The story of Hiram Scott
Back to Scotts Bluff National Monument in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, for the tale of how the place got its name. ‘Gather round kids, but grab a beer for me while you’re up.’
[I’m working on a catchphrase, a la Vin Scully’s “so pull up a chair.” I think mine’s better.]
In the 1820s, fur traders like Jim Bridger began to make names for themselves. Bridger discovered the Great Salt Lake, for example, and other figures were Thomas Fitzpatrick and Robert Stuart.
Another was William Ashley, who is credited with devising a more efficient method for obtaining beaver pelts. Before Ashley, “each spring trappers would have to haul pelts gathered the previous winter all the way to St. Louis to sell them. Ashley’s idea was to have the trappers stay out on the frontier where they could spend more time gathering pelts, and he would bring pack trains loaded down with trade items and supplies to pre-arranged places. The trappers would then be able to trade their furs for items they needed and Ashley would return to St. Louis with horses loaded down with furs.” And so it was called the rendezvous system. [Source: National Park Service guide to Scotts Bluff, $2.00 retail]
But in 1828, the rendezvous led to a tragic event. The story concerns Hiram Scott, an employee of the American Fur Company, symbol FUR on the New York Stock Exchange. [When it rallies, the traders like to say, “The FUR be flyin’!”]
Scott had been an employee of the outfit for about five years and was serving as a clerk at the rendezvous in Wyoming, but somehow he met his death.
William A. Ferris, who traveled up the Platte River in 1830 [recall the Platte parallels Scotts Bluff], made the earliest recorded description of Scott’s death.
“We encamped opposite ‘Scott’s Bluffs’ so called in respect to the memory of a young man who was left here alone to die a few years previous. He was a clerk in a company returning from the mountains, the leader of which found it necessary to leave him behind at a place some distance above this point, in consequence of a severe illness which rendered him unable to ride. He was consequently placed in a bullhide boat, in charge of two men, who had orders to convey him by water down to these bluffs, where the leader of the party promised to await their coming. After a weary and hazardous voyage, they reach the appointed rendezvous, and found to their surprise and bitter disappointment, that the company had continued on down the river without stopping for them to overtake and join it.
“Left thus in the heart of the wilderness, hundreds of miles from any point where assistance or succor could be obtained, and surrounded by predatory bands of savages thirsting for blood and plunder, could any conditions be deemed more hopeless or deplorable? They had, moreover, in descending the river, met with some accident, either the loss of the means of procuring subsistence or defending their lives in case of discovery and attack. This unhappy circumstance, added to the fact that the river was filled with innumerable shoals and sandbars, by which its navigation was rendered almost impracticable, determined them to forsake their charge and boat together, and push on night and day until they should overtake the company, which they did on the second or third day afterward
“Poor Scott! We will not attempt to picture what his thoughts must have been after his cruel abandonment, nor harrow up the feelings of the reader, by a recital of what agonies he must have suffered before death put an end to his misery.
“The bones of a human being were found the spring following, on the opposite side of the river, which were supposed to be the remains of Scott. It was conjectured that in the energy of despair, he had found strength to carry him across the stream, and then staggered about the prairie, till God in pity took him to himself.”
Well the legend grew over time. Two years later Captain Benjamin Bonneville (I wonder if he founded the salt flats of the same name) wrote that after being abandoned, Scott somehow struggled for 60 miles on the prairie, “and it appeared that the wretched man had crawled that immense distance before death put an end to his miseries. The wild and picturesque bluffs in the neighborhood of his lonely grave have ever since borne his name.”
And now you know ..the rest of the story.
Mount Rushmore
I had a super day on Monday, cruising the Black Hills of South Dakota. Of course a highlight was a return to Mount Rushmore after my last trip about 35 years ago.
Mount Rushmore was the dream of Doane Robinson, superintendent of the South Dakota State Historical Society, who in 1923 had a vision of a massive mountain memorial carved from stone. But at the time Robinson thought that figures such as Custer, Buffalo Bill, and Lewis & Clark should be the ones featured in rock.
Robinson couldn’t accomplish anything, however, without money and the support of some in Washington so he enlisted the help of U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck, who then encouraged Robinson to seek a sculptor. That turned out to be Gutzon Borglum, one of America\’\’s most prolific artists. Borglum was a flamboyant sort who dreamed big, just like Robinson, but he told Doane that his life’s work would not be spent immortalizing
regional heroes. No, he would carve Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1927, President Coolidge by chance had decided to spend a 3-week summer vacation in the Black Hills. The locals made sure everything was just right, including secretly stocking the president’s fishing streams (and blocking the ends so that the fish would have to stay in a confined area). Well, Cal was more than satisfied with the experience and decided to stay not 3 weeks but 3 months. It was then a foregone conclusion that Coolidge would pledge federal support for the Mount Rushmore project.
Over the next 14 years, what work was completed was totally dependent on outside money so, actually, out of that time period about six and a half years was actual labor, the rest of the time was spent on fundraising.
Borglum died just a few months before completion, in the spring of ‘41, and his son completed the task months later. Of the legacy he was leaving his country, Gutzon Borglum had the following comments.
“Mount Rushmore is eternal. It will stand until the end of time. Ten thousand years from now our civilization will have passed without leaving a trace. A new race of people will inhabit the earth. They will come to Mount Rushmore and read the record we have made.
“Hence, let us place here, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces to show posterity what manner of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away.”
Mount Rushmore is so bold, so brash, so American. You can’t help but stand there and think, “God I love my country.”
The Fetterman Massacre
Back in 1866, the U.S. Government decided to build a series of forts along the Bozeman Trail, which ran from Wyoming up through Montana, to the gold fields founded by, you guessed it, Mr. Bozeman.
The forts were built not only to protect the settlers/prospectors, but also to distract the Indians from bigger business taking place to their south, that being the building of the transcontinental railroad. The Army figured that the Indians would prefer to harass the soldiers in the forts, as opposed to those working on the rails, and they were right.
You see, the Indians had previously been told that the lands in Montana Territory would be undisturbed by the white man. Instead, 3 large forts were built, one of which, Ft. Phil Kearny (named after a Union General killed in the Civil War) was manned by 250 U.S. Cavalrymen.
These forts weren’t easy to build. Ft. Phil Kearny, for example, used 4,000 logs, and so the Indians used to enjoy attacking the “wood trains” that went out and gathered the building material.
Then one day, December 21, 1866, word came that there was a wagon train that was disabled along the Bozeman Trail and Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Fetterman was sent out with 78 soldiers and two citizens to aid them. Under no circumstances, he was told, should he engage the Indians.
In the area were thousands of Sioux and Cheyenne, under the direction of Red Cloud. Well, they were waiting for such an opportunity, so when Fetterman set out with his rescue party, the Indians countered with some decoys.
Now you have to picture that Fetterman was a frustrated Colonel. There he was, stuck out in the boonies and with his career going nowhere, yet he knew that if he could kill a bunch of red men, he’d probably get a promotion back to Washington. So he fell for the trap.
I’m telling you this story because I was at the site of what was to follow just this past Saturday, and it really is spectacular. Lush, rolling hills…perfect for an ambush and just like the movies.
Fetterman took his men after the decoys, right up a hill, into a ravine… when… “Oh s—!” he must have said. Over the other hills came 2,000(!) Sioux and Cheyenne. It was over in 30 minutes, folks. All 81 in the party were killed. [The Indians supposedly lost only 20.]
Of course the Indians mutilated the bodies, so that when they were discovered by others sent out from Ft. Phil Kearny that same day (which was less than five miles away from the massacre), it was a pretty unsightly scene.
But there is more to this story. That evening, a man by the name of John “Portugee” Phillips left the fort to deliver the bad news back to the territorial headquarters in Laramie. A blizzard hit, yet Phillips rode all 236 miles (it’s now about 320 by car, incidentally, if you take the scenic route, that is, but then Phillips wasn’t concerned with such matters) in this blinding storm and arrived on December 26. Since he was going through hostile territory the whole time, he hid by day (so the storm actually helped him) and rode at night.
There are those who say that Phillips’s ride is one of the most underrated events in American history. Since I’m scared to death of horses to begin with, I’m in awe, quite frankly.
Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, the Fetterman Massacre would prove to be the second highest loss of life suffered by the U.S. Army in any single conflict of the Indian Wars, next to Little Bighorn. And by 1868, the Army abandoned the 3 forts along the Bozeman Trail because the transcontinental railroad had been completed. In addition, the Government signed some new treaties with the Sioux, Cheyenne and others concerning Montana and Dakota Territory and the Indians thought all was finally settled. Ha! Far from it, Red Cloud. You didn’t realize White Man was such an a-hole, did ya now?!
Soon, White Man was bringing cattle into the area, and the stage was set for the climactic confrontation of June 1876; Custer’s Last Stand, the Indians’ final big victory, and the start of the road to Wounded Knee.
Top 3 songs for the week 10/27/73: #1 “Midnight Train To Georgia” (Gladys Knight & The Pips) #2 “Angie” (The Rolling Stones) #3 “Half-Breed” (Cher)…and…#4 “Ramblin Man” (The Allman Brothers Band) #5 “Keep On Truckin’” (Eddie Kendricks) #6 “Let’s Get It On” (Marvin Gaye) #7 “Paper Roses” (Marie Osmond) #8 “Heartbeat – It’s A Lovebeat” (The DeFranco Family…they rocked!…) #9 “That Lady” (Isley Brothers) #10 “Higher Ground” (Stevie Wonder)
NCAA Football Quiz Answers: 1) R.C. Slocom coached Texas A&M during its best stretch, 1992-94, as they finished #7, #8, and #8 in the AP poll and lost to Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl in both ’92 and ’93. 1994 they were ineligible. 2) Gary Kubiak quarterbacked A&M from 1979-82. [He then played 9 years as John Elway’s backup at Denver.] 3) Tony Franklin was A&M’s kicker from 1975-78. [Franklin had a 10-year NFL career with Philadelphia, New England and Miami.] 4) LaDainian Tomlinson is the only TCU rusher to gain 2,000 yards in a season, rushing for 2,158 in 2000. The year before he had 1,850.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
