The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-11-05
NE of the most notable trips
\ recorded in the annals. Of Mon
tana pioneer days was that Of
, the Yellowstone expedition Of
1879 led NV lanes Stuart and

10 ~
tana pioneer days was that Of
~ the Yellowstone expedition Of
1868, led by James Stuart and
composed in all Of Is men. The party
left Bannack April 10, travelled 1.6o0
miles, going as far east as the Big
Soda springs and Fort Hail, Ida, ar
irving at Bannack on june 20. The
trip was filled with fighting against
hostile Indians, and many other dan
gers and hardships. Three Of the
party were killed and more than half
The Stuart brothers, James and
the late autumn Of 1862 from Gold
creek, to open a butcher shop. They
also handled other merchandise, for
Granville Stuart, in his Forty Years
on the Frontier" tells Of making 9 trip
Of 1858 to get a load Of goods from the
Worden & Co. store at the latter place,
which was near where the Stuart
brothers had discovered placer gold in
1853. He relates that in this load ne
had two dozen long handled shovels
which he sold for $40 each and IS
pounds of chewing tobacco for which
he received SIS a pound.
James had remained in charge OF
the store while he was gone and had
worked out the details OF the proposed
expedition to the Yellowstone country.
Although Granville did not make the
trip, he was financially interested in
the expedition with his brother.
For final organization Of the party
and start Of the trip to the Yellow.
stone country, Stuart named a point
On Rattlesnake creek and there the Is
met on April 10, 1868, and signed the
agreement governing the expedition
and naming James Stuart captain;
The party was not as large as had
been expected, as several who had
the rendezvous at the appointed time.
Several Of them, headed by Bill Fair
weather and Henry Edgar, ran into
hostile Indians enroute to the meet
ing place and were driven back.
Irony Of Fate
It was the irony of fate that these
men who had planned to go far east
on the Yellowstone in search of gold,
stumbled upon the rich Alder gulch
diggings on their way back to Ban
mack, while the men who did reach the
rendezvous made a long and fruitless
trip without encountering so much as
a color.
The men who signed the agreement
and made the Yellowstone trip, were
James Stuart, captain; James N: York,
Henry T. Geery, Henry A. Bell, George
H. Smith, cyrus -. H1cnaru
McCafferty, Dryer Underwood, William
Roach, Ephriam E. Bostwick, James
Hauxhurst, Samuel T. Hauser, E.
|Sterne Blake and George, Ives. The
George Ives with the party was not
the notorious desperate Of the same
name, but an entirely different man.
They started off in high hopes to
travel in a country which to that time
had been traversed by few white men,
to locate ground somewhere along, the
Yellowstone or Big Horn rivers, where
it had been many times reported there
were rich placer gold areas. They
started with ample equipment and
supplies and Travelled their first 400
miles in comparative comfort. The
last 1000 of the great circle they made
which took them entirely around Vel
lowstone national park, however, was
made without shelter or a change Of
clothing and on short rationS.
Crow Indians Troublesome
The party suffered no annoyance
from Indians until it reached a point
on the Yellowstone river 80 miles east
of the mouth of the Shields river In
the heart of the Grow country. There
30 Crows came to their camp one night
protesting friendship for the whites;
Once in the camp they began to steal
everything they could get their hands
on and were finally ordered to leave.
It looked for a time as though a fight
might result, but the whites finally