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Idaho Librarian |
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Review
As a child I grew up amid rumors and stories of wagon trails, southern Idaho being a crossroads of the settlement era. Wheel ruts from pioneer days were still visible (many are yet), and elders from those days could be coaxed into spinning a story or two about travel “on the hoof.” Schoolbooks have ignored so much of the real knowledge of how the American West was settled. What was it really like? Why were these towns settled, and how? Now, without futilely querying the shaky memories of long gone pioneers or staring dumbly at ruts in the soil, the full story of one of the most stirring and bizarre episodes of emigration is available to all. Subtitled, “Jehus, Bullwhackers, and Mule Skinners on the Montana Trail,” this intriguing volume brings alive a way of life so far distant to today’s “convenience” world as to qualify as science fiction of the past. “…and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi: for he driveth furiously (Old Testament Bible 2 Kings 9:20).” So we are introduced to the stagecoach drivers, aristocrats of harness. Freight wagons, sleds, draft animals, rigs, tack, coaches, food and bedbugs, road agents and mud, are described in lively abundance. The Montana Trail, stretching from Salt Lake, Utah to Fort Benton, Montana, overlooked for too long as a source of western lore, is described in meticulous and sometimes hilarious detail. This road is the birthplace of such dramatic clichés as stagecoach robbers, vigilantes, boomtowns, twelve-foot bullwhips, and inedible biscuits. This edition happens to be a trade paperback reprint of a 1980 University of Utah hardback, now out of print; thankful we may be it’s available again. For instance, such contemporary issues as land use, conservation, and livestock grazing, take on new dimensions as North to Montana reveals a world in which the only means of transportation was “on the hoof.” Covering a period roughly from the 1860’s to the 1880’s, when narrow gauge railroad superseded long haul wagons, the dimensions of freight, tonnages, logistics of travel, and the hazards of the road are fleshed out in a satisfying manner. Plenty of photographs of period scenes are included throughout the text. Also added are appendices that yield glimpses of wagon era curiosities. A full bibliography and index complete this scholarly but accessible work. One might complain that during the intervening period since the book’s original publication in 1980, perhaps some new material could have been added. However, the other available works of Brigham Madsen, such as The Shoshoni Frontier and the Bear River Massacre, The Bannock of Idaho, and Corrinne: The Gentile Capital of Utah, fulfill backup duty. No doubt the busy Madsen's felt their sources had been gleaned as arduously as possible. The book is a convenient 6” x 9” size, and I hope it sees a lot of mileage with readers. |