LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 
63 
In my report from Fort Benton, my reasons were given for pushing all the parties through 
Cadotte’s Pass, and for abandoning the examination of the Marias. 
Previous, however, to this conclusion, Lieutenant Mullan had set out from Fort Benton to 
visit the Flathead camp on the Muscle Shell river, and thence to explore a more southern route 
to the St. Mary’s valley. 
Lieutenant Donelson moved from his camp on the Teton river, September 1G, and pressed 
forward vigorously to his work, with two efficient civil engineer parties under Messrs. Lander 
and Tinkham for side reconnaissance and the general estimate, and an odometer party under 
that most able topographer, Mr. Lambert. I remained at Fort Benton till Mr. Stanley 
returned, on the 20th September, with a large delegation of the Blackfeet Indians, when a most 
amicable and satisfactory council was held with them on the next day, at which they agreed to 
respect all whites travelling through their country, to cease sending their war parties against 
the neighboring tribes, and to submit to the Great Father the settlement of their difficulties. 
One of their principal chiefs, Low Hone, in a speech of great eloquence and power, implored 
his people, now for the first time they had experienced the protecting care of the Great Father, 
to listen to his words; and he commanded them to abide by the promises just made in council. 
He desired me to say to all the Indians west of the mountains that the Blackfeet were no longer 
their enemies, and that they desired to meet them in council at Fort Benton next year. This I 
deem a measure essential to establishing a general peace, and have, in a communication to 
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, earnestly recommended it. 
This business brought to so satisfactory a conclusion on the 21st September, I set out early on 
the 22cl with a select party, consisting of Mr. Stanley, the artist, Mr. Osgood, the disbursing 
agent, and Hr. Suckley, our surgeon, who, leaving Lieutenant Donelson’s command to visit the 
falls, was not able to rejoin it, and returned to Fort Benton. Messrs. Evans and Kendall, two 
young gentlemen, kept behind to assist me in my correspondence, and five voyageurs and an 
Indian guide ; and camping with Lieutenant Donelson at the end of the fourth day, I reached 
the St. Mary’s village at noon on the 28th instant, making a distance of about two hundred and 
forty-three miles in six and a half days. Lieutenant Donelson reached the village on the 29th 
instant, and Lieutenant Mullan on the 30th. In Lieutenant Donelson’s exploration of the 
route from Fort Benton to the St. Mary’s village, Mr. Lander was very successful in approach¬ 
ing the mountains high up at the Marias river, and towards the sources of the Teton, Medicine, 
and Dearborn rivers, and entered the mountains, finding in each case excellent railroad cross¬ 
ings, and crossed the dividing ridge some miles north of the pass pursued by both Lieutenants 
Donelson and Saxton, bringing with him an excellent railroad line to the junction of the two 
routes in the main pass. As regards both entrances to the pass, a small tunnel will be 
required in each case—not, however, exceeding one mile in length; and the grades approach¬ 
ing the passes will not probably exceed forty or forty-five feet per mile. The descent down 
the Hell Gate river was mostly through an open valley, till the Hell Gate passage is reached, 
where the river winds in a narrow defile, requiring for a railroad expensive sustaining walls 
and embankments, and probably some small tunnels to avoid short curves. 
It is practicable, though expensive, for a railroad. 
It can be turned, however, two ways: 1st, by tunnelling a marble mountain south of it on 
the route of Lieutenant Saxton, and in relation to which I shall soon receive a report; and, 2d, 
by crossing over from a tributary of the Hell Gate in the open valley of the pass to the valley of 
the river Jocko, one of the principal southern tributaries of Clark’s fork. Mr. Tinkham was 
assigned by Lieutenant Donelson to this duty, and with his detached party left the main party 
on the 26th September, with instructions to reach Fort Benton in six days. Reserving to a 
future paragraph a notice of this important side route of Mr. Tinkham, I will notice Lieutenant 
Mullan’s route; simply stating that the two routes come together at the Hell Gate passage, and 
that the St. Mary’s valley affords an excellent railroad line, not only to the St. Mary’s village, 
but high up towards its source. 
