A Brief History of the Missouri River in Dakota
By Will G. Robinson
Secretary, South Dakota State Historical Society

Editor's note: Mr. Robinson completed the following historical sketch on very short notice for the current issue of the Bulletin. Because it is an excellent summary and can be of genuine value to the general readers and students alike, we are publishing it in its entirety. Under Mr. Robinson's expert guidance, the state department of history has been completely rejuvenated in the short period since the end of the war.

Whatever the facts may be about the geographic origin of the Missouri River, its first became known to white, to white men, it would appear, in 1673 when Marguette and Joliet ventured down the Mississippi and discovered a great muddy inflow from the west. The couriers de bois were also pushing out along the waterway to Lake Winnipeg and down the Assiniboine, and it is certain that as early as 1738 Verendrye had reached the Missouri in North Dakota. The French map of 1743 the same year that Verendrye reached South Dakota, shows a Missouri sketched in by fancy that is not far from its real location. These maps even show the chemin des voyageurs from the Mississippi to what may have been the Sioux River, which possibly was discovered by LeSeuer around 1680.

Governor Bienville of the Louisiana Territory, as early as 1734, said that a Frenchman who lived with the Panimahas had been up to the Aricara villages on the Upper River. It would appear, however, that this testimony was a bit unreliable as he supposedly discovered some mines of pure silver, which have never been rediscovered.

Joseph Garreau, who was regarded by some of the later traders as a dissolute rascal, was among the Mandan Indians in 1787, and L'Eglise, a Frenchman working for the Spanish Crown, made trips to the Mandans in 1790, 1792, and 1794. One Trudeau was certainly in South Dakota in that yearin November he built the first house in what is now the state, down at or near the mouth of Black Timber Creek ten miles south of Lake Andes.

First Steamboat Travel
From 1790 on, the Missouri River was the sole avenue of commerce to the great interior of the North Central area. Its bateaux and keelboats were the only means of transportation till the coming of the first steamboat, the Yellowstone, in June, 1831.

The coming of the Yellowstone brought a new life to the fur trade, and with it new problems. A host of adventurers came into the regionmen who did not care for the hard journey by keelboat or bateau. World travelers like Prince Wilhelm, and the artists Aubudon and Catlin also came upriver by steamboat.

The fur trade of the first half of the 19th century was a fabulous one, made possible chiefly by reason of the transport afforded by the turbulent, often flood-ridden, more often shallow Missouri. For all the river's violence, it was the easiest road into the fur country. The plains abounded in buffalo. The mountains provided beaver for the shoulders of the ladies and the hats of the Beau Brummels of the old and new worlds.

Manuel Lisa, a Spaniard, with Benoit and Sarpy, formed a company to trade on the Upper Missouri in 1802, but it did little business of note. The Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804 showed the possibilities of the great exploitation of the next half century. Lisa, and George Drouillard, one of Lewis and Clark's most valuable men, formed a partnership in 1807 and went a far as the mouth of the Big Horn on the Yellowstone in quest of furs. This was an active invasion of territory which the French and English from Canada had previously considered their preserve.

In 1802 Lisa, with General William Clark and Sylvester Labbadie formed a new fur unit which might properly be called the first Missouri Company, and established posts for trade among the Mandans from Gros Ventre. In 1810 these two men continued on up the main stem of the Missouri to set up a post at the Three Forks of the Jefferson, Gallatin and Madison Rivers in what was then the most distant part of the basin.

War and the Fur Trade
The war of 1812 was a blow to the fur trade. Lisa maintained a post on the river in the neighborhood of the Big Bend, where he was a real factor in retaining the friendship of the Sioux of the Missouri. Throughout the conflict, these Indians were friendly to the United State, threatening the rear of the Sioux of the Mississippi. These latter sided with the British, but were of little value as allies to them because they were constantly alarmed by the possibility of attack. Lisa's activities in behalf of his adopted country did the fur business of the partnership little good, however, and the firm dissolved shortly after the close of the war.

The Lower Missouri fur trade was exploited by Cerre and Choteau, who traded with the Kansas Indians, and by Pratte and Vasquez who traded with the Omahas. Robedeau and Papin traded with the Ottos and Ioways, and Berthold and Choteau with the Pawnees, Omahas and the lower Sioux.

The trade with the upper Missouri Indians had lapsed following the war, and it was in 1819 that Lisa, in conjunction with nine others including such well known men as Andrew Drips and Joshua Pilcher, formed the second Missouri Fur Company. They set up a trading center at Fort Aux Cedres, on or adjacent to American Island, opposite the cite of the present city of Chamberlain.

The Rocky Mountain Fur Company of General Ashley, the Columbia Fur Company, the American Fur Company, the Union Fur Company (often known as Ebbets and Cutting), Sublette and Campbell and many other independent adventurers were striving for the trade of the Upper Missouri Indians.

In what is now South Dakota there were trading posts extending from Vermillion Post about ten miles below the mouth of the Vermillion River to Fort Manuel just inside the present north boundary line, on the west side of the river. These posts included the following: Post Vermillion, Vermillion Fort or Dickson's Post about half way between the Vermillion and James Rivers. Fort Aux Cedres referred to above and later as Fort Recovery on about the same site. Forts Lookout and Kowa, trader's posts about ten miles above Chamberlain on the west side. Fort Defiance, sometimes called Fort Boues, at the mouth of Medicine Creek in Lyman County. Fort George, recommended by Lt. Col. Frederick Grant as the entrepot for the Black Hills trade later, which was located opposite the mouth of Medicine Knoll Creek nineteen miles downstream from Ft. Pierre. Forts LaFrombois and Teton, just below the mouth of the Bad River. Forts Tecumseh and Pierre Choteau, above the Bad River at Ft. Pierre. Fort LaRamboise, a second post of the same name built forty year later. Fort Primau, about eight miles above the city of Ft. Pierre. Fort Brasseau, near the mouth of White River, and Fort Manuel. Besides the above list of the better known trading posts known as forts along the river, mention should be made of Loisel's Post in Hughes County, described in Lewis and Clark's journal, known to the Brule and Oglala as Little Beaver, and operated by John Valle on the north reach of Little Bend when Lewis and Clark reached that area September, 1804.

River Military Posts
The Missouri River was also the site of many early military forts. The first of these was Ft. Pierre Choteau, taken over from the fur trade and renamed Fr. Pierre by General Harney in 1855, at the time of the great Sioux Treaty. It was soon abandoned and the soldiers moved to Ft. Lookout, a few miles above the original Ft. Lookout of fur trading days, and to Ft. Randallwhich became the major Army outpost as soon as Ft. Lookout was abandoned. Ft. Sully was established with the start of the Civil War, about five miles downstream from Pierre. In 1866 it was moved to a new location aboue Okobojo Creek in Sully County, and continued as an active military post until 1892. Ft. Thompson was established about the same time at Ft. Sullly. Ft. Bennett, known also as Cheyenne River Agency, was established in 1870 about ten miles down river from the mouth of the Cheyenne. The last military post to be established on the river was Ft.

Hale, just opposite the mouth of Crow Creek on the west side, but it was soon abandoned as a military fort. (It was sometimes called Lower Brule Post.)

Just as the river was the logical site for fur posts and the most strategic location for army posts, it has also been a desirable site for the various Indian agencies. The Yankton Agency at Greenwood was established shortly after the treaty of April 19, 1858. The Whetstone Agency was started for the Brule Sioux and originally located at the mouth of Whetstone Creek. However, Spotted Tail insisted that the Indians be moved back

from the river and the trader's liquor, so it was moved to a site on White Earth Creek 200 miles farther west, still maintaining it's original name. The Lower Brule Agency was once at Oacoma, and Governor Sharpe's home, still standing, was one of its buildings. Later it was moved to a point a few miles above Fort Thompson on the west side of the river. Fort Thompson was established when the Sioux and Winnebagos were moved out of Minnesota after the War of the Outbreak, and is still an active agencymostly for Yanktonais Indians today. Cheyenne River Agency was first located at Ft. Bennett, and moved in 1891 to its present location opposite the mouth of the Little Cheyenne. Standing Rock Agency is located at Ft. Yates, below the mouth of the Cannonball.

Thus it is to be seen that much of South Dakota's history is connected immediately with the Missouri River. Incidentally, the only war the U. S. Government ever lost was to a wily South Dakotan, Red Cloud, who opposed government attempts to force a way through the Sioux nation via the Bozeman Trail in Wyoming during the Montana gold rush. Red Cloud's war of harassment is a classic to this day. But it was the Missouri River that sustained the Montana miners.

Fort Benton was the head of the lifeline. During the three years of the gold rush (1867-69) some forty boats a year made the difficult passage, bringing in over 10,000 miners and sustaining them.

Peak of the River Trade
River traffic reached its maximum between 1870 and 1880, as South Dakota's population increased from 11,000 to 98,000. The railroads ended at Yankton, so a vast territory in Dakota, Wyoming and Montana was dependent on the river for its very existence. When the gold was discovered in the Black Hills, three jumping-off places soon developed: Sydney, Nebraska, on the Union Pacific, Bismarck, on the Northern Pacific, and Ft. Pierre, the closest point on the river. For five years, until the railroad reached Pierre, the Missouri between Yankton and Ft. Pierre was a scene of constant activity throughout the navigation season. The river was the main source of wealth to Dakotans. Steamboat Reach, just below Pierre and the longest straight reach of open channel on the entire river, became the scene of many races between steamboats trying to reach the Pierre landings first.

The winter of 1880-81, however, saw the virtual end of the steamboat trade. Many boats were wintered at Yankton during this year of unheard of cold and snow. With the start of the thaw most of them were severely damaged by high water and ice. The river trade never recovered from this disaster. Its fabulous trade went largely to the railroads, with their east-west connections.

There have always been advocates for the renewal of river traffic, however. Many factors make the Missouri difficult to navigateits swift current, its changing channels, its low water after the June rise subsides, and its numerous snags, caused by its constant bank-cutting and consequent engulfment of trees. But throughout the years students of commerce have been intrigued by the idea of making the Missouri serve Dakota by providing both cheap power and cheap water transport which could enable our potential agricultural and mineral products to compete in domestic and foreign markets. General W. H. H. Beadle, Bartlett Tripp, W. C. Lusk, D. W. Gurney, Sanford Donaldson, Charles DeLand, John Hipple and Doane Robinson were all men who devoted part of their lives working toward this end.

Future River Navigation
But in 1947 prospects for the return of commercial navigation of the Missouri do not appear to be bright. In 1945 Congress passed a law giving a priority on the use of all waters originating west of the 98th meridian (which runs through Mitchell) to irrigation and agriculture. An average of 74% of the Missouri's waters flowing at Yankton are derived in Montana and Wyoming. This percentage increases as the flow becomes lower in dry years, when need for irrigation also increases.

To guarantee adequate water for irrigation as well as to help support navigation on the lower Missouri and Mississippi and to maintain firm heads for power, great reservoirs are needed. Present plans call for a total above Yankton of 80 million acre feet, almost four times the annual flow of the river. Of this amount 30 million acre feet will be on the upper Missouri and Yellowstone in Montana and Wyoming, another 30 million acre feet in North Dakota reservoirs, over a million acre feet on the western tributaries between the Little Missouri and the White River. South Dakota furnishes the balance at Gavin's Point near Yankton, Fort Randall, Big Bend, and a gigantic reservoir of 20 million acre feet at Oahe.

However, unless these dams are maintained at very high levelslevels so high as to practically eliminate them as storage reservoirs for flood controlthey will not back water to the next succeeding dam, so navigation will become a virtual impossibility. If locks are provided (and they are not in the present plan) or if mechanical means of shifting barges or cargoes around the great barriers are worked out, navigation might possibly be maintained as long as the water level in all the pools is high. An extensive drought is sure to make enormous demands on this storage, howeverFort Randall's plans call for a fluctuation of 40 feetand it is idle to presume that Wyoming and Montana, with their priority, will not during a drought save their storage for irrigational needs in the area that produces 75% of the water.

Thus today students of the river problem have scant hope, unless present proposals involved in the Pick-Sloan plan are modified, that navigation will ever be resumed on the Missouri.

From the Sioux City Register (1868): Of all the variable things in creation, the most uncertain are the action of a jury, the state of a woman's mind, and the condition of the Missouri River.