Montana Becomes a Territory

Montana Becomes a Territory

During the dark days of the Civil War, while federal troops were fighting to preserve the integrity of the Union, the United States Congress was faced with the necessity of establishing a viable government in the area of what is now Montana. In the spring of 1864 Congress passed an enabling act creating the Territory of Montana. On May 26, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed this measure into law.

An area rich with natural resources and rugged beauty, Montana yielded slowly to the intrusion of settlers. In 1742 or 1743 the French fur traders François La Vérendrye and Louis Joseph La Vérendrye, his brother, probably visited eastern Montana. The snowcapped peaks of the American West captivated François, and he reportedly exclaimed: “this is truly the Land of the Shining Mountains.” However, the Vérendryes returned to Canada without exploring western Montana, and for the remainder of the 18th century only an occasional fur trader disturbed the tranquil wilderness.

Shortly after he purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoléon Bonaparte in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson authorized the American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to undertake an extensive expedition through the newly acquired lands. With the assistance of their Native American guide, Sacagawea, Lewis and Clark proceeded west across Montana on their trek to the Pacific in 1805. Then, on their return east in 1806, they undertook the first major explorations of the Montana region by Americans. Lewis and several members of the party ventured into northern Montana in the area of the Marias River while, farther south, Clark and his companions surveyed the valley of the Yellowstone River.

Lewis and Clark found many streams rich with beaver in Montana, and their reports of excellent trapping opportunities quickly attracted fur traders to the region. In 1807 Manuel Lisa of New Orleans outfitted 42 men and led them to the mouth of the Bighorn River. There they constructed Montana's first trading post.

Lisa was only the first of many fur traders to tap Montana's beaver resources. During the next 70 years, trappers, working on their own or for British or American companies, took thousands of pelts out of the Montana wilds. Vast fortunes were amassed from this beaver trade, the most notable of which was that made by John Jacob Astor and his American Fur Company.

Although most of the newcomers were only interested in fur profits, others wanted to bring Christianity to the native tribes that inhabited Montana. In 1841 the Belgian-born Jesuit priest Pierre Jean DeSmet founded St. Mary's Mission in the Bitterroot Valley. Three years later another Jesuit, Italian-born Anthony Ravalli, joined the western Montana mission. Father Ravalli was a man of many talents: in addition to proselytizing he built a sawmill and a gristmill, and dispensed herbal medicines to the Native Americans. After the Jesuits were forced to leave the Bitterroot Valley in 1850, Father Ravalli established the St. Ignatius Mission and a boarding school for Native Americans in the Mission Valley of northwestern Montana.

Only trappers seeking beaver skins and missionaries seeking converts thus braved the Montana wilderness prior to 1860. In the next decade, however, the discovery of gold brought thousands of prospectors to the region. As early as 1852 FranÇois Finlay may have found the first evidence of gold deposits, and in 1858 James and Granville Stuart definitely made gold strikes. The Stuarts staked their claim in the spring of 1862, but it was not these initial discoveries that brought the population boom to Montana.

The strike that lured so many prospectors occurred in July 1862 when John White and his party discovered gold along Grasshopper Creek. By the fall of 1862, it was apparent that this discovery was a major find, and news of the new goldfield spread quickly. The town of Bannack was immediately laid out near the site of the strike, and by the spring of 1863 the area had almost 1,000 inhabitants.

On May 26, 1863, six prospectors found an even more lucrative gold deposit along a small creek in the foothills of Montana's Tobacco Root range. The prospectors named the gold -rich area Alder Gulch because of the large numbers of alder trees on the banks of the creek, and for a time they tried to keep their discovery secret. Their efforts to conceal the location failed, however, and within six months of the strike approximately 10,000 gold seekers had flocked to Alder Gulch (which was soon known as Virginia City) and by mid-1864 the population of the area had swelled to some 35,000.

In July 1864 gold was also discovered at Last Chance Gulch north of Virginia City. Again, thousands of prospectors swarmed to the new mining fields, and Last Chance Gulch soon became the site of Helena, which was Montana's third boom town and eventually became Montana's capital.

The gold rush necessitated the establishment of a viable and easily accessible government for Montana. The Montana area east of the Rocky Mountains, which came under United States jurisdiction as a result of the Louisiana Purchase, had since 1803 been (in succession) a part of the Louisiana Territory and then the Missouri Territory, the Nebraska Territory, and the Dakota Territory. The mountainous western region of Montana remained under the control of Great Britain until the Oregon Treaty of 1846, under which Britain recognized American authority in the area. In 1848 northwestern Montana was included in the Oregon Territory, and later it was incorporated into the Washington Territory. In March of 1863, when Congress created the Idaho Territory from the area of what is now Montana, Idaho, and virtually all of Wyoming, the entire eastern and western sections of Montana came under a single government for the first time.

The Montana mining camps and boom towns were breeding grounds of lawlessness and violence, and it soon became apparent that the territorial capital (now Lewiston, Idaho) was too distant and inaccessible to deal effectively with the problems of the gold fields of present Montana. In the spring of 1864 Congress responded to the need for a new territory. Thus, on May 26, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the enabling act creating the Montana Territory.

For 25 years thereafter Montana existed as a territory. During that time the territorial capital was moved several times: from Bannack, the original capital, to Virginia City in 1865, and to Helena in 1875. Montana prospered during the latter half of the 19th century, and mining continued to be the major source of income, although prospectors gradually turned their attention from gold to silver and finally to copper.

The Montana Territory was also the scene of Custer's Last Stand. In June 1876 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors annihilated the United States Army troops commanded by General George Custer. The incident was, of course, the most famous Native American military victory. However, the triumph was short-lived, and eventually the tribes of Montana were forced onto small reservations.