Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-06-08

spring he traded along the Kootenai
river In what Is now northwestern
Montana"
In 1909 November), Thompson built
the first Salish House near the present
Thompson Falls.
On April q, 1908, Thompson was at
the mouth Of the Fine Meadow" cTo-
bacco river, in a trading expedition.
James Mcmillan was his assistant, and
Jacques (Jocko) Raphael Finlay and
Finan Mcdonald were hunting In the
vicinity. Finan Mcdonald was clerk for
the Northwest company and had &C
companied Thompson across the Rock
les. He was the first white man to
visit many Of the tribes west Of the
main range.
In the spring of 1910, Thompson
made several expeditions from Salish
House to the Flathead country The
same year, Joseph Howse, Hudsons
Bay Co. clerk and trader, built HOwSe
House near F1athead lake. On Feb. IS,
26 and 81, 1872, Thompson made a
trip from Salish House to what is
now Mount Jumbo at Missoula, on
the banks Of the then called Hell Gate
river. Here the British geographer and
trader spent several hours sketching
the surrounding country and tracing
the route by which Lewis and Clark
He left Salish House March Is, 1912,
and returned to Canada by the north
ern overland route. He never returned
to the west and died in Longeuil,
Que, Feb. 10, 1857-in poverty.
While Thompson and the North
westers were active west Of the noun
tains, Lisas Missourians had spread
out like a beaver tail In the Yellow
stone and Big Horn country. In 1907
tee To1@y
Grams of the Lewis and Clark party,
to the Crows to advertise the trading
post at the mouth Of the Big Horn.
Golfer and Potts went to the Three
Forks country. where Potts was slain
by hostile Indians, and Golfer escaped !
after running the gauntlet, making his !
way back to Lisa's fort by way of |
what is now Yellowstone national
park, but what was known, In fur |
trade days, as Golfers Hell"
Tragedy at Three Forks
In the spring Of 1910, Pierre Menard
and Andrew Henry left Lisa's fort, |
crossed the divide from the Yellow
stone to the Gallatin and built a
trading post near the Three Forks.
Here was rich beaver country. Trade
was lively at first Then the Blackfeet,
melted perhaps by the rival North
westers. began a series of attacks upon
Lll6 MSudIQ anu k1SuIy posi-. In6y |
stole horses. traps and fllrs In three
20 men were killed, among
them George Drouillard, the second
veteran of the Lewis and Clark party
TO meet death at the hands of Indians
In this vicinity. So dangerous did the
Indians become that Henry abandoned I
the post and crossed the mountains to
the headwaters of the Snake, while
Menard and the main party returned
10 St Louis.
The Ast0rians In Montana
Astor sent two expeditions westward
In 1810-a sea party, sailing from New
York in the Tonquin IN August, and
the overland party, under Wilson Price
Hunt Of New Jersey, from Montreal
month earlier Hunts party embarked
at st. Louis March II, 1911, after win
tering there. Hunt, on reaching the
Arikara villages at the mouth of the
Grand river, struck directly across the
plains of the Little Missouri, as the
are believed to have done,
skirting the northern slope of the Big
Horn range. Here the party met Ed
ward Rose, renegade white man who
had attached himself to the Crows.
This tribe later gave the same hos
pitality to James Beckwourth, mulatto,
whose published memoirs now form an
record of early Montana.
Among the Astorians who came up