Four Dollars a Year. 
Too Conti n Copy. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1878. 
( Volume IO,-No, 4. 
IN*. 1 1 1 Full o 
»t., N.Y. 
For Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun. 
| tyaging on the Upper Missouri. 
B x 
Ebnbst Ingbrboll. 
No VI.— [Concluded.] 
Missouri, but since then the channel has changed, and the 6ile 
is now far inland. 
Although the distance in a straight line was not great, the 
bends were so numerous that uninterrupted steaming failed to 
briug us to the mouth of the Yellowstone, and we 6pcut a 
pleasant night in the shadow of a grove of mighty cottonwoods 
which crowned the bluff. An incident of this camp was the 
bringing aboard with the wood of a live rattlesnake. The 
-a frightened negro I rude Othello who had unconsciously carried it turned as pule 
— “ norm bvw ” I as a darkey can turn, when he discovered his freight. It was 
the Missouri rattlesnake (Crotalu* conjluentus), and looked 
\\T OLF POINT occupies little space in my notes and I mucl1 kke tke Massassanga, except that the colors were duller 
v V lingers loosely in my memory. It was the serene and ancl tlje 8 P ot8 less sharply defined. The length, I should say, 
luminous first hour of twilight when we came to a stop under was not ov er three feet, and the body very slender. They are 
the bluff, amid the yells of a hundred Indians, the swearing exceedingly common in this region. 
of the mate, the roar of cscuping steam and the raising of The next morning (Wednesday) I was careful to be up early, 
clouds of dust consequent upon planting a dead mau ;* all of f° as D . ot .. to tniss 8eein g lbe mouth of the Yellowstone. I had 
1 ueen 
WOLF POINT — THE NOBTIIKKN PLAINS— A 
— rORT UNION AND ITS HISTORY 
I at its source, and now here was its mouth; if anything 
can be told by seeing both ends of a stream, I can be said to 
know this river. Compared with the broad Missouri, the 
branch looked much smaller than 1 anticipated. The banks 
were low and muddy, and the water was the same yellowish- 
brown as the larger stream, but the current swept along with 
a steady power which verified the river’s reputation. . It did 
not seem possible for steamboats as large as ours to have gone 
hundreds of miles up this tortuous, narrow water-course^ but 
it has been done, and will continue to be. The Yellowstone 
can never vie with the Missouri, however, as a steamboat route 
to Montana, though the navigation of its lower portion may be 
a very important aid to civilization when the Northern Pacific 
Railway is pushed through to its banks, aod gitling Bull is 
which somewhat disturbed both the serenity and the lumi- 
nosity of the evening. A gay and lively scene .was to be wit- 
nessed from the hurricane deck, which was just level with 
the top of the bank. The plain was perfectly level and over- 
grown with brown stubble which lightened up in the distance, 
until the horizon was reached in a low range of bright hills, 
where the sunset rays still rested. Coining quite to the 
water's edge on the left hand was a grove of heavy timber 
quite as sharply defined a3 though the ax had trimmed its 
boundary straight ; and all along it, on this side, were fields of 
corn, with stalks not over three feet high, that bore ears close , n , . .- . - - b 
to the ground, and other fields of fine-looking potatoes, etc. Prilfu'n 261 ! mV* 16 ’^ en T cs . tam f n ! s of 8,|ck missionaries 
tt if i v. i t ,i as Crook and Miles. The district, being we 1 watered is ver 
Half a mile back from the river a group of low buildings indi- dant and beautiful. Along the river are strips of timber Ind 
cated the Agency. The whole foreground was soon filled luxuriant grass lands stretch back lo the barrenness of the dis- 
with Indians. They came, like a flock of gay birds, racing 18111 to P 8 - wkere the drought of the great plain is again 
their ponies— the poor little beasts carrying two or three wlnch^a ° f f CW ° . ri ' rer9 a wil J e prairie Ties, 
.... f ■ x . , , , . which is one vast bed of flowers, mterspersed with prettv 
apiece— at the top of their speed, each one decked out in his copses and thickets of wild rose. 1 y 
brightest and best, while the neglected squaws and children For some time before reaching it we had caught glimpses of 
trudged along afoot. Many of them could talk English pretty f* ie most important point on the Missouri be'-.weeu Fort Ben- 
we... and we had a good deal of spor. wLh .hem, panic, ariy 
one old fellow-some kind of a “ chief ’ —whose face had a landing, so many citizens, Indians, carriages and freight teams, 
startling resemblance to the late Prof. Agassiz. Wolf Point that the fort seemed a metropolis after our experience of adobe 
is an agency for the Assiniboines. A part c.f the Sioux nation ? ortl ® cat i° n8 a ° d wood cutters’ cabins. A cluster of store- 
, . . ... , nouses and sheds at the landing seemed erand to our eves but 
was also assigned to this post, but as the two tribes do not beyond them com be seen lhe g village gj f 0I t . hoSwith 
agree, the latter are to have a separate trading-post at Poplar clap-boarded sides and shingle roofs,' and— tbink of it !— green 
Creek, a few miles below, to which point the Fort Peck equip. t ' 1!nHo rrK " " e ,u • 
ments'were then being removed. Both agencies, I under- 
stood, were controlled by the Rev. Dr. Bird in the interest of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
This evening my midnight pipe and meditations were not 
disturbed by demands for consolation. It is so very hot at 
mid-day that no comfort can be had anywhere, and it is only 
at early morning and evening that the deck was comfortable. 
blinds. The larger of these pretentious domiciles enclosed a 
quadrangle, dc fended outwardly by a stockade, with corner 
towers; but outside were many small houses— dwellings of 
traders, laundresses, teamsters aiid others living at the post— 
until a considerable village was accumulated upon the level 
bluff. I wish I were able from observa’ion to describe it more 
in detail, for Fort Union is a very interesting place. 
This post and village, however, is not exactly the Fort Union 
which occupies such a prominent position in the annals of the 
Northwest. Old Fort Union was two miles farther up, and 
My good friend Conrad at Fort Benton may enjoy the inward what there is left of it is now inhabited by Indians. This was 
happiness of one great good action done in giving me a dozen *° rt f K U il l c- n UpP er Missouri. In the summer of 
... r c r • , r . , 1829 Kenneth McKenzie, a trader from near where St. Paul 
bottles of St Louis lager. I put them in the ice-chest and now stands, came across with fifteen men, looking for a good 
they lasted me to Bismarck. They were a great blessing. place to establish a trading post for the American Fur Com- 
When I got up in the morning we were many miles on our P an )'< selected a site opposite the mouth of the Yellowstone, 
way. The whole country through which the river flowed was 8q T®' ° f l0 f' , ab ? ut 12 “ chc8 
, , , . - .I c .■ x, f • in diameter aud 12 feet Ion/, set perpendicularly, with two 
a level plain, with occasional heavy groves of timber of van- | block-house bastions on diagonal corners of the stockade 
The sand- 
pierced with loop-holes. The dwelling-houses, warehouses, 
aud store were built inside, of the same height as, hut not 
joining, the stockade, leaving a space of about four feet between 
the walls of the buildings and the stockade. All the buildings 
were covered with earth, as a protection against fire by incen- 
diary Indians. This was substantially the pattern of all the 
early forts; they were easily built, convenient, and good for 
ous sorts and broad, low bottoms of sweet grass, 
bars became more and more frequent, and wide wastes of old 
channel occurred every few miles, strewed with snags and 
drift-wood. Occasionally behind them would be a little 
swamp, and at such places ducks, geese and eand-hill cranes 
were always to be seen, but birds or animals otherwise were , , . . — 0 - 
exceedingly rare. On one of ttae bars, now called Disaster JCSlSlSu 'Cl A* l!E 
Bend, just below Poplar Creek, the steamboat Chippeway aouri, from White Earth River to the month of Milk River, 
was burned in 18(51. It is said that the owners, the American and northward into the British possessions. They were a 
Fur Company, were smuggling alcohol through to Fort Beuton peaceable, inoffensive people, armed with bows and arrows, 
for the Indian trade, and one of ibe deck banda, in „,e art o, “Kgt 
stealing a driuk, ignited the alcohol with the candle he was car- tain portions of their country in the summer, and during the 
rying. She was loaded with Indian annuity goods, etc., among 
the rest twenty-five kegs of powder. When the fire reached 
the powder the boat blew up, and “packages of merchandise 
winter remaining where they could be protected from the cold 
with plenty of wood. The Ass'miboms call themselves 
Hobays or “fish netters.” The Chippeways call them Asse- 
nary Bawns, or Stone Sioux, because, living on the wide 
at 
ing from the North, there used to be un important tradiug- 
post called Fort Stewart, or Fort Kipp. It was built on the 
were found three miles (!) from the disaster.” Not far below, prairie, they were, for want of fuel, obliged to cook tbeir fish 
at the mouth of the Big Muddy, a considerable stream enter- by warming the water with stones. So runs an old Jesuit 
narration. It is easy to explaiu this curious error on the part 
of the Chippeways— granting the truth of the Frenchman’s 
account— by the fact that it was not want of fuel 
which caused them to boil their fish by putting 
hot stones in the water, but lack of ve;sels that 
would stand fire. Almost all savage tribes, before contact 
with the whites, did often cook tbeir meat in this manner in 
water-tight baskets or (roughs. As to the other assertion, 
♦ Planting a " dead man " lias no reference to Inhuming a cadaver, 
so to speak, but Is simply burying a stick of timber In a trench, so as 
to form a fixture which a stoumer can tie Its hawser to* In ths absenoe 
of trees or posis. 
that “because wood was scarce and small with them, Nature 
had taught them to burn stones in place of it," it probably 
arose from war parties of the Chippeways— I heir hereditary ene- 
mies— watching at a distance on the naked prairie the Assiui- 
boins gathering buffalo chips, supposed tbeir foes wore simply 
picking up stones, winch by some magical power they were 
able to ignite. 
St Louis was the point from which traders brought their 
goods. They would start from there as soon as the ice went 
out with mackinaw boats, 50 feet long, 10 feet wide and 4 
feet high, loaded with about 14 tons of merchandise to each 
boat, aud a crew of about 1 2 men . Six months was exhansted 
in getting to Fort Union. In 1832, however, the steamboat 
Yellowstone succeeded in reaching this point with supplies. 
This was n decided triumph, and no more freight was tedious- 
ly "cordelled" below the mouth of the Yellowstone. Farther 
than this progress was slow, so that it was not until about 
1860 that Fort Benton was reached by steamer. 
One great obstacle in the wu^of stcumboatiug on the Upper 
Missouri was (lie difficulty of procuring experienced pilots. 
A Mexican and an Indian half breed were employed in tlio 
earlier voyages of the Yellowsione and Assiniboin, who, com- 
prehending the advantage of being the only steamboat pilots 
possessed of a thorough knowledge of the river, exercised a 
kind of petty tyranny over the company, often stopping the 
boat or purposely runuiug it aground lo gain timo for a game 
of cards or lazy slumber. It was not long, however, before 
enterprising American pilots possessed themselves of a full 
knowledge of the river and took the places of their two 
wretched predecessors. No trouble lias since been experi- 
enced upou this score, and in view of the difficult navigation, 
the Missouri pilots conduct boats up and down the river with 
a safety anil celerity that entitle them to an honorable promi- 
nence among their brethren of the craft everywhere. In the 
early days of Missouri navigation, snags and sawyers were 
far more abundant in the river than now, consequently no 
boat ever ventured to mn by night. There was Ilian an 
abundance of dry wood all along the river, and it is probably 
to the gradual thinning out by the woodcutters of these dead 
and fallen trees within the sweep of high water that Hie 
present diminished number of snags is to be attributed. Gov- 
ernment suag-bouts did good service in removing from the 
lower river these terrors of the steamboatman, but were Dtver 
employed upon the Upper Missouri. 
Kenneth McKenzie, the founder of Fort Union, was the 
pioneer trader of the Northwest. lie was a native of the 
Highlands of Scotland, and when young came into the ser- 
vice of the Hudson Bay Company and was sent to Hudson's 
Bay. H* remained there until 1820, when he quitted their 
employ, explored the country southward to Lake VVinnepeg, 
then across through all the Red River region to Lake Superior, 
finally concluding to settle on tho Upper Mississippi. In 
1822— a long time ago for that region !— he went to New York 
secured an outfit of Indian goods and returned to his chosen 
ground, where he remained until he became connected with 
the American Fur Company, went westward and established 
Fort Union in 1829. For ten years afterward he was in 
charge of all the Northwestern fur trade. Then he re- 
signed, went to St. Louis and engaged in business, until 
his death in 1857. His successor was Alexander Culbertson, 
who enlarged the field of operations as ha3 already been indi- 
cated, aud built Fort Benton. McKenzie was well fitted for 
his post by training and nature, and many stories are remem- 
bered of his adventures, hunting exploits, wars and diplomacy 
with the Indians aud rule over his scarcely less treacherous 
and turbulent trappers. Catlin has immortalized him in his 
“North American Indians,” a work by which he also has im- 
mortalized himself. He was a mau of great generosity, cour- 
age and tact. 
But, tempos fuffit When I get to talking about these old 
romantic fur-trudmg times— the knightly nge of the West— I 
hardly know what to tell first or where to stop. 
Two miles below, if you go by land across the neck of the 
>eninsula, but ninemiles around ihe bend by water, stands Fort 
Buford, another fine army settlement, the headquarters of 
this military district and the residence of General Hazen. The 
garrison consists of five companies of the 6th Infantry under 
Colonel More. It is as pretty and homelike as Fort Union, 
and appears to bs even larger, being more scattered, and hav- 
ing a permanent village of Indian houses, or huts, near by. 
Between the two forts runs the boundary line between Mon- 
tana and Dakota, and we are now in the latter Territory. 
Here ends the "Upper Missouri," a thousand miles from the 
beginning, two thousand miles from the mouth of the mighty 
river. If I have given you any information or any pleasure 
in my drifting down its turbid, tawny current I aru glud; if 
not, possibly a suggestion will linger in your mind prompting 
you to take Ibe same voyage when next the restlessness of mi- 
gration comeson and you are casting about for novel roads to 
travel. Try the Upper Missouri, above all, it weariness calls 
for recreation unattended by devouring excitement, or ill 
health requires gentle stimulus. 
The Lake sleumers or the railway will carry you from the 
East to Duluth, whence you can journey by rail to Bismarck. 
Thence a steamer will slowly work you up the Missouri. But a 
better way, unless you have no terror of tho tedium of a 
month's voyage, is to go by the Union Pacific railway and 
stages to Montaua,.and then go down the river by steamboat 
from Fort Benton.’ Aud may you Lave the good fortune to 
strike the good old Benton aud her hospitable officers .' • 
Vale! 
