By SHELDON JACKSON, D.D.
“Her empire the cradle of the two mightiest rivers of North America;
a scepter of gold in her right hand, and a shield of silver in her
left; her cornucopia full and overflowing from the abundance of her own
bosom; and with the dawning star of statehood flashing independence
from her youthful forehead, she will soon fall into line and ‘march
to the music of the Union.’ Seated on her throne of forest-decked
mountains, her enchanting landscapes of
‘Mountain, forest, and rock,
Of deep blue lake and mighty river,’
stretching in picturesque grandeur toward either main—the Missouri
her natural carrier to the east, and the Columbia to the west; the
trade, traffic, and travel of two worlds rattling over her mountains
and through her valleys by the great Northern Pacific or Northern Utah
railways; her power centered on Nature’s wall of division between the
waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, with an equal interest in the
commerce of both; valleys teeming with bountiful harvests and mines of
boundless wealth in the precious metals; with such natural attractions
and advantages, is it possible to draw an over-colored picture of her
future?”
The country of which the above is a glowing description, is, with the
exception of Alaska, the youngest of our territorial dependencies.
It was cut off from Idaho and formed into a Territory May 26, 1864.
Stretching for 275 miles from north to south, and 460 to 540 miles from
east to west, it embraces a territorial area of 143,776 square miles;
an area equal to three States like New York, the Empire State of the
East.
Its surface is beautifully diversified with mountains, valleys,
foot-hills, rivers, and creeks. The mountains supply the minerals
and the timber; the foot-hills and uplands unlimited grazing for all
kinds of stock; the creeks and rivers a water-power a hundred-fold
greater than all New England. It is estimated that this great inland
empire contains 10,000,000 acres of farming land, 21,000,000 acres of
mountains, 5,000,000 acres of mines, 12,000,000 acres of timber, and
38,000,000 acres of grazing land.
Like Minnesota, it is a great water-shed. The Yellowstone, Madison,
Jefferson, Muscleshell, Milk, Big Horn, Tongue, Powder, Sun and
Gallatin rivers drawing their supplies from unnumbered springs and
crystal rivulets descending from numberless mountain gorges, form
the Missouri River; while the Big Blackfoot, Missoula, Hell Gate and
Flathead rivers through the Columbia find their way to the Pacific. The
hills and mountains bordering these rivers are spurs putting out from
the main range of the Rocky Mountains, and sometimes excel in height
and grandeur the main range itself.
As its name signifies, Montana is a mountainous country. The western
portion is traversed by the main, the Cœur d’Alene and Bitter Root
ranges. In the northern portion are the Bear Paw, and Little Rocky
ranges; in the central the Snow, Judith and Bull ranges; and in the
southeast the Big Horn, Powder River and Wolf ranges. These have a
varying height of from 7,000 to 11,000 feet, and by their arrangement
form a series of depressions or basins, of which there are four large
ones east and one west of the Rocky Mountains proper.
Though far to the north the mean temperature of some of the valleys is
that of Philadelphia.
Like Minnesota it is a dry, invigorating climate and remarkable for its
salubrity and freedom from malaria. On an average there are 250 days of
sunshine during the year.
With the present development of the country there are about 300,000
head of cattle, 60,000 horses and 300,000 sheep; the annual product of
wheat, 450,000 bushels; oats, 650,000 bushels; barley, 60,000 bushels;
vegetables, 500,000 bushels, and 70,000 tons of hay. Montana is also
rich in timber, coal, and the precious metals. In the past sixteen
years more than $120,000,000 worth of gold-dust has been washed from
her placers.
The first authentic information of Montana was given to the country
by the famous expedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804. In 1834 Capt.
Bonneville, and in 1853 Gov. I. I. Stevens, threw additional light upon
the character of the country.
The permanent settlement of the country commenced with the rush of gold
miners. As early as 1852 the existence of gold was discovered, but this
knowledge was not made available until 1862, when the rush commenced,
culminating in 1865-66.
The first mining settlement was at Bannock. Discovered in the summer of
1862 by some miners from Colorado, that winter found clustered there
a population of 2,000; desperados from Idaho, bankrupt speculators
from Nevada, guerrilla refugees from Missouri, miners from Colorado,
gamblers and saloon-keepers, with a small leaven of good and true men.
It was to that point that the Presbyterian Committee of Home Missions
sent their first missionary.
The following year gold was discovered in Alder Gulch, and Bannock was
deserted for the new diggings. With the population went Rev. Messrs.
Smith and Price, Presbyterian ministers, and the first Protestant
clergymen to preach in the Territory.
In 1864 Rev. A. M. Hough, the first regularly appointed Methodist
missionary, reached the new diggings and commenced preaching.
Virginia City, the outgrowth of the Alder Gulch mines, is the county
seat of Madison County. Like all mining towns, it was not laid out, but
grew. The miner only wanted a temporary shelter, and every newcomer
located his log cabin to suit himself, usually adjoining the last one
built. When common convenience required a street, a street appeared.
There were no yards or gardens, for beyond the narrow ravine filled
with straggling cabins, only grew sage-brush. The miners thrived and
the city grew. For sleeping accommodations a limited space was allotted
upon the floor, the occupant furnishing his own blankets; and it was
a long time before the regular diet of bacon, bread, and dried apples
was varied by a potato. But gradually things changed; a better class of
buildings appeared; the number of gambling and tippling places steadily
decreased; the vigilantes gained the upper hand of the roughs; old
residents brought in their wives and children, and the whole face of
things became more like the “States.”
From the huge piles of dirt and stone that mar the beauty of the gulch,
has been taken out $30,000,000 worth of gold dust. Of the ten thousand
men that once worried and toiled and fought for gold, only about one
thousand remain; yet the city is improving, and has a good future in
store.
The next discovery of rich mines was on the Prickly Pear Creek. The
Fisk Brothers with a colony from Minnesota had crossed the plains to
this point and worked on quietly until the fame of the “Last Chance
Mines” went abroad throughout the land, and a city arose like an
exhalation, taking the name of Helena from the resemblance of the
surrounding hills to those in the isle of St. Helena. Helena is not
only the political capital, but the commercial, literary, social and
religious center of the territory. It has many handsome buildings and
is growing rapidly.
In the meantime discoveries were made in many directions and small
camps of miners flourished until their gravel beds were worked over, or
a new excitement enticed away the miners. The latest developed and most
flourishing of the mining centers is at Butte, which has become the
largest city in the Territory.
Among the beautiful villages with a promising future may be mentioned
Deer Lodge, situated in a beautiful grazing valley. The first white
settler was Johnny Grant, who had among his wives a squaw from every
tribe that roamed that section. When the Flatheads passed by his ranch,
no woman was to be seen but a Flathead, and when the Blackfeet came the
sole wife of his bosom was a Blackfoot. And thus he lived at peace with
the natives, a sharer in their spoils and an arbiter in their quarrels.
Down the Hell Gate River to the northwest of Deer Lodge is the
broad, rich valley of the Bitter Root, with Missoula as its thriving
county-seat. For many years the great Hudson Bay Fur Company had a
station in that valley and monopolized the fur trade. From thence
westward the natives speak the famous Chinook jargon, invented by the
company to facilitate trade with the natives. Words were borrowed from
the English, French, and various Indian tongues and worked into an
incongruous combination which the all powerful influence of the company
introduced everywhere. The Flathead and Pend d’Oreilles Indians that
now inhabit that region are under papal influence. Among them is the
Jesuit mission of St. Ignatius.
To the northeast of Helena is Fort Benton, which was originally built
in 1846 as a trading post of the American Fur Company, and afterwards
sold to the Northwestern Fur Company. Situated at the head of steam
navigation on the Missouri River, it is growing rapidly and promises to
be an important place. From thence, in days past, the citizens of the
Territory would take a steamer for Sioux City, Iowa, two thousand miles
distant by the windings of the river—a thousand miles of which was then
through a wild Indian country. Steamers were frequently fired into by
hostile Indians, whose camps and graves were met at frequent intervals.
This route also passed through wild, and among the Citadel Rocks, weird
scenery. These curious rocks are of soft white sandstone, worn into a
thousand grotesque shapes by the waters which have come down from the
table-lands during the unknown ages of the past.
To the southeast of Helena is Bozeman, a picturesque village with grand
natural surroundings and a grand future as a city on the main line
of the Northern Pacific Railway. From it the eye can range over four
hundred miles, and a little way to the south of it, over the range,
is the great Yellowstone Park—the enchanted wonderland—where trappers
declare “they have seen trees, game and even Indians petrified, and yet
looking as natural as life; where they have seen a mountain of quartz
so transparent that they could see the mules feeding on the other
side;”—a combination of many of the freaks of nature, which are usually
looked for and found over many and widely separated lands. Already an
increasing throng of tourists each summer are visiting its falls and
cañons, its geysers and springs.
To the eastward down the Yellowstone Valley is Miles City, named after
General Miles of the United States Army.
The rising cities of Glendive, Billings and Miles are examples of the
great transformation that is passing over Montana with the advent of
railways.
Only six years ago the savage Indians destroyed Custer and his troops
of the 7th United States Cavalry, and held full sway of the entire
valley of the Yellowstone. Now railway trains pass up and down through
its scores of villages and hundreds of farms.
The census of 1880 gives the following statistics: Population 39,157;
Roman Catholics, 10 churches and 13 priests; Disciples of Christ,
6 churches and 4 ministers; Methodist Episcopal, 8 churches and 6
ministers; Methodist Episcopal (South), 9 ministers; Protestant
Episcopal, 8 churches and 6 ministers; Presbyterian, 6 churches and 7
ministers.
There are in the territory 19,791 Indians, of whose children only 287
are in school. Among the American population are 5,885 children of
school age, of whom 2,804 are in school.