022 
LETTER OF CAPTAIN MCCLELLAN. 
tions are resumed next season, these houses will serve for the depot of provisions, or otherwise 
will be available as the quarters of the Indian agent to be appointed in that valley. 
Lieutenant Mullan reports that the Blackfeet Indians are keeping their promises of peace but 
faithlessly ; and I would respectfully suggest, that I have strongly recommended to the Indian 
Department an appropriation for a general Indian council at Fort Benton during the coming season, 
and that I have set forth the necessity of a military force being present. I would strongly 
recommend to the War Department the establishment of a military post at or near Fort Benton 
for the protection of emigrants, to whom, I think, a route is now opened which will compete 
favorably with that through the South Pass. Ascending the Missouri river with their effects, 
which has been found to be navigable for steamers to the mouth of Milk river, and will, I believe, 
be found navigable to the falls of the Missouri by Lieutenant Grover’s survey, and having their 
cattle driven along the trails by the river-bank, they will from Fort Benton, and even from the 
mouth of Milk river, find fair wagon roads to the St. Mary’s valley. By the mail which takes 
this communication I shall forward a report upon wagon roads, from which it will be seen that 
but little labor is required to open a tolerably good road through to Wallah-Wallah. 
Very respectfully, sir, your most obedient servant, 
ISAAC I. STEVENS, 
Governor of Washington Territory, in Command of Exploration. 
Hon. Jefferson Davis, 
Secretary of War, Washington. 
P. S.—Within six hours of writing the above, Mr. Tinkham reached Olympia from the Sno- 
qualme Pass, and bringing information of the most important character; the snow deposited in 
layers of one or two feet, but six or seven feet deep for some six miles, and one and a half foot 
or more for only about forty-five additional miles, and undisturbed by wind, and offering not the 
slightest obstruction to the passage of trains. The grades good to Seattle, with a tunnel of con¬ 
siderable length. I herewith enclose a copy of Mr. Tinkham’s report, and cannot too much com¬ 
mend the energy and judgment which he has shown in crossing, in mid-winter, the Cascade 
range, and actually bringing to the sound the route of the Snoqualme Pass, and thus accomplish¬ 
ing what had not been done by the previous labors of tb e expedition. 
Olympia, W. T., January 31, 1854. 
Sir: In compliance with your instructions of this date, I have the honor to submit the follow¬ 
ing memoranda of my late trip to the vicinity of the Snoqualme falls. 
December 23.—Left Olympia in a canoe, manned by three Indians, for Steilacoom. The party 
consisted of Mr. J. F. Minter, Mr. Bigsby, and three men—Roche, Nicholls, and Lisette. 
Reached Steilacoom shortly after dark. As my original intention was to take horses at Steila¬ 
coom for the Snoqualme falls, and thence proceed as far as practicable on snow-shoes, in the 
mean time sending a canoe to meet me with provisions at the falls, I spent five days at Steila¬ 
coom in endeavoring to procure animals and guides. The few Indians who knew the trail were 
not to be induced to go—representing that the streams could not be crossed, &c., &c. I also 
found that still further delay would be necessary to procure the requisite animals, and that there 
was no certainty of their being ultimately procured. I therefore changed my plan, and deter¬ 
mined to go by water to the falls, and proceed as far as possible on foot. 
On the 29th I left Steilacoom, late in the afternoon, with two canoes, reaching the mouth of 
the Sinahomish late on the first of January. This river empties into Port Gardner, directly 
opposite Gedney island. At its mouth are extensive sand-flats, quite thickly covered with large 
trees that have probably been swept down the river in high water. The harbor between the 
fiats and Point Elliot, although a very fair one, is by no means suitable for the terminus of a great 
railroad. 
