The Famous “Block P” Line

Phenomenal Development of Steamboat Traffic on the “Big Muddy” Between 1862 to 1867; The Transportation Enterprises

of Late Senator T. C. Power; “Block P” Line was the Leader Among Missouri River Enterprises

(By Dan R. Conway)

This is the beginning of the sixth in a series of articles dealing with the history of navigation on the Upper Missouri river as first printed in the Hysham Echo May 5, 1927

The Missouri

Well, stranger, I came up that river,

Back in the early days.

And I’ve sure got a strong liking for her;

She’s human like, pard, in her ways.

Where them summer clouds most touch the snowbanks

Spread like linen a-bleach in the sun,

While the mountain flowers bloom on their borders,

Where them little rills trickle and run.

Till bounding down through the mountains,

With pennants of mist all unfurled;

A thousand bold streams come a -leaping

Off the eaves of the roof of the world.

In the land of the geysers and glaciers,

Where the hills have been battered and torn

By mysterious hands in their making,

That there river Missouri was born.

Some rivers are smiling and happy,

Some rivers are sullen and grim,

Some rivers remind you of ragtime

And some have the sound of a hymn.

Some saunter along at their leisure;

Some brawl as they rush on their way;

The Missouri, well, she’s kind of different

From the rest of ‘em - I’m here to say.

Now maybe the reason I like her -

The reason I think she’s the best,

The friendliest, strongest and biggest,

Is because she’s part of the west.

A highway that led from the eastward

To this country of sapphire and gold,

A trail that lured with a promise

The hearts of the strong and the bold.

Steamboats? Well stranger, I reckon

There never were steamboats so fine

As those that came up that river

To Fort Benton, the old “Block P” line.

Nosing their way through the current,

Making a swing round a bend,

Loaded with stuff for the miners

A-work at a real rainbow’s end.

Back in the days of the sixties,

The days that I long for again,

The days of real joy and real sorrow,

The days of real women and men.

And, I’ll bet the Missouri is lonesome,

As I am for those early days,

For the both of us sure are old timers

And she’s human like in her ways.

– By Robert H. Fletcher

One of the most spectacular phases in the entire history of water travel was that era which embraced river traffic on the Missouri during the five-year period beginning in 1864 and ending in 1869.

The enormous amount of river traffic in that half decade was a reflection of the mighty metamorphosis which came over the country at the head-waters of the Missouri river through the discovery of gold in Montana territory. The old river afforded a sure highway for travel and commerce to within a comparatively short distance of the famous camps of Last Chance and Alder Gulches. There was no other route that could compete with it; for the river could carry freight from St. Louis to Fort Benton in cargoes of 100 to 500 tons without breaking bulk.

The prospectors and argonauts themselves traveled in large numbers by overland routes; but a great number also traveled via the old Missouri. Nearly all the merchandise including every necessity of life and all mining machinery and heavy freight came up the river.

Rapid Development

Steamboat traffic leaped to enormous proportions in a phenomenally short time. Prior to 1864 there had been only six steamboat arrivals at Fort Benton. In 1866 and 1867 there were 70 arrivals. In 1867 the trade touched the high water mark; and at that time it presented one of the most extraordinary developments in the history of commerce. At times there were as many as thirty to forty steamboats on the Missouri river between Fort Benton and the mouth of the Yellowstone, which distance was one continual panorama of scenes of wildness as primeval as the jungles along the Amazon.

Imagine yourself set down in the unbroken wilderness along the banks of the “Big Muddy,” where nothing dwelt except wild animals and wilder men; where the savage Indian made life a constant peril; where no individual human habitation greeted the eye. It would have seemed marvelous and inexplicable to then find this river alive with noble craft, as beautiful as any that ever rode the ocean, stored with all the necessities of civilization and crowded with passengers as cultured, refined and well dressed as the cabin list of an ocean liner. Certainly this was a most extraordinary scene which was flashed for a moment before the world and then withdrawn forever.

Enormous Profits

Some startling statistics have survived showing the magnitude of the steamboat business on the Missouri river during the five years mentioned. In the year 1865, 1,000 passengers, 6,000 tons of merchandise, 40 steamboats had passed Sioux City before June 1, en route to the head of navigation. These carried more than 12,000 tons of freight.

The profits of a successful voyage were enormous. The reported profits of some of the trips of 1866 were as follows: The St. John, $17,000; the Tacony, $16,000; the W. J. Lewis, $40,000; the Peter Balen, $65,000. In 1867, Captain Joseph LaBarge cleared more than $40,000 on a trip with the Octavia.

Freight rates from St. Louis to Fort Benton in 1866 were 12 cents per pound. Insurance rates were 6 1/2 percent of the value insured on side wheel boats and 8 percent on stern wheel boats. The fare for each cabin passenger was $300.

In spite of the high prices charged and the enormous profits gleaned, however, the officers and crews of these boats were not very highly paid. The master of the boat received $200 per month; the clerk $150; the mate and engineer each $125.

Wages of Pilots

On the other hand, with the pilots it was different. The best of them could almost set their own price for their services. So indispensable were they that the best talent was paid as much as $1,200 per month.

This was the status of steamboat traffic on the old Missouri in the spring of 1867 when Thomas C. Power, then 28 years of age, unloaded his first stock of merchandise brought up the river by steamboat from St. Louis, for the purpose of engaging in the fur trade among the tribes to the north.

Mr. Power, a young civil engineer, who, for about three years, had been in the employ of the government, had only a year or two prior to this time, accompanied the famous expedition of General Sully against the Sioux nation, across the wilds of North Dakota. He was in charge of Sully’s sutler ship. On this and other Upper Missouri trips he had met many old traders returning from the Northwest with the fruits of their toil; he had observed the immense wagon trains of pilgrims headed for the gold fields. It was then that he became thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the new West, and foresaw his opportunity in Montana Territory.

Started in a Log Cabin

Placing his stock of goods in a log cabin, he began to barter them for gold dust and for furs, his customers being for the most part Indians, soldiers, trappers, prospectors, miners from the placer camps, and all the others of that picturesque frontier population which was scattered here and there over the plains and in the mountain gulches, and who found their way occasionally to the head of navigation on the Upper Missouri to exchange their earnings for provisions and equipment.
From that log cabin store in the less than fifty years that Mr. Power was actively at the head of his enterprises, emerged a chain of commercial institutions covering a considerable portion of Montana, with a combined business floor space of more than two square miles. That modest log cabin was a crude affair but it served its purpose well, and from it have sprung scores of modern mercantile institutions, 75 percent of which are housed in the latest type of fireproof buildings.

To review the commercial activities of Senator Power during his career, is to record the history of Montana in all that has to do with the transportation, commerce, the raising of livestock and the pursuit of diversified agriculture. From the primitive days, the needs of the miner, the freighter, the oncoming stockman, sheepgrower, homesteader and modern farmer have been catered to in each step of transformation of the Treasure state by the ever-increasing stores and supply stations which sprouted from the little log cabin on the edge of the Missouri at old Fort Benton.

While the great store and warehouse at Fort Benton continued for years as a forwarding station, the mercantile activities of Mr. Power were directed toward the south and into the more populous sections of the territory. Helena was selected as the location for the first branch house, and, as time went on, other stores were established and the activities of each branch widened in scope.

Enters Freighting Business

Despite the fact that in those days there were no railroad strikes nor rumors of strikes, the question of adequate transportation facilities was a most vital problem to the miners and settlers. Thousands of people were being attracted to the Territory and the merchants experienced much difficulty in securing the provisions and supplies necessary to meet the growing demand.

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