Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-10-01
What Can See Looking Backwards

BY All. Wilkins

the settlers wealthy. This prophecy
has long since come true. The Sun
river valley today with its up-to-date
homes is the most picturesque valley
IN the west.
Advancement I'm 10 Years
About 10 years later I operated a
\ freight outfit on the Benton and
Helena road and often camped at diff
ferent spots along the majestic Sun
river. BY this time the central part
of the valley was fairly well settled by
men engaged In the stock business,
mostly by cattlemen. For several years
these early stock growers prospered,
but the time came when they received
T1ne winter Of I8SO-s1 was the hard
est can remember. Especially In the
northern part of Montana. The snow
came early and fell deep. For many
days it was from 20 to 40 below zero.
The range by this time had become
oVerstocked, the snow was about two
feet deep on the level throughout the
months OF December and January BY
the first of February the cattle on the
range were very poor and weak. Then
came q light chinook that reduced the
snow to the ground. This was followed
by a cold wave that froZe a glare of
ice all over the range. Cattle that were
poor and weak, looking for shelter and
lEEQ OH Hills MOU14 SIP AAAQ
fall into deep gulches, never to come
out.
The next spring it was estimated that
40 percent of the cattle had persisted /!
on the range during the winter. The /
range has never recovered. StockraiSerS /
in late years have reduced their herds /
and flocks to just what they can pre-
pare food for during the winter
months. The high waving buffalo grass
and bunchgrass have disappeared with
the buffalo herds.
That same hard winter we had other
difficulties to overcome. on the l4th
day of February, If remember rightly,
spring opened up with another genuine
chinook. The ice in the Missouri river
was about two feet thick. With the
chinook it went out the next day with
many disastrous ice gorges as the water
found its way down to the ocean. The
first great jam was at the upper end
of Fort Benton bottom, where the
water raised over the banks and flood
ed the town and Easements The dam
age to goods stored in the Easements
Of l. @. Baker 81 Co., and to T. G.
Power & Bros, was heavy. Their great
est loss was to flour which was sold
out of the Easements for less than
half price, until the merchants found
out that the water had only soaked in
about one-fourth of an inch. At once
IlOuf Went up TO the regular price,
and before the steamers arrived that
spring flour and sugar were hard to
get at any price.
The first ice gorge that flooded the
town was broken by powder blasts and
the ice settled down to the lower end
Of the Benton bottom where 1t gorged
again and backed the water up into
the town, doing more damage before 1t
could be satisfactorily dislodged. All
along the Missouri river that spring
the Great Muddy caused much damage.
at wood yards along the river, men
we're caught asleep and drowned before
they could escape the mad torrent of
water. Many ricks of cord wood were
swept away by the floods. This worked
4 hardship upon the steamboats, and
also upon the people of Montana.
Boats were late in arriving at des- .
5ination points, often having to tie up
for an entire day and cut their own
cord wood for fuel. This delay caused
freight to be late in arrival at Fort
Benton and prices of foodstuffs went
until the boats arrived. How
ever, 1t didn't matter how high food
prices went or whether a man had
money or not, he was always able to
get a "grubstake" and If he paid his
bills once year he was in good stand
ng. The custom of the country in the {
vest in early days was vastly differ
mt from present ways. Then a man }