40 miles the boat
had to travel, while overland 1t was
only seven miles. When the boat
reached the opposite side there stood
the hunters with their buffaloes.
In describing the boat and equip
ment, Thompson said wood was used
for fuel and that at intervals the boat
would stop at fueling yards for loads,
Squawmen cut practically all the wood,
Thompson said, and the deckhands,
who numbered about 40, would pack it
aboard. Squaws in the meantime were
busy trading deer and buffalo hides for
ammunition and supplies for their
camps along the river.
Considerable difficulty was en-
countered," Thompson said, lin coming
upstream because Of the numerous
sandbars and rapids. One Of the sys-
TENS used in taking the boat over the
rapids, he described, was by the crew
burying a heavy post, called q dead
man, in the bank above the rapids and
tying a heavy rope to the boat. With
a windlass operated by machinery they
were able to pull the boat over the
rapids.
There was a large number of boats
on the river during those years." he
added. "They would leave Fort Benton
and go back to Missouri in about
week but the trip upstream required
about three weeks in favorable
weather"
Thompson and his father remained
. for a few days at Fort Benton anc
then started overland for Helena ane
Jefferson City, the latter being abou
20 miles south of Helena. Jefferson
: City had a population at that time O
approximately 500 people, although
$ there we're Is saloons in the town. Hi
father was engaged in burning char
3 coal for one of the smelters for sew
eral years. Young Thompson acquired
! his early day education In this MINING
town, later attending school at Helena
] 1T was not IN unusual sight for on
! to see a pile Of playing cards In from
of some Of the larger saloons in Jefer
, son City. They would be piled to NOR
than four feet deep in the street t
where they had been swept. Gambling
was wide open and in the mining tow
thev often ran games for "a hour
steady.
{ "Poker games were operated contin
ually," Thompson said. "One OF tn
early day incidents I remember wei
that happened soon after dad and
went to Jefferson City. was when W
went to Helena, to attend the fai
and I saw a one-legged a H
called me over and said, Kid, hav
you got any money! and I, of COURSE
replied that I had a little. He dre'
out a $40 bill and said, Blow It |
and have a good time"
In 1892, Thompson returned to Mis-
souri, for q short time and, upon re
turning to Montana, located at Helen
where he was employed as a railroa'
brakeman and fireman on the North
ern Pacific. In 1903 he came to Bridge
+. and two years later he married Gold
: Gebo, daughter of n OF the earl
day pioneers In the Red Lodge dis
trict. Her uncle, Henry Gebo, now
resident OF Red Lodge, was one OF tn
first settlers in the Beartooth district
Thompson was postmaster at Bridge
for IL years and spent five years l