Neander97 / Historical Trivia: Montana, at 147,138 square miles, is the fourth largest state in the union. If Beaverhead County, Montana's largest at 5,551 square miles, was a state, it would be larger than Connecticut, 5,009 square miles; Delaware, 2,057; and Rhode Island, 1,214.

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"Out Here in the West"

Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia Polycantha Haw)

The prickly (or pricky) pear cactus typically is found in the hottest, driest regions of the New World from Alberta south to Mexico and into Central America. The same characteristics that protect the cactus from desert heat allow the prickly pear to survive and flourish in those regions which experience extreme winter cold. The pricky pear is found at altitudes ranging from sea level to the 6,000 feet or more.

Despite its formidable spines, the Native Americans and early European American settlers included the bright red fruit of the pricky pear in their diet. The fruit could be eaten raw, dried and preserved for consumption during the winter, or preserved and canned much like jelly or jam. Cheyenne women prepared the fruit by sweeping them into piles with sagebrush branches, a process which removed most of the spines. The remaining thorns were remove by hand. They next split the fruit, discarded the seeds, and sun-dried the pulp. The dried cactus fruit was then used a thickener for soups and stews. The stems of the prickly pear are also edible and may be eaten raw or tossed in a salad. Euro-American settlers often boiled the stems, which facilitated the removal of the spines and skin, and then fried the pulp.

Settlers along the Missouri and Powder rivers used the stems of pricky pear cacti to clear muddy water. The stems were spit and placed in containers of turbid water, the cacti extruded a mucilage-like fluid which caused the suspended sediments to settle to the bottom of the container.

The mucilage of the cactus bonded quite well with raw and tanned hides. The Sioux and Crow made just such a bonding compound from prickly pear juice to set the pigments they used to decorate robes and other articles made from animal hides. The Sioux and Flathead also used mashed pricky pear as poultice to treat wounds and muscular ailments.

Gilmore, Melvin R. "Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region," THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (1919 reprint, 1977)

Hart, Jeff, and Jacqueline Moore. MONTANA NATIVE PLANTS AND EARLY PEOPLES (1992).

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OLD WEST TRIVIA

"We are rough men and used to rough ways." --Bob Younger, 1876, to a newspaper correspondent following the Northfield, Minnesota, Raid.

"The Seventh can handle anything it meets." --George Armstrong Custer, 1876.

"Are you from California or heaven?" --A survivor of the Donner party to heer rescuers in 1847.

What was the average retail price for the .45 caliber 1873 Colt Peacemaker? $17. In the late 1880s the "Montana Pinch" was immensely popular with the cowboys of the northern plains . . . just what was the Montana Pinch? A style of hat with a distinctive pointed crown pinched in on four sides--much like a twentieth-century Army drill instructor's hat. Just what exactly was it that the firm of Abbot, Downing & Company produced? The New Hampshire enterprise was the noted manufacturer of the Concord stagecoach. These coaches generally weighed about 2,500 pounds and retailed for about $1000.

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NO ZIP CODE?

In the late 1890s, while stationed in St. Louis, Colonel Hiram Martin Chittenden, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was granted access to the personal papers of the Chouteau family. Reviewing these papers, most of which were in French or Spanish, was no small task. As the Colonel later noted, the collection consisted of "a half carload or so of records . . . covered with at least three-fourths of the coal iron dust of St. Louis." As he perused the Chouteau collection, Chittenden, then in the process of writing THE AMERICAN FUR TRADE OF THE FAR WEST (1902), uncovered what is, to date, the oldest known letter written from Montana (Menard to Chouteau, April 21, 1810). The letter, written from the Three Forks of the Missouri, consisted of Pierre Menard's account of an attack launched by Blackfeet warriors on a party of trappers in the employ of the Missouri Fur Company. Suspecting that his skills as a translator of archaic French and Spanish might be called into question by his critics, the Colonel included three versions of the Menard-Chouteau letter in an appendix to THE AMERICAN FUR TRADE OF THE FAR WEST. The first version was a reproduction of the original text, replete with Menard's anachronisms and spelling and grammatical errors. The second version consisted of Chittenden's translation of the text into modern, grammatically correct French. The third version (see below) comprised an English translation of Menard's tale of woe.

Three Forks of the Missouri

21 April 1810

Monsieur Pierre Chouteau, esq.,

Dear Sir and Brother-In-Law:

I had hoped to be able to write you more favorably than I am now able to do. The outlook before us was much more flattering ten days ago than it is today. A party of our hunters was defeated by the Pieds-noirs (Blackfeet) on the 12th inst. There were two men killed, all their beaver stolen, many of their traps lost, and the ammunition of several of them, and also seven of our horses. We set out in pursuit of the Indians but unfortunately could not overtake them. We have recovered forty-four traps and three horses, which we brought back here, and we hope to find a few more traps.

This unfortunate affair has quite discouraged our hunters, who are unwilling to hunt any more here. There will start tomorrow, however, a party of thirty who are all gens à gage (company men). . . . They go to the place where the others were defeated. I shall give them only three traps each, not deeming it prudent to risk more, especially since they are not to separate, and half are to remain in camp.

The party which was defeated consisted of eleven persons, and eight or nine of them were absent tending their traps when the savages pounced upon the camp. The two persons killed are James Cheeks and one Ayers, an engagee of Messrs. Crooks and McClellan whom Messrs. Silvester and August (Chouteau) has equipped to hunt on shares. Besides these two, there are missing young Hull who was of the same camp, and Freehearty and his man who camped about two miles farther up. We have four traps belonging to these men and the place where they were pursued by the savages, but we have not yet found the place where they were killed.

In the camp where the first two men were killed we found a Blackfoot who had also been killed, and upon following their trail we saw that another had been dangerously wounded. Both of them, if the wounded man dies, came to their death at the hand of Cheeks, for he alone defended himself.

This unhappy miscarriage causes us a considerable loss, but I do not propose on that account to lose heart. The resources of this country in beaver are immense. it is true that we shall accomplish nothing this spring, but I trust that we shall next Autumn. I hope between now and then to see the Snake and Flathead Indians. My plan is to induce them to stay here, if possible, and make war upon the Blackfeet so that we may take some prisoners and send back one with propositions of peace--which I think can easily be secured by leaving traders among them below the Falls of the Missouri. Unless we can have peace . . . or unless they can be destroyed, it is idle to think of maintaining an establishment at this point.

Assure Madame Chouteau of my most sincere esteem as well as your dear children, and believe me always your devoted.

--Pierre Menard

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HOLLYWOOD'S OLD WEST TRIVIA

--Where was the first Western movie filmed? The Great Train Robbery was shot on location at Dover, New Jersey, in 1903--incidentally, it took all of three days to film this father of all Westerns.

--What was the first film to include actual Native American dialogue? The 1930 production The Indians are Coming included several lines deliver in a Sioux dialect.

--What Hollywood leading-man who starred in numerous Westerns, including High Noon, was born in Helena, Montana, in 1901? Gary Cooper.

--What 1963 John Wayne Western was reportedly based on the Old Bard's The Taming of the Shrew? McLintock.

--William Selig's 1909 one-reel short feature, entitled Custer's Last Stand, certain set a trend--it was followed by The Scarlet West (1925), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), Little Big Horn (1951), Bugles in the Afternoon (1952), The Seventh Cavalry (1956), Tonka (1958), Custer of the West (1968), and Little Big Man (1970)--to name just a few.

--What prominent star of many films, including numerous Westerns, began his screen career in that forgettable 1955 horror classic Revenge of the Creature? Clint Eastwood.

--Who was Leonard Slye? Leonard, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, is probably better know to his fans as Trigger and Dale's partner, Roy Rogers.

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THE BIG-OPEN:

Montana, at 147,138 square miles, is the fourth largest state in the union. If Beaverhead County, Montana's largest at 5,551 square miles, was a state, it would be larger than Connecticut, 5,009 square miles; Delaware, 2,057; and Rhode Island, 1,214. Even Missoula, a middling sized county by Montana standards at 2,612 square miles, could make a fair sized state based on East Coast standards. Diminutive Silver Bow, the state's smallest county at 715 square miles, grows in stature when compared with some nations of the world: Andorra, 188 square miles; Antigua, 171; Bahrain, 240; Barbados, 166, and Bermuda at 21 square miles. Japan, at 145,730 square miles, compares favorably in size to Montana. However in Japan one would find a population density nearing 803 people per square mile as compared with approximately 5.4 people per square mile in Montana. Garfield County, Montana at 4,455 square miles compares favorably in size with Akita Prefecture, Japan at 4,482 square miles. However Garfield County has a total population of less than 2,000--while a single city in Akita Prefecture has population exceeding 260,000.

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