Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-10-09

WINNING camps and COW town
of Montana found few Iuxurie
~ available to the citizens. Afte
the railroads came, however, ia
country for the most part was wei
supplied. Only the interior towns, tn
goods for which were hauled from tn
railroad points by freighters, were dabl
20 miss out on an ample supply of gOOG
things wanted for the holiday table
There were times when the freighter'
were delayed by bad roads and bad
weather. On those occasions many
little interior towns at Christmas time
found nothing ON sale at their stores
except the plaineSt of staples, while
somewhere along the road heavily
laden wagons bearing tons Of fancy
groceries were stalled in snow drifts.
The towns in northern and eastern
Montana which depended upon the
1reighterS Tor supplies were at the
mercy of the elements. Rains in the
early fall meant muddy roads where
wagons would mire, axles break, and
over which progress was slow at best.
Later there would be sudden snow
storms through which it was impossible
to travel. The wind would pile drifts
mountain high, and through them the
wagons couldn't move When such
drifts even halt the operation Of rail-
road trains one may imagine the plight
of a freight wagon train caught by
them with nothing but hand shovel
to aid in breaking through with bulky
and heavy cargo.
The roads Of course were poor, and
accidents, then, as now, always occur
at the most inopportune times. The
freighterS were often forced to double
up"-hitch two or more teams to one
load-in order to get up steep hills,
and then be forced to roughlock for
the steep descent on the other side.
Tf.~frr II u rar,r f11rai
chief freighting center in northern
Montana Billings in the southern and
Miles City in the eastern part Of the
state As the holiday season approached, I
the railroad yards at those cities be-
came crowded with carload after car
load of merchandise for the Christmas
trade They began arriving early In
September. In October they kept drib
bling in, but November was the big
month.
Now it is possible for a merchant to
wire and get the delivery in few days
by railroad or motor truck for large
quantities. or by parcel post, express,
or regular mail for small quantities.
When necessary the air mail can be
utilized which cuts the time between
order and delivery almost to nothing
flat. But that was not the case in
former years.
Orders piled up at eastern whole
sale centers often delayed shipments.
Car shortage often added to the diff
fictIlty and sometimes the shipments !
would not reach their destination until
December Often the cars contained
tremendous quantities of canned goods
fruits, vegetables and pickles If
freezing weather came they we're liable ,
to be spoiled and there would be no
other choice but to leave them in the
railroad warehouse until the following r
spring. That meant that some interior !
point would have light Christmas sup !
plies and probably be on half rations {
by spring. t
Slow Transportation 7
Once a Lewistown merchant had
ordered a big shipment of apple butter S
for the holiday trade. He placed his S
order in November and it was shipped Q
in December. BY the time it arrived t
in Montana real old fashioned winter i
was at hand. The result was that the b
merchant didn't get his apple butter t
until the following June. Merchandise f
for LeWiStown was usually C
freighted from Great Falls. Because of o
the fact that LeWiStown merchants "
supplied sheep and cattle outfits over e
4 wide territory, and retail stores in "
smaller towns to boot, there was tire IL
amount of freight hauled to II
It from Great Falls. Freight teams lined II
me ROAD continually at nearly all times u
Of the year.
In the fall of 1901 there was recorded SC
lne of the heaviest movements of mer- Iii
,handise out of Great Falls to interior W
points in the history of the state. The to
yalue of the goods totalled more than CT
lalf a million dollars. More of the stuff 81
vas consigned to Lewistown than to- &C
my other one point. The shipments O
Of everything. candy, nuts, in
-aiSins, figs, mincemeat. There was Sp
practically no farming in the region We
md with transportation methods so er
there was little fresh food We
The gardens were few and tn
mall. People lived out of cans. it
The shelves of the general store were
locked with canned meat of all kinds tel
nd they were bought by the merchants gu
n tremendous quantities. a
Hams, bacon, salt pork and lard were 40
by the population by the los
on. Men operating cattle and sheep no
utfits came into the towns and hauled an
UGH supplies back to their ranches by a