‘The Treacherous Missouri’ - Conclusion

(Cont. from last week)

by Dan R. Conway

(First appeared in the Hysham Echo on April 7, 1927)

Captain Grant Marsh

One of the outstanding Missouri river steamboat captains was Captain Grant Marsh, who, during 63 years on the rivers of the west, lost no boat under his command excepting one, the “Little Eagle No. 2,” which turned turtle on the Mississippi in a cyclone. He never lost a boat on the Missouri or the Yellowstone, although many of the boats he had at various times commanded were wrecked under other masters. One of these was the famous “Far West,” which carried Reno’s wounded down the river after the Custer fight.

In 1869 Captain Marsh had an eventful experience in rescuing a steamboat that had been stranded at Cow Island, 130 miles below Fort Benton. This was the “Tempest,” bound for Fort Benton. The captain, whose name was Bissell, was unable to get his boat off the bar, and at last sent a messenger to Helena, from where a telegram was sent to the owners in St. Louis. Captain Marsh happened to be in St. Louis after a run down the river from the Upper Missouri, and he was offered $400 a month if he would try to save the “Tempest.” He started at once for Salt Lake City over the newly completed Union Pacific, and there took stage for Helena and Fort Benton. At the latter place he secured a mackinaw boat and went down the river to Cow Island.

Rescue of the “Tempest”

Having reached the “Tempest,” he found her in a desperate condition. She was still confined in her watery prison, but that fact was not the worst in the situation. The captain found that the presence of much whisky had caused most of the boat’s mishaps. Her troubles had begun even before Cow Island had been reached with a fight at the dinner table in which the boat’s engineer had killed a passenger. All the persons were drunk at the time, and the tragedy split the boat’s company into such bitter factions that the steamer could not even be properly navigated. When Captain Marsh arrived he found the bar running full blast, although the besotted crew owed the bartender $600. The captain closed the bar. The bartender at once became Captain Marsh’s best friend and assistant, and before long the “Tempest” was worked out of the shoals and was taken on down the river to St. Louis by Captain Marsh.

On the Yellowstone

There was a time when captain authorities maintained that the Yellowstone river offered better conditions for the promotion of river navigation than did the Missouri.

Within sixty miles of Yellowstone park by steamboat! What an alluring caption for an advertisement in some eastern periodical! This very feat was, however, accomplished June 6, 1875, by the steamer “Josephine,” piloted by the famous river captain, Grant Marsh, and chartered by the United States government. As a result of this eventful journey. Lieutenant Colonel J. W. Forsyth reported to General Phil Sheridan that the Yellowstone river was navigable for commercial purposes as far west as the mouth of Big Horn river; while the second officer of the expedition, Lieutenant Colonel F. D. Grant, stated that the river was navigable to Pompey’s Pillar, within thirty miles of the site of the present city of Billings.

The “Josephine”

These two officers agreed in their reports that the Yellowstone river, owing to its gravel bed, its stable banks and islands, and its freedom from snags, offered a much better highway for commerce from Fort Buford to the settlements of western Montana than did the Missouri river from the same point to Fort Benton. However, the opportunity never arrived for these officers to establish the correctness of their theories. The advent of the railroad, shortly after the date of this expedition, brought to a close all efforts to navigate the Yellowstone. The report of his successful trip aroused a great deal of interest throughout that part of Montana which would be served by such commercial traffic; and in the fall of 1875 there was organized at Bozeman, an expedition which undertook to establish a town at “the ‘Josephine’s’ head of navigation.” nearly opposite the mouth of the Big Horn river, a small stockade was erected and a town-site was laid out. This was named Fort Pease, in honor of the chief of their expedition, F. D. Pease. The promoters of this enterprise naturally expected as did the builders of the short-lived Kerchival (or Musselshell) City, at the mouth of the Musselshell, and the infant city of Ophir at the mouth of the Marias, to create a metropolis which would eclipse Fort Benton in its palmiest days.

It was planned that a road should be opened between Fort Pease and Bozeman, and that freight would there be transferred from the steamboats to wagons and hauled overland to the settlements to the west as was being done at Fort Benton.
The fate of this enterprise was much the same as was true of the “paper” cities of the upper Missouri. The depredations of hostile Indians compelled the promoters to abandon the post. Throughout the winter settlers at Fort Pease were engaged in constant battle for existence. Finally, when their number had been reduced to twenty-five by the killing of six and severe wounding of nine, it became evident that only a relief expedition could save them from annihilation at the hands of the hostile Sioux. One of the party succeeded in carrying an appeal to the commanding officer at Fort Ellis, 175 miles distant, and four troops of United States cavalry were dispatched, the settlers being escorted safety to Bozeman.

Within 60 Miles of Park

This voyage of the Josephine up the Yellowstone was an indeed eventful undertaking. Until the steamboat had attained a distance twenty-five miles above the mouth of the Big Horn, the “Josephine” had not required the assistance of either spars or lines in making her way upstream. Here the rugged bluffs bordering the valley closed in until they stood 85 feet apart, towering straight above the vessel. The current meanwhile increased in depth and rapidity until it became a torrent that raged at a pace of no less than nine miles an hour. In narrating the experiences during this struggle with the river, Joseph Mills Hanson, in his “Conquest of the Missouri,” writes:

“Every pound of steam was crowded on the ‘Josephine’s’ boilers and her paddle-wheel beat the water into foam; but the utmost speed she could make was one-sixth of a mile an hour, and most of the time she seemed to be standing still. The captain ordered the spars set, and after an exhausting struggle of several hours the boat was finally forced through ‘The Narrows,’ as the place was appropriately termed, into the wider channel beyond.

“For some miles now the steaming became easy, and in the latter part of the afternoon the ‘Josephine’ drew in sight of an isolated butte rearing its head above the southern bank, and, from the point where it was first seen, apparently standing in the river itself. The appearance of it aroused the greatest enthusiasm on board, for it was at once recognized as Pompey’s Pillar, the famous landmark discovered by Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition. High up on its face the Josephine’s men found inscribed the words “Wm. Clark, July 25, 1806, the letters still as clearly defined as when chiseled there by the industrious explorer, 69 years before.

“ * * * The Voyagers resumed their onward course at 3:45 o’clock next morning. But their journey was now fraught with many increasing difficulties. The great river, though apparently undiminished in volume, grew more and more swift, constantly breaking into rapids through which it was necessary to warp and spar the boat, while numberless small islands split the channel into chutes. * * * At length, after two days’ incessant struggle, Pryor’s Fork was reached.”
The next day the “Josephine” pushed on, but before nightfall, a tremendous rapid was encountered, which was passed only after a hard struggle. Here the name “Hell Roaring Rapids” was given to the torrent. At dawn the next morning a reconnoitering party examined the river for several miles further up, but the current was found to be so powerful that it was decided to turn back. The “Josephine” had reached a point 463 miles above the mouth of the Yellowstone and less than 60 miles in an air line from the northeast corner of the present Yellowstone National park - nearly forty miles upstream from the site of the city of Billings.

Next Week:

“Along the River Trail”

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