Explorers, the Fur Trade, and Gold and Silver. Chapter 4: Explorers By 1800, European diseases had...

Explorers, the Fur Trade, and Gold and Silver

Chapter 4: Explorers By 1800, European diseases had traumatized almost all of the tribes in what is now Montana. Three riches of the Americas: furs, gold, and fertile lands. The Northwest Passage: a water route across North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean would allow Americans to connect with Far East markets.

Chapter 4 The region between eastern Montana and the Pacific Ocean was the last blank space on the map because it was the hardest to get to. For a long time, Francois and Louis LaVerendrye were considered the first white men to have visited Montana, but many historians now think they werent quite here just close enough to see the Bighorn Mountains from a distance.

Chapter 4 President Thomas Jefferson was excited by Alexander Mackenzies descriptions and maps of the West. Jefferson was also afraid that the British might find the Northwest Passage and claim the land & fur trade west of the Rockies. According to what would later be called Manifest Destiny, many Europeans believed that God had given them the North American continent so they could spread their ideals of what defined civilization.

Chapter 4 Besides the U.S., France, England, and Russia also wanted to claim the territory called French Louisiana. Louisiana stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Reasons why Americans wanted Louisiana: huge land area; Mississippi River was a main transportation route; also, it might contain the Northwest Passage.

Chapter 4 April 30, 1803: U.S. purchased Louisiana Territory (the Louisiana Purchase). This doubled the size of the U.S. Of course, American Indians living in Montana did not know that their homeland had just been sold. Jefferson chose his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an expedition across America the Corps of Discovery.

Chapter 4 Lewis chose William Clark as his co-leader this was important in case either man died along the way. Two differences between the Corps of Discovery and earlier expeditions: 1) Instead of looking for good fur country, they were searching for the Northwest Passage; 2) It was a military expedition with a military name (Corps of Discovery).

Chapter 4 Non-military members of the expedition included Clarks slave, York; Toussaint Charbonneau; Charbonneaus wife, Sacagawea; and their infant son, Jean Baptiste (nicknamed Pomp). During the winter of 1804- 1805, the expedition lived with the Mandan Indians near present-day Bismarck, N.D.

Chapter 4 After leaving the Mandan villages in the spring of 1805, the expedition crossed into what is now Montana. At the confluence of the Marias and Missouri Rivers, the expedition had to decide which one to follow werent sure which was really the Missouri and which one was its tributary. The men thought the right fork (the Marias) was really the Missouri, but Lewis and Clark thought the Missouri was the left fork.

Decision Point: Confluence of the Missouri and Marias Rivers as seen by Lewis and Clark

Chapter 4 Lewis and Clark were proven right five days later when Lewis found the Great Falls this showed that they were really still on the Missouri River.

Chapter 4 After portaging around the Great Falls, the expedition passed through the Gates of the Mountains and eventually reached the headwaters of the Missouri River. The Missouri River is formed by the Three Forks of the Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin Rivers.

Chapter 4 Lewis and Clark also discovered that the Northwest Passage was a myth there was no all-water route to the Pacific Ocean, but lots of mountains blocking the way. Now they desperately needed to get horses so they could get over the mountains before winter. When they met the Shoshone tribe, from which they hoped to buy horses, it turned out that the leader of the first band of Shoshones they met was actually Sacagaweas brother, Cameahwait. Captain Lewis Meeting the Shoshones by Charles M. Russell (right).

Chapter 4 The expedition was able to cross the mountains after much hardship, using horses purchased from the Shoshone, and with the help of a Shoshone guide named Old Toby. They also had help from the Salish tribe, which showed them where Lolo Pass crossed the Bitterroot Mountains. The Salish thought that the seven members of the Corps that they met must have had a narrow escape from some enemies because there were only seven of them and they had little in their packs.

Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians by Charlie Russell

Chapter 4 On their return trip from the Pacific Ocean, the expedition split into two groups in Montana, so that Clarks group could map the Yellowstone River, and Lewiss group could explore the Marias River. Lewis took part of his group to find the headwaters of the Marias. They met, camped with, and then fought with a small band of Blackfeet two Blackfeet were killed. Wolf Calf was a 13-year old Piegan Blackfeet who witnessed Lewiss fight with his people.

Site of Lewiss Camp Disappointment near the Two Medicine River also the site of the Two Medicine Fight

Chapter 4 In Montana, the Corps of Discovery recorded 31 new plant species and 32 new species of animals, fish, and birds. The expedition met 27 different tribes. Clarks party that explored the Yellowstone River had all of its horses stolen by Crow Indians. Sacagaweas presence probably saved the Corps from being attacked by Indians because the red paint she wore on her face showed she was traveling for peaceful purposes also, just the fact that she was a woman with a baby.

Chapter 4 Southern Montana was explored by a French fur trader named Francois Antoine Larocque. Northwest Montana was explored by David Thompson (the explorer, not the basketball player). Thompson operated differently than most explorers he lived here, instead of traveling quickly through. Fur companies were most interested in collecting beaver pelts because beaver fur was perfect for making popular styles of hats.

Chapter 4 John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, soon returned to Montana to become a fur trapper. Colter found the geysers and hot springs that are now in Yellowstone Park but nobody believed him they called it Colters Hell! Colter was nearly killed when captured by the Blackfeet but they let him race for his life, and he escaped. Different ideas/expectations brought to Montana by newcomers: different religion (Christianity), economic system (capitalism/profit), and different ideas about how to use the land.

Chapter 5: The Fur Trade The fur trade brought the first wave of outsiders who were drawn to Montana for its natural resources. European fur companies sent explorers to North America to find beaver because most of Europes beavers had been killed off by the 1700s. The two main British-owned fur companies in North America were the Hudsons Bay Company and the North West Company in 1821, they merged under the name Hudsons Bay Company.

1820s-style beaver fur hat

Beaver pelt in plew After a beaver was skinned, the pelt was stretched out to dry in a round frame called a plew.

Example of a beaver pond Trappers used castoreum a mixture of castor (from beaver glands), nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, etc. to attract beaver to their traps.

Chapter 5 Fur company brigades: traveled in teams of Indian, Metis, and non-Indian trappers through a specific region. Indian tribes like the Assiniboine and Cree acted as middlemen in the fur trade transporting beaver pelts and bison robes to trading forts and exchanging them for factory goods. Metis (also called Metifs): mixed-blood descendants of European (mostly French) fur traders whod married native women (mostly Crees or Chippewas).

Chapter 5 Metis used Red River carts: two-wheeled carts made entirely of wood, lashed together with bison hide & sinew. These were developed by the Metis in the early 1700s. These carts were very noisy, because the Metis didnt grease the axles (since grease would attract so much dust & grit). The first fur post in what is now Montana was built by Manuel Lisa at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Bighorn Rivers.

A Metis Red River Cart The Metis never snuck up on anybody.

Site of Fort Manuel Lisa (a.k.a. Ft. Ramon/Ft. Raymond) in southeastern Montana

Manuel Lisa

John Colters race for life

Chapter 5 The Blackfeet forced the Missouri Fur Company to abandon its fort at the Three Forks because the Blackfeet didnt want Americans supplying guns to their enemy tribes. William Ashley recruited 100 Enterprising Young Men as fur trappers for his Rocky Mountain Fur Company many of these became famous in Montana history: Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, and Daniel T. Potts. About 80% of white fur trappers married Indian women.

Jim Bridger Celebrated in the song, Jim Bridger by Johnny Horton: https://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=SnJL4ErQK8k https://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=SnJL4ErQK8k

Map of Rocky Mountain Fur Company trading posts

Chapter 5 The rendezvous: a huge meeting of fur traders, mountain men, and Indian trappers lots of trading, drinking, and fighting; lasted several days. Fur companies thrived under the rendezvous system because it required no permanent buildings, lasted only a few weeks each year, and was incredibly profitable prices of supplies sold to the men there were often marked up 1,000%.

Chapter 5 John Jacob Astor formed the American Fur Company (AFC) in 1808. The AFC built Fort Union at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, just east of present-day Montana. A top trader for the AFC, Alexander Culbertson, quickly developed deep ties with the Blackfeet when he married a Blackfeet woman (Natawista Ixsana). In 1846, the AFC built Fort Benton in the heart of Blackfeet country.

John Jacob Astor

Pierre Chouteau, Jr. Chouteau ran the Missouri River trade for Astors AFC Chouteau County, Montana, and the town of Choteau, Montana, are named for him.

Fort Union

Keelboats at Fort Benton, Montana Before the advent of steamboats, keelboats were the biggest vessels used in the fur trade.

A Missouri River steamboat Before railroads reached Montana, steamboats were the most advanced mode of transportation to Montana and Ft. Benton was the worlds innermost port.

Alexander Culbertson and family

Chapter 5 Astor established an economic pattern in Montana: do business here by taking Montanas resources (furs, in his case), investing the profits elsewhere, and making decisions from far away (New York) that shaped life here in Montana. Fur traders found that it helped to be married to an Indian or mixed-blood woman because it strengthened trade ties with her family and gave instant access to native knowledge, ways, and languages (her family would also get more access to trade goods).

Chapter 5 In the late 1830s, Astor visited Europe and saw that the best-dressed people were now wearing silk hats instead of beaver hats this proved that the beaver trade era was coming to an end. As beaver declined, the fur trade turned to bison because factories in the East used bison hide leather for belts needed to turn wheels, etc., in factory machinery. A skilled marksman could shoot several hundred bison in a day.

Chapter 5 The only valuable parts of a bison in the bison hide trade were the robes and tongues. Indian hunters also became more wasteful because of their economy they had to participate in the bison hide trade or it would pass them by they wanted to grow richer from it, too. Business grew fast: in 1840, the AFC shipped 67,000 bison robes; by the early 1870s, they were shipping 1.5 million per year.

With 1.5 million bison killed per year at the peak of the bison hide trade, piles of bison skulls like this were a familiar sight.

Chapter 5 Many assumed the bison would last forever even in the late 1870s, millions were left, but The last year that large numbers of bison were still alive to be hunted was 1882. The fur trade caused more intertribal violence because the tribes competed for access to the trading forts and the goods they provided.

Chapter 5 Tragedy of the steamboat St. Peter in 1837: A few men on board had smallpox it spread to the Mandan villages & killed most of the Mandans when they stopped at Ft. Clark, N.D. Spread to the Assiniboine when boat stopped at Ft. Union Assiniboines then carried it to Canada. Boat then went to Ft. McKenzie, where the Blackfeet caught it half the Blackfeet people died in the next few years.

Chapter 5 A smallpox vaccine was developed this shifted the balance of power on the Plains because some fur agents shared the vaccine with the tribes they traded with so few people in these tribes (like the Sioux) died, and these tribes remained powerful while others became weak. Total number of Indians killed by smallpox is uncertain, but was at least 16,000 some estimates are as high as 40,000 or even 150,000.

Plains Indian winter count image of a smallpox victim

Smallpox was eradicated in the 1970s this photo of a smallpox victim was taken not many years before the disease was thankfully wiped out.

Chapter 5 Some traders found alcohol useful for bribing Indians to get them to supply furs. Whiskey traders often used the following ingredients to make whiskey: raw alcohol, molasses, red ink, chewing tobacco, ginger, tea leaves most of this whiskey wouldnt kill you, but you could get very sick and occasionally a very bad bottle of whiskey could blind or even kill the person who drank it.

Chapter 5 Many Americans wanted to bring Christianity to Indians; many Indians wanted spiritual power they thought they could gain from the Bible. Black Robes Catholic priests who became missionaries to the Indians. First Catholic priest in Montana was Father Pierre-Jean de Smet (right). First Catholic mission in Montana was St. Marys. Father Anthony Ravalli joined de Smet there in 1845.

Chapter 5 Misunderstandings grew between the Salish and the priests because: The Salish expected to incorporate Christianity into their traditional culture but the priests expected them to give up their traditional ways, convert completely to Catholicism, and become full-time farmers. Salish also felt betrayed because Father de Smet planned to share Christianity with their old enemies, the Blackfeet.

Chapter 5 Right: St. Marys Mission near present-day Hamilton, Mt. Positives about Christian missionaries work with Montana Indians in the 1800s: worked hard to share their knowledge & expertise (how to farm, etc.); provided help and medicine/medical care. Negatives about Christian missionaries work with Montana Indians: their goal wasnt to learn about Indian cultures they demanded that Indian people turn away from their old cultures and live like white Americans.

Chapter 6: Gold and Silver One word has probably changed Montanas landscape more than any other: GOLD! Gold (and other minerals, too) discoveries typically followed a boom-and-bust cycle: Each gold discovery brought sudden activity, followed by a decline (as the gold ran out), then a period of quiet, then another sudden burst of activity when gold was discovered in another location and the cycle just kept repeating.

Chapter 6 When a strike no longer yielded gold, it was said to have played out. The first person known to discover gold in Montana was a Metis named Francois Finlay, better known as Benetsee. A few years later (1859) James and Granville Stuart (right) found gold at Gold Creek (near present- day Deer Lodge, Mt.). Montanas first major gold strike was found by John White and William Eads at Grasshopper Creek in southwest Mt. town of Bannack was soon built there.

Bannack: Montanas first gold rush town and first territorial capital

Chapter 6 The Crow tribe had little patience for gold prospectors on their land, because they considered them trespassers who also offered nothing valuable to trade. May 1863: Bill Fairweather and Henry Edgar discover Montanas biggest gold strike at Alder Gulch in the Ruby River Valley. Alder Gulch was called Fourteen-mile City, but the biggest of its collection of towns was Virginia City, followed by Nevada City.

Virginia City: Montanas Biggest Gold Rush

Chapter 6 1864: a group of miners known as the Four Georgians discovered gold at Last Chance Gulch in the Prickly Pear Valley the town of Helena was soon built around Last Chance Gulch (right). Also in 1864, another major gold strike was made at Confederate Gulch near present-day Townsend, Mt. Placer mining: separating loose gold and nuggets from dirt, sand, and gravel in a creek bed.

Chapter 6 Placer mining was very hard work involved using huge piles of dirt, sand, & gravel with shovels; also risked frostbite in cold weather and was hot, sweaty work while being harassed by mosquitoes and deer flies during hot weather. Most miners barely survived one miner named Abram H. Vorhees said that not one miner of a thousand ever got rich. Still, Montana produced $90 million in gold from 1862-1866 (worth over $1.1 billion today).

Placer Mining

Chapter 6 Fort Benton was a very important town every road led to it because it was a transportation hub the furthest steamboats could travel up the Missouri River. Ft. Benton still takes pride in its claims to being the worlds innermost port and the birthplace of Montana (it was estd. in 1846). The Mullan Road brought miners and supplies to Montana from the west.

The steamboat DeSmet docks at Fort Benton

Chapter 6 The Corinne Road came to Montana from the south (Utah). The Bozeman Trail was a shortcut to Montana that branched off the Oregon Trail at Ft. Laramie, Wyoming. The Northern Overland Route came to Montana from the east (through the Dakotas).

Chapter 6 Montanas first mining camps were clusters of tents, lean-tos, & crude log cabins with dirt roofs. They were boisterous, dirty, smelly, loud mud, horse manure, pigs running in the streets, etc. Mining the miners: building stores, hotels, saloons, etc., all to sell the miners whatever they needed usually at very high prices.

Chapter 6 When mining camps became real towns, they had more businesses: grocery stores, bakeries, dry-goods stores, blacksmith shops, newspapers, post offices, telegraph offices, churches, schools, assayers offices, etc. An assayers job (right) was to determine the value or quality of gold. Freight trains strings of wagons pulled by teams of oxen/mules brought supplies to mining camps.

Chapter 6 Food was very expensive in mining towns because shipping prices to deliver it there were high. Virginia City, 1864: a flour riot was caused when the price of flour rose to $100-$150 for a 100-pound sack of flour this because early snows had cut off freight wagons/food supplies.

Chapter 6 Settlers use of land disrupted life for Montanas Indian tribes in several ways: Towns were often built at crossroads of important Indian trade routes. Wagon trails went through Indian hunting grounds & interrupted bison migration. Farmers plowed up bison grazing grounds, fenced in crops, controlled access to water, etc.

Chapter 6 Blackfeet began chasing off gold seekers in their lands after an 1864 incident in which nearly 500 prospectors came to the Sun River (in Blackfeet territory): several miners killed four Blackfeet from Little Dogs band, even though hed shared antelope meat to help save them from starving. Stores in mining towns, unlike in most American towns, were open on Sundays, because miners worked every other day and only came to town on Sundays.

Chapter 6 Many different kinds of people came to the mining camps: Americans, French, Metis, Spanish, Canadian, Mexican, Chinese Chinese miners often worked claims that other miners considered played-out and had abandoned. Chinese were discriminated against: burdened with extra taxes, run out of mining camps, robbed of claims, sometimes attacked or murdered.

Chapter 6 Indians were discriminated against by businesses with no Indians allowed policies. African Americans were discriminated against by not being allowed to vote and by not allowing black children in schools. Crime was often a problem in mining camps: to protect their claims, miners set up miners courts. Henry Plummer: sheriff of Bannack, but also one of Montanas most famous criminals.

Sheriff Henry Plummer Plummer was sheriff of Bannack, but also believed to be the leader of a gang of road agents known as the Innocents (their password was I am innocent). Gang members also identified themselves by the cut of their beards and knot of their ties.

Chapter 6 December 1863: young Nicholas Thiebalt was murdered while delivering gold dust for his boss. George Ives was soon arrested and found guilty of murdering Thiebalt after Thiebalts body was found near Ives cabin. After Ives was hanged on December 21, a group of concerned citizens formed a vigilance committee and became vigilantes taking the law into their own hands.

Wilbur Fisk Sanders Future U.S. senator for Montana, in 1864 he was a leader of the vigilantes that executed many members of the gang known as the Innocents, including the gangs alleged leader, Sheriff Henry Plummer. The vigilantes and their calling card, 3-7-77, are still famous in Montana.

Chapter 6 Over the next month, vigilantes hanged 24 suspected criminals many more fled the territory. Plummer was IDd as the leader of a gang known as the Innocents, then arrested and immediately hanged, along with his deputies, by vigilantes in Bannack on January 10, 1864. Historians today debate whether Plummer was really guilty, or was framed mainstream view is still that he really was guilty.

Chapter 6 Montana had been part of Idaho Territory the problem with this was that the territorial capital (Lewiston, Idaho) was too far away to serve the gold camps in Montana. The Civil War made Montanas gold mines more important because the war was so costly the federal government needed gold to fund the war. Territorial chief justice Sidney Edgerton traveled to D.C. with $2,500 in gold nuggets sewn into the lining of his coat showing it to Congress convinced them that Montana deserved to be its own territory.

Judge Sidney Edgerton Edgerton was Chief Justice for the Idaho Territorial Court before being named as the first governor of the Montana Territory by President Lincoln in 1864.

Chapter 6 After Montana became a territory, President Lincoln appointed Sidney Edgerton as Montanas first territorial governor. To be a territory, a region need to have 5,000 non- Indian people; to become a state, it needed 60,000. Government leaders for territories were appointed by the President, not elected like state leaders are.

Chapter 6 Territorial and federal laws were unfair to Indians in that they could be punished if they broke the law, but territorial laws didnt protect Indians from crimes committed against them by whites. When Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, Montanans had mixed reactions: Union loyalists were horrified, but southern sympathizers rejoiced. After Edgerton left office, most territorial governors after him were totally unfamiliar with Montanas land, people, and problems.

Chapter 6 As placer gold played out, quartz mining became necessary to get the underground gold. Quartz mining: hard-rock mining recovering gold (or silver) from rock that surrounds it. Only big businesses could tackle quartz mining because it required large, expensive equipment that was difficult to transport and required many workers.

Chapter 6 Stamp mills were a key tool for quartz mining: cabbage-sized rocks that contained gold ore were crushed by the stamp mill into fine sand; the precious metals could then be refined from the sand. Butte, Mt.: originally a placer gold camp; Bill Farlin later discovered a major silver vein there. 1876: the U.S. Mint began buying Montanas silver to mint coins of course, this made Montanas silver more important to the U.S. as a whole.

A gold stamp mill

Chapter 6 Charles McClure made a major silver strike at Granite Mountain. Right: Silver boom town of Granite, Montana now a ghost town. Once railroads arrived in Montana, mining companies could easily bring in heavy equipment, and ship ore & other raw materials back east more quickly.

Chapter 6 In 1893, the U.S. government canceled its silver contracts demand for silver crashed and Montanas silver towns became ghost towns. During the silver boom, Montana had become strongly influenced by people & corporations far away this pattern continued for the next several decades.

Chapter 6 Montanas non-Indian population increased from 20,595 in 1870 to nearly 143,000 by 1890. Montana had long since passed the population requirement of 60,000 non-Indians to become a state, and had in fact become a state in 1889.

Odds and Ends Other Things to Know for the Ch. 4-6 Test! Including his exploration of northwestern Montana, David Thompson made maps of nearly 2 million square miles of the American northwest. Alexander Mackenzie was the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean by traveling overland (he came from Canada, much further north than Lewis and Clark). Confluence: where two rivers come together. Chronometer (right): clock used for navigational purposes.

Odds and Ends Headwaters: where a river starts. Sextant (right): tool used to find the angle between the sun (or North Star) and the horizon. The fur trade made the West economically valuable, brought settlers, and increased Indians dependence on trade goods. Free trappers: worked independently instead of for a fur company. Brucellosis: a disease that can be passed from bison (or elk) to cattle, and vice-versa.

Odds and Ends American Fur Company gained a monopoly over the Upper Missouri fur trade. Free trappers were also different than company brigades because they lived in the area they trapped, instead of just moving quickly through. One method of panning for gold was known as the Georgian method, because so many southerners (many of whom were from Georgia) used it.

Explorers, the Fur Trade, and Gold and Silver. Chapter 4: Explorers By 1800, European diseases had...

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