Remember When?

207 YEARS AGO

FROM KNOW MONTANA

“We spent a happy Christmas by the side of a blazing fire and forgot the sufferings we had endured in our dreary progress through the woods of the new territory we were exploring.”

So wrote Ross Cox in a book, “Cox’s Adventures on the Columbia River,” published in England in 1817.

Cox arrived with a few companions December 24, 1813 at McMillan trading post near the present site of Paradise in Sanders County. They had come from Astoria on the Pacific Coast. “On Christmas morning Cox and his men prepared for a celebration to which they invited a band of Flathead Indians. From his private meager store. Cox furnished flour, rice, tea, coffee, arrowroot and rum. Around a roaring fire, mountain sheep were roasted and eaten together with other food. All was washed down with copious draughts of rum.” Arrowroot powder is a flavorless starch used as a thickening agent.

He reported that the scene of Englishmen, traders and Indians gathered together on Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ in the howling wilderness was quite impressive.

40 YEARS AGO

DECEMBER 25, 1980

FIRST CHRISTMASES WERE BLEAK

Editorial by Doc Eggensperger

Over 2,000 years ago the time was bleak for Joseph and Mary as they searched for an inn where Mary could give birth to her son, Jesus Christ. Instead, she was given only a manger for the birth of the Christ child.

History shows that other Christmas times have been bleak and the Christmas most Sanders County residents observe today is a far cry from the first one observed by a white man in Montana west of the Continental Divide. That celebration occurred December 25, 1809 here at Thompson Falls where David Thompson, the great British cartographer, had built his Saleesh House fur trading post near the banks of the Clark Fork River and south of what is now the Thompson Falls Airport.

Dour David Thompson recorded simply in his diary: “Christmas Day, squally with showers.”

A more typical Christmas observance at the desolate Saleesh House trading post was recorded by John Work in his journal: “This being Christmas Day, the two men here had a dram and we served out each a ration of fresh meat, a tongue and a quarter of flour.

McMillan’s trading post in the Paradise Valley upstream in the Clark Fork Valley was the scene of a Christmas observance in 1813. It’s claimed the celebrants had a sack of flour, a sack of rice, plenty of tea and coffee, some arrowroot and 15 gallons of rum in addition to mountain sheep and a generous distribution of tobacco.”

Probably the first Christmas celebrated in Montana was in 1807 at a trading post at the junction of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers.

The post, established by Manuel Lisa for the Missouri Fur Co. was the first permanent trading post constructed in what is now the Treasure State. The Christmas dinner menu included buffalo tongue, antelope, venison, fried prairie chicken and roast goose and ducks along with bread and molasses.

Most of us today would not care to trade places with those early pioneers.

Merry Christmas.

115 YEARS AGO • DECEMBER 1905

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES

The joyous Christmas season was fittingly observed by nearly everybody in Thompson, and the several public entertainments were largely attended and thoroughly enjoyed.

The Christmas tree and exercises given by the M.E. church Sunday school, at the Odd Fellows hall on Monday evening was a success in every particular. The program of recitations and songs prepared by the scholars was rendered without a hitch.

After the conclusion of the exercises followed the distribution of the presents. The tree was heavily laden and the little folks hearts were made glad.

The Christmas dance at C.H. Doenges’ hall was another very pleasant affair and was well attended. The spacious hall being well filled with dancers till well along toward daybreak of the following morning. Garred’s orchestra was on hand as usual and the merry throng were delighted with the excellence of the music. In all it was a joyous day and a time for nearly everyone in the community.