Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-06-08
Condensed History of MOnanas First Industry During Early Days Territory

'sThe Indian, the buffalo and the
eagle adorn the coinage Of our
land. but the creature that itself
for generations was the coinage
has been quite neglected. The
beaver has as yet no permanent
place In American memorabilia"
Sidney Greenbie, In Frontiers
and the Fur Trade.
While Lewis and Clark were winter
ing at the Mandan village in 1904
1905. a marty of French Canadian fur
hunters came to the village under
Francois Antoine Larocque, bourgeois
for the Northwest company Of Canada.
American expedition, but perhaps be-
cause of the official nature Of the
enterprise, Lewis declined the pro-
poSal. Larocque'S party went up the
river in the spring of 1905, crossed
the southeastern part of what Is now
Montana. over the route presumably
taken by the VerendryeS 81 years
earlier
Iarocque purchased more than a
hundred beaver skins from the Crows
and sought their future trade. The
United States government refused to
permit the Northwest trade within its
borders, and the company was forced
to expand west of the mountains.
The Missouri Fur Co.
When Lewis and Clark returned to
st. Louis in the spring Of 1907, they
found the town Of some 1000 tnhabi-
tantS eager for news of their discov-
cries, but none was more interested
than Manuel Lisa, a New Orleanian
OF Spanish antecedentS, who had held
a monopoly of fur trade with the
Osages. Lisa, at IS. had $1,000 capital
With this he outfitted an expedition
of AZ men for the upper Missouri.
the riches in furs to be had along the
Missouri and its tributaries, he rushed
his expedition to the Yellowstone, and
up the Yellowstone to the mouth Of
the Big Horn. Here he built the first
trading post in what Is now Montana,
in the summer or early fall of 1907.
This pioneer post was called by Lisa
fort Remon," in honor of his son;
but to the trappers it was Lisa's fort /
or Fort Manuel
In Lisa's first expedition to the Big /
Horn were George Drouillard, John /
Golfer and Sergeant Potts, all veterans I
of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Within two years Lisa had $50 men
working under hinl-Some French
Canadians and some Americans-with /
10 barges and keel boats plying the
Missouri In IL yearS-to the time Of
his death-he made IL trips up the
river. covering $4,000 miles
Here Come the British
Fifteen years after the death Of the
elder Verendrye, a boy named David +
Thompson was born In England. To +
this boy, orphaned at z, was TO come
the posthumous honor Of being rated
by historians Of the northwest as
foremost Of all the pioneering trapper-
explorers.
At IA Thompson was apprenticed to ,
the HudSon's Bay Co. and sent to the
wilds of western Canada Without in
gtr1ments, with little understanding Of ]
without even a reliable map
Of the world, he mapped the vast ex-
panSe Of the Canadian west and part i
Of what is now Montana. Today his
maps are considered amazingly accu- !
rate. !
OF David Thompson, DR.. Paul @. :
Phillips, former head of Montana State I
department of history, has !
written in his Introductory chapter to /
the Journal of John Work:
Thompson was not really a fur I
trader. He was scientist and explorer. I
His peculiar genius was not appreciated /
by the HudSOn'S Bay Co. and he left +
Its employ In 1897 to enter the service :
Of the Northwest company. 1t was not .
until 1907 that Thompson actually 2
ToSsed the Rockies and reached the /.
leadwaters Of the Columbia. The next 3