her history was irrevocably closed. But notwithstanding its abrupt termination, that chapter is a very important one. Few towns, perhaps none of the small size of Fort Benton, have played so important a part in the development of the far west. For years prior to the advent of railroads it was the distributing point for a territory which extended from Wyoming far into the British possessions and west beyond the summits of the Rockies. Transportation by river, though slow and hazardous, was infinitely preferable to the slower and more hazardous system of overland hauling. It was certainly a circumstance of immeasurable value in the early settlement of that country that a navigable water-course existed which, without amelioration, would permit extensive shipments into the very heart of the West.

Fort Benton being the terminus of this line of transportation, the distributing point for this vast territory, and the export market for whatever the country produced, enjoyed for nearly a score of years a prosperity which is rarely the good fortune of so small a place.

The city is built in an open bottom where the bluffs, receding for a distance from the river, leave a suitable and protected site for the construction of a town. The river is here but a few hundred feet wide, and its water, flowing over a gravelly bottom, is of great clearness and beauty, in striking contrast to its turbid condition a hundred miles below. The soil of the prairies and bluffs is remarkably free from the rock through which the river both above and below has worn its course. The bluffs, which along the lower river are miles apart, here frequently approach to within a few thousand feet of each other, rising precipitously to a height of nearly three hundred feet.

The traveler whose curiosity may cause him to explore the river above Benton will find the valley gradually contracting, the bluffs growing rocky and more precipitous, and the current more turbulent and rapid. By the time he has reached the mouth of Belt creek, some thirty-five miles above Benton, these characteristics are heightened to a great degree. The bluffs no longer slope, but are perpendicular and jagged. They are no longer soil, but solid rock. The river valley has contracted to the width of the river bed, and the dark green color of the water is relieved by thousands of patches of white foam as the rapid current is broken by projecting rocks or interrupted by sudden cascades. Finally, as if the limit of endurance had been reached, relief is found in the presence of a perpen-. dicular fall of eighty-five feet over which the entire river pours itself. Above the fall the now freer valley soon contracts, again encounters a fall, another and another and another, until finally it is but a faint

depression in the prairie. Here the river flows so smoothly that, with its fringe of cottonwoods, it looks like a placid lake and gives no intimation of its frenzied condition a few miles below. This remarkable series of cataracts, which in the space of a few miles makes an aggregate fall of over five hundred feet, forms the first serious obstacle to the upward navigation of the Missouri, and its existence undoubtedly determined the location of Fort Benton.

So far as existing records show, this part of the river was first seen by

white men in June, 1805, when it was visited by the famous expedition of Lewis and Clarke. In the early years of the present century there were two lines of travel across the continent-the Montreal Fur Traders' route by way of the Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg, the Saskatchewan and Flatbow rivers to the Columbia; and the New York and St. Louis Fur Traders' route by way of the Platte river, South Pass, and Lewis Fork to the Columbia, along which stream both routes extended to the Pacific.` The location of these lines of travel, and the supposed hostility and savage nature of the Indian tribes between them, caused the intermediate country to receive very little attention from the early explorers. There can be little doubt, however, that the country had been entered before the end of the eighteenth century by the early French explorers, by the Spanish from New Mexico, and by the adventurous trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company. It is indeed pretty well settled that Chevalier de la Verendrye, then French governor of Quebec, with a party of explorers visited this country in 1743, remaining there nearly a year. However this may be, to Lewis and Clarke belongs the credit of giving to the world the first authentic description of the country along the upper Missouri, and their expedition is the great initial point in that country's history.

Between the date of this expedition. and 1827 the upper river was doubtless frequently explored, for in the latter year a trading-post was established at the mouth of the Marias river, * about twenty miles below the present site of Benton. In the following year it was abandoned and a regular stockaded post built eight miles above and named Fort Mackenzie, which stood fourteen years, and in 1842 was finally abandoned and burned as the result of a feud with the Blackfeet Indians. From this circumstance the site of the old fort is still called Fort Brûlé, or the burned fort, although, from the fact that the present inhabitants of that region pronounce the word bruly, as they do the word "coulée" cooly, probably very few of them have any notion of its origin. The frequent recurrence of these French names in places where the very existence of the people who understood that language has almost passed out of memory is a striking proof of the hardy enterprise of those early explorers. They were truly the pioneers of the northwest, but their labors and achievements have alike disappeared, except in the name of some mountain, lake, or stream, or in those mission schools which the zealous Jesuits long ago established for the conversion and education of the Indian tribes.

After the abandonment of Fort Mackenzie, a trading-post was established in the spring of 1843 at the mouth of the Judith river, one * *The "

Marias" of Lewis and Clarke.

hundred and twenty miles below the present site of Fort Benton, and named Fort Chardron from the trader in charge. It was occupied but one year, and in 1844 a post was built in a broad open bottom about eight miles above the present site of Benton and called Fort Cotton. In 1846 Fort Cotton was moved a few miles down the river, a stockaded post was built, and this in the following year was replaced by the adobe fort the remains of which are standing at the present day. The new post was named Fort Benton in honor of Missouri's distinguished senator, and from it the town takes its name. These posts all belonged to the American Fur Company founded by John Jacob Astor, who after the failure of his Astoria experiment confined his efforts to those regions drained by the headwaters of the Missouri. At an early date Astor sold out to Chouteau, Valle & Co. of St. Louis. The Chouteaus, pioneers in St. Louis, are intimately connected with the historic traditions of the northwest, and the name itself has been given to the county of which Fort Benton is the capital.

The American Fur Company did not, however, enjoy an undisturbed monopoly of the fur trade of these regions. It found formidable competitors in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, organized by General William Ashley of St. Louis in 1822, and in the Independent Traders, so called because they belonged to none of the great companies. In fact, a trading-post called Fort Campbell was built near Fort Benton and