USA > Montana > Then and now; or, Thirty-six years in the Rockies. Personal reminiscences of some of the first pioneers of the state of Montana. Indians and Indian wars. The past and present of the Rocky mountain country. 1864-1900 > Part 26
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THEN AND NOW;
off, but could not get to it; also water was in sight, but, though dying for the want of it, they could not reach it. It may be that those ideas which exist in the minds of the red people of the forest are but human instincts, but to me they seem to be the intellectual ruins of a prehistoric race that was once versed in the architecture of the universe, and believed in the Creator of all things.
ROBERT VAUGIIN. Oct. 14, 1899.
THE ROUND-UP.
It will not be long before the "round-up" will be numbered among the things that are of the "then," and the reading of this letter will be of more interest twenty-five years hence than it is now. Many do not know what is meant by "round- up;" I will try and give a brief description of it. The one
(From painting by C. M. Russell.)
ROPING A STEER TO EXAMINE THE BRAND.
that tells a story best is the one that commences at the begin- ning, and for me to tell how the cattle herds that are on the Western plains are conducted I must begin right.
In order to distinguish one animal from another of the cattle running at large on the public domain, the owner must have them branded. In Montana, for instance, there is a
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THEN AND NOW;
St. Ignatius Mission Indian School. REV. GEO. De La MOTTE, Superior.
EarmaiK,
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Pioneer Cattle Co. P. O. Address, Deer Lodge, Montana. CONRAD KOHRS, Manager Foreman. J. B. SPURGEON, Shelby.
Earınark.
Vent for cattle,
left thigh
Vent for horses,
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left thigh
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SAMPLES FROM THE BRAND BOOK.
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THIRTY-SIX YEARS IN THE ROCKIES.
state law governing brands. A record of brands, with the names of the owners attached, is kept by the secretary of the Board of Stock Commissioners.
A brand of the same resemblance can be used by other parties, but it must be placed on a different part of the animal and so described in the recorder's book. A brand book is published by the Live Stock Association and every member of the association is furnished with a book. By this method, whenever a stray animal is found, by referring to the brand book the owner can be informed of the whereabouts of his ani- mal. The law of Montana further provides that whenever an animal is sold the person who sells must vent, or counter-brand, such animal upon the same side as the original brand, which vent, or counter-brand, must be a fac-simile of the original brand, except that it may be reduced one-half in size ; the vent- ing of the original brand is prima facie evidence of the sale or transfer of the animal. Those herds live summer and winter without care or shelter. But, as a matter of course, during the winter months, some will wander many miles from their home range. The range, in a general way of speaking, extends, in many localities, for one hundred miles or more without a fence or any kind of barrier that will prevent stock from drifting before storms in winter when the streams are frozen over. The home range is a sectional portion that lies be- tween streams that are partly settled by farmers and stock- men. About the latter part of April the spring round-up commences and sweeps the whole country over. This is the time the cattle that strayed off during the winter are gathered together and taken back to their home range.
Often, on this round-up, sixty to seventy-five horsemen are at work with six to ten horses to the man; the extra horses are herded and driven with the camping outfit which consists of several covered wagons. One would at first think that an
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C.M.R.LSSEN
(From painting by C. M. Russell.)
THE ROUND-UP. TURNING OUT IN THE MORNING
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THIRTY-SIX YEARS IN THE ROCKIES.
army was crossing the country when these "rough riders" turn out in the morning. It is a wonder the many miles they cover in a day ; on an average they will ride seventy to eighty miles in one day during the round-up. Many of the horses may have been but partly broken the previous winter. To see these excellent horsemen mounting their bronchos, and see the bucking and the capers of those untamed steeds, is a circus in itself. Those young men who are out in the open air exercising as they do are strong and healthy; every inch of them is full of vim and nerve which makes them fearless and daring. The cowboys are not now, generally speaking, of the rough element, but are a highly intelligent class of young men; many of them are from the best families in the coun- try, and, during the school year, are students of some of our foremost colleges and universities. Colonel Roosevelt well knew where to go to get the "rough riders" when he called for cowboys and frontiersmen to fill his regiment.
The spring round-up lasts from three to four weeks; after that the several home range round-ups take place and brand- ing commences. The riders will gather several thousand cat- tle in one bunch at a given place on the open prairie where a camp is established. Here, where they all meet, the cattle are driven into one bunch and surrounded by the riders, and this is the round-up proper. The bellowing of the cows and calves is pitiful, for at first they are constantly in commotion and many of them become separated from each other; the noise they make is so awful one can hardly hear his own voice, but it is not long before each cow discovers her calf and then all is well. A fire is built near by and branding irons of all owners of cattle on the range are heated. Then the ropers will ride into the ring, lassoo the young cattle by the hind fect and pull them by the horn of the saddle to where the fire is, and each calf is branded the same brand as the mother. An
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(From painting by C. M. Russell.)
FIRST ATTEMPT AT ROPING
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THIRTY-SIX YEARS IN THE ROCKIES.
account of all calves and of each brand, separately, is kept, so that, at the end of the branding season, the owner can tell the number of calves branded. After getting through in one place the camp is moved to another part of the range, and so on, until the work is finished. It is hard work, but fascinating, and many seek to go on the round-up. In the same way the beef cattle are gathered in the fall and shipped east. The round-up, like the buffalo, will soon be a thing of the past and the Western plains will be dotted with homes occupied by actual 'settlers.
July 7, 1898.
ROBERT VAUGHN.
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TRAVELING "THEN" AND TRAVELING "NOW."
Some one said that to many persons, especially those in the East, the country west of Chicago is still a hazy geographical proposition, and that the Twin Cities, St. Paul and Minne- apolis-those posts at the gateway of an empire-seem to be on the confines of civilization, and to those less informed, the words Minnesota, Washington, Oregon and Montana, which rep- resent new and powerful states, may mean some new patent medicine or the names of noted race horses. In fact it does seem but yesterday that west of the Mississippi was but a dimly- known region when all traveling was done by stage and on horse- back; even the first locomotive that entered the state of Min- nesota is now in the possession of the Great Northern Railway Company. But "now" there are within the limits of the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington over 17,000 miles of railway.
As I now write the name "Great Northern" I cannot but think of the powerful ageney this transcontinental road has been to bring about the "then and now" in the Rocky moun- tain regions, and, for that matter, from the Great Lakes to Puget Sound, its eastern terminus being Duluth, on Lake Superior, and St. Paul and Minneapolis, on the Mississippi river, and extending westward to Everett, on the Pacific coast, a distance of 1,782 miles. It crosses the main range of the Rocky mountains without a tunnel at an elevation of 5,202 feet above sea level, with a grade on the easterly slope of 1 per cent and on the westerly slope of S per cent. A few miles west of the main divide and but three miles from the Great
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Northern track, lies the famous Lake McDonald, almost con- cealed by remarkably high and steep mountains and thick for- ests. It is difficult to one that loves nature's beauty and the wild sublimity of the mountains as I do, to pass such a vast region as this without making a passing note of it. Lake Mc- Donald is a picture of marvelous beauty, a suberb stretch of water eighteen miles long. Professor John H. Edwards, in the New York Observer, describes this beautiful lake and the re- gions surrounding it, as follows. He says :
"In the very heart of the Rockies in the Northern part of Montana, surrounded by mountain peaks in bewildering va- rieties of form, lies beautiful Lake McDonald. Not quite so large as Yellowstone Lake, it surpasses that loftiest of American mountain lakes of approximate size in grandeur of scenery. Nineteen peaks shoot skyward along its emerald shores or within easy eyeshot. Snow and glacier ice rest upon some of their summits and shoulders throughout the year. The editor of Forest and Stream says of it: 'There is every scenic beauty here of an Alpine lake, with a far greater choice of game and fish.' If Dr. Van Dyke, of New York, would cast his taking fly in these near-by waters, and then cast his irresistible liter- ary book amid the endless beauties of nature in this favored region, his double catch would furnish forth a two-fold feast of choicest quality.
"It would be a hopeless task for any less gifted pen to at- tempt a description of the noble scenery hid away in this mountain wilderness. The profound blue of the stainless sky, the manifold green of the dense forests that environ the lake and march up the steep flank of the mountain to the vertical height of half a mile above its perfect mirror, that reflects every fine needle and also photographs on its steely plate another half mile of rock and snow towering above the forest line, and then are the rich sunset hues thrown upon peak and glacier
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THEN AND NOW;
-all these seen twice in reality and by reflection. The rare coloring lavished on heights and depths is worth a long journey to see.
"Fish and game abcand for experts with rod and gun who will follow them to their haunts. The cold water of streams that are born of melting snow and ice of the upper ranges produce trout of solid sweetness and finest grain. Twelve
BEAUTIFUL LAKE McDONALD
miles of bridle path take on to Avalanche basin, a deep recess shut in between a horseshoe sweep of granite cliffs that rise 2,500 feet above the torquoise lakelet in its center, while all around the mountains lift their proud heads to the height of two miles, more or less, above sea level. Half a score of white streamlets leap over the edge of the curving precipice and drop a clear 1,000 feet upon the shelving detritus below, over which
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THIRTY-SIX YEARS IN THE ROCKIES.
they slide and jump in broken lines of foam down into the deep, green waters of the lake. One is reminded of Jean Paul's imagery of a mirror upheld by snowy ribbons, when he was writing of a German lakelet among the hills.
"These lakes and rivulets are all fed by the melting glacier above. This neighborhood furnishes the best opportunity to study living and dying glaciers to be found within our na- tional boundaries, Alaska excepted. John Muir, the king of western naturalists, whose name is born by the finest of Alaska glaciers, has written in ardent appreciation of the region we are describing. Thirty-three hundred feet above Lake McDon- ald, 6,500 above sea level, is Glacier camp, seven miles from Hotel Glacier, at the head of the lake. From this fine camp- ing place an hour's climb leads to Sperry glacier, named after the indefatigable explorer and popular lecturer, Professor Ly- man B. Sperry, of Oberlin. He has spent eight summer vaca- tions here and knows the places round about better, probably, than any other person. The serrated edge of this interesting ice formation measures in width over two miles, and from its upper edge to the end of the longest finger is a stretch of five miles of blue ice. At one time this ice sheet extended a mile further down and plunged over the abrupt precipice that walls the Avalanche basin. Its deserted track furnishes to-day an open page whereon the process of glacial erosion and deposit may be studied even more plainly and instructively than in the days of its greatest extent. Nearly every glacial phenome- non described in the books, it is said, may be found illustrated in this unique body of ice."
The Lewis and Clarke expedition crossed the Rocky moun- tains ninety-four years ago, and only a few miles further south from where the Great Northern now crosses. Those glaciers, and beautiful Lake McDonald, were not known then, and, for
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that matter, for over sixty years afterwards. For all that, those phenomena of nature may have been there for thousands of years. One thing is certain, they are there now.
It may not be out of place to give a brief history of the "then and now" of the Great Northern railway, for it is and has been one of the great factors in developing the mines, val- leys and plains of the Northwest.
In 1857 a grant of land was made by congress to aid the Territory of Minnesota in the construction of a line of railway
IN THE ROCKIES ON THE GREAT NORTHERN RY.
to extend from Stillwater via St. Paul and St. Anthony, to what is now Breckenridge, on the Red river, and a branch via St. Paul to St. Vincent, near the international boundary line. At that time the Territory of Minnesota included all of the two Dakotas to the Missouri river. The legislature of the territory accepted the grant which amounted to six seetions of land per mile. In the following year Minnesota was admitted as a state and a constitutional amendment was adopted allowing the state to issue bonds to carry along the work. Contraets were let
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and considerable grading was done at different times, but the financial crash which preceded, and the war, delayed the prog- ress and it was not until 1862 that any track was laid, and that was only ten miles; it was from St. Paul to St. Anthony, and was all the trackage of the first division of what is "now" the Great Northern railway ; also the first railway ever built in the state of Minnesota. All the material and rolling stock was brought by steamboat on the Mississippi. Minnesota was at the time but a sparsely settled and remote section of the Union.
I shall not attempt to detail the gradual upbuilding of this great transcontinental railway to its present system --- its growth from "then" ten-mile railroad to its "now" grand proportions of 4,786 miles. Its existence as a strong commercial force in the Northwest dates from 1879, when it passed into the control of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company, organized by J. J. Hill.
In 1880 the trackage of this company was a little in excess of 600 miles, with gross earnings under $2,000,000, while according to its last annual report, its gross earnings amounted to $25,017,903.66. The building of new track, from the time Mr. Hill acquired control in 1876, to 1894, averaged about a mile every working day for the entire period, and the average in gross earnings amounts to an increase of over $1,000,000 a year. Since 1894 extensions have been confined to branch lines and improvements to the betterment of the entire system. Aside from the original grant to the company within the state of Minnesota, the Great Northern system has extended itself into eight states and to British Columbia.
Thirty-five years ago the only method of traveling to and from the Pacific coast was on horseback or in a wagon, with many obstacles on the way-crossing streams, climbing high mountains and cutting the way through thick forests. Now rail- way cars, drawn by the iron horse, which climbs mountains and
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THEN AND NOW;
leaps over rivers and ravines with an untiring speed, go all the way to the Pacific ocean; and during all the journey the traveler enjoys the comforts, almost, of his own fireside. The solitude that was then
"In pathless woods where rolls the Oregon, And hears no sound save its own dashing,"
is now broken by the sound of the woodchopper's ax, the reaper, the steam whistle, and the rattle of thousands of wheels. The · railway is there now and has made a path of its own in which towns and cities of many thousands of inhabitants have sprung up, where a few years ago was a wilderness. And the valleys and plains of the arid region that were once covered with the brown native grasses, are now interspersed with fields of grain and meadows that are green, and evidence of the white man's civilization.
Before the railway it was a journey of as many months as it is now days to reach the Pacific coast. The following bit of his- tory of the northwest corner of our country, and of that histor- ical horseback ride of Marcus Whitman in 1842 from Oregon to Washington, D. C., and which was worth three stars to our flag, is from the Omaha World-Herald of August 4, 1899, and is as follows :
"The ride of Marcus Whitman was over snow-capped moun- tains and along dark ravines, traveled only by savage men. It was a plunge through icy rivers and across trackless prairies, a ride of four thousand miles across a continent in the dead of winter to save a mighty territory to the Union.
"Compared with this, what was the feat of Paul Revere, who rode eighteen miles on a calm night in April to arouse a handful of sleeping patriots and thereby save the powder at Concord.
"Whitman's ride saved three stars to the American flag. It was made in 1842.
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THIRTY-SIX YEARS IN THE ROCKIES.
"In 1792, during the first administration of Washington, Captain Robert Gray, who had already carried the American flag around the globe, discovered the mouth of the Columbia river. He sailed several miles up the great stream and landed and took possession in the name of the United States.
"In 1805, under Jefferson's administration, this vast terri- tory was explored by Lewis and Clarke, whose reports were pop- ular reading for our grandfathers, but the extent and value of this distant possession were very slightly understood, and no attempt at colonization was made save the establishment of the fur-trading station of Astoria in 1811.
"Strangely enough, England, too, claimed this same territory by virtue of rights ceded to it by Russia and also by the Van- couver surveys of 1792. The Hudson's Bay Company estab- lished a number of trading posts and filled the country with adventurous fur traders. So here was a vast territory, as large as New England and the state of Illinois combined, which seemed to be without any positive ownership. But for Marcus Whitman, it would have been lost to the Union.
"It was in 1836 that Dr. Whitman and a man by the name of Spaulding, with their young wives, the first white women that ever crossed the Rocky mountains, entered the valley of the Columbia and founded a mission of the American board. They had been sent out to christianize the Indians, but Whitman was also to build a state.
, "He was at this time thirty-five years old. In his journey to and fro for the mission he soon saw the vast possibilities of the country, and he saw, too, that the English were already ap- praised of this and were rapidly pouring into the territory. Under the terms of the treaties of 1818 and 1828, it was the tacit belief that whichever nationality settled and organized the territory, that nation would hold it. If England and the English fur traders had been successful in their plans the three
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great states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho would now con- stitute a part of British Columbia. But it was not destined to be.
"In the fall of 1842 it looked as if there would be a great inpouring of English into the territory, and Dr. Whitman took the alarm. There was no time to lose. The authorities at Washington must be warned. Hastily bidding his wife adieu, Dr. Whitman started on his hazardous journey. The perils, hardships and delays he encountered on the way we can but faintly conceive. His feet were frozen, he nearly starved, and once he came very near losing his life. He kept pushing on, and at the end of five terrible months he reached Washington.
"Ile arrived there tired and worn ; a bearded, strangely pic- turesque figure, clad entirely in buckskin and fur, a typical man of the prairies. He asked audience of President Tyler and Sec- retary of State Webster and it was accorded him. All elad as he was, with his frozen limbs, just in from his 4,000-mile ride, Whitman appeared before the two great men to plead for Oregon.
· "His statement was a revelation to the administration. Prev- ious to Whitman's visit, it was the general idea in congress that Oregon was a barren, worthless country, fit only for wild beasts and wild men. He opened the eyes of the government to the limitless wealth and splendid resources of that western terri- tory. He told them of its great rivers and fertile valleys, its mountains covered with forests, and its mines filled with prec- ious treasures. He showed them that it was a country worth keeping and that it must not fall into the hands of the British. He spoke as a man inspired and his words were heeded.
"What followed-the organization of companies of emigrants, the rapid settlement of the territory and the treaty made with Great Britain in 1846, by which the forty-ninth parallel was made the boundary line west of the Rocky mountains, are mat- ters of history.
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"The foresight and the heroism of one man and his gallant ride had saved three great stars to the Union."
Compare those perils and horseback rides of Whitman "then" to what Vice President Stevenson says of his ride from the Pa- cific coast to Washington, D. C., "now."
He said: "The passenger service on the Great Northern railway is equal to the best in the land, not to speak of the buffet car, which, in itself, is one of the greatest conveniences to tourists in making long journeys I ever enjoyed. So elabor- ate and complete are the accommodations that a man hardly realizes that he is traveling. It is a comfortable thing to find a library of books and tables spread with magazines, daily papers and writing materials, easy chairs and bath rooms, a barber shop and smoking room. It really seems as though a man had left his home and gone to his club, to step aboard this car."
Think of the perils, hardships and delays the traveler en- countered "then" and the comforts and accommodations he is having "now." "Then" for protection against hostile Indians he had to equip himself with gun and ammunition, "now" for comfort and pleasure he equips himself with Havana cigars, daily newspapers and magazines. And he sings :
Riding o'er the mountains in a buffet car, Writing loving letters, not a shake or jar; Leaping over rivers, flying down the vale; "O bless me, ain't it pleasant riding on a rail."
I know of no other section in the United States where there have been greater changes made since "then" and "now" in the way of traveling and otherwise, and in the same length of time, than in Northern Montana. A few years ago this part of the Union was but a region in the wilderness. Then the only mode of traveling or transporting goods was with vehicles drawn by horses or mules, and, not infrequently, by the slow and tedious
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GATE OF THE MOUNTAINS, MISSOURI RIVER, ON THE MONTANA CENTRAL RY.
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ox or on the backs of animals. Now there are in Northern Montana over seven hundred miles of railroads in operation. The Great Falls and Canada extends from the north and south, a distance of over one hundred and fifty miles. The Great North- ern system has its Montana Central, with its Sand Coulee and Neihart branches, besides the two lines that lead to both sides of the falls of the Missouri; and the Great Northern itself extends for over three hundred and fifty miles through the center of this northern Eden.
Some one may ask why I should name this remarkable sec- tion Eden. Well, I will answer by asking a few questions my- self. Why was it that tens of thousands of buffaloes used to roam here from time immemorial until they were killed off by white people ? And why was it that from fifteen to twenty thousand Indians lived here "then," and without doing a lick of work or receiving a single ration from the government ? And why is it that there are "now" over two hundred thousand cat- tle roaming on the same land and feeding on the same kind of grasses as the buffalo did then and without care or shelter, ex- cept that provided by nature ?
Great Falls, Mont., Nov. 2, 1899.
ROBERT VAUGHN.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
It would be hardly proper for me to lay down my pen and make no mention of the Yellowstone National Park, which is in the heart of the "Rockies." Besides, in my letter headed "Stampede to the Yellowstone," I stated that "Wonderland was not known then." That indicated that there was such a region in existence somewhere. Therefore it is necessary, at this time, to give a brief sketch of this wonderful place. The time of its first exploration was in 1869-70. It lays mostly in the northwest corner of Wyoming, extending a few miles into Mon- tana on its north and Idaho on its west. It extends from a few miles east of 110 degrees to a few miles west of 111 de- grees west longitude from Greenwich. Here the United States government, by an act which passed both houses of congress unanimously, and was approved March 1, 1872, has withdrawn from sale and occupation and set apart as a National Park or perpetual pleasure ground, for the use and enjoyment of the people, a region fifty-four by sixty-two miles and covering an area of 3,312 square miles or 2,119,680 acres. Its average ele- vation above the sea is from 7,000 to 7,500 feet, while its high- est peak rises to the height of 11,155 feet.
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