frame of the bull-boat, which was used on the shallow tributaries of the Missouri, was built of willow saplings lashed together with rawhide and covered with hides of bull buffaloes, which gave it its name. This craft was buoyant and flexible and well adapted for the sandy shallows of the Platte and others of the smaller rivers
   Bellevue was an important point in the later fur trading days, because, being the site of an Indian agency, boats passing up the river were subjected to a rigid inspection to see that they

From painting by S. W. Y. Schymonsky

OLD TRADING POST, BELLEVUE, IN 1854

had on board no intoxicating liquors which it was unlawful to carry into the "Indian country."
   The cargoes of the boats in the earlier river navigation consisted of merchandise for Indian trading, outfits for trappers and hunters, and stores for military posts; and in addition passengers of all sorts and conditions. Captain Joseph La Barge was the principal figure among the Missouri steamboat captains and pilots, and he characterized and distinguished his class just as Kit Carson and our own "Buffalo Bill" and others illustrated the great qualities and achievements of the scouts of the Plains. He was born in 1815 of a French-Canadian father and a Spanish-French mother. At the age of seventeen he entered the service of the American Fur Company at Cabanné's post. In the spring of 1833 he conducted a fleet of mackinaw-boats from that post to St. Louis. He was also employed by Major Pilcher, Cabanné's successor, and in 1834 by Peter A. Sarpy. Soon after this he began his own career as pilot and captain of various steamboats on the Missouri -- mainly on the upper river -- which lasted till 1879. He died at St. Louis in 1899. La Barge named a steamboat built in 1854 and used on the Missouri river for the American Fur Company's trade, St. Mary, after Peter A. Sarpy's post situated just below Bellevue on the Iowa side of the river.
   On the 7th of June, 1851, Father De Smet, accompanied by Father Christian Hoecken, took passage on the steamer St. Ange from St. Louis to Fort Union, which was about three miles above the mouth of the Yellowstone, on the northern side. Several members of the American Fur Company with about eighty men were on the boat. "They," said the missionary, "went in quest of earthly wealth; Father Hoecken and I in search of heavenly treasures -- to the conquest of souls." It had been a season of mighty floods, and the valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri were, covered with water. The travelers were af-

flicted with malarial diseases in various forms, and about five hundred miles above St. Louis they were attacked by cholera, from which Father Hoecken died, after heroically ministering to the needs of his stricken fellow-passengers. "A decent coffin, very thick, and tarred within, was prepared to receive his mortal remains; a temporary grave was dug in a beautiful forest, in the vicinity of the mouth of the Little Sioux, and the funeral was performed with all the ceremonies of the church, in the evening of the 19th of June, all on board assisting." On the return of the boat in about a month the coffin was exhumed and carried back to Florissant for burial.
   The annals of the times credit these noble priests with characteristic incessant devotion to their suffering fellow-passengers.
   In the year 1858 there were 59 steamboats on the lower river and, 306 steamboat arrivals at the port of Leavenworth, Kansas. The freight charges paid at that point during the season amounted to $166,941.35. In 1859 the steamboat advertisements in the St. Louis papers showed that more vessels left that port for the Missouri river than for both the upper and the lower Mississippi. In 1857 there were 28 a steamboat arrivals at the new village of Sioux City before July 1. There were 23 regular boats on that part of the river, and their freight tonnage for the season was valued at $1,250,000. The period from 1855 to to (sic) 1860 was the golden era of steamboating on the Missouri
   It was the period just before the advent of the railroads. No other period before or approached it in, the splendor of the boats. he boats were side-wheelers, had full-length cabins, and were fitted up more for passengers than for freight. It was an era of fast boats and of racing.
   The provisions for the establishment of public roads are recited in the account of the proceedings of the several territorial legislatures; an account is also given of the building of territorial roads by appropriations of the federal Congress. The means of transportation and the amount and condition of travel in the territorial years before the completion of the Union Pacific railway are indicated in an interesting manner in the contemporary newspapers. In a report of a committee of the first council of the territorial legislatures, on a bill chartering the Platte Valley & Pacific Railway company, it is stated that nine-tenths of the travel to the Pacific coast passes along the Platte valley -- from St. Louis by water to Independence, Weston, St. Joe, Council Bluffs, and occasionally Sergeants Bluff, "and uniting at these points with those who come by land from the East, converge in the Platte valley at various points within two hundred miles, a little north of a due west line from Omaha, Bellevue, and Florence." This report recites, also, that "thirty years ago Colonel Leavenworth, who then commanded the post in sight

of this locality (Fort Atkinson), called the attention of our government to the importance, practicability, and expediency of constructing a railroad by way of the Platte valley to the Pacific."
   Acting Governor Cuming in his message to the legislature, December 9, 1857, states that "The United States wagon road from the Platte river via the Omaha reserve to the Running Water, under the direction of Colonel Geo. Sites, has been constructed for a distance of one hundred and three miles, including thirty-nine bridges"; and he gives the names of the streams crossed by these bridges and the length of each bridge. Mr. J. M. Woolworth, in his

little book; Nebraska in 1857, notes that, "A year ago Congress established a military road from this place to New Fort Kearney and appropriated $50,000 for its construction. That work is nearly complete, and runs up the valley of the Platte through all the principal settlements west of this." The territorial legislature ⁴⁵ memorialized Congress to grant to John A. Latta, of Plattsmouth, 20,000 acres of land in the valley of the Platte river, on condition that before October 1, 1861, he "shall place on said river a good and substantial steamboat and run the same between the mouth of said Platte river" and Fort Kearney, and do all necessary dredging, "knowing that there is a sufficient volume of water in said river which is a thousand miles in length." This visionary memorial sets out that the proposed method of navigation would be advantageous for government transportation among other things. In a joint resolution and memorial to Congress, the Fifth legislature, in urging the bridging of the Platte river, states that "a military or a public road beginning at L'eau-qui-court and extending southward across the territory, has been located and opened under the direction of the national government, and has become a great thoroughfare, whereon military supplies may be expeditiously transported northward. It also affords an avenue of trade of great advantage and is now one of the prominent mail routes to the inhabitants of this territory and others, in said territory."⁴⁶ The governor's message to the seventh legislature ⁴⁷ urges that "without a bridge over the Loup Fork the government road up the Platte valley is but a work half done." The governor's message to the twelfth-and last -- territorial legislature ⁴⁸ again urges the building of a bridge across the Platte river; and the same document⁴⁹ informs us that "now four regular trains run daily between Omaha and North Platte, 293 1/2 miles, and that the track is complete for 305 miles, 240 miles of roadbed having been constructed and 262 miles of track laid during the past season; also that there is a Howe truss bridge, 1,505 feet, across the Loup Fork and a pile bridge, 2,640 feet, across the North Fork."
   The Herald of July 13, 1866, gives a count of the excursion of the members legislature to the end of the Union Pacific road beyond Columbus. The excursionists took dinner at that place, and at the after-dinner ceremonies Andrew J. Poppleton presided and Dr. Thomas C. Durant, General Hazen, Geo. Francis Train, Governor David Butler, Thomas W. Tipton, John M. Thayer, and the ubiquitous Colonel Presson, then chaplain of the territorial house of representatives, made speeches. It is suggestive of the relations of the Union Pacific corporation to politics for many years afterwards that the speaking list at this banquet comprised most of the well-known republican, and some of the democratic politicians of the territory. The Herald of June 22, 1866, notes that George Francis Train had just made the quickest trip on record from Omaha to New York, via St. Joe, in eighty-nine hours. The same trip is now made in forty-two hours. The Nebraska of today, however, is not proportionately faster than his pioneer predecessor in other phases of his daily life. In May, 1867, passengers went from Chicago to Denver in five days by rail over the Chicago and Northwestern and the Union Pacific roads to North Platte and thence by Wells, Fargo & Co.'s mail and express line.
   A striking illustration of economic conditions on our western frontier is afforded by a statement in the Nebraska City News⁵⁰ that at Fort Kearney the price of corn is $3.50 and $4 a bushel, and from $3 to $4 a bushel a hundred miles west of Nebraska City. Illustration of the feeling of desert-like isolation in the territory as late as 1859 is found in Omaha correspondence of the Advertiser⁵¹ which notices the arrival of the Florida, the first steamer of, the season, "amid the shouts and cheers of the multitude, and the booming of cannon under the charge of Captain Ladd's artillery squad. It is the earliest landing made in this vicinity

for many years." The Advertiser of March 3, 1859, says that the completion of the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad was celebrated at the place last named on the 23d inst. on a grand scale. "The completion of this road will take a surprising amount of emigration off the river which will be poured out opposite southern Nebraska and northern Kansas and speedily work its way into these portions of the two territories. The Nebraska City News⁵² rejoices that a depot of federal military supplies has been established at that place; and May 29th, following, the News wagers that three times more freight and passengers have been landed at the Nebraska City wharf this season than at any other town. The News of May 21, 1859, says Alexander Majors estimates that from four hundred to six hundred wagons would be sent out from Nebraska City that season, and about as many from Leavenworth.
   The Advertiser⁵³ says that, "The little boat built for the purpose of navigating the Platte river passed here going up on Sunday morning. It was a little one-horse affair, and will not, in our opinion, amount to much. If the Platte river is to be rendered navigable, and we believe it can, it requires a boat sufficiently large to slash around and stir up the sand, that a channel may be formed by washing." The Omaha Nebraskian⁵⁴ notes that forty boats will navigate the Missouri river the coming season -- two will run daily between Liberty and St. Joseph, and three daily between St. Joseph and Omaha, all in conjunction with the Hannibal and St. Joe railroad. On the 11th of August following the same paper notes that the Kearney stage made a quick trip to Omaha in thirty-three hours, carrying six passengers. On the 25th of the same month the Nebraskian announces that Colonel Miles had chosen Omaha City as the place of debarkation and reshipping his supplies to Fort Kearney.
   At the height of travel to the newly discovered gold mines in the vicinity of Denver there was sharp rivalry between Nebraska City and Omaha and other minor starting places, such as Brownville and Plattsmouth. As early as 1954 the Omaha Arrow,⁵⁵ with a wish no doubt aiding the thought, insists that Omaha has "the great advantages of being on a shorter line by many miles than any other crossing below this from Chicago to the north bend of the Platte, and the south, or Bridger's Pass, and the crossing of the Missouri river is as good, to say the least of it, at this point as at

any other in a hundred miles above the mouth of the Platte." The Nebraska City News⁵⁶ takes a traveler's guide to task for stating that the route from Plattsmouth is direct, when Fort Kearney is in fact forty miles south of a line west from that starting point and half a mile south of Nebraska City. It is observed in the item that no government train had ever gone out from Plattsmouth, all traffic of this kind starting from Nebraska City because it was the military depot.
   The News of April 28, 1860, tells of a new route to the mines, by way of Olathe, on Salt

creek, which shortens the distance by fifty to seventy-five miles. June 30th the News says that Cadman's, Goodwin's,⁵⁷ and Davison's,⁵⁸ on Salt creek, and Vifquain's on the Blue are good farms for entertainment on the new straight road to Kearney. The place on the Blue referred to was for many years subsequently the farmstead of General Victor Vifquain, and Cadman's was John Cadman's homestead. The News of July 28th, illustrating the extensive freighting business at Nebraska City, says that Hawke, Nuckolls & Co. sent in a train of twenty wagons from the mines for supplies. On the 24th of November the same paper gives a statement of Alexander Majors' freighting business to Utah, the western forts, and Pike's Peak, from April 25 to October 13, 1860:

The lower view represents the freighting train known as "Bull of the Woods," owned by Alexander and James Carlisle. From a photograph taken on Main street, Nebraska City, looking east from Sixth street, and loaned by Mr. 0. C. Morton. This train consisted of twenty-five wagons with six mules to each wagon, and was considered one of the finest outfits known to freighters.