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...
"Minnehaha, or the Laughing Water, called also Brown's Falls. It is situated west of the Mississippi, and distant about three miles from Fort Snelling. Ten miles above the falls the stream flows from Lake Calhoun, and it passes through a level...
"There are two principle falls, one of twenty feet and the other of from ten to twelve feet; in the latter, there being a perpendicular fall of seven or eight feet; for a quarter of a mile the descent is rapid, over a rough bed of rocks, and...
"The Peluse (Palouse) River flows over three steppes, each of which is estimated to have an ascent of a thousand feet. The falls descend from the middle of the lower of these steppes." "The fall of the water, which is about thirty...
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Sauk River (Minn.)
Sauk River at the point of the expeditions "ford is about 120 feet wide, though, owing to the obliquity of the banks and rapidity of current, the ford is near 300 feet wide and the water five feet deep." Plate III.
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...
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...
The lock is a single lift type, 86 feet wide and 683 feet long, with a 15-foot minimum depth over the sills. The vertical lifts average 75 feet. The lock is located on the Washington side of the Columbia River.
Expeditions & surveys; Railroad surveys; Waterfalls; Cliffs; Great Falls (Mont.)
The cliffs at the falls are about "one hundred fifty to three hundred feet deep with a steep descent to within fifty feet of the bottom, and for the remaining distance perpendicular walls of red sandstone." "Above the falls the banks...
"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; 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.
The train of the Red River hunters consisting "of 824 carts, about 1,200 animals, and 1,300 persons, men, women, and children." The encampment is formed by making "a circular or square yard of the carts, placed side by side with the...
"The Columbia River at Fort Colville is about three hundred and fifty yards wide just above the Sometknu, or Kettle Falls. These consist of two pitches, one of fifteen feet and another below it of ten, and the river is narrowed to two hundred...
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...
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...
"The altitude of this butte, as determined by barometric measurement, is 281.8 feet above the level of the Shyenne (Cheyenne) River." Named for "an engagement between some half-breeds and Sioux, in which one of the former, by the...
Dams -- Montana; Dam construction -- Montana; Hungry Horse Dam
Photograph of construction workers sand blasting at the construction of the Hungry Horse Dam. The dam was built as part of the Hungry Horse Project to provide hydroelectric power and flood control. At 564 feet, the dam is the 10th highest in the...