As we started driving west in Montana, we knew we were following the Missouri River, but we never saw it as we were driving on a very straight road. Here’s what we did see: a first stop in Culbertson, then we kept driving along our border with Canada to Malta; at Havre we started driving south to Fort Benton, where the steamboats had to stop.
American Fur Company Trapper and mountain man Alexander Culbertson headed trading operations along Montana’s upper Missouri River and at Fort Union, just east of here, during the mid-1800s.
The Lewis & Clark expedition followed the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers through here in 1805-1806 on their way home. Their journals expressed amazement at the vast grasslands and abundant wildlife, sights you still find today.
April 26-May 7, 1805. “Game was abundant now, so the expedition members did not want for food, Lewis noted, ‘We can scarcely cast our eyes in any direction without perceiving elk, buffalo, or antelopes.’ It was on this stretch that the explorers spotted the first bighorn sheep.”
On May 4, 1805, Lewis wrote, “The country on both sides of the Missouri continues to be open, level, fertile and beautiful as far as the eye can reach.”
May 8-19, 1805. “On May 8, the expedition came to the river they named the Milk, because of the whiteness of its river. They explored it for three miles upriver.” The expedition had another encounter with a grizzly during this time.
On May 8, 1805, Lewis wrote, “The water of this river possesses a peculiar whiteness, being about the color of a cup of tea with the admixture of a tablespoonful of milk. From the color of its water we called it Milk River.”
May 8-19, 1805 continuation. The landscape changed as the party continued upriver. The plains were gradually displaced by rugged hills. Farther west, the hills were covered with pine trees and junipers, which Clark erroneously called cedars. The once broad river was now narrower and more crooked, and the current was swifter. The water was not as muddy as it had been. Springs were almost nonexistent, and side channels were usually dry. Clark dubbed the region the Deserts of America, noting that he doubted it could ever be settled.” Oh was he wrong.
Lewis was constantly on the lookout for the Little Rocky Mountains since he really wasn’t sure how close they were to the real Rocky Mountains. Every time we saw mountain ranges like the one in the next picture, we were wondering too.
Our next town is Fort Benton (another trading post on the Missouri River). Just before the town is a spot where Lewis and Clark had to make a big decision.
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