Glacier County chief., 1939-04-21
By ELMO

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If. Montana reveals no section
of the state with a more
sparse poulation today than that
section of country along the Mis-
souri, river in the vicinity of the
mouth of the Musselshell river.
But when Montana was still in her
swaddling clothes the pioneers en-
visioned a thriving metropolis at
the mouth of the Musselshell, with
roads leading westward over water
grades and easy mountain passes to
provide a short route to the mining
camps.
A combination of circumstances con-
nected with the march westward of
civilization conspired to thwart the
hopes Of the town builders. Westering
settlements in Minnesota during the
westward; warlike, they spread terror
wherever they appeared. While In
dian vicissitudes beset the optimistic
settlers, the Union Pacific railroad was
completed across the country and much
OF the former river freight began to
go by rail to Corinne and Salt Lake
City and overland from the railroads
to western Montana mining camps.
AS the mining camps drew greater
turned to all imaginable occupations
to gain subsistence and possible wealth,
1t became obvious that with growing
population there would be growing OPP
portunities for new ventures. In a
land without railroads and with little
more than prairie trails and hard
mountain grades for transportation
routes, any new route that offered the
advantage of shorter distance suggested
profitable development.
1t was a long, slow climb UP the
Missouri to Fort Benton with laden
steamboats,: above the mouth of the
Musselshell navigation became defin-
itely difficult at certain seasons. Be-
low the mouth of the Musselshell navi-
CATION encountered but few barriers.
Too. the route from Fort Benton
by freight wagons was a long and
arduous one, through a country cut
by canyons and upslanted by mountain
grades and high divides in travelling to
Deer Lodge, Virginia City and other
camps in that part of the territory.
But from the mouth of the Mussel-
shell was a good water grade, most of
the way, up the river and across to the
Yellowstone and west, or by a cutoff to
the Missouri river south to Helena.
This route" believed many men,
would build a town at the mouth of
the Musselshell which would equal or
eclipse Fort Benton. 1t would afford
a shorter and more profitable route to
the camps and effectually speed up the
tempo of mountain life"
Wagon Company Formed
In 1866 number of men organized
the Rocky Mountain Wagon Co., to
develop the Musselshell route, connect
ing the Missouri river with the mining
camps. incidentally. the name of the
river then was mistakenly spelled
'Muscleshell," whereas, its name APP
parently derives from the great guam
tity OF marine fossils found in its
valley.
An old steamboat captain on the
Missouri was one of the first to advo-
cate the new route. His name was
Kerchival, and the town was to be
called Kerchival City.
Locating on the south bank of the
Missouri a short distance above the
mouth of the Musselshell, the company
by employees. Two years passed, but
there was no business. Powerful OPP
position by established business houses
and freight lines at Fort Benton kept
the steamboats, passing on up the Mis-
souri, After two years the encroaching
waters of the Big Muddy claimed the
building. Kerchival City disappeared.
In 1868 the Montana Hide & Fur
Co. of Helena decided to revive the
project. The company sent nine men
under the supervision of James Brewer
to build a warehouse. They laid out a
town and named it Musselshell Soon
afterward Col. George Clendennin and
his brother, Richard, moved in, and
they were Joined by James McGinnis,
who had been operating a wood yard
at Grand island. The trading post Of
the company was named Fort
Sheridan.
During the season a number of
people gathered at Musselshell, and a
A company of the 18th infantry under
Captain Nugent came from Camp
Cooke, further up the Missouri to es-
tabliSh Camp Reeve and erect a stock
ade. Friendly Crows and Gros Ventres
came in large numbers to trade and
during the summer of 1868 there was
hustle and hustle about the post, and
permanent prosperity seemed assured.
Hostile Sioux Attack
Then the hostile Sioux made a social
call. They killed two soldiers and drove
away all the stock. The troops returned
to Camp Cooke. From that time forth
the Sioux held MuSselshell under a
loosely organized siege.
During the first season of Mussel-
shells activity, however, no freight
road had been established. But in 1869
General Hancock, commanding the de-
partment of North Dakota, which in
cluded Montana, directed the survey of
a military road from Fort Ellis to the
mouth of the Musselshell Captain
Cliff of the 30th infantry made the
survey and set aside a section of land
fronting the Missouri and straddling
the Musselshell for a military post.
Now, believed the promoters. second