Pap.No. 19?" INVESTIGATIONS AT FORT STEVENSON — SMITH 171 



of one of the trees that had stood before the South Officers' Quarters 

 survived in 1951. It was an ash, as presumably were the others ap- 

 pearing in the photographs. The trunk of this tree was dead, but 

 suckers from the base were still growing. Sections of the main trunk 

 were collected. These trees had probably been transplanted as saplings 

 from the adjacent bottom lands. Their size at that time, or the 

 precise date of transplanting, is not known, but it must have occui'red 

 soon after the post was completed, probably in the early 1870's, though 

 there is no mention of tree planting in the report of 1875 (Matthews, 

 1875). One of the photographs referred to above, said to have been 

 taken in 1879, shows these trees in healthy condition, and in this view 

 they appear to have been in place for several years. It is probable 

 that these trees would at least at first have been well cared for and 

 frequently watered after transplanting. 



Construction materials locally available for use in building the post, 

 and the presence near the fort of lignite coal, which was used to 

 supplement wood for fuel, are of special interest. The map of the 

 reservation (1870) shows the location of coal north of the post, at 

 the edge of the second bench and a road leading to the mine from the 

 fort. A mine in that location was still worked in recent years, for 

 local use. Traces of the use of lignite, in accumulations of weathered 

 coal and lenses of coal ash, were found in excavation at the fort site. 

 Of this lignite deposit, de Trobriand (1951) in 1867 stated that it was 

 necessary only to scoop up the coal, which was exposed on the surface. 

 It was also extracted in chunks with a pick, and was said to be of 

 excellent quality and very pure, burning easily and completely con- 

 suming into cinders (ibid., p. 159). Matthews also mentioned the 

 quality of the fuel, though stating that it burned rapidly and dis- 

 integrated upon exposure to the air (cited by Kane, ed., in de 

 Trobriand, 1951, p. 159 n.). Another military visitor of this period, 

 Bvt. Maj. C. W. Howell of the Corps of Engineers, also reported that 

 coal was plentiful in the hills in the neighborhood of the post, but that 

 it was considered by the officers to be of poor quality. It had been 

 used in heating stoves, though it did not give entire satisfaction, and 

 had also been used in the blacksmith shop, though it there failed to 

 afford a good welding heat (Howell, 1908, p. 400). 



The source of timbers for construction at Fort Stevenson, as well 

 as of fuel needed, is recorded in part in de Trobriand's journal (de 

 Trobriand, 1951, p. 304). In June 1868, a contract was awarded for 

 timbers and firewood, and it is stated that it was even then necessary 

 to go as far as 35 or 40 miles from the post to obtain logs of suitable 

 dimensions. These logs were to be at least 16 inches in diameter, 

 and 25 feet in length. The contract also called for some twelve hun- 

 dred cords of firewood. It seems clear that the first lumbering activi- 

 ties on the south side of the Missouri during the preceding year had 



