Annals of Platte County, Missouri - Paxton
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6 YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION. in a paper entitled Survey of Kansas Indian Lands, read Jan- uary 15, 1889, before the Kansas State Historical Society, and printed in the fourth volume of Kansas Historical Collections, page 303, writes: "Captain Martin, in 1818, camped for the winter With three companies of U. S. Riemen, on Cow Island, ten miles above Leavenworth. and during that winter killed between two and three thousand deer, besides great numbers of bears, turkeys, etc." I have often conversed with Mr. Calvert upon his stay at Cow Island. He said that hunting companies often crossed to the Missouri side, in Platte County. and found abundance of game. Indians were not found east of the Missouri. VALENTINE BAI-{NARIYS STORY. In the L(HI(7m(lIk of March 23, 1883. is a long, rambling, and apochryphal statement. by Mr. Barnard. which is reproduced in Gatewoods History of Platte. He says that,with several young friends of Clay County. he boarded one of the Yellowstone steamers. and was put o at Rialto. below the site of Weston. where a few Indian traders had established themselves. Mr. Barnard did not come to Missouri earlier than 1835. About that time a gang of discharged soldiers built cabins at Rialto, and engaged in the illicit sale of whisky to soldiers of Fort Leaven~ worth and to the Indians. To dislodge them, the northern limit of the Military Reserve was extended so as to embrace Rialto. But Mr. Barnards story is absurd in its conception and contradictory in its details. 1823. A wagon road is opened from Liberty. by way of Smithville, to Council Bluffs. An express was at times run on the trail, by -ontractors. traders. and trappers. Smithville. being the last town a train of pack-mules left. and the rst to entertain the drivers on their return, became for a few years a resort for drunken whites and begging Indians. This ceased when Fort l.r-avmiwm-tli was established. and when steamers ascended the .lissom-i tr-quently. WIlIlE ALLOE BRANCH. . lr-m-h (an-adian trader and trapper spent his winters in a -a- or lngnnt" on the bank of the branch emptying into the .lissntni at larlille. His name was Anne; and the Kickapoo lmli:Ins. :11-ins. the Missouri. called him White A1109. and gave this name to the branch. That is the name by which it is lnu\n tnrla. SM IIlTVlT.l.l}. lllllll]Ill]( Y:nil-ct Smith. in 1822. located on Smiths Fork. so name-cl from him. near what was then the western line of the .t;m-. ll:-re he built a dam. and constructed a mill of round. unhc-wn white.ual logs. . pair of 2.}-foot millstones were cut