NOBLES" party fording the

GATEWAY to the NORTHWEST .sr. PAUL and the .NOBLES EXPEDITION of 1859

WILLOUGHBY M. BABCOCK

IN THE SPRING of 1859 the citizens of starting point for the trek to the new gold St. Paul were clearly excited over events in fields, and its residents could see exciting the country of what is now possibilities for expanded commerce with British Columbia. Headlines in the St. Paul the remote region.- Daily Pioneer and Democrat during late Early in January, 1859, the St. Paul May and early June reflected the town's Chamber of Commerce was organized, and interest in a region which, at first glance, at a regular meeting on January 22, James appears to have been too remote to war­ Wickes Taylor, secretary of the rant such enthusiasm. "Ho for the Valley and Pacific Railroad, urged the group to of the Saskatchewan!" trumpeted the pa­ take advantage of the opportunities offered per, "Frazer River, Ho!" ^ by the Fraser River region. He presented Gold and commerce were the twin rea­ before that body an extensive memoran­ sons for the capital city's intense interest. dum in which he described the river sys­ Reports of rich strikes on the Fraser River tems of the Northwest and stressed the in 1858 had been confirmed, and St. Paul­ navigabflity of the Red, the , ites reasoned that the gold fields there might wefl rival those of California in rich­ 'See especially issues for May 1.5, 29, .lune 1, 9, ness. St. Paul claimed to be the logical 1859, All citations to the Pioneer and Democrat in this article are to the daily edition. Files of newspa­ pers cited are in the possession of the Minnesota His­ MR. BABCOCK IS cuTator of newspapers on the torical Society. staff of the Minnesota Historical Society. He ' For early reports of the gold strikes, see the Pio­ neer and Democrat, .lune 13, 30, July 4, 1858. Gen­ has been especially interested in the Indians of eral information on the Fraser River gold rush may the Minnesota area and in the early history of be found in Ray A, Billington, The Far Western the region throughout his long career. Frontier, 1830-1860, 243-249 (New York, 1956),

June 1957 249 THE steamer "Anson Northup"

and the Saskatchewan as routes of com­ River was an ambitious scheme for an merce.^ overland expedition to the Rocky Moun­ To aid in funneling trade from these tains. The proposal grew out of a series of northern regions to St. Paul, a committee meetings held at St. Paul during the sum­ of the newly formed chamber of commerce mer of 1858 to consider "the best measures took steps to encourage steamboat naviga­ for establishing an emigrant route" to the tion on the Red River. This group reported new mines via the Red and Saskatchewan that two bids had been received, and its river valleys and to explore the commer­ recommendation that a bonus of a thou­ cial possibilities and potential importance sand doflars be offered to Anson Northup, for St. Paul of the Red River-Saskatche­ one of the bidders, was adopted. Thus en­ wan trade." couraged, Northup hauled the machinery On Aprfl 19, 1859, the St. Paul Common and cabin of his boat, the "Anson North­ Council took steps to make such an expedi­ up," overland from the mouth of Gull tion a reality by adopting a resolution River on the Crow Wing to the mouth of which stated that "The exploration of the the Sheyenne on the Red in the winter of immense and fertile districts Northwest of 1858-59, buflt a hufl, and on May 28, 1859, Minnesota is an object of paramount im­ triumphantly inaugurated steamboating on portance to this City and State, and a gen­ the Red River. Northup's St. Paul backers eral interest prevafls in the Northwest for hoped that the advent of the steamboat in the speedy organization of a party for that the region would expand and facflitate ^ On the organization of the chamber of commerce, trade with the northern areas, shorten the see the Daily Minnesotian (St, Paul), January '20. trip that had to be made by oxcart 1859; and the Pioneer and Democrat, January '22, betvs'een St. Paul and on 1859. The text of Taylor's talk appears in issues of the latter paper for January 25, 26, 1859, the present site of , increase the ' On the "Anson Northup," see the Pioneer and amount of freight that could be carried, Democrat, February 15, March '2,5, May 20, '26, June and provide for passenger service to con­ 15, 17, 19, 29, July 15, 1859, ° On the events of 1858, see the St. Paul Daily nect with a projected stagecoach line.* Times, July 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 18, 25, 1858, For accounts of an advance party of Minnesotans who went to the mines in 1858 and sent back information to Nobles, COUPLED with plans for the establish­ see the Faribaidt Central Republican, July 21, 28, ment of steamboat navigation on the Red 1858; and the Pioneer and Democrat, May 17, 1859,

250 MINNESOTA History purpose." The councfl therefore requested Minnesota to California by way of Nobles that "Col. Wifliam H. Nobles, of Saint Pass. In 1856 and 1857 he served as super­ Paul, and Gen. S. B. Olmstead of Fort Rip­ intendent for the surveying of a wagon ley . . . organize and lead a party of road from to South Pass, near exploration from Minnesota to British Co­ what is now Lander, Wyoming, a work lumbia, during the spring and summer of terminated by financial troubles with the 1859." These gentlemen were asked "to government. Having thus acquired a repu­ communicate ... to the next meeting of tation as an experienced plainsman and the Council, a particular statement of the guide. Nobles was a logical choice to lead routes which they may select, and of the an exploring party to the Fraser River gold requisite outfit for those desiring to join fields.' the expedition."" Although Olmstead was named by the Nobles, a blacksmith and wagonmaker council as one of the leaders of the expedi­ who had settled at St. Paul in 1848, had tion, he did not accompany it, and his con­ been an active participant in the 1858 meet­ nection with the proposal is not clear. He ings to promote a northern route via St. seems to have been a farmer who lived near Paul and the Red River to the new gold Belle . He served as president of the fields on the Fraser River. He was a vet­ territorial council in 1854, but little else is eran of the California gold rush, having known of him.* traveled west with a party of gold seekers in 1850. In 1851 or eariy 1852 he discov­ WITH A SPEED indicating that they had ered an easy pass, later to bear his name, given the matter previous thought. Nobles through the Sierra Nevada Mountains near and Olmstead accepted the council's pro­ present-day Susanville, California. He re­ posal and outlined a route from St. Paul to turned to St. Paul in the summer of 1852, the head of navigation on the Red River, having guided a party over his new route. "by steamboat to Pembina; thence north­ Thereafter he vigorously advocated the es­ westerly to the elbow (so called) of the tablishment of an emigrant route from South Saskatchewan, thence westwardly to the sources of that river in the Kooto- " Quoted material may be found in St. Paul Com­ nais Pass of the Rocky Mountains." ^ mon Council, Proceedings, 1858-59, p. 217 (St. Paul, The two men proposed to explore the 1859). 'A biographical sketch ot Nobles may be found in eastern base of the Rockies "carefullj' pros­ W. H. C. Folsom, Fifty Years in the Northwest, 562 pecting for gold in the mountain streams, (St. Paul, 1888). On his departure for California and and obtaining full particulars of soil, wa­ his activities there, see Minnesota Chronicle and Reg­ ister (St. Paul), February 9, April 20, 27, 1850; ter, timber, and mineral resources as far Weekly Minnesotian (St. Paul), August 28, Septem­ north as Edmonton on the North Sas­ ber 11, 1852. On the wagon road, see Fort Ridgely katchewan" River. From that settlement, and South Pass Wagon Road (37 Congress, 2 session. House Executive Documents, no. 35 — serial 1129). foflowing the Hudson's Bay Company's ex­ Nobles Pass is shown on map no. 4 for a "Route press route over Athabaska Portage, they Near the Forty-first Parallel," in Topographical Maps, would continue to the sources of the Profiles, and Sketches accompanying Reports of Ex­ Thompson River, where "all accounts now plorations and Surveys, to Ascertain the Most Prac­ ticable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the represent the richest gold fields of British to the Pacific Ocean, vol. 11 (33 Columbia to have been discovered." There Congress, 2 session. House Executive Documents, no. the party planned to divide. Olmstead was 91 — serial 801). to go on to the Pacific coast, while Nobles ' See Warren Upham and Rose B, Dunlap, Minne­ sota Biographies, 16-55-1912, 565 (Minnesota Histori­ proposed to explore the sources of the Co­ cal Collections, vol, 14), lumbia and return to Minnesota via "Lewis "Quoted material from Nobles' reply in this and and Clark's Pass, the Fafls of the Missouri, succeeding paragraphs may be found in Common Council, Proceedings, 1858-59, p, 222-226, the Vafley of INlilk River to Fort Mandan,

June 1957 251 and via Big Stone and Fort Ridgely fornia," Nobles wrote, "and are confident to St. Paul." Nobles stated that he hoped that we shall demonstrate the existence of to be back in St. Paul by November 15. gold — but this is the least of the motives The leaders informed the councfl "that which prompts us to undertake the expedi­ the outfit of a party of ten men for six tion. We shafl be better satisfied if we can months must include ... 15 mules or verify the accuracy of the rumors that horses, 5 carts and harness, 10 saddles and reach us of the beauty, fertflity and salu­ bridles, 5 pack saddles, 1 coil of % inch brity of the mountain vafleys from which manilla rope, 10 bbls. flour in sacks of fifty flow the numerous of the Sas­ lbs. each; 5 bbls. pork or 10 sacks of pem­ katchewan." The leaders felt certain that mican; 500 lbs. sugar (best quality) in duck this region "will be found more desirable sacks of 50 lbs. each; 100 lbs. coffee in thick for the settlement of a populous and pros­ sacks of 50 lbs. each; 25 lbs. tea in long perous community, than even the . . . val­ round tin cans; 50 pounds mackaroni in ley of the Red River of the North." duck sacks of 25 lbs. each; 25 lbs. salaratus; They asked all those who wished to ac­ 10 pairs of best Mackanaw blankets, and company the party to "report themselves $30 per man in arms and ammunition." in St. Paul before the 25th of May," and They estimated that these supplies would expressed their willingness to accept up to cost "about $3,000 for ten men —$300 per one hundred volunteers at the rate of three man." In addition, the two leaders recom­ hundred dollars a man. "But it must be un­ mended that each member of the party derstood," they said, that "we reserve the "provide himself with one coat, three pairs right, at all times, to name the amount of pants, 6 flannel shirts, four under shirts, labor to be performed each day, to select three pairs drawers, six pairs socks, one the places for camps, the time to halt, the pair of boots, all of coarse and strong ma­ time to move, and the management of terial." the train generally, including the routes to be traveled." They added that any rules NOBLES and Olmstead agreed "to pro­ adopted by the party would be enforced, vide scientific instruments and a chest of and that no liquor would be aflowed "ex­ medicines," and reported that Dr. J. D. cept for medicinal purposes." Goodrich of St. Paul, "a physician of ad­ In so far as its twenty members can be mitted skill,'' would accompany them. They identified, the expedition was composed hoped that "a Naturalist, to be appointed largely of greenhorns from St. Paul, who by the Smithsonian Institution," would be were completely without experience in in the party, and said that "a literary gen­ plains travel." John P. Dignan, the wagon tleman of distinction as traveler and author master, was the proprietor of a bflliard sa­ has been invited to join the expedition." loon there. Nelson Harris was a barkeep­ Doubtless this was Manton Marble, corre­ er, W. W. Thompson and John Young spondent for the New York Evening Post, were real-estate men, and George Reed and who arrived at St. Paul on May 27, 1859, Thomas Lynch were clerks. Joseph A. after a comfortable journey of some eighty Wheelock, associate editor of the Pioneer hours by rail and steamboat from New and Democrat, accompanied the group in York.^" Nobles also informed the public the hope of improving his health. Dr. that Norman W. Kittson, who was then mayor of St. Paul, had "consented to act " See the Evening Post, June 2, 1859, for Marble's as financial agent," and that Taylor would account of his trip. " On the members of the party, see Howard S, serve as the expedition's secretary. Erode, ed„ "Diary of Dr, A, J, Thibodo," in the Pa­ cific Northwest Quarterly, 31:293 (July, 1940), and "We shafl be accompanied by gentlemen Wheelock's dispatch in the Pioneer and Democrat, of much experience in the mines of Cah­ June 24, 1859,

252 MINNESOTA History Charles L. Anderson of Minneapolis, repre­ ton sent back vivid newspaper reports of senting the Smithsonian Institution, was the journey, and Wheelock and Thibodo the expedition's naturalist, and it had two kept diaries that provide valuable records physicians. Dr. Goodrich and Dr. Augustus of the trip. From Pembina on. Nobles kept J. Thibodo of Kingston, Ontario. Marble a log of the journey in which he recorded and John W. Hamflton of the New York daily odometer readings, notes on the Daily Tribune were also in the party. weather, and observations on the soil, wa­ Wheelock, Taylor, Marble, and Hamfl­ ter, and plant cover along the line of march."^^ "Wheelock's reports on the expedition appear in the Pioneer and Democrat, June 23, 24, July 6, 7, 8, September 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 1859. A series of articles AS THE TIJNIE for departure drew near, by Taylor may be found in issues of the same paper mass meetings were held to work out de­ for June 25, 26, July 9, September 30, October 2, 4, 1859. For Marble's dispatches, see the Evening Post, tails in the organization of the expedition. June 2, 22, September 14, October 8, 1859, Only one Finafly on June 4 Nobles put his party un­ report by Hamilton has been located in the Daily der canvas in a camp on the outskirts of Tribune for July 19, 1859, Wheelock's manuscript diary covering the trip and a typescript of Nobles' St. Paul. Stifl further delays occurred to log, entitled "Exploration in the N,W.: Itineraries of accommodate latecomers who wished to Col. W. H. Nobles & Parties in 1859," are owned by join the expedition, and not until Friday, the Minnesota Historical Society. "For reports on the gathering of the party, see June 10, did it actuafly begin its long jour­ the Pioneer and Democrat. June 1. 6, 7, 8, 1859. ney .'^^

ROUTE of the Nobles expedition to Fort Ellice and back to St. Paul

LAKE .WINMIPSS BRITISH TERRITORY

June 1957 253 According to Marble, "crowds of citizens from the new tin tea-pot deserved no better from St. Paul and vicinity were present" name than hot slops. We asked for bread when the expedition broke camp. Describ­ and received a stone, or at least something ing the confusion and bustle of the scene, so compact, solid, and yet springy, that if the New Yorker wrote: "All about the it could be produced in sufficient quanti­ camp-ground were scattered our provisions, ties, it might supersede the pavements of sacks of flour and sugar and beans, barrels New York, with danger to horses, profit to of pork and bags of dried beef, bags of the contractor, and addition to the general dried apples and sacks of coffee, canisters filth — the three essentials. Fried salt pork of tea and kegs of powder, bags of shot and was the piece de resistance." chunks of lead, rifles, shot-guns, and pis­ Next day the party proceeded to St. An­ tols, blankets — blue, red, white, and green; thony, camping Sunday night near the fishing-rods, pack-saddles, cart-harness, fafls, and Monday evening at Coon Creek. tents and tent-poles, tin kettles, iron Anoka, Big Lake, and Clear Lake foflowed saucepans, tin plates, carpet-bags, valises, as the expedition traveled northward by soap-boxes, axes, and buffalo-robes, butcher- moderate stages roughly along the route of knives and spy-glasses, and a hundred present-day Highway No. 10 to St. Cloud. things besides."'* Wheelock humorously reported an inci­ Finally at three o'clock in the afternoon dent that occurred at the Coon Creek all the tents were struck, kits packed, carts camp, where an "affectionate Civilization loaded, and horsemen mounted. With Colo­ suddenly made its appearance in two car­ nel Nobles in the lead "driving a light riages at midnight in the midst of a howl­ sulky carrying the odometer, the scientific ing storm of wind and rain — in the persons instruments," and a medicine chest, the of three young ladies — neither maids carts "one after another wheeled into line'' nor wives — escorted by three excellent and the expedition started on its way to young gentlemen with tolerably good sized the accompaniment of vociferous farewells. bricks in their hats. . . . This unexpected The party traveled only about three mfles condescension of Crinoline to Corduroy," that day. Its route along present-day St. he continued, "created a profound sensa­ Anthony and Snelling avenues is now well tion in the camp, particularly among some within the limits of St. Paul. Camp was of the boys who had the honor of being in­ pitched the first night in Roseville.^'' timate acquaintances of our fair visitors. The first day's march was short. Marble If the Crinoline Civilization hugged the wrote, because "the fatigues of the journey Corduroy Nomad," Wheelock added, "as had to be begun adagio, and then crescen­ some eye-witnesses averred, you must not do." Even so, he said, "riding in the sun blame the Nomad too harshly if he re­ and the labor and excitement of starting turned the lingering caress."'" had given us the appetites of Brobdignag- ians. Visions of savory messes . . . floated ^' Unless otherwise noted, quoted material in this through our minds as we pitched the tents article is from Marble's "To Red River and Beyond," in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 21:289-311, and drove their stakes, stacked the guns 581-606; 22:306-322 (August, October, 1860, Febru­ and spread our blankets for the night, and ary, 1861). Marble and Wheelock apparently collab­ then waited and listened for the call to orated on the Harper's series, for Marble seems to rely heavily on information contained in Wheelock's supper. Presently it came, and in the one diary and in his dispatches to the Pioneer and Demo­ word 'Grub? and grub it was. The tea, vir­ crat. gin as when gathered in the gardens of the '°0n the departure, see Marble, in Harper's, 21: celestials, had imparted none of its virtue 290-292; Thibodo, in Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 31:292; and Wheelock, in Pioneer and Democrat, to the ravishing hot water, and the decoc­ June 23, 1859. tion which we poured into our tin cups '" Pioneer and Democrat, June 23, 1859.

254 MINNESOTA History Both Marble and Wheelock paid their respects to ferries and ferrymen encoun­ tered along the route. At Anoka, citizens of the community defrayed the expenses of ferrying the party across the Rum River, and at Lower St. Cloud a friendly party of lumbermen assisted in getting Nobles and his men across the swift current of the Mississippi. In other cases, the party had to fend for itself, improvising rope ferries when bridges had been swept away by spring freshets.^'

THE EXPEDITION reached St. Cloud on Friday, June 17, a week after leaving St. Paul. Marble remarked that the town had "a capital hotel, the Stearns House, two or three churches, a hospital . . . houses for a thousand people," and a newspaper. Marble and Wheelock cafled on Jane Grey Swisshelm, editor of the St. Cloud FERRY over the Rum River near Anoka Democrat, and found her to be "a large- eyed, lively little woman with a masculine It was. Marble said, "a small apartment and unhandsome breadth and height of partitioned off from the main room, long forehead, wearing a plain brown Quakerish and narrovi'. In one corner stood the edi­ dress, and occupied in sewing together a torial desk, with a pile of exchanges sur­ carpet for the principal room in her new mounted by the professional scissors and house. . . . She was very busy," wrote paste-pot. She had been compelled to use Marble, "and therefore kept her position the sanctum as a living room also," and on the floor and went on with her work, confusion reigned supreme, "for it was not tefling us, however, that she was glad we large enough to swing a cat comfortably came, begging us to go on and talk, but in." launching her bark in the current of con­ On Saturday night, June 18, Nobles and versation before we had knocked away the some of his associates were entertained at shores of our own." what Marble called "a particular and pub­ Wheelock, in the Pioner and Democrat lic supper" held in the Willis House at St. of June 23, 1859, describes Mrs. Swisshelm Cloud. "For my part," he commented, "I more flatteringly as "a piquant, spicy little remember nothing of it except that the pre­ body, done up, for the nonce, in an affecta­ siding officer was C. C. Andrews, immor­ tion of Quaker hideousness of costume, just talized in 'The Red River Trafl,' '* a lawyer such a little woman, for all the worid, as who is making his mark in the northwest, it refreshes one's soul to quarrel with." and that, after his sensible brief speech, Mrs. Swisshelm showed the two newspa­ somebody got up and told who built the permen her "printing-office and sanctum." first wagon in Minnesota, and somebody else expressed the opinion that the head of "See Marble, in Harper's, 21:293; Pioneer and navigation on the Mississippi was not St. Democrat. June 23. 1859. Paul, nor S'n'anthony, nor St. Cloud, but ^* A trip made by Andrews and Charles Hallock Fort Edmonton on the Saskatchewan." was described by Hallock under this title in Harper's, 18:602-620, 19:37-54 (April, June. 1859). The man who claimed to have buflt the

June 1957 255 first wagon and who extofled the virtues of and weeks, only approaching the limits of the Saskatchewan country was Nobles him­ mathematical calculation as we neared self. Marble, too, contributed a few well- Pembina. . . . The only external indica­ chosen remarks upon this occasion. Judging tion of some kinds of sloughs is a ranker from the lists of arrivals at the leading St. growth of grass, perhaps of a different Cloud hotels, most of the members of the color, in the low ground between two hifls expedition made good use of this last stop of a rofling prairie. Again, on a level prai­ within the limits of civflization." rie, where the road seems the same as that you have been traveling dry shod, your ON MONDAY, June 20, the expedition horse's hoofs splash in wet grass. This goes started off up the Sauk Vafley, encounter­ on, worse and worse, tifl you get nervous ing the usual vicissitudes of travel over a and begin to draw up your heels out of the Red River trafl. Horses and mules ran water; and so, perhaps, for a mfle, whether away, numerous streams had to be crossed, in water or out of it you can not tefl, horses and pathways through countless sloughs up to their bellies trudging through water must be found by experimentation. "So far and grass, carts sinking deeper than the we had been treading the warp and woof hubs, you travel at the rate of one mfle in of civflization," Marble remarked, "now we 2 [hours,] 40 [minutes]." began to slip off the fringes of its outer­ Marble and Wheelock were riding Indian most skirts. Our direction was northwest," ponies, but the sloughs presented even he continued, "by the valley of , greater problems for the carts. "It is the through the lake district of Middle Minne­ wagon-master's business," wrote Marble, sota to the head of navigation on Red River. Such articles as were needed had "For a full account of the banquet and lists ot arrivals at the leading hotels, see the St. Cloud been added to our outfit, including a boat Democrat, June 23, 1859. to cross streams in, which served for a ^' For day-by-day accounts of the expedition's pas­ wagon box on dry land." ^" sage through the Sauk Valley, see Marble, in Harp­ er's, 21:297-299; Thibodo, in Pacific Northwest As for the road. Marble remarked that Quarterly, 31:293-296; Pioneer and Democrat, Sep­ the "sloughs were innumerable, and indeed tember 7, 1859; and Wheelock diary. June 20 to July innumerable they continued to be for weeks 3, 1859,

CLAIM shanty in the Sauk Valley

256 MINNESOTA History GETTING out of a slough

"to ride ahead of the train a few hundred intervention. The men get off their horses yards, and, on coming to a slough, to force and carts, and hurry to the shafts and his horse carefully back and forth through wheels, tugging and straining, while one or it till he finds the best place for crossing. two yell at and belabor the discouraged I have fished for trout in Berkshire streams and mulish mule." Marble concluded "that so smafl that, to an observer a hundred people on raflroad cars don't realize what yards distant, I must have seemed to be they have to be thankful for.'' bobbing for grasshoppers in a green mead­ In spite of the difficult terrain, the New ow," the correspondent commented, "but Yorker thought the Sauk Valley "one of the appearance is not more novel than to the garden spots of Minnesota." He noted see a strong horse plunging and pitching in that settlers and land speculators had been a sea of green grass that seems to have as moving into the region. "Claim-stakes and solid a foundation as that your own horse's claim-shanties speck the road from one end hoofs are printing." of the river to the other," he said, observ­ Some sloughs. Marble continued, were ing that some of them had been "buflt in nothing but "mud from one side to the good faith, had been lived in, and land was other — mud bottomless and infinite. . . . tflled around them. Not a few, however, The foremost cart approaches, and, at the were of the other sort, buflt to keep the first step, the mule sinks to his knees. Some letter of the law; four walls merely, no win­ mules lie down at this point; but most of dows, door, or roof.-' We often found it ours were sufficiently well broken to make convenient," he added, "to camp near these one more spasmodic leap, and, though the edifices, and saved ourselves the trouble of water or mud went no higher than their going half a mfle for wood when we found fetlocks, then and there they laid them it cut so near at hand." down. This is the moment for human in­ Whfle traversing this portion of the tervention, and, on the part of profane route, the party was thoroughly drenched mule-drivers, for an imprecation of divine by a prairie thunderstorm. Marble was im­ pressed by the thunder, which "was so "' The terms of the pre-emption law then in force provided that qualified persons could claim a hundred near, prolonged, and hurtling, that it was and sixty acres of unoccupied public lands if they enough to make a brave man shiver to re­ would "inhabit and improve the same" and "erect a member that his trowsers had a steel buckle. dwelling thereon." See , Statutes at Large, 5:453-458. All day and all night the tempest con-

June 1957 257 tinned," he said, "rain pouring, lightning nora] was to redeem her plighted faith and flashing round the whole circuit of the marry a Company's officer. heavens, and the thunder unintermitted." Ocean voyage alone, two or three thousand miles' travel through a strange country to BY SUNDAY, June 26, the expedition was St. Paul alone, then this journey by stage comfortably encamped on the shores of to Fort Abercrombie, camping out and Lake Osakis near Alexandria. The weather, cooking their own food, and voyaging down according to Marble, was perfect. "The Red River in a batteau, near a thousand wind came fresh and clear over the lake," mfles more and fired at by Red Lake In­ which was "surrounded by forests on every dians on the way, then journeying with a side, with only here and there vistas of Company's brigade to Athabasca, going open prairie." The party spent the day in north afl the whfle and winter coming on camp "reading, writing, sewing, fishhig, too, and the mercury traveling down to the washing, cooking, and mending wagons." bulb; but her courage sinking never a bit." Nobles had been proceeding somewhat In the Pioneer and Democrat of July 7, slowly in order to take advantage of the Wheelock reported that, besides the "two road-building activities of the Minnesota blooming Scotch lassies," the stage also , Stage Company, which planned to insti­ contained three "monimanical Nimrods tute triweekly stage service between St. from England," whom he identified as "Sir Cloud and Fort Abercrombie on the Red Francis Sykes, and Messrs. [Jack] Sheffield River, where steamboat connections could and Peters, on their way to Red River to be made. The first two stages over this hunt buffalo."'' route left St. Cloud on June 21 loaded with passengers.^^ ON OVER THE PRAIRIE, from Alexan­ Marble was not, however, much im­ dria to the Otter Tafl River, the Nobles pressed with the twelve miles of new road party plodded its way, and the two news­ between Lake Osakis and Alexandria. It papermen rhapsodized over the hifls and was, he said, "the very worst road yet." of the region. "It was our habit to Tired of the slow progress of the carts in ride ahead of the train a mile or two, or Nobles' train, Wheelock and Marble rode behind it, if we staid to hunt or sketch or on ahead of the party, and on the after­ for sight-seeing," wrote Marble. Thus, the noon of the next day, June 27, emerged two men were the first to see the waters of from the mosquito-filled woods onto the the Red River. The expedition celebrated prairie at "a place, which, when it gets to the Fourth of July by reaching the river at be a place, is to be called Alexandria." Dayton, where, said Marble, "the present There they found the stagecoach passen­ population numbers one. They live alone gers in camp, awaiting the completion of by himself," he continued facetiously, "in certain bridges, and there, too, they en­ a breezy log-house, with a little off-shoot countered Taylor, actually a member of containing bunks and a cooking-stove, and the Nobles party, who was making the trip whose wafls are hung with dried sturgeons to Fort Abercrombie as a guest of the stage and catfishes, caught in the river." -'' company. That night, as the party was making "Is it possible," asked Marble, "that I have forgotten to tell the romance of that •• On the stage route, see Russell Blakeley, "Open­ ing of the Red River to Commerce and Civilization," stage load.'' Two Scotch girls [Ellenora in Minnesota Historical Collections, 8:51, 63, 66 and Christina Sterling], sisters, journeying (1898); and the St. Cloud Democrat, June 23, 1859. without any protection save their good ^ See also Marble's dispatch in the Evening Post, looks and good sense, from Scotland to July 2, 1859; Wheelock's in the Pioneer and Demo­ crat, September 9, 1859; and Thibodo, in Pacific Lake Athabasca, where one of them \Elle- Northice.st Quarterly, 31:300.

258 MINNESOTA History PARTIALLY completed cantonments at Fort Abercrombie in 1859 camp, a train of Red River carts came Next morning during breakfast, the No­ along "one cart after another wheeling by bles expedition had more visitors — "Sir in long procession — scores upon scores, George Simpson, the Governor of the Hud­ each wheel in every cart having its own son's Bay Company in America, and his individual creek or shriek, and each cart attendants. He was just returning from his drawn by an ox harnessed in rawhide, one annual visit to Norway House," explained driver to three carts. The drivers were all Marble, "and was only seven days from half-breeds, dressed in every variety of Fort Garry. He was accompanied by relays costume, but nearly all showing some flash of horses, and himself rode in an old buggy of gaudy color in the invariable belt or at a spanking gait." In the correspondent's sash, or in the moccasins, and politely opinion, Simpson's voice, "which is said to touching the cap with a 'Bon jour!' to such make chief factors and chief traders and of us as stood near enough to return the chief clerks tremble, and which makes and salutation." The men of Nobles' party "ex­ mars fortunes in Rupert's Land, was to us changed the news and friendly question­ strangers very pleasant in its tones. Our ings" with the leader of the train.^^ eyes followed the white round-topped hat and white , as long as they were vis­ ible, with great interest." ^^ " In the Pioneer and Democrat of September 8, Wheelock identifies the lone resident ot Dayton as a The expedition continued its journey to "Mr. Wright," probably Mathiel Wright, who is listed Fort Abercrombie, where it stopped briefly. for that place in the population schedules ot the manuscript census of 1860 for Otter Tail County, in The fort had not yet been completed, but the custody of the Minnesota Historical Society. Marble described "the one building erected ^ For information on the Red River trade, see J. for the commanders' quarters, and the can­ Fletcher Williams, A History of the City of Saint Paul, 304-308 (Minnesota Historical Collections, vol. vas store-houses, which are buflt upon the 4). prairie near the river bank. The log-houses, " Simpson's 1859 trip is described in "Journeys of which officers and privates at present oc­ Sir George Simpson, 1820-1860," in The Beaver. 33 (June, 1936). See also Thibodo, in Pacific Northwe.st cupy," he went on, "are afl buflt in a quad­ Quarterly, 31:297. rangle upon a pear-shaped promontory.

June 1957 259 THE fort at Pembina

surrounded by water, and a trifle lower variations in the dafly menu. One berry- than the level of the prairie." Near the picking expedition almost had a tragic end­ fort, tied up to the bank after its trial runs ing, for as the train moved on no one was the "Anson Northup," and Wheelock noticed that Taylor, who had joined the and Marble crossed the river aboard the party at Fort Abercrombie, had been left boat, swimming their horses over.^'^ behind. After some mfles he was missed, The train did not cross the Red River at and as it was known that he "had lost his the fort, but "continued on for about fifty spectacles ... it began to be feared that miles down the east side" to a spot near he had lost himself in the bewfldering the mouth of the Sheyenne. Marble com­ mazes of his strawberry search." After some plained of the mosquitoes that "abounded, discussion, several members of the party biting our hands, and necks, and faces, as were sent back, and the missing man was we cooked our suppers, and flying into our located on the summit of a distant ridge, eyes and mouths whenever we dared to utterly lost.^^ open either. At this season of the year,'' he July 18 found the expedition at Pembina, lamented, "mosquitoes are the intolerable where its members received welcome mail curse of travelers, the little black fly the from home and made the acquaintance of tolerable curse, and wood-ticks the curse." Joseph Rolette, whom Marble called the "King of the Border." The newspaperman AFTER CROSSING the river into Da­ described Rolette as short and muscular, kota Territory, the party took precautions with "a bullety head, the neck and chest of to protect itself against Indian attacks, for a young buffalo bull, small hands and feet it was traveling in hostile country. . . . full bearded, cap, shirt, natty necker­ Near the Elm River, which flows into the chief, belt, trowsers, and dandy little moc­ Red about twenty-five mfles north of the casins." -'-' present city of Fargo, , two black spots sighted on the horizon turned " Fort Abercrombie, on the west bank of the Red River about thirty-five miles south of the present city out to be buffalo, and a wfld cross-country of Fargo, North Dakota, was established in 1858 chase ensued. Marble managed to get close and abandoned in 1877. See Minnesota in the Civil enough to wound one of the animals with and Indian Wars, 1861-65, 1:744-746 (St. Paul, 1891), a bullet from a light rifle, and eventuafly '^For Wheelock's version of this affair, see the both were killed. A banquet of buffalo Pioneer and Democrat, September 10, 1859, steaks followed. ^" A sketch of Rolette may be found in Williams, Saint Paul, 160, Taylor contributed a romanticized As the party moved northward, blueber­ description of "The Seigniory ot Rolette," to the Pio­ ries and strawberries furnished agreeable neer and Democrat, October 4, 1859.

260 MINNESOTA History "Marble continued: "Inside of afl this At St. Joseph the Nobles expedition lost there is a man of character, educated in two more members. "It became clear," New York; but with a score of wild, ad­ wrote Marble, "that the leader of the ex­ venturous years on the frontier behind him pedition could never justify the 'lofty and — a man of character who asserts himself high sounding phrases of his manifesto,' always, whatever the right or wrong of the and that it was even doubtful if we should assertion. Of unfailing good spirits, brimful be able to get through the mountains be­ of humor . . . sticking to his belief in a fore fafl, to say nothing of returning breezy, healthy way, and believing first overland. One of the scientific gentlemen and always in Joe Rolette; hospitable and [Dr. Goodrich] returned to St. Paul from generous beyond reckoning, and reckoning St. Jo by private conveyance. Another on equal unselfishness in return." Rolette [Taylor] left the expedition at the same entertained the party royally and assisted place, preferring to go to the Selkirk Settle­ Nobles in reorganizing his outfit. ment. There remained only our one geolo­ gist and botanist [Dr. Anderson] to repre­ IN PEMBINA, friction which had been sent science, the through passengers for developing among members of the expedi­ Fraser River, the leader, and Joseph tion brought them to actual blows. Dr. [Wheelock] and I." Thibodo wrote in his diary on July 20 that, After obtaining fresh horses and a half- as a result of this and earlier quarrels, "I breed guide, the party resumed its march. am afraid the expedition will go to pieces Nobles, Marble, and Wheelock planned to here." His prediction became a reality two "go as far as possible with the expedition," days later when seven men, "a tent full of but to turn back in time to be at Pembina scape-graces," as Marble called them, sepa­ about the first of September. On July 28 rated from the main party and "took their the group crossed the boundary into Brit­ own way to Fraser River." ^° ish territory, and on August 9 reached Fort After a week of rest, the remaining mem­ Ellice near the junction of the Assiniboine bers of the expedition moved on toward and Qu'Appelle rivers, where the members St. Joseph, a settlement about thirty mfles were hospitably entertained by William west of Pembina. When the party arrived McKay, the Hudson's Bay Company trad­ there, "galloping down one of its grassy er in charge of the post. A few days were streets as the sun was sinking behind Pem­ spent in sight-seeing around the fort, re­ bina Mountain, which fills the western pairing equipment, and securing provi­ horizon," it found, Marble reported, that sions; then on August 13 the expedition the "city was deserted; its one hundred broke up.^^ houses were nearly all shut and barred, their accustomed inmates gone to the sum­ IN SPITE OF the lateness of the season mer buffalo-hunt." Only a few half-breeds, and the danger of snow in the mountains, "very young, or very old, or lame" re­ eight members of the group, including Dr. mained in the settlement. Thibodo and Hamilton of the Daily Trib­ une, determined to continue westward. '° For the names of these men and an account of Nobles appointed Hamilton leader of the their subsequent fate, see Thibodo, in Pacific North­ group and charged him to carry out the west Quarterly, 31:300, 301, 334-347. Wheelock gives lofty purposes of the expedition. Dr. An­ a full account of the quarrel in his diary for July 19, 22, 24, 1859, and in the Pioneer and Democrat, Sep­ derson, the party's geologist and botanist, tember 11, 1859, started back down the to '' On the stay at Fort Ellice, see Wheelock diary, Fort Garry in a birch-bark canoe with only August 11, 1859. For a biographical sketch of McKay, see W. Bleasdell Cameron, "Clan McKay in the an Indian guide for company. Nobles, West," in The Beaver, 3, 4 (September, 1944). Wheelock, and Marble, with two guides.

June 1957 261 FORT Garry in 1859, as seen from the river

began the homeward journey together, tak­ in the face of developing friction and per­ ing a slightly more southerly route than sonal differences among the men, and he that by which they had gone to Fort Ellice. delayed too long at St. Paul before begin­ Their return trip was enlivened by the an­ ning the overland journey in mid-June. By tics of a young buffalo cow, which Nobles the time the group reached Pembina, No­ had obtained from McKay, and by fre­ bles feared that the party could not get quent buffalo hunts. They visited the Tur­ safely across the mountains before winter tle Mountains and Devil's Lake and were set in. Although it would seem that the back at St. Joseph by the last day of Au- expedition achieved little in the way of gust.^^ lasting results, it did succeed in focusing Nobles with Dr. Anderson and Taylor, the attention of Minnesotans on the geo­ who rejoined him at Pembina, returned to graphic features and economic potentiali­ St. Paul over the Red River trail via De­ ties of the Red River country and the troit Lake, Otter Tail City, and Crow Northwest. Wing. Marble and Wheelock followed a week later after visiting Fort Garry and '' The final breakup of the expedition is described the Selkirk Settlement. As for those mem­ by Thibodo, in Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 31:305; Wheelock diary, August 13, 1859; and Marble, in bers of the group who struggled on west­ Harper's, 21:598. The return trip to St. Joseph is ward over the mountains, they reached covered by the latter on p, 599-606, and by Wheelock Fort Walla Walla in Washington Territory in his diary for August 14 to 31, 1859. early in December after considerable hard­ ^ Interview with Nobles in the Pioneer and Demo­ crat, September 29, 1859; Dr. Anderson's return is ship and suffering and great good luck.^^ mentioned in the same paper on October 2. Marble So ended the Nobles expedition of 1859, tells of his trip to Fort Garry and back to St. Paul in Harper's, 22:306-322. The journey westward to which was to have penetrated the Cana­ Fort Walla Walla is described by Thibodo, in Pacific dian Rockies, explored the headwaters of Northwest Quarterly, 31:305-347. the Columbia River, and retraced the route THE ILLUSTRATIONS in these pages are among of Lewis and Clark through the Missouri those accompanying Marble's articles in issues of River country. At least two reasons may Harper's New Monthly Magazine for August and Oc­ tober, 1860, and February, 1861. They are doubtless be offered for its faflure: Nobles was ap­ based on original sketches executed by Marble on the parently unable to hold his party together journey.

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