Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-09-09
Steamboat Cabin Registers
Reveal Stubborn River Fight

The we'll known photographer. D. F.
Barry made the trip from Assinniboine
landing to Bismarck.
During June and July there were
many women passengers. mostly on
pleasure bent, but throughout the sea
son there was some difference in the
way they were listed. Most of them.
OF course, had registered by name and
were well known to the boatmen.
Others are listed only as zone lady
passenger" servant girls" "laundreSs-
es or Mr. So and SO and friend
It was notable how often the wives
OF army officers took TO the river,
sometimes for shopping or social af-
fairs in Bismarck or other larger
towns, often just for the voyage. They
were usually accompanied by personal
maids children and nursemaids. Just
as soon as the first hint of frost
touched the air, too, army wives and
children were hurried back TO the
states" for the climate was still con-
Sldered too rigorous for delicately
reared fasteners.
Profits mounted when "A. H Fitch
and 1877 mechanics" were transported
from Bismarck to Rocky Point at a
total cost Of S3,115.25. and when Capt.
c. r. Paul took 66 soldiers the I'll
miles from Fort Abe Lincoln to Coal
Banks. less one man left at Poplar
river and another at Rocky Point, and
when later he escorted recruits to Blu
ford and Poplar
In late August a party of 38 men
went from Wolf Point to Grand island
and Al from Bismarck to Cow island.
low water evidently preventing the
full trip to Benton. In September,
8 soldiers and 10 convicts made up a
party from Broadwater's landing to
Bismarck. But such movements were
becoming exceptional. Where one voy-
age would count up 81, and another
S2,9l3 or even $780, the down trips
took in as little as $500 or $500 each;
one round trip made only s257 up and
Sl45 down.
Business On the Wane
The Butte TAXED along the upper
river during the late season of 1882
taking passengers to and from the
the Block P line. Mute evidence of
the near completion of the Northern
Pacific railroad was seen in the con-
slant movement of workmen, telegraph
operators, and inspectors. The gradual
abandonment of the river posts was
seen. too, in the passage that fall from
Forts Buford and Stevenson in Da-
kota of officers, surgeons, enlisted men,
and laundresses all bound "for the
states"
BY 1888, when the ragged register OF
the Rosebud begins, river business IN
Montana waters was almost over. In
1885 six boats had piled between Bis
marck and Fort Benton: in 1886, seven,
and in 1887, an unusually long season,
eight. But only the Bachelor and the
Missouri, besides the Rosebud, reached
the head Of navigation in 1888 and
then for only one trip each. Then the
Rosebud had no passengers listed for
Benton but carried several for MuSsel-
shell and Rocky Point at SIS each. On
the down trip deckers paid only SIS or
$40 some of them working their way.
Receipts told their own story-up $500;
down S13l50
The same register covered 1889 and
the years as far as 1895. AS far as Is
known, the Rosebud never went up
to Benton after July Of 1889, but kept
up local Dakota business until she
was finally sunk near the warehouse
at Bismarck The Butte had burned
earlier at the fifth point above Fort
Peck. The Power interests dissolved
all their steamboat companies In 1880,
leaving river transportation from then
until the time of the World war en-
tirely in the hands of Captain Baker
and his associates at Bismarck. AS
late as the summer Of 1918 Captain
Leach OF the Benton Packet Co., took
q boat and barges from Bismarck to
st. Louis but there was little river
traffic above old Fort Buford, none in
Montana waters.