muddy roads, which accounts for what appear to be exceptionally high rates even for wagon carriage. Rates were usually somewhat higher by pack train than by wagon. The rate was 4 cents a pound from Walla Walla to Missoula, about 300 miles. Thus a pack train of thirty-five mules, each carrying 400 pounds, earned $560.00 for a trip from Walla Walla to Missoula. Charges for the transportation of supplies from Missoula to the gold camps were made at corresponding rates.

The freight that went from Missoula to the camps, both by pack train and by wagon, included, besides the supplies which had been imported from a distance, agricultural produce which had been bought by the Missoula merchants from the ranchers in the vicinity. These food supplies consisted of eggs, peas, potatoes, and other vegetables, meats, hay, and grain, etc., as well as flour milled from local wheat. It does not appear that any of these products were shipped out of what is now Montana and Northern Idaho. A little wool went out via Fort Benton, and cattle and horses from this vicinity were driven out via the Mullan Road, but for the most part Missoula was not a distributing point to very distant markets.

It will be convenient at this point to mention some of the legislation under which the public domain was disposed of in the Missoula district. The public domain was originally acquired by the United States government through claims based upon exploration and occupation and by treaty with the Indians, and it has been disposed of under authority given by various acts of Congress. It is only the alienation of the land which ultimately came into agricultural use which will be considered, as the forest lands as such did not become significant until later. A series of pre-emption laws beginning in 1830 and ending with the Pre-emption Act of 1841 were designed to protect the squatters who frequently went out into the wilderness and settled on the land long in advance of surveys. The pre-emption laws protected the squatter in the improvements which he made by giving him a prior right to buy the land at $1.25 an acre after he had resided upon it for six weeks. All of the land taken up by settlers in the vicinity of Missoula before 1862 was pre-empted in this way. The Homestead Act of

1862 gave outright a tract of 160 acres to any head of a family who would cultivate it for five years. The Homestead Act came just in time to advertise further the agricultural possibilities of the far northwest, to which attention was already being directed by the mining development.

Some scattered land was taken up in the vicinity of Missoula, but much of the country was heavily wooded and unsuitable for agriculture until it was cleared. The Flathead-Jocko Valley was an Indian reservation, and its agricultural land was not open to settlement until much later. Most of the agricultural settlement before the coming of the railroad was in the Bitter Root Valley. Practically all of the land here which was acquired by settlers was purchased under the Pre-emption Act of 1841, as Congress had failed to repeal that law when it passed the Homestead Act of 1862. After the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the minimum price was raised to $2.50 an acre for land within 40 miles of the railroad, this being one of the conditions of the railroad grant. This grant, made in 1864, gave to the railroad alternate sections for 40 miles on each side of the right-of-way. A large part of the western Montana land in this grant was forested, but that which was not could not compete with the government land except at the same price. The richest land open to settlement was in the Bitter Root, and the settler hastened to buy it outright, either from the railroad or by pre-emption, rather than homestead it.

One is inclined to think of the Montanans of 1865 as miners and traders only, but even then there were men who were farming, and the prices of farm products were good in those days. The meadows in the valleys, particularly the Bitter Root Valley, were selected as places in which the early stockmen could winter their stock. There were possibly 150 individual agricultural settlers in Missoula County in 1866.13 When one considers that Missoula County comprised nearly all of western Montana and that settlers had been coming in since 1856, this does not seem like a very

"At this time the county included practically all of the region which is the subject of this study. Since then the counties of Lincoln, Flathead, Sanders, Lake, Mineral, Ravalli, and part of Powell have been carved out of Missoula County. See map, p. 581.

rapid rate of agricultural growth. And indeed it was not. But it must be remembered that whatever agricultural settlement there was in Montana previous to the gold rushes was merely a small trickling in of settlers incidental to a much greater migration into the country farther west. The Oregon Trail was 200 miles south of western Montana, and of course the great bulk of the emigrants never saw that region at all. But a few choosing by chance the route down the Bitter Root Valley remained there instead of going on. From what can be learned now it seems that those who came in via Fort Benton were really on their way to the Oregon country farther west, although Montana may have been the deliberate destination of a few, influenced perhaps by the tales of the trappers.

It was the overflow from the gold camps which gave the first important impulse to agriculture in the valleys. A considerable number of miners remained in western Montana. When they were disappointed in getting a claim, or when they had made a stake, they drifted out into the country and began taking up land. This influence was noticeable in western Montana as early as 1865, and was very marked by the time of the strike at Cedar Creek. Some went to the town of Missoula to take part in the growing trade. It is probable that the greater proportion of the male population in western Montana, prior to the advent of the Northern Pacific Railroad, had at some time or other sojourned in a mining camp. Grist mills on the Burnt Fork of the Bitter Root, at Fort Owen, at French Town, and at Missoula were all operating in 1870. Settlement in the valleys went on apace and all of the ranches in the immediate vicinity of Missoula were fenced by 1871. According to the census figures, the population of Missoula County was 2,554 in 1870, but it must have actually greatly exceeded the census figures at this time, or soon after, as the gold seekers were a floating group and there are known to have been several thousand at the Cedar Creek mines alone.

Before the influence of the gold camps began to be felt, practically the only product which was sold was wheat, and with this the settler bought his supplies, consisting of clothing, tools, and a few foods such as tea and coffee. The settler was practically self

sustaining so far as most of his food was concerned. Of fuel and building material he had an abundant supply in the forests, but there was no lumbering except to supply local needs. The lumber that was sawed at the mill in Missoula was all for local building purposes. That many of the miners of 1870 turned to agricultural pursuits is indicated by the census figures on agriculture, which show a marked increase in the decade 1870-80 for Missoula County.1 The number of farms in 1870 is not known, but there were 211 in 1880, and the acreage in farms increased from 15,827 to 41,969, of which 19,746 acres were improved land. The value of the land increased but slightly, from $6.09 an acre to $6.89 an acre, but the value of all farm property increased from $261,000.00 to $551,000.00. Substantial increases are shown for all kinds of live stock. There were but 156 sheep in 1870, and the census gives 100 pounds as the amount of wool produced. Doubtless more wool was produced to be used as homespun and not marketed, although the number of sheep is probably nearly correct. In the spring of 1880 the number of fleeces shorn was 1,476, yielding 8,724 pounds of wool, all of which was doubtless marketed. Nearly 20,000 dozen eggs were produced in 1879, all of which must have been marketed or they would not have been counted.

The cattle produced in the vicinity of Missoula, mostly in the Bitter Root Valley, were a relatively minor part of the great ranch cattle industry. This industry centered in the Gallatin Valley. But since cattle-raising was such a characteristic phase of the economic development of the state as a whole, it is worth while to give some idea of the proportions of the industry. The first report of the territorial auditor states that there were 1,769 head of sheep, 4,325 head of oxen, and 1,896 cows and calves returned for assessment purposes in 1865. It is probable that herds of stock cattle were first brought into Montana from Texas as early as 1865. The first beef driven out of Montana for market of which there is any record was in 1868 when J. D. Hogan, of Augusta, drove a herd to the Salt Lake market, where they were sold

14

Figures on population, products, acreage, etc., taken from United States Census of 1870 and 1880 unless otherwise indicated.

outside capital came in before the time of Marcus Daly.20 Even the bank was organized with local capital. Later on this lack of outside capital was to be a retarding factor, but it seems that at this time the capital was sufficient for this stage of development. Wages in the seventies averaged about $40.00 a month, with board for unskilled labor such as ranch hands, teamsters, etc. The wages of hired labor in stores ranged from $60.00 to $100.00 a month, the latter figure usually representing a salary paid to the holder of a position involving some executive work. Hired labor in the mines was on a much higher scale. Wages in the Cedar Creek mines ranged from $6.00 to $8.00 for a twelve-hour day. It must be understood that all of these prices of labor are quoted on a gold basis. During the period from 1862 to 1878, when depreciated paper was in circulation in the East, this region was using specie only. As a matter of fact, the prejudice against the use of anything but "hard money" persisted until comparatively recent times. Although wages in the West were moderate, they were somewhat higher than in the East, especially as wages in the East were paid in depreciated greenbacks. This fact, coupled with the labor discontent in the East because of the discrepancy between the rise of prices and wages, was undoubtedly a cause contributing to the westward migration, since the prospective emigrants were likely to overlook the still higher prices of commodities in the West. However, it is doubtful if this was a cause of much migration to Missoula, although it was probably of some importance at Cedar Creek.

Before 1870 the only way of sending or receiving letters was by means of the express messengers. With the growth of mining, they found their way into the most remote camps and carried letters at $1.00 each. At first this work was done by independent

Marcus Daly came to Butte originally in the interests of Walker Brothers, Salt Lake City silversmiths and capitalists. In 1876 he opened the Anaconda Hill at Butte and acquired a one-third interest in it for himself. The great body of copper ore in this mine was discovered in 1882. Under Daly's leadership the Anaconda Copper Mining Company emerged, in the eighties, as the dominant mining interest in Montana. This company acquired investments, particularly in timber and the lumber industry, all over western Montana.