An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day, Part 4

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1014

USA > Idaho > An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day > Part 4

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The instructions issued to these gentlemen, by Mr. Jefferson, while specific as to purpose. were broad as to geographical extent. In them he says :

"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river and such principal streams of it as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Colum- bia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water com- munication across the continent for the purposes of commerce."

They were directed to thoroughly inform them- selves of the extent and number of the Indian tribes, their customs and degrees of civilization, and to report fully upon the topography of the regions through which they passed, together with the character of the soil, natural products, animal life, mineral resources, climate, and to inquire particularly into the fur trade and the needs of commerce. When these instructions were given, Louisiana had not been ceded to the United States, and hence Mr. Jefferson continued:

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

"Your mission has been communicated to the ministers here from France, Spain and Great Britain, and through them to their governments; and such assurances given them as to its objects as we trust will satisfy them. The country of Louisiana having been ceded by Spain to France, the passport you have from the minister of France, the representative of the present sover- eign of that country, will be a protection with all its subjects; and that from the minister of Eng- land will entitle you to the friendly aid of any traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet."

A few days before the expedition was ready to start, the joyful intelligence was received that France had formally ceded Louisiana to the United States; hence the passport of the repre- sentative of the French government at Washing- ton was not needed.

Captain Lewis left Washington on the 5th day of July, 1803, and on arriving at Louisville, Ken- tucky, was joined by Clarke. They selected their party, went as far as St. Louis, near which they went into camp, and remained until the final start was made, on the 14th day of May, 1804. The party now consisted of Captains Lewis and Clarke, nine young men from Kentucky, four- teen soldiers, two French Canadian voyageurs, an interpreter and hunter, and a negro servant of Captain Clarke. The party ascended the Mis- souri river as far as the country of the Mandan Indians, with which tribe they remained all winter.

Their westward journey was resumed in the spring of 1805. They followed up the Missouri, of whose course and tributaries and characteris- tics they had obtained very accurate information from the Mandans. Passing the mouth of the Yellowstone, or Roche Jaune of the French Can- adian trappers and voyageurs who had already visited it, they continued up the Missouri, pass- ing its great falls and cascades, and ascending through its mighty cañon, crossed the Rocky mountain divide and descended its western side to the stream now known at different points on its course as "Deer Lodge," "Hellgate," "Bitter Root," "Clarke's Fork," and "Pend d'Oreille." Upon this stream they bestowed the name of "Clarke's river." From this river the advance party, under Clarke, crossed the Bitter Root

mountains by the Lolo trail. On these rugged heights they suffered intensely from cold and hunger. On the 20th day of September they came to a village of Nez Perces Indians, situated on a plain about fifteen miles from the south fork of Clearwater river, where they were received with great hospitality.

When they reached the Nez Perces village the party was nearly famished, and they partook of such quantities of the food so liberally provided by their Indian hosts that many of them be- came too ill to proceed until the second day, and among that number was Clarke himself. As soon as they were able to proceed they went to the village of the chief, Twisted Hair, situated on an island in the stream. To this river Clarke gave the name "Koos-koos-kee," doubtless slight- ly misunderstanding the words used by the Nez Perces in distinguishing it from the Snake river, into which it enters-"Koots-koots-hee"-which those acquainted with the Nez Perces tongue say is a descriptive term, and means, "This is the smaller."

Here the two parties were united, and, after resting a few days, journeyed on down the Clear- water. The company was now utterly exhausted. Many found it difficult to sit upon their horses. Captain Lewis was very ill. The weather was hot and oppressive. They felt that they could proceed no farther in their former manner of trav- eling, and the commanders resolved to prepare canoes and prosecute the remainder of their jour- ney in them. With Twisted Hair as guide, Clarke proceeded about five miles, where suitable timber was found, and encamped on the low ground opposite the forks of the river.

When their canoes were constructed, leaving their horses and equipage with Twisted Hair, they embarked on the Clearwater on their jour- ney toward the Pacific. They were not long in reaching Snake river, which, in honor of Captain Lewis, they called "Lewis river." Down that stream to the Columbia was a quick and rapid passage. Down the Columbia was not less rapid, and they reached the cascades of that stream on the 21st day of October. Making the portage of the cascades they embarked again, passed the mouth of the Willamette without observing it. and on the 15th day of November reached cape Disappointment and looked out on the great

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

ocean, which had been the goal of their journey- ing for more than a year.

They remained near the ocean, wintering in a log dwelling which they erected on the south side of the Columbia, which they called "Fort Clatsop," in honor of the Indians which inhabited that region. Hoping that some trading vessel from which they could replenish their stores would visit the river, they delayed their departure homeward until the 23d of March, 1806. Before leaving they gave the chiefs of the Clatsops, and also of the Chinooks, who resided on the north side of the river, certificates of hospitable treat- ment, and posted a writing on the wall of their cabin in these words:

"The object of this last is, that through the me- dium of some civilized person who may see the same, it may be made known to the world that the party, consisting of the persons whose names are hereunto annexed, and who were sent out by the government of the United States of America to explore the interior of the continent of North America, did penetrate the same by the way of the Missouri and Columbia rivers to the dis- charge of the latter into the Pacific ocean, where they arrived on the 14th day of November, 1805, and departed the 23d day of March, 1806, on their return to the United States by the same route by which they had come out."

To this paper were appended the names of the members of the expedition. Several copies of the paper were left among the Indians, and the following year one of them was handed by an Indian to Captain Hall, an American trader, whose vessel, the Lydia, had entered the Colum- bia river. By him it was taken to China and thence to the United States. Therefore had the party perished on their return, evidence of the completion of their purpose would have been left behind them.

Their journey out had been so long and its expense so great that, on taking an invoice of their possessions on starting on the return jour- ney, they found that they had available for traffic with the Indians only six blue robes, one scarlet robe, one United States artillery hat and coat, five robes made from the national ensign, and a few old clothes trimmed with ribbons. Upon this scant store must they depend for purchasing provisions and horses, and paying tribute to stub-

born chieftains through whose dominions they might pass on their long homeward journey.

On their return they proceeded up the south side of the Columbia, coming unexpectedly upon a large river flowing into it from the south. On an island at its mouth was a large Indian village called "Multnomah," which name they under- stood to apply to the river they had discovered, of the course of which they made careful inquiry. The result of these inquiries was noted in the map of the expedition, making the river to flow from California to the north and west, and the Indian tribes that actually resided on the waters of Snake river to reside upon its banks. Their journey up stream was far more tedious with their canoes than had been their passage down, owing to the numerous rapids and cascades; and at the mouth of what they called Lapage river- now "John Day"-they abandoned their canoes and packing their baggage on the back of a few horses that they had purchased from the Indians, proceeded up the southern bank of the Columbia on foot. Crossing the Umatilla river, called by them the You-ma-lo-law, they arrived at the mouth of the Walla Walla on the 27th day of April.

The greatest Indian chief of the Pacific coast, at that time, if not indeed of all tradition, was then at the head of the Walla nation. His name was Yellept. The story of his life and death, as handed down by the traditions of his people, is of the most thrilling and romantic character, but belongs rather to such writings as Cooper's than to the sober chronicles of history. This powerful chieftain received the company with most generous hospitality, which charmed the travelers into some lingering before they ven- tured farther into the wild gorges of the moun- tains. The journal of the expedition records the kindness of these Indians with many appreciative words, and closes its notice of them by saying: "We may, indeed, justly affirm that of all the Indians that we have seen since leaving the United States the Walla Wallas were the most hospitable, honest and sincere."

Leaving these hospitable people on the 29th of April, the party passed eastward on the great "Nez Perces trail." This trail was the great highway of the Walla Wallas, Cayuses and Nez Perces eastward to the buffalo ranges, to which

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

they annually resorted for game supplies. It passed up the valley of the Touchet, called by Lewis and Clarke the "White Stallion"-thence over the high prairie ridges, and down the Al- pona to the crossing of Snake river, then up the north bank of Clearwater to the village of Twisted Hair, where the exploring party had left their horses on their way down the previous autumn. It was worn deep and broad, and in many stretches on the open plains and over the smooth hills twenty horsemen could ride abreast in the parallel paths worn by the constant rush of the Indian generations from time imme- morial. But the plow has long since obliterated it, and where the monotonous song of the In- dian's march was droningly chanted for so many barbaric ages, the song of the reaper thrills the clear air as he comes to his garner, bringing in the sheaves.

For the purposes of this narrative it is not necessary to trace the explorations of these trav- elers farther, interesting as they would be, for they scarcely belong directly to Idaho history. With the usual adventures of explorers in the unfrequented regions which they traversed they followed homeward the path of their outward advance, and reached St. Louis on the 25th of September, 1806, having been absent nearly two years and a half.

Their safe return to the United States sent a thrill of rejoicing through the country. Mr. Jef- ferson, the great patron and inspirer of the ex- pedition, says of it:

"Never did a similar event excite more joy throughout the United States. The humblest of its citizens had taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey, and looked forward with impa- tience to the information it would furnish. Their anxieties, too, for the safety of the corps had been kept in a state of excitement by lugubrious ru- mors, circulated from time to time on uncertain authorities, and uncontradicted by letters, or other direct information, from the time they had left the Mandan towns on their ascent up the river in April of the preceding year, 1805, until their actual return to St. Louis.

Captain Lewis, soon after his return, was ap- pointed governor of Louisiana, and Captain Clarke was made general of militia of the same territory and Indian agent for the vast region

he had so successfully explored. Both had per- formed inestimable services for their country, and were well worthy of generous reward. For themselves they had achieved a lasting fame. Their names will be remembered as long as the crystal waters of "Clarke's fork" or deep flow of "Lewis river" roll to the Pacific sea.

These two early expeditions, that by Macken- zie in 1792, under the auspices of a company wholly British, and that of Lewis & Clarke in 1805-6, under the direction of the government of the United States, are, perhaps, the only ex- peditions across the American continent entitled to be classed as exploring. Those that followed these entered more into the fabric of the history of the regions by them brought to the knowl- edge of the civilized world. If any exception to this is allowed it should refer to the expeditions of Captain Fremont, to which, as they were un- der the auspices and at the expense of the United States government, it seems proper that a brief reference shall be made. They had for their ob- ject geographical and topographical informa- tion.

John C. Fremont was a member of the corps of topographical engineers of the United States, appointed from civil life, and hence not enter- ing that service through the door of West Point. He was restlessly ambitious, in love with adven- ture and anxious to distinguish himself. For his fame he fell on auspicious times. He solicited an appointment to the command of an expedition to explore and map out the country west of Mis- souri as far as the South Pass in the Rocky mountains. In accordance with his request Colonel J. J. Abut, chief of the corps of topo- graphical engineers, ordered the expedition and gave its command to Captain Fremont. As this expedition of 1842 had little more to do with Idaho than to prepare the way for the one of the following year which was continued in force to the dalles of the Columbia and by Captain Fre- mont himself to Fort Vancouver we can dismiss it with this brief reference.

The second expedition, that of 1843, like that of the preceding year, was organized at Captain Fremont's own solicitation. He dictated its ob- ject, marked out its route and selected its per- sonnel. Its object was to connect his own sur- vey of the previous year, which reached as far

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

west as the South Pass, with that of Commander Wilkes on the coast of the Pacific ocean. He selected a company of thirty-three men, princi- pally of Creole and Canadian French, with a few Americans, and leaving Kansas landing on the Missouri river on the 29th of May, reached the termination of his former reconnoissance in the South Pass, by the way of the Kansas, Ar- kansas and upper Platte rivers, passing over the spot where Denver now is, on the 13th of Au- gust.

From the South Pass Captain Fremont con- tinned his course along the well beaten emigrant road to Green river and then to Bear river, mak- ing careful annotations of the topography and geology of the country over which he passed. His exhaustive description of the locality and character of Soda or Beer springs has been the authority of all writers on the topography and mineralogy of that region from that day to this. It is worth observing that his astronomical ob- servations here place Soda springs in latitude 42° 39' 57", or less than fifty miles north of what was then Mexico and consequently the same dis- tance in Oregon. These are the "Soda springs" now on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad in eastern Idaho.

The intention of Captain Fremont being to explore the Great Salt Lake, which up to this time had been almost a myth so far as science was concerned, about five miles west of Soda springs he turned to the left, while the emigrant road bore away over the hills to the right, and, after ten days' travel, mainly down the Bear river valley, on the afternoon of September 5th encamped on the shore of a great salt marsh, which he correctly concluded must be the margin of the lake. He reached the bed of the lake near the mouth of the Bear river, but skirted along it to the south until he reached the mouth of Weber river, near which the party encamped and made preparations for an exploration of some portions of the lake in an inflated india- rubber boat. Finally on the morning of Sep- tember 9, the party launched out on the then calm surface of this ocean-like sea, and about noon reached the shore of an island where they remained that and the following day.

The account given by Fremont of Salt Lake and its surroundings is exceedingly particular and

interesting, but of too great length for these pages. He remained upon the lake until the 12th of September, when he resumed his jour- ney toward the Columbia, returning along the line of his previous travel. The course of the company led northward, through the range of mountains that divide the great basin of Salt Lake from the waters that flow to the Pacific through the Snake and Columbia rivers. From these mountains they emerged into the valley of what he calls the Pannack river, otherwise known as the Raft river, down which they followed until they emerged on the the plains of Snake river in view of the "Three Buttes," the most prominent landmarks of these great plains, and reached Snake river on the evening of September 22, a few miles above the American Falls.

From this point the reconnoissance of Captain Fremont was down the valley of Snake river, along the course afterward so familiar to the emigrants, sweeping to the south along the foot of the Goose Creek mountains, several miles dis- tant from Snake river, for all the distance in which it runs through the deeply cut basaltic gorge, in which are situated its greatest curios- ities, the Twin falls and the great Shoshone falls, the existence of both of which was unknown to white men until ten years later than Captain Fremont's explorations. He crossed the river to the north side some miles below "Fishing" or Salmon falls, thence to the Boise river, striking that stream near the present site of the city of Boise, and via old Fort Boise, where he re- crossed the Snake river to the south, and so westward through Powder river valley and Grande Ronde valley to the Columbia river, which he reached at Walla Walla, now Wallala, on the 25th of October. In this entire distance many careful and frequent astronomical observa- tions were taken, latitudes and longitudes were fixed, and the country very accurately described topographically.

Fremont continued his journey down the banks of the Columbia, and on the 4th of No- vember reached The Dalles. Leaving most of his party at this point, Captain Fremont himself con- tinued his journey down the river, and in a few days reached Vancouver, where his westward journey terminated.

Completing the outfit for his proposed winter

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

journey toward the states, Captain Fremont re- turned up the Columbia to The Dalles, arriving at that place on the afternoon of the 18th of Noven- ber. From this point he proposed to begin his return expedition. The route selected would lead him southward, east of the Cascade range, clear through the territory of the United States, and then, by a south and eastward wheel, through the Mexican territory, including a continued sur- vey of the valley of the Great Salt Lake, back again to the frontiers of Missouri. Those ac- quainted with the region he expected to travel need not be told that few explorers ever ven- tured on a more perilous expedition than was this at the season of the year in which he under- took it. The country was unknown, except that it was a vast region of bleak and open deserts, of vast and rocky ranges of mountains; that its in- habitants were among the lowest and most sav- age of human beings, and that there was in it

little that could be used for the support of life. It was a bold, brave venture these men made. It was on the 25th day of November before they were ready to set out from The Dalles, and it is scarcely necessary to enter into details concern- ing their return journey, of which full record has been made in various compilations.

The publication of the journal of these expedi- tions of Captain Fremont, in 1845, awakened a much deeper interest in the Oregon country than ever before existed, and his descriptions of the route from the Missouri river to Fort Vancouver, in the very heart of Oregon, was of great value to the great emigrations that crossed the plains from 1843 onward. His descriptions were re- markably accurate, and his maps of the routes traveled most scientifically correct, and these con- siderations entitle his explorations to this brief reference in a history of Idaho.

CHAPTER IV.

RIVAL CLAIMS AND PRETENSIONS. .

T HE claims of the European nations to ownership of the lands and resources of America rested on a somewhat flimsy basis in right. Its morality was that of might. There was a quasi yielding to these claims as against each other on grounds of discovery and formal occupancy. At the same time not one of these powers stopped for a moment to consider what rights of these people that were found there when they came would be violated by their as- sumptions. Barbaric nations never had any rights that nations calling themselves civilized have felt bound to respect. England, France, and Spain were, as relates to what were termed barbaric nations, the freebooters of the world. America was a field for civilized rapine worthy of the struggle of these racial giants. Under some forms of treaty, designed mostly by either party to limit the pretensions of the other, but as far as possible leaving itself free to enlarge its own claims as it might have power to enforce them, these powers moved forward first in the agreed division of the area of North America among themselves, and then in using the allotted areas as the small change that settled the balances of peace and war in continental Europe. Plenipo- tentiaries sat in European capitals, five thousand miles away from the regions most interested, and arbitrated American destinies. In this way America became the real, though passive, ar- biter of the world's new era. It was what Provi- dence had thrown into the balances of history to poise ultimately its beam for the equities and liberties of humanity. Let us see how the ques- tion stood two hundred years after the Spanish navigator had lifted the veil of the sea from the fair face of this new land.

When the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, gave some definition to the claims of France and Spain and Russia in the New World, Spain claimed as her share of North America all the Pacific coast from Panama to Nootka sound, or Vancouver

island. Her pretensions covered the coasts, bays, islands, fisheries, and extended inland indefinite- ly. Part of this claim was alleged on the ground of discovery by the heroic De Soto and others; and all of them were based on discovery under the papal bull of Alexander VI., in 1493. This bull or decree gave to the discoverer all newly discovered lands and waters. In 1530 Balboa, the Spaniard, discovered the Pacific ocean as he came over the isthmus of Panama, and so, in har- mony with the pretentious decree of Alexander VI., Spain assumed rights of proprietorship over it. France held advantageous positions in Ameri- ca for the mastery of the continent; but as they were outside of the limits of what was afterward known as "Oregon" they need not be discussed. Russia at this time held no possessions in North America. But Peter the Great was her emperor, and his plans were already matured for entering the list of contestants for empire in the New World. Before his plans could be fully consum- mated Peter the Great had died, and his widow, Catherine, was on the throne of Muscovy. With an enterprise not less aggressive than his, she pushed forward his plans of commercial and ter- ritorial aggrandizement until northern Asia as well as northern Europe had been made com- mercially tributary to the designs of Russia. It was but a step from the Asiatic shores of the northern Pacific to those of the American main- land of Alaska, and Russia was in a position to take that one step. The fur trade furnished the occasion. Prominent, if not indeed chief, among the agents of Russian aggression in this direction was Behring the Dane, who made three voyages through the straits that now bear his name, and on the third gave up his life on a desolate little granite island that still monuments his memory. But he, and those associated with him, had given, by visitation and trade, a color of title to Russia to this northwestern America.

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An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day, Part 4

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1014

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1014