Upper Missouri River Breaks by Zina Abbott

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      I have visited parts of Montana, including driving along the banks of much of the Yellowstone River. However, researching the Upper Missouri River territory in Montana opened a new world about which I knew almost nothing.

Area between yellow arrows approximate location of Upper Missouri River Breaks

     The Missouri River is the longest river in the United States. It flows east and then south for 2, 341 miles from the eastern Centennial range of the Bitterroot Mountains to where it empties into the Mississippi river north of St. Louis, Missouri. It drains over 500,000 square miles of watershed—much of it arid country—including ten states in the United States and two Canadian provinces. One of the great obstacles for any transportation or settlement in this area was the Upper Missouri River Breaks.

      The Upper Missouri River Breaks area is a badlands that starts at about Fort Benton, Montana, in the west and follows the Missouri River for 149 miles east to what is today’s James Kipp Wildlife Recreation Area. For those who like remote territory, this will appeal. It was a region explored by the Lewis and Clark Expedition early in the nineteenth century. The following is what Capt. Clark wrote about the badlands:

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“This country may with propriety, I think, be termed the Deserts of America, as I do not conceive any part can ever be settled, as it is deficient in water, timber, and too steep to be tilled.” 

     In the early days of exploration and riverboat travel, the west-east flow section of the Missouri River was known as the upper Missouri, or northern route of the Missouri. It was shallow, often turbulent, and filled with snags (downed trees with branches that snagged boat bottoms, sometimes called sawyers). The entire Missouri River was known for its ever-shifting sandbars, often submerged mere inches below muddy water that rendered them all but invisible. The upper Missouri River, including the Breaks area, was no exception.

Citadel Rock painted by Karl Bodmer, c.1833

     When it came to riverboat travel, the upper Missouri from Sioux City, Iowa, north soon became restricted to specialized steamboats with very shallow hulls, spoon-shaped bows, and low profiles that allowed them to avoid the worst of the submerged sandbars. They were able travel much farther up the river than the steamboats that plied the other large rivers or even the lower Missouri River. This restriction was not due to legislation, but due to experience received as far too many riverboats with deeper hulls having met their ends in the Muddy Missouri.

Steamboat on neighboring Yellowstone River aground on sandbar. Note snags in front.

     Due to the shallow water level and the river freezing solid in the winter—often as early as November—and not thawing out until late March or April, the most reasonable farthest point for navigation by even the shallowest, lowest profile steamboat was Fort Benton. Fort Benton is considered the most westerly end of the Upper Missouri River Breaks region. Even after the ice began to break up, the threat of it cutting into steamship bottoms was as great as snags. Roustabouts were employed to—among other tasks—keep watch to help the vessels stay clear of ice chunks as well as snags. So it was when steamboats traveled these last 149 miles approaching Fort Benton that they often encountered obstacles that threatened to capsize their vessels, leading possibly to the loss of human life as well as cargo.

     Although many steamboats bound for Fort Benton left in late March or early April with the hope that the snowmelt would raise the river level enough to avoid many of the obstacles, that window when the ability steam all the way to Fort Benton existed did not last the full season. Often, both goods and passengers bound for Fort Benton and points beyond were off-loaded at a place called Cow Island, located at the easterly end of the Breaks region. Although the island is near the southwestern riverbank, it actually served more as a landmark than a landing. The transfer of goods and passengers took place near the mouth of Cow Creek on the northeast riverbank, the bed of which served as one of the few passes through the steep sedimentary rocks, composed predominantly of sandstone and shale. By traveling to the headwaters of the creek, freight trains were able to skirt the northern boundaries of the Breaks region and eventually reach Fort Benton.  

Schultz map, c. early 1900s

     When one reads “Cow Creek,” “Bull Creek,” or “Two Calf Creek” on the old maps, it is important to think “bison” or ‘buffalo,” not “beef.” This was not cattle country. There was insufficient pastureland and water to support raising large herds of livestock. The Upper Missouri River Breaks region served as a migratory route for the herds of bison moving between their northern and southern grazing grounds. They did not stay in the Breaks region long.

     Today, steamboats no longer work their way up and down this treacherous section of what is considered a challenging river from its headwaters to its outlet in the Mississippi River. Instead, to preserve its rugged beauty for future generations, it is now included in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, which was created January 17, 2001. If you wish to visit, plan to take your hiking shoes and survival gear. It is still as wild and rugged as it was 200 years ago when it was first explored by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

 

In my recent release, Hal’sLucky Escape, my hero and heroine, Hal and Marta, travel the upper Missouri River on the steamboat Far West. Although they leave at a good time with expectations their ship will take them all the way to Fort Benton, they discover they must leave the vessel at Cow Island and travel with a freight train through the Upper Missouri River Breaks. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

Sources:

Wikimedia commons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Missouri_River_Breaks_National_Monument

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/montana-canoe-adventure-floating.html

https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/montana-dakotas/upper-missouri-river-breaks

https://www.missouribreaks.org/the-breaks/history/

BUFFALO COATS by Zina Abbott

Have you ever suffered the disappointment of recalling having seen an old 1800s photo hanging on a museum wall, and thinking you took a picture of it, only to discover you do not have such an image in your computer photos files? Such is what happened to me.

Buffalo coat & hat-Custer Courthouse Museum

I recall seeing an image of about four or five soldiers standing on the parade ground of a fort. Snow was on the ground, and the men were bundled up in buffalo coats, gloves, and hats. I believe this reproduction of an older photo was hanging in the Custer Courthouse Museum close by this buffalo coat display of which I did take a photo.

American plains bison

First, the animal in North America that most people call a buffalo, is not in actuality a buffalo. Buffalo are not found naturally in this continent. Technically, the proper name for the animal is bison, although they are all sub-species of Bovidae, the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes bison, African buffalo, water buffalo, antelopes, sheep, goats, muskoxen, and domestic cattle. So, when people refer to “buffalo coats,” they are actually talking about bison coats.

Sleeveless bison robes have been worn by the indigenous people of North America for centuries. Once the Europeans came to North America and moved west across the continent, as part of the fur trade, along with the more popular beaver, they collected bison hides which were also turned into coats, hats, and gloves.

 

Buffalo soldiers of the 25th Infantry, some wearing buffalo coats.

Buffalo coats were issued to police and military officers, particularly the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the United States Army, prior to their replacement by parkas. The coats were intended for use in extreme cold or arctic conditions.

Often, winters on the Great Plains of the North American continent, with their artic blizzards and drifting snow, get cold enough to fit in the “extreme cold” category. 

gloves made from buffalo hide

As the United States opened up the West to settlement and expansion of the railroads, the effort made to move the native tribes off their bison hunting grounds and onto reservations intensified. Buffalo hunting by whites rose to increasing levels, almost causing bison to become extinct. Although many bison were hunted only for their tongue while the rest of the animals were left in the field to rot, quite a few were skinned and the hides used to make winter outerwear. Buffalo coats became popular among the well-to-do. Only when hunting the animals was prohibited to keep them from extinction did using the pelts from the bison commercially for clothing end.

19th century men wearing buffalo coats

In my book, Hannah’s Handkerchief, one aspect of my plot revolves around the frontier forts of western Kansas. In spite of the danger of attack by hostile tribes—most notably, the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa—the soldiers obtained much of the meat in their diet by hunting the same bison that were the food source of the American Natives (another source of conflict between the two groups). That resulted in hides being acquired in addition to the meat. 

I’m sure in these primitive forts, many of which for the first few years had for structures dugouts in the riverbanks and/or soddies, those pelts would have been welcome for bedding or keeping the soldiers warm, especially on night patrol. So, what happens when my protagonist, Lt. Jake Burdock assigned to the Quartermaster Department of the Army, gets the brilliant idea to gather up those bison pelts and take them to the Army’s official tannery in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas to be processed and turned into cold-weather coats for the soldiers? I invite you to read and find out.

Hannah’s Handkerchief is now available for sale or at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. You may read the book description and find the purchase link by CLICKING HERE.

Where the Buffalo Roam ~ Or Bison

Buffalo ~ no other animal symbolizes the American West better than the Buffalo. Or to the technical scientific types - Bison.

Taken at Yellowstone National Park

This brings to light the clash

between history and modern science and nomenclature. 

But then the word buffalo evolved from the French trappers who called them Beofs - meaning oxen.

Even if the thing is a Bison, it will always be a buffalo to me. After all, Where the Bison roam is just not as catchy as buffalo. 

And there is the song Buffalo Gals, certainly much better than Bison girls.

Buffalo, New York. Buffalo wings. 

We love the word Buffalo!!!

And then there are the buffalo hunters, and the famous Buffalo Bill. Can you imagine calling him Bison Bill. No me either.

If you are ever in Cody, Wyoming, take time to visit the museum. It is amazing and has rooms and floors of historical items from wildlife, exhibits about the Indians, a large collection of guns and rifles. (My husband loved that room.) And of course about Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show. 

Experts estimate that there were 60 million buffalo before the 1800s by 1900 they were down to 300 and almost gone. Today their numbers have increased to half a million. 

I find it fascinating to think about such a large animal numbering in the millions and covering states. That had to be a truly amazing sight.

The buffalo figured prominently in the history of our country. They were a major food source for the Native Americans. Because of the war against the Native Americans, the military wiped out many of the shaggy beasts to help defeat the tribes.

They were also killed for meat to feed the railroad workers, and for their shaggy coats. 

We can all be grateful for those who saw the near extinction and strove to save the American buffalo. Early ranchers were the first to begin trying to save the animal from extinction. 

But in a twist of fate, it was Buffalo Bill Cody who probably had the greatest result in saving the beast through showing millions live buffalo in his Wild West Shows. 

Hope you have enjoyed a little about the buffalo and the West where he roamed. 

Patricia PacJac Carroll

I write sweet historical western romances.

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