Approximately "fifty miles long and fifteen miles wide," Big Hole Prairie "is hemmed in by high mountains on every side except the southeast where Wisdom River passes out from it." Plate XLIX.
Lieutenant Mullan's party leaving the Bitter Root Valley and heading "down the river to the Lou-Lou Fork, which is fifteen yards wide and two feet deep at its mouth. Its valley is five hundred yards wide, and the mountains on each side are...
"Just below the outlet of Flathead Lake there is a series of rapids and falls, one of which, at the time, was fifteen feet high. The country to the west of the lake is a high rolling prairie. Salmon trout, three feet long, are caught in it,...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Fort Benton (Mont.); Missouri River
"Fort Benton stands on the eastern bank of the Missouri, near the Great Bend." "The river is here perfectly transparent at most seasons of the year. The Teton River empties into the Missouri six miles below Fort Benton; the Marias...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Fort Okanogan (Wash.)
"Fort Okinakane (Okanogan) is an old and ruinous establishment of the Hudson Bay Company." "The character of the Columbia along the western border of the Spokane Plain and as far as Fort Okinakane (Okanogan) is described as follows:...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Assiniboine Indians; Gifts; Fort Union (Mont.)
"Fort Union is situated on the eastern bank of the Missouri River, about 2 ¾ miles above the mouth of the Yellowstone. It was built by the American Fur Company in 1830, and has from that time been the principal supply store or depot of that...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Canyons; Grand Coulee (Wash.)
"The Grand Coulee is about ten miles wide where it opens on the Columbia River at its northern end, which is a hundred feet above the water, and gradually widens toward the south; its walls, eight hundred feet high are formed of solid basaltic...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Bison; Cheyenne River; Lake Jessie
Ascending a high hill after crossing the Sheyenne (Cheyenne) River, the expedition looked out upon an estimated 200,000 buffalo inhabiting the plains separating them from Lake Jessie. Plate X.
A conical mound near the center of a beautiful prairie called the "Deer Lodge". The mound stands "about thirty feet high, around the base of which are innumerable springs of hot water. On top of the mound a spring three feet in...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Marias River (Mont.)
Marias River "flows in a channel two or three hundred feet below the prairie level, and is tolerable well wooded. The water was at that time one hundred and fifty feet wide and two to four feet deep, slightly milky, with a swift current and...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Mount Baker (Wash.); Cascade Range
"Mount Baker is one of the loftiest and most conspicuous peaks of the northern Cascade range; it is nearly as high as Mount Rainier, and, like that mountain, its snow-covered pyramid has the form of a sugar-loaf." Plate LXX.
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Mouse River (N. Dakota)
"Near Mouse River there are salt marshes" "and in some places deposits of salt a quarter of an inch thick." Mouse River valley "resembles that of the Sheyenne (Cheyenne). High ridges divide the plateau bordering the stream...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Saint Paul (Minn.)
"St. Paul is beautifully located upon a high bluff on the east bank of the river, and is rapidly growing in size and importance. It is quite a business place, everything indicating vigor and activity. Among its prominent buildings are the...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Teton River (Minn.); Valleys
The Teton Valley, "a vast plain, descending towards the east, the soil of inferior quality, and the dry vegetation indicated the change in the climate observed in going over the high, dry plains towards the Missouri." "The valley...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; White Bear Lake (Minn.)
White Bear Lake, "a beautiful sheet of water, bordered with timber, about fourteen miles long and two wide, with high swelling banks running back a mile or so, and rising to the height of about one hundred and fifty feet." Plate V.