Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-06-22
BY ELMO


II would not give the bleakest
knoll ON the bleakest hill Of Scot
land for All these mountains Ia q
heapl" Commander Gordon Of the
British navy didn't think very
much Of the mountain c0uuntry ex-
tending inland from the Puget
Sound country. bis report ED 20
indifferences which cost Great
Britain the country encompasztng
Washington, Oregon, and parts Of
Idaho and Montana.
Not all the blame-credit, rather,
from the American point OF view
should attach TO the salty commander.
For decades the Hudsons Bay COM
pany bosses, all the way from the cnief
factors on Hudson's Bay to the board
"a London, had in their pompous COM
placence belittled the reports and the
urgings Of their men In the field
Perhaps the governor and gentlemen
adyenturerS who drew the fat profits
OF the HudSon's Bay company felt they
were more capable OF judging, from
eBneir comfortable offices, the best pol
icies to pursue. Had the company not
prospered richly for around $50 years
when these urgings OF the early 1908
began coming In from their agents In
the wilderneSS2
Around 1850 number of Englishmen
OF noble and royal birth were inter
ested in finding the mythical northwest
massage through northern North Amer
lea to the western seas. When two
Frenchmen, fugittves from French
Canada, told Of taking 100000 beaver
Delts on HudSon's bay In single sea
son. these adventurous mobiles saw huge
profits as well as financing for their
exploration. About 1870 they secured
secretly a charter for the "GenIlemen
Adventures Trading In to Hudson's
~ % fszry rsf
$ae stockholders. The charter was
document OF pureSt feudalism; 1t con-
eetned the most drastic powers over
country and men ever granted 1or
British America. 1t decided TO the ad-
venturers control of all of Canada not
held by France and about all OF the
continent west OF the MISSISSIPPI river.
All Others Excluded
The charter excluded from this ter
ritory all others than the company ana
It's employees. To be caught IN the ter
rftorv meant confiscation Of all prop
erty. Imprisonment, perhaps death.
Pomp was the keynote OF life Ior CnoSe
in authority Caste was the scneme OF
Life and of human relations. Fscsors =
the fur posts were little klngs-ueSksoOS
20 their own realm.
In Justice, however, let u pc SAD
there is another side to the picture, a
gide which long antedated modern m
SjIIstriaI policies of protection Tor en-
Moves. Records Of the company art /
repiete with references to pensions 20
aged employees bonuses 1or goOo MorA'
ards of the time to Ill or injured men
and to families Of those who oled III
the service of the company.
THE audsons Bay company runners
and woodsmen spread through Canaoa
In a few decades They pushed ever
westward the domain OF the notner
country, and were q VIA 7; ,sS ths st
awrence country. They penetrated
southwark to the Missouri river anq'
FOO Iata. into the Pacific northwest.
II vas when the company ignored bAlc
auproach Of international compncaIlons
and refused to consider the reports Of
the men In the PARKWAY interior tnas
The great unexplored areas began W
ain fhrolleh British fingers.
When. about 1740, Steur de Ia VeLen-
drive and his company left French Cam
ada on the expedition which brought !
aim within sight of Montanas SHIN ]
ING Mountains, runners carried warm
rn0s to every HudSons Bay company
post to guard well company secrets 70
Teat well the spies, but never let tnem
snter forts nor talk to servants.
Other Expeditions Follow {
Verendryeis expedition resulted N I
Jthers going out to the plains and
mountains. but the benefits Of their ef- 7
'orts were to accrue TO others than the |
5udson's Bay company and the British
Empire.
BY 1854 Anthony Hendry had met the '
3lackfeet Indians in the neignDornooo 6
n the present Waterton park, north I
4 the international boundary. Here he q
aw for the first time Indians mounted t
N horses Hendry returned TO HuoSon'S /
Day to report in person at headquarters Q
nd TO urge establishment Of posts In
5lackfeet country, where new trade was c
ich. ?
The Blackfeet were hunters. Some /
ime, somewhere to the south, they had
eceived horses, either from the Span .
sh or from them through intermediate {
ribes. They were rich In buffalo robes.
seaver trapping was only Incidental
nth the Blackfeet, and the small num- =
er of flIrs taken were traded to the q
Lssinniboines, who canoed them north .
astward to Hudsons bay. I,
But the only Indians the Hudson's f
lay company officials had ever seen v
Tere northern canoe tribes who trapped
nd traded beaver. Mounted Indiansl "
IahI Hendry was 'balmy." In payment S,
Or his efforts to expand trade and ter Fl
tory he. was never again permitted to p
o inland. a
But, fifty years before Lewis and N
lark-even before the Revolutionary b
ar was thought of seriously-had
Lendrys report been needed the en- fl
re Rocky mountain country and the c,
acific coast might have been securely T
1sconsed in the British Empire. es
French Adventures around Quebec ic
w that the company was touching cC
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