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TEE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



although it is now obsolete in this old 

 sense. 



An important place at which they 

 stopped was old Fort Berthold, named 

 after Bartholomew Berthold, the Tyro- 

 lese, that early trader who had a share 

 in one of St. Louis' early fur companies 

 and who in 1818 erected the first brick 

 warehouse in St. Louis. Fort Eandall 

 was one of the few military posts 

 which our travelers saw; Fort Abra- 

 ham Lincoln was not established until 

 1872. 



Above Fort Union, at the mouth of 

 the Yellowstone, the ''Chippewa,"' 

 freighted with goods for the Blackfeet 

 Indians, and carrying among her pas- 

 sengers two or three English people see- 

 ing America, x4ndrew Dawson — the 

 agent for the Blackfeet — and the three 

 young travelers, was set on fire through 

 the carelessness of one of the hands, and, 

 having burned nearly to the water's 

 edge, a large quantity of powder at 

 length exploded and completed the 

 boat's destruction. The Indian goods 

 were scattered far and wide and lost, as 

 was most of the baggage of the pas- 

 sengers. Young Gary, whose pencil 

 had been busy ever since he left New 

 York, lost eighty sketches. There was 

 no loss of life. The passengers and 

 crew returned to Fort Union and 

 waited there for weeks. Mr. Dawson 

 and Mr. Carroll went to Fort Benton, 

 about four hundred miles up the river, 

 and succeeded in bringing down to Fort 

 Union wagons to take up the trading 

 goods and annuities to the Blackfeet 

 Indians. 



Fort Benton was then the metropolis 

 of the Northwest — the point where all 

 the furs to be sent to St. Louis were 

 brought together and shipped down the 

 river. It was the great center of the 

 fur trade for the northern United States. 

 At Fort Benton they saw not a little of 



the Blackfeet Indians, met the famous 

 chief Little Dog, hunted bufEalo, and 

 finally, carrying their baggage in a Bed 

 Kiver cart drawn by two horses tandem, 

 they set out on horseback for the Pa- 

 cific Coast. When they reached the 

 broken mountains, it became necessary 

 to abandon even so rough and ready a 

 vehicle as the Bed Eiver cart, and from 

 there they went on with pack animals. 



On their westward way they stopped 

 near Hell Gate, at the camp of Captain 

 John IMullan, who was then building 

 the famous Mullan Eoad through the 

 northern Rockies. Serving under him, 

 and doing the road-building work, was 

 Lieutenant Phil Sheridan, later to 

 become the cavalr}^ hero of the war 

 between the States, and finally in 

 1888 General of the United States 

 Army. They passed the Coeur d'Alene 

 Mission, went on to The Dalles, and 

 finally reached the town of Walla 

 Walla, and from there by stage and 

 steamer went to San Francisco. As 

 far as the wilds were concerned, this 

 was the end of their journey. From 

 here they made their way south and 

 east, and by way of Panama ultimately 

 reached New York. 



It is not easy for us now to realize 

 how long it is since this journey was 

 made, but if we remember that a terri- 

 torial government was given to Dakota 

 in March, 1861, just before Mr. Cary 

 started from New York, and that the 

 territory of Dakota included the pres- 

 ent states of North and South Dakota 

 and parts of Montana and Wyoming, 

 we have a suggestion of the changes 

 that have taken place since then. Ne- 

 braska was a territory and did not be- 

 come a state until 1867 — six years 

 later. Eailroads were unknown in the 

 country west of the Missouri. The old 

 bull team still made its slow way across 

 the plains, and the individual immi- 



