BECOLLECTIONS OF THE OLD ^yEST 



339 



grant sometimes piloted a wagon drawn 

 by a mixed team which might include 

 a pair of horses, a cow, and a steer. 

 Until a year or two before, the wagons 

 of toiling gold seekers had borne the 

 legend "Pike's Teak or Bust," and it 

 Avas not until after this party had 

 started on its journey westward that 

 the first daily stages had begun to run 

 to the Pacific Coast — between Atchison 

 and San Francisco. 



Xot long before, gold had been dis- 

 covered in what are now Idaho and 

 Montana, and the troublous times were 

 about to begin in those mining camps 

 when stern necessity compelled the 

 adoption of the code of "Judge Lynch," 

 since, except the law of might, no law 

 existed. Of those who took part in 

 these stirring scenes, were such strong 

 and good men as former Senator Wil- 

 bur F. Sanders, Honorable N. P. Lang- 

 ford, and former Governor S. T. 

 Hauser, of Montana. 



In the years 1864, 1865 and 1866 

 there were wars with the Indians of the 

 Plains, which cost many lives and a 

 vast amount of treasure, and about 

 1868 the United States Government 

 established a number of military posts 

 through the western country, at which 

 were stationed small bodies of troops 

 wliich tried to control the Indians. On 

 Mr. Gary's later trips to the West, he 

 stopped and was entertained at certain 

 posts whieli in their day were famous, 

 but have long been abandoned and are 

 now forgotten. Each one of these mili- 

 tary posts contributed its mite to the 

 quieting of the aboriginal population 

 and to the development of the great 

 country that lies beyond the Missouri. 



The artist's visits to the West in those 

 early days brought him in contact with 

 a multitude of men then active and 

 later famous, most of whom have long 

 since passed away. Of the army there 



were General Sheridan, General Custer, 

 Captain Mullan, Major Twining, Gen- 

 eral Greene. Dr. Elliot Coues, the 

 ornithologist, represented science, while 

 among pioneers who may fairly be 

 called empire builders were Andrew 

 Dawson, Mat Carrol, George Steele, 

 Broadwater, Kipp, and not a few 

 others. 



In 1874: Major Twining, who was in 

 charge of the jSTorthwest Boundary Sur- 

 vey, invited Mr. Gary to accompany the 

 Survey. He was unable to accept, but 

 he was in the West when the Survey 

 returned, and, in fact, came down the 

 river with Major Twining and General 

 Greene as far as Bismarck, North Da- 

 kota, to which point a railroad had 

 then been built. An effective picture 

 of the procession of the Northwest 

 Boundary Survey boats is in the col- 

 lection lately on exhibition. General 

 Custer invited Mr. Gary to accompany 

 him on the Terry expedition in 18T6, 

 but Gary did not go. 



Mr. Gary has a keen eye for the pic- 

 turesque and striking, and to the old- 

 timer many of his pictures call up 

 thrilling memories. Today those who 

 can recall such scenes as his "Crossing 

 the Plains in Forty-Nine'' are few in 

 number, but many men have witnessed 

 Indian ceremonials akin to that sliown 

 in "The Prayer to the Eainbow," wliile 

 those who were much in the West in 

 early days will recognize the fidelity to 

 nature of the "Crow Hunting Camp" 

 and the picture of the little Indian 

 boy feeding his pet crow. Mr. Gary 

 l^aints things as they were, not as he 

 thinks they ought to be. He does 

 not insist that all his Indians wear war 

 bonnets, after the method of so many 

 of the modern painters. His efforts are 

 to represent what he saw, and his 

 scenes of western and Indian life pos- 

 sess a real historic value. 



