226 
RECONNAISSANCE OF THE THREE BUTTES. 
modified by Mr. Lander, and the reasons were given for preferring the Little Falls route as 
follows, viz: 
In approaching the valley of the Missouri, the line crossing the Mississippi at Sauk rapids does 
not preserve the importance given it in former reports. The scarcity of suitable timber for bridg¬ 
ing and the light structures required in partial grading of the road, that the railway may be used 
for transportation of material for forwarding it to an early completion at low cost, cannot be too 
fully considered. For this reason, T will again refer to the route by the Little Falls, already given 
an important character in my report of the crossings of the Mississippi. The route by Little Falls 
does not occupy so favorable a position in regard to an eastern connexion as that crossing the 
Mississippi at Sauk rapids, but is more nearly direct towards Lake Superior. The crossing is the 
best upon the Mississippi, and the facilities for construction very great. While passing through 
the pine region of the northern Mississippi, and the wooded district extending to the Red river, it 
assumes a high character—viewed in connexion with the present subject—“the scarcity of timber 
for building purposes in the vicinity of the Missouri.” 
In a report submitted February 15, Mr. Lander says: “It appears, then, that, from the great 
scarcity of timber upon the second division of the route, the first division should pass through 
a timbered region. The difference in cost between the route by Little Falls and that by Sauk 
rapids is probably very little. The route from Little Falls to the Bois des Sioux is represented 
as passing over high, sandy plateaux, broken by low ridges, and interspersed with shallow 
swamps. The upland country is well-timbered with the eastern pine, and the swamps filled 
with excellent cedar. There would be an increase of culvert masonry upon this route for the 
purpose of drainage through a low, wooded country, and extra cost in grubbing, but the crossings 
of the Chippewa and Tipsina rivers occur near their sources, and the line generally preserves a 
better character than that near the odometer survey, and which crosses the Mississippi at Sauk 
rapids.” 
12. Report of me. a. w. tinkham, assistant engineer, of his reconnaissance of the 
“ THREE BUTTES,” AND OF HIS RECONNAISSANCE OF THE ROUTE. 
Washington, D. C., July 7,1854. 
Dear Sir : On the morning of September 3, 1853, I separated from the train of Lieut. Donel- 
son, and entered upon a reconnaissance, following up the valley of Milk river some fifty miles, 
crossing over the “ Trois Buttes,” the Trunk of the Prairie, and the “Knee,” in the route to 
Fort Benton. 
These first named isolated mountains, separated from each other, and from whose bases in 
every direction the prairie stretches in its almost unbroken monotony for long distances, had 
within a day or two first come into view, and on the day previous to the one on which I com¬ 
menced the reconnaissance I had been out in the smooth, dry prairie separating Milk and Marias 
rivers, noting their partially-discovered outline, and endeavoring to find their position. 
A direct march from Lieut. Donelson’s camp, noted September 2, would have saved con¬ 
siderable distance here; a straight line would have carried us over a dry, parched prairie, nearly 
stripped of grass, without wood or water. For these reasons I followed the valley of Milk river 
some fifty miles, and until within about thirty miles of the base of the most easterly of the Trois 
Buttes, and then was able, with a single day’s march, to reach the base of the mountains, where 
were water, grass, and wood in abundance. 
In this interval of fifty miles, Milk river bottom is marked by the same character of Mauvaises 
Terres bluffs which at intervals distinguish it lower down; steep, irregular, broken slopes of clay 
and sand, destitute and naked of all vegetation, with the outcropping tertiary sandstone in 
layers or blocks. The cotton-wood growth, growing thinner from the commencement of our 
