Of cream - real cream - something I had not tasted for six
weeks, and she also brought a plate piled high with generous pieces of
German cinnamon cake, at the same time telling me that I must eat
every bit of it - that I looked "real peaked," and not strong enough to
go tramping around with all those men! When I told her that it was
through my own choice that I was "tramping," that I enjoyed it she
looked at me with genuine pity, and as though she had just discovered
that I did not have good common sense.
We start on early in the morning, and it will take two three days to
cross the mountains. The little camp of one company looks lonesome
after the large regimental camp we have been with so long. The air is
really wonderful, so clear and crisp and exhilarating. It makes me
long for a good horse, and horses we intend to have as soon as
possible. We are anticipating so much pleasure in having a home once
more, even if it is to be of logs and buried in snow, perhaps, during
the winter. Hal is outside, and his beseeching whines have swelled to
awful howls that remind me of neglected duties in the tent.
CAMP BAKER, MONTANA TERRITORY,
November, 1877.
IT was rather late in the afternoon yesterday when we got to this
post, because of a delay on the mountains. But this did not cause
inconvenience to anyone - there was a vacant set of quarters that
Lieutenant Hayden took possession of at once for his family, and where
with camp outfit they can be comfortable until the wagons are
unloaded. Faye and I are staying with the commanding officer and his
wife. Colonel Gardner is lieutenant colonel of the - th Infantry, and
has a most enviable reputation as a post commander. As an officer, we
have not seen him yet, but we do know that he can be a most charming
host. He has already informed Faye that he intends to appoint him
adjutant and quartermaster of the post.
We are in a little valley almost surrounded by magnificent, heavily
timbered mountains, and Colonel Gardner says that at any time one can
find deer, mountain sheep, and bear in these forests, adding that
there are also mountain lions and wild cats! The scenery on the road
from Helena to Camp Baker was grand, but the roads were dreadful, most
of the time along the sides of steep mountains that seemed to be one
enormous pile of big boulders in some places and solid rock in others.
These roads have been cut into the rock and are scarcely wider than
the wagon track, and often we could look almost straight down
seventy-five feet, or even more, on one side, and straight up for
hundreds of feet on the other side.
And in the canons many of the grades were so steep that the wheels of
the wagons had to be chained in addition to the big brakes to prevent
them from running sideways, and so off the grade. I rode down one of
these places, but it was the last as well as the first. Every time
the big wagon jolted over a stone - and it was jolt over stones all the
time - it seemed as if it must topple over the side and roll to the
bottom; and then the way the driver talked to the mules to keep them
straight, and the creaking and scraping of the wagons, was enough to
frighten the most courageous.
In Confederate Gulch we crossed a ferry that was most marvelous. A
heavy steel cable was stretched across the river - the Missouri - and
fastened securely to each bank, and then a flat boat was chained at
each end to the cable, but so it could slide along when the ferryman
gripped the cable with a large hook, and gave long, hard pulls. Faye
says that the very swift current of the stream assisted him much.
The river runs through a narrow, deep canon where the ferry is, and at
the time we crossed everything was in dark shadow, and the water
looked black, and fathoms deep, with its wonderful reflections. The
grandeur of these mountains is simply beyond imagination; they have
to be seen to be appreciated, and yet when seen, one can scarcely
comprehend their immensity. We are five hundred miles from a railroad,
with endless chains of these mountains between. All supplies of every
description are brought up that distance by long ox trains - dozens of
wagons in a train, and eight or ten pairs of oxen fastened to the one
long chain that pulls three or four heavily loaded wagons. We passed
many of these trains on the march up, and my heart ached for the poor
patient beasts.
We are to have one side of a large double house, which will give us as
many rooms as we will need in this isolated place. Hal is in the house
now, with Cagey, and Billie is there also, and has the exclusive run
of one room. The little fellow stood the march finely, and it is all
owing to that terrible old wagon that was such a comfort in some ways,
but caused me so much misery in others. These houses must be quite
warm; they are made of large logs placed horizontally, and the inner
walls are plastered, which will keep out the bitter cold during the
winter. The smallest window has an outside storm window.
CAMP BAKER, MONTANA TERRITORY,
December, 1877.
THIS post is far over in the Belt Mountains and quite cut off from the
outside world, and there are very few of us here, nevertheless the
days pass wonderfully fast, and they are pleasant days, also.
