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Published: October 15th 2023
Today's route took us to Tower Rock, site of a Lewis and Clark camp on August 21 1805. From here they investigated the Salmon River but realized that it was not usable as a way west because of steep surrounding cliffs and dangerous rapids. They proceeded on up the Missouri's main channel. Near present day Three Forks MT they came to what they called the headwaters of the Missouri, where the river was formed by the junction of two rivers with a third coming in less than a mile downstream. They named the rivers the Jefferson, the Madison, and the Gallatin, after members of the president's cabinet.
The ascertainment of a river's source or headwaters is not a particularly exact science. In common usage, the river's source is that point most distant upstream from the river's mouth, along any tributary. A headwater is somewhat more inexact, being the place where the stream or confluence of streams becomes a substantial and constant flow. Lewis and Clark chose to name the conjunction of these three rivers the headwater of the Missouri, and that designation is still used today, citing historic precedent. Using the common definition of source, the source of the Missouri
would be the start of the Madison River, some 183 miles upstream of its confluence with the Jefferson and the Gallatin. However, Lewis and Clark were not particularly interested in the longest feeding river, and would in any case have spent a great deal of time and effort trying to ascertain that. Instead, they were more interested in that stream which would take them to the Continental Divide, where they hoped to cross a single range of mountains and then arrive at the headwaters of the Columbia to take them to the West Coast. After some reconnoitering by Capt. Clark, they determined that the Jefferson River was the one that would take them west to the Divide, and they would use that as the source of the Missouri, even though it is some 100 miles shorter than the Madison. After all, their mission as defined by Jefferson was: "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, & such stream of it, as, by its course & communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean...may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent..."
At the confluence the water rushes by with no impediments. The
banks of the rivers are lined with smooth-polished stones brought down from the mountains and tumbled against each other until all sharp edges are lost. On this warm July day the water was cold, but not overly so. Certainly not cold enough that would expect small icebergs to float by, as they once did at Jackson Lake in the Tetons as we were "bathing". A pretty little garter snake slithered in and out of the water on the rocks of the bank. The only visitors were a family whose children were enjoying playing in the water, as children almost always do. Except when the icebergs come.
At the area of the confluence, the river became a faster current. I will let Meriwether tell you about it.
Meriwether: "Capt. Clark returned from his reconnaissance up the Jefferson feeling poorly, with fever and chills. I gave him a warm bath and some of Dr. Rush's thunderclapper pills, with the expected explosive results. It took him a couple of days to feel better. Even then I think he just said he felt better because he wanted to avoid another thunderclapper dose. The river here was narrower and rushing down from the
mountains, and had a strong downstream current. The men were hard put to accomplish the exertions to get us further upstream, and after a couple of days we had to stop and give them a couple of days of rest. Sacakawea knew about this place, because it was here that she had been captured. Some of the women and children had run almost 3 miles up the Jefferson to escape, and some were killed there. The rest were kidnapped. She strangely seemed to have no real emotion about this place. I was getting worried. We did not know how far we would have to travel through the mountains, and it seemed unlikely that we would find much to kill there for eating. We really needed horses for carrying pack goods and to eat as a last expedient, but needed to find the Shoshone or another tribe to get them. So far, we had seen no sign of these Western Indians. I decided to walk ahead and scout, but at first moved fairly slowly because of a dose of dysentery. When I got better, I was able to cover much ground. The boats, with Capt. Clark, had a much more difficult
time because the canoes frequently grounded on bars and underwater obstacles and the men had to get out and half push, half carry them to deeper water. It was clear we would not be able to use them much longer, and would need to find horses to carry the goods and continue. It seemed to me that the entire expedition was at risk."
The state park at the Confluence also contains the remnants of the second Gallatin town. Gallatin was originally built on the north side of the river, hoping to become the final steamboat stop. When use of steamboats that far up the Missouri proved to commercially unfeasible, the town was moved to the south side to be on the stagecoach and wagon routes where it could serve as a way station between the fertile Gallatin Valley and the gold camps in Bannock and Virginia City. By the mid-1880's, however, the advent of the railroad dried up the stage and wagon routes and the town quickly died. All that remains now are a few sad remnants.
We moved on from the Confluence to Virginia City - not on the Lewis and Clark Trail, but an interesting National
Historic Landmark all the same. First, let me make one thing clear: this is not the Virginia City of Bonanza fame. Hoss and Little Joe aren't going to come riding into town. Virginia City NV was the location of the famous Comstock Lode silver mine. Virginia City MT was more about gold mining. Today, Virginia City (MT) is the quintessential tourist attraction. There are old buildings dating back to the early 1860's as well as newer constructions interspersed among the older relics. There is a shortline railroad that carries passengers between Virginia City and the nearby Nevada City. An old livery stable built c. 1895 was converted in 1949 to an Opera House, and thus provided a home to Montana's oldest professional acting company, performing such classics as the Hustle Your Bustle Vaudeville Show.
Our day finished in Butte, home to the Berkeley Pit, once one of the largest copper mining sites in the world, now one of the largest Superfund sites in America. Small scale mining of various metals started here in the mid 1800's, but it was the discovery of high grade copper ore in 1881 that really made mining operations take off. In 1955 the mining
was converted to an open pit mine for economic and safety reasons, and over a billion tons of ore were removed. On Earth Day 1982 the mine was closed. Dwindling ore and international competition signaled the end to commercially viable operation. The water pumps in a nearby mine were turned off, and groundwater began to fill the pit. Pyrites and sulfide minerals in the rock of the pit dissolve and form acids, such that the pH of the water is now about 2.5, about the same as gastric acid or lemon juice. This dissolves heavy metals from the rock producing an acidic toxic stew. A species of Euglena lives in the water, and produces compounds that are toxic but being investigated for activity against cancer. A water treatment plant has been installed at a cost of millions of dollars to try to keep the toxic materials from entering the local groundwater supply. In 1995 about 350 geese landed on the water and died from internal burns. A similar fate awaited 3000-4000 snow geese in 2016. They now use supersonic sound and gunshots to try to scare off birds, with some success.
WE arrived too late to be able to
go up and view the pit. Somewhere here there is a pun about pity.
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