Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-02-19
By EDNA LaAfOORE WALDO

By EDNA L2MOOnE WAABO
With the passing Jan. % Of Cap
tain Isaac Post Baker, pioneer
Missouri riverman and associate Of
the late 4. C. Power interests In
Montana, the last of the 0id-ttme
steamboat promoters has gone for
ever upstream" Missing from
Bannack streets win be his erect
figure, his proud southern bearing,
his coI0rful and detailed remt-
niscences of a glamOrOuS day that
Coming first to Bismarck In 1876,
while he was still associated with his
father, John Finley Baker, in river
transportation out of st. Louis, Il. P. -
settled there in the early '80's as super
fntendent for the Benton line Of steam
boats and their widespread western in
terests. Although he had pilot S
license and knew the river intimately
from st. Louis to Fort Benton, Cap
tain Baker was most concerned ABOUT
the business end Of transportation
from the great inland empire to east
ern and southern markets.
Aided Vests Development
Sprung from a long line Of rlvermen
who had done everything from float
ing barges down the Ohio and Mlssis-
sippi, sending the first steamboat up
the Kansas or KaW river, to organizing
DdlkS. ONGIldllQ 4IE4SAALAA45 CNkAASHi ef-A~
Transportation companies IN ST. Louis
palmy DAYS, II. P" had part in every
phase OF western development. He. was
Interested in mining, ranchlng, large
scale hog farming, banking, IN the
stage lines the Power brothers OPP
Grated from Fort Benton to Helena ana
other Montana points, and IN all sortS
of political affairs. 49,,
ELOQUENT evidence Of his manuold
activities was to be found in his apart
ment where autographed pictures OF
military and political personages
crowded Indian trophies ana porIraltS,
old stage and hotel posters from Mon
tana, symbols Of the Block F line OF
steamboats,, photographs OF o a I 5
frozen in the ice, boats loadeQ WIN
buffalo hides, boats being Launched or
drawn I'D in dry dock at the Baker
warehouses. There was a facsimile OF
Mark Twains river pilots license,
actual family letters from the great
humorist who lived across the street
from the Bakers in st. Louis, and a
host Of priceless documents connected
with territorial history IN Dakota ana
Montana. His library Of first editions
on the west and of Americana was re-
markable and he had one OF the most
extensive newspaper clipping coiIec-
tions in the country
Not only while the big boats Piled
their way upstream with supplies loI
military posts, Indian agencies, ana
booming river towns, returning WITH
huge bales of buffalo, antelope, deer
skins and gold shipments, but at long
last when in the new century only ms
own coal and grain barges Kept the
river Open, Isaac p. Baker continued
to believe in the possibilities OF river
Transportation. Although he worked &C
tively for the completion of the rail-
road bridge at Bismarck which. AFTER
a DELAY of 10 years, brought the North
ern Pacific to the west in 1888, KNOW
ing that to a great extent 1t would emo
the usefulness of the steamboat, the
captain still felt that there was place,
always would be a place, for river
boats.
To newspaper men in 1909 he said:
1.-THE waterways of the United States
will always stand as club to the rail-
roads in the northwest The boat me
we are now operating has been made
profitable by the agricultural develop
ment of the country. The Missouri is
still navigable from Fort Benton 10
st. Louis in high water and the re-
rnoval of snags will make it possible the
year round"
Transportation in His Blood
For river transportation was in his
blood From Lancaster Pa, and Au-
g1ista, KY. his family had gone to
Weston, Mo, where his father was
once associated in business with Ethan
Cody. an uncle of the famous Buffalo
Bill selling out to him in 1852 for
SIS. 1000. John Finley Baker was a close
friend of Zebulon Pike. and OF the
Hollidavs who backed the Pony EX-
press in its first days. In fact, the
express was to have started from
Weston but because the new railroad
was built to st. Joseph instead, the
latter town won not only the honor
Of that romantic mail service but al
the business in that vicinity as wen.
The wear before IT. P" was born his
father had sent the first steamboat
10 the Kansas river. carrying quarter
master and commissary supplies to the
newly built Fort Riley, 125 miles west OF
T1ort I,eavenworth. BY the time the
Young Baker was ready to go to work,
his family was deep in the river rive bus
Orleans and to some extent on the
upper Mississippi. They had also ex-