to-day the vast territory lying between the mississippi river and the pacific ocean is occupied by many millions of people. fifty years ago, except on the pacific slope, it had few white inhabitants. then it was the far west, beyond the frontier, the indian country—the unknown. a journey into it was believed to be full of peril. in the minds of the general public it was as far away as central china is to-day.
beyond the great river which bounded it on the east was a fringe of settlements. scattered through the more distant country were the trading-posts to which the trapper brought his furs. forts garry, benton, union, laramie, bridger, and bent were some of these. there were a few army posts, and as time went on others were established.
gold had been discovered in california, and a wild rush of people anxious to better their condition had started across the plains, bound for the distant eldorado. it was a curiously mixed population that set out on this long journey. farmers from new england, business men and clerks from the middle states, planters and younger sons from the south; on foot and on horseback, carrying their possessions, large or scanty, in vehicles drawn by horses, mules, oxen, and cows, they struggled westward. they endured enormous toils; perpetually in fear of attacks by indians, meetingvi the dangers, delays, and perplexities of wild men, strange surroundings, rough travelling, swollen streams, and exhausted live-stock.
for many years the roads over which they had passed were marked by the skeletons of animals, by broken-down wagons, by furniture and household goods, thrown away to lighten the loads dragged by their feeble teams. along these deep-worn roads were the graves of those who had perished on the way; sometimes mere mounds of earth, hardly showing on the level prairie, or perhaps marked by a bit of board thrust in the ground, bearing a pencilled name and date, which the winter’s storms would soon obliterate.
gold was discovered in the rocky mountains. the village of denver was established, and along the mountain streams the prospector worked with pick and shovel and pan, and wore away his strength and his courage in hunting for the gold that often he did not find. montana also began to yield gold, and salmon river and alder gulch were at the beginnings of their fame. steam-boat traffic on the upper missouri river, at first established for the transportation of furs, gave easy access to the montana mines. stages were running across the continent, and the pony express had been established.
between 1853 and 1863 the plains and mountains of the west began to receive a sedentary population and to prepare for that startling development which began about a generation later.
to most people who now inhabit the western country the struggles of those early years are still unknown. industrious, energetic, fertile in resources, they live their lives without a thought of the distant past, without considering the conditionsvii which made possible existence as it is to-day. they are sturdy americans absorbed in the diverse problems which they have to meet, and, with astonishing success, devoting themselves to the solution of those problems. this is as it should be, yet it is worth while from time to time to take a look backward, and to consider what those endured who went before us. to most of us our own life is almost the only struggle worth considering, and wrapped up in our personal affairs, we do not remember the stupendous difficulties faced by our forebears, who conquered this country and made possible its development, and the ease and luxury in which we to-day have a part.
not many years ago a change began to take place in the view-point of many americans. far-sighted men and women came to feel that the history made by their fathers and mothers was worth preserving, and they began to write and talk about this. what they said fell on sympathetic ears, and interest was easily aroused, so that before long in many of the western states historical societies were established, and earnest men gave time and effort to the work of inducing the early settlers to set down their recollections—to describe the events in which they had taken part. later came the marking of historic spots and trails by monuments.
to-day the historical societies of many western states issue each year a volume filled with material of great interest—matter that will be of enormous value to the historian who shall set down the story of the development of the west.
since the accounts which appear in the following pages have to do with a country then unknown, the explorers who penetrated it faced new conditions and met new and primitive peoples. to subsist in these unknown lands they wereviii forced to hunt its animals, and the purpose which led them so far afield was the trading for furs. the book thus deals with a number of cognate subjects, with exploration, hunting, the taking of fur, and indians in peace and war; and in any or all of these there is excitement and interest enough.
let us look back at some of the happenings in this forgotten west, which is now again being remembered.
