Author: Geneva Toland

Geneva Toland

WOLF POINT4

The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed by here, westward bound, in May 1805. Fur trappers and traders followed them a few years later. Steamboats began making it from St. Louis up the Missouri as far as Fort Benton in the early 1860s. Wolf Point was the halfway point between Bismarck and Fort Benton. Wood choppers supplied cord wood for boats stopping to refuel. The American Fur Company packet Chippewa blew up and sank not far from here in 1861. A deck hand tapped a barrel of alcohol by candle light. The fumes, the candle and the 25 kegs of black powder did the rest. Fortunately, no lives were lost in the disaster.

Wolf Point originated as a sub-agency and trading post for the Fort Peck Reservation in 1879. The place was named when trappers killed several hundred wolves one winter and stacked their frozen carcasses next to the river, where they were observed by men heading upriver on a steamboat. The name Wolf Point stuck and no one there has been bothered by a wolf at the door since then.

 

POINT WOLF

Several hundred wolves traded songs one winter, harmonizing upriver under frozen black fumes. The river was a halfway point between men and lives lost, steamboats stacked like carcasses upon each other. The 25 remaining fur trappers and traders followed the wolves to a place named woods, for that is what they were and there was no bother to name things anymore. The men carried candles in their hands to refuel the fires the wolves had kept burning for them. Lewis and Clark slicked like strange words on their tongues, when the wolves asked for the sub-agency responsible for the westward disaster. The trappers stuck out their palms for the wolves to lick the keg powder off. No one returned to the Company. No one supplied the Fort. Fortunately, the river stuck its course and soon the whole Point traded light for depth. The wolves barreled around the last standing door, observing the original agreement to which they were bound to sing the early years backwards. The men sunk to their knees and no one has bothered the wolves since then.

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Geneva Toland

PINKERTON HOT SPRINGS5

Even though this land was Ute territory, the upper Animas River Valley was first settled by prospectors in the spring of 1860. Charles Baker, returning from the mines north of Silverton, established “Old Animas City” and built the first bridge across the Animas River. The community lasted less than a year before it was abandoned. During the summer of 1875, James Harvey Pinkerton settled in the area now known as Pinkerton Hot Springs. He raised dairy cows with his wife, three sons, and four daughters. Throughout the year they produced and sold dairy products in mining camps in the San Juan Mountains. In the spring of 1876 they sold 116 pounds of butter for a dollar a pound to the miners north of Silverton.

 

THE HOT SPRING POST-PINKERTON

Even though, the community abandoned the land. Even though, the cows and prospectors produced and sold the mountains. Even though, Charles Baker lasted less than a summer in the Valley and produced no wife. Even though, the butter fattened the sons on all the miners’ daughters. Even though a dollar couldn’t settle the spring and the area known as the River of lost mining camps pounded the bridge until it broke and fell through. Even though, Pinkerton took his wife and his 116 cows to the fat river and drowned. Even though, the north blew in 1876 snowstorms and blew out 1875 hot summers. Even though, the community abandoned the land and abandoned the land and abandoned the land. Even though, this territory was first and now Ute land. Even now, this old, old land. Even now.

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