Carter County - Transportation Around the Missouri River
Background Info / Historical Story
Advancements in transportation have the power to change landscapes and people's lives. A 10 mile trip by foot could take 4 hours, but on horseback could take two hours, on a steam train it could take a half hour, and by car that same 10 mile trip could take 10 minutes. With the advent of buggies, trains, boats, and cars, people and goods could be shipped across the country. The impact of transportation is incalculable. Whether for business or pleasure, people in Montana have a long history of utilizing different modes of transportation.
Lulu and William Harmon, have an important place in Carter County history.
“Lulu Harmon was born in 1846 at Fort Pierre in the Dakota Territory. Her father was Honoré Picotte, a French fur trapper, and her mother was Waŋblí Ayútepiwiŋ (Eagle Woman That All Look At). Born in 1820, Ayútepiwiŋ was the daughter of Two Lance, a chief of the Two Kettle band of the Teton Lakota and Rosy Light of Dawn of the Hunkpapa. Ayútepiwiŋ married Picotte in 1838 and bore him two daughters, including Lulu. Picotte retired in 1848 and moved to St. Louis, leaving Ayútepiwiŋ behind with their daughters. Ayútepiwiŋ then married Charles Galpin in 1850 under the name Matilda Picotte Galpin. She was appointed as an interpreter for the Great Sioux Reservation in 1868 and made it her life’s mission to help her people adapt to new ways of life on the reservation. She often traveled among several camps and diplomatically negotiated nonviolent solutions to racial and other conflicts, becoming known among Lakotas and whites as a woman of honor and peace. Lulu was educated at the Sacred Heart convent in St. Louis, and was fluent in French, English and Lakota. She moved with her mother and Charles Galpin to Grand River Agency on the Lakota reservation in 1868, where the family opened a trading post. In 1869, Major James A. Hearn was installed as the new agent at the post, along with Lieutenant William Harmon as first officer. Harmon and Lulu married on July 25, 1870, in Sioux City and he resigned his commission from the agency on December 31, 1870. In 1883-84, they moved to the Ekalaka area and began building up a ranch four or five miles north and east from Russell and Ijkalaka. The Harmons filed on the homestead in 1887. Lulu often spent time with her neighbor, Ijkalaka, who could not speak English, and conversed often in their shared Lakota language.” -Sabre Moore
Lulu and William were married in 1870 and took their honeymoon on a steamboat on its way to St. Louis. This particular voyage was actually written about in the book ‘Conquest of the Missouri’ which chronicled Captain Grant Marsh’s life on the Missouri River. Below is an excerpt from the biography written by Joseph Mills Hanson.
“The captain [Marsh] found the boat which was to make the run loaded and waiting for him at Sioux City. She was the North Alabama, a well-built craft of good speed which had twice made the Fort Benton trip successfully. The morning of the Ist of October saw the North Alabama back away from the Sioux City levee and start on her voyage, the successful termination of which was very doubtful. To add to the captain’s anxiety, her cargo was a perishable one, consisting chiefly of staple vegetables for the winter supply of the military garrisons, and a sudden cold snap, so liable to come at that season, might ruin it all.
But, fortunately, for a number of days the weather continued warm. The boat had on board a few passengers, among them Major Bannister, the Department Paymaster,and his clerk, Mr. Baker, who were taking up money to pay off all the troops at the posts to be visited. Two other interesting persons who occupied cabins were Mrs. Charles E. Galpin and her daughter, Miss Lou Galpin, the former being the
full-blood Sioux wife of Major Galpin,the famous fur-trader who had been a factor at Fort Pierre when it was bought for the Government by General Harney. Mrs. Galpin was a woman of unusual mental capacity, who was well known throughout the Dakota country, and her daughter had been well educated at St. Louis. They were just returning to Grand River Agency from Chicago, where they had been procuring a wedding trousseau for Miss Galpin, who was soon to be married to Captain Harmon, of the 17th Infantry.”
Another story of Carter County transportation is of the railroad, or the lack thereof. Where a railroad is built depends on many factors; geography, funding, public favor, and much more. In the early 1900s Homesteading brought many people out west with the promise of space to call their own. With an influx of people and goods, there was a need for roads and trains. A community of homesteaders in Eastern Montana suggested to the Milwaukee Railroad Company that they build a line that would end in Ekalaka, which would ease the transfer of goods in and out of the area. Though there is no single reason why this proposition lost steam (pun intended) but some speculate that World War 1 diverted focus and resources. Once the war ended a road between Baker and Ekalaka was built, taking the physical spot that the train would have taken, thus closing the possibility of a train in Carter County.
Item From Collections
Photos, Maps, etc
- Ice breaking at Capitol Bridge in 1906
- Lulu and William Harmon
- Train wreck. Northern Pacific Train Number 1 hauled by Engine 440 piled up between Bonner and Missoula. People stand around the train. Clark Fork River in background.
- View of men sitting on huge chunks of ice on banks of river, 1881 spring. Men in a small boat close to shore.
- View of a railroad bridge over the old channel of the Missouri River during construction of the Fort Peck Dam in Montana. This was later removed after the dam was constructed. A steam engine and train is traveling over the bridge.