Unfortunately, 20 of those miles are contained in Lake Elwell by Tiber Dam. The last 80 miles, though, flow unrestricted through a landscape many folks consider a lesser version of the white rocks section of the Missouri in the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument.
Together they flow under the U. Highway 87 bridge at Loma and turn over their waters to the Missouri. On June 2, , Lewis and Clark began a day stay at the then-meeting of the Missouri and Marias rivers. In , a flood diverted the course of the Marias, forcing it to enter the Missouri nearly one mile further upstream, thereby altering its physical location in history.
Hydrogeologist Robert Bergantino, of the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, has scaled the widths of the two rivers by a means that Lewis would have envied. The resultant average for the Marias was 95, which was Although water levels on the Missouri River have been controlled for many years to prevent major flooding, and despite the impacts that irrigation and other human interference have imposed on the two rivers, their proportionate widths are almost exactly the same today as they were in On the height at center the artist has imagined a fort or trading post such as Lewis and Clark recommended for the mouth of the Marias.
Fort Piegan—named for the Piegan tribe of the Blackfeet Nation, whom the traders hoped to attract—was built there in the winter of by James Kipp of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company , to tap into the regional Indian trade, but it lasted less than a year before Blood Indian warriors burned it down. The following year the manager of Astor's Upper Missouri Outfit, headquartered at Fort Union, sent an experienced trader, Jacob Berger, to establish a new satellite post eight miles up the Missouri from the mouth of the Marias.
Despite the accidental arrival of a devastating smallpox epidemic in , the post thrived until , when an ugly incident precipitated by the new management, Francois Chardon and his lieutenant, Alexander Harvey, made it necessary to abandon the place in early April.
Sometime after that its structures were burned by unknown persons. View south; Little Belt Mountains on the horizon. The verdant circle in the foreground is a farmer's field watered by a center-pivot irrigation system. It must have been the morning of June 3, , as they stood on the point west of Maria's River, looking over the land, that the two captains agreed the promontory opposite them would make "a proper and handsome situation" for a trading post.
On his sketch-map of the vicinity, Clark made note of it for future reference. But why did they even bother with the thought, since they had no evidence that any Indians—at least none they had talked to—seemed to know of the place?
Simply because they were routinely observant, and in topographic terms alone this appeared to be a prime location. Thirteen months later, Lewis was to capitalize on the idea.
Returning to Maria's River for a second and more extensive look , he and his three companions had an "interview" one evening with eight Piegan men.
That was miles upstream on the south fork of the Marias, now known as the Two Medicine River. On the defensive, but still in possession of his diplomatic savvy, he allowed himself the advantage of a couple of little white lies.
I told these people. The first attempt to build a post at the mouth of the Marias was made in , at the height of the fur-trade era. The last attempt was made in , when Missouri River commerce was at its peak.
T he Lewis and Clark Expedition was a business trip. For more than years European explorers and, lately, American traders, had been steadily pushing the boundaries of the known world outward into the previously unknown. Within those new boundaries they found other peoples, which meant new places to sell things, and new goods their own customers at home might like to buy.
Thus businessmen engaged in trade beyond the boundaries of their own countries began to think globally. Accordingly, they needed to be able to identify new places with certainty, and to know a place meant to know its location by the numbers—by its address on the global grid.
The Marias River twists and turns for more than sixty miles through rolling prairie, before spilling into Lake Elwell, a twenty-seven mile long lake formed by Tiber Dam. Although the river flows through prairie, it is still enjoyable, as cottonwood trees line its banks. Below Tiber Dam, the Marias River continues flowing through the Montana prairie, with small sandstone cliffs and cottonwood trees marking the rivers course.
The countryside below Tiber Dam is very remote. Access to the river is difficult, and the distance between access points is often considerable. The upper stretch of the Marias River, between its origin and Lake Elwell also called Tiber Reservoir , has limited trout fishing but can provide decent fishing for walleyes, bass, large catfish and lots of whitefish.. The best trout fishing will be found in the first twelve miles or so below Tiber Dam. Below the dam, large brown trout can be found in fair numbers, averaging over three pounds with some approaching ten pounds.
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