They had already picked up their interpreter (Toussaint ?.) and his wife Sacagawea near Bismark North Dakota, and had continued up the Missouri toward Fort Benton before reaching Great Falls. At that time, Fort Benton was a big fur trading post, not a military post. In the musuem next got before,they had saddles displayed. Quite a few of them were made in Miles City -- where we stopped yesterday for fuel. Very cool. Did you know, btw, that saddles actually begin as a wood form that's then covered in leather?
Interestingly, the trading "ended" in 1865. According to the guide in the Fort, the Civil War basically ended the private fur trading outpost. The family that ran the trading depot were considered Southern sympathizers, even though they had lived in Fort Benton for 3 generations - but they were originally from St. Louis. As a result, the government refused to renew their trading license in 1865. (amazing - they even had Federal Licensing then). In addition, the soldiers returning from war decided to go out west and seek their fortunes in the gold rush. As the guide mentioned, most of these folks could not read (or would not read) the then current treaties with the Indians - and the new prospectors just pushed them out and took over land, Soon there was increased animosity between the Indians and the white man, and trading was significantly reduced.
We had lunch in the town of Fort Benton (a very, very little town) at a place called Wake Cup Cafe. Awesome salads!. Best lunch so far.
Back to Lewis and Clark.... As they reached the Fort Benton area, they were looking for the Great Falls that the Indians had told them about, What they didn't expect was the 'fork in the river'. . This was a critical decision point of The eedition - which way did the Missouri flow from here. Lewis and Clark split up for a few days to explore each side, and then regrouped to make a decision. They decided to go Left - which ended up being the right choice. They knew it was the right choice because they reached the Great Falls - and then 5 more !! They had to portage ( go by land carrying all of their stuff) around all 5 waterfalls. This took a lot more time then they had thought it would.
There is a memorial to Lewis and Clark in Fort Benton, and then we actually stopped at Decision Point - where you can see the there are two rivers branching off
It was raining at this point, and cold. Our first 'not great' day - but we got what we came for! We headed back to Great Falls, to the Park Center. Didn't get any good photos of the falls though, as it was raining.
Dinner was a challenge - we came to the conclusion that Great Falls Montana is not the place for real Foodies.
Ended up at Bert and Ernie's in downtown Great Falls. Bread was good, Rick's steak was pretty good, my burger was way overcooked. Oh well.
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