By the time Lewis and Clark visited South Dakota in late August of 1804, mountain men and trappers had already come up the river from St. Louis to find their “El Dorado.”  While on their way back down the river to St. Louis in 1806, they met numerous parties going up the river to Montana and the Rocky Mountains.

Lisa Manuel was the most enterprising trader of his time and the first to visualize the opportunity afforded by the opening of the Missouri River to American trade.  He first visited the upper Missouri and traded with the Indians in 1807, one year after Lewis and Clark had returned from the Pacific Ocean.  He spent the remainder of his life in that occupation and was intensely loyal to the American cause during the War of 1812.  Through his loyalty, finesse, and relationships, he was responsible for the Indians in this area supporting the American cause.  Farther to the east, England found support among the natives.

By 1809, Lisa and other St. Louis fur traders had formed the Missouri River Fur Company.  He left St. Louis in May of 1812 for the upper Missouri River, with a party of eighty-seven men and two barges.  The barges were carrying merchandise, food supplies, cows, hogs, cats, and chickens for his trading post.  These were most likely the first domesticated animals ever brought into South Dakota and the upper Missouri River.

Fort Manual was established north of the Grand River on the west side of the Missouri.  This served as the headquarters for himself and his men.  They used the timber along the rivers to construct a stockade, blacksmith shop, warehouse, living quarters and other facilities.  The cats established their residence in the warehouse where they protected the flour and other supplies from the mice which were everywhere on the frontier.

The journal of John Luttig indicated that the Indians visited the fort daily to trade and some of them lived inside the fort.  Most of the men of the fur company were always away trading at Indian camps along the river, some as far as 200 miles up or down the river.  Luttig’s journal entry for December 20, 1812, states that the wife of fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau (Sacagawea) died of putrid fever while at the fort.  Both Sacagawea and Charbonneau had accompanied Lewis and Clark from Mandan to the Pacific Ocean and back.

This new frontier provided settlers with land, freedom, and an endless horizon which just seemed to never end.  It also offered something with less appeal: mice, and plenty of them.  Only the forepaws of an expert could be relied upon to provide the protection needed to keep these pesky little critters out of the food supplies and other valuables.

Since the beginning of the settlement on the western frontier, the cat became a traveling companion of the early settler.  They were desperately needed out on that portion of the west which became known as the “Open Range” during the last half of the 1800s.  On that 44% of America west of the Missouri, they were scarce and the demand was large.

In the early mining camps and ranches of the west, the mice came close to destroying or stealing the provisions as soon as they were stored in the cupboards and pantries.  A freighter who traveled between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the Black Hills in 1876 received word that cats were needed in South Dakota.

He spread the word around the folks in Cheyenne that he would give twenty-five cents for any cat brought to him regardless of pedigree or appearance.  He built a large box and often took it full of cats to the Black Hills.  When he arrived on the main street of Deadwood, not one cat sold for less than $10 and a good Maltese would bring $25.  At that time, a month’s wages barely exceed $20.

Each fall, the early ranchers laid in a supply of food which was expected to last at least one year.  Because they had meadow mice as neighbors, they needed to have some cats around the place to keep them out of the flour and other provisions.

Back in the early 1880’s it was not uncommon to see a cowboy riding across the country with dignity holding on his saddle horn a cat bound to his ranch to guard those filled flour sacks and other supplies.  It was during the decade of the eighties that an unusual situation developed concerning the value of a cat on the open range.

Philip Rollins, in his book The Cowboy wrote:

“A curious phase of this feline situation during the decade of the eighties was the fixedness of the money value of a cat.  This always was ten dollars.  Whoever wished to buy a mouser never bid a lower price.  Whoever had a cat for sale never named a higher value.  Of course, the vagaries of birth easily might overstock a ranch, and one large litter could glut the market on an entire Range.  Nevertheless, no threatened shortage of supply, or undue excess made any difference.  The catless man had to pay ten dollars in order to change his state.”  ($10 in 1880 would be $274 in 2022)

Cowboys were known to ride many miles to secure a cat.  Even on unusually long trips across the prairie, that cat was always treated with propriety and unusual care.

On some of the ranches, chuck wagons were known to have a cat up on the seat next to the cook as he drove to the next site to stop and feed the men.

In those days, it was because of the distance that every rancher and homesteader needed their own tomcat.

 

Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory-Times Advocate on February 22, 2022