132 
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
Beyond Blakeley siding the canyon walls are composed of the 
Spokane shale (Algonkian), and its dark-red color is visible at many 
places. It is well exposed in a cut by the side of the road, at mile- 
post 87, in a projecting point known as Medicine Tree Hill. 
Soins. Paleozoic limestone and quartzite are to be observed on the 
right (north) at intervals for the next. 5 or 6 miles, and then the walls 
of the canyon are made up almost entirely of he: red Spokane shale. 
The Algonkian rocks are supposed to be the oldest sedimentary rocks 
eipoced in the Rocky Mountain region. 
Very few fossils occur in 
these afforded the best route. In select- 
rugged nor difficult of _ access, but he 
on this exposed mountain pass. That i in 
later years he regretted this ne is 
shown by the following statem yi 
have always exceedingly Fogel that 
it was my fortune to examine this route 
[Clark Fork] at so unfavorable a period, 
for I have been convinced by later data 
that it possessed an importance, both as 
regards climate and railroad eenite 
enjoyed by no other line in the R 
Mountains b 
49°.”” The building of the Northern 
Pacific Railway down Clark Fork seemed 
to justify his conclusion, but it must be 
remembered that at a later date this same 
company built a branch road over almost 
e exact route selected by Mullan up 
St. Regis River, and that only a few years 
ago the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 
ong 
same route. This all goes to 
show that railway building since the days 
of Lieut. Mullan, or even since the build- 
ing of the Northern Pac 
changed, and that no 
may be the controlling condition, bea coe 
of mountain 
incident. 
Although explorations = a military 
road were made and a route selected in 
1854, actual aber tery was delayed 
several years. Mullan was on the ground 
ready to begin work in that year, under 
general orders from the War Department, 
but trouble with the Indians 3 throughout 
eastern Oregon and 
vented, and he passed another year with- 
out accomplishing any work on his 
favorite projec 
In March, =i Congress appropriated 
$100,000 for the construction of the road, 
and work was begun by Mullan at Walla 
Walla to the Coeur d’Alene Valley. The 
first year the road was cleared, so as to be 
passable by wagon, from Walla Walla to 
the headwaters of the St. Regis. The 
next spring Mullan began work where it 
was stopped the previous autumn and 
pushed the construction up Clark Fork to 
Missoula and then up Hell Gate Canyon 
ras Garrison. From this point it 
followed Little Blackfoot River along the 
original line of the Northern Pacific to 
Mullan Pass, down on the east side to the 
vicinity of Helena, and thence north to 
Fort Benton. By the end of the season 
the party reached the eastern terminus, 
bat i: is needless to say that this er 
and much work was needed betes it was 
really passable. 
The summers of 1861 and 1862 were 
spent by Mullan in going back over the 
line building bridges, making cuts where 
the canyons were narrow, and relocating 
the road about Coeur d’Alene Lake, where 
the ground proved to be soft and marshy. 
The road thus built had a length of 624 
miles through the roughest part of the 
Rocky Mountains and cost $230,000. It 
was never used to any extent for mili- 
urposes and soon fell into decay, 
except where it was kept up by the local 
authorities. About 20 years later it 
was supplanted by the Northern Pacific 
ailway. 
