Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/223



great uniformity at length becomes tiresome. The grass was now about a foot high, as the wind swept over the great plain, it appeared as though we were riding on the unquiet billows of the ocean. The surface is uniformly of that description not inaptly called rolling, and bears a comparison to the waves of an agitated sea. The distant shores and promontories of woodland, with here and there an insular grove, rendered the illusion more complete. Nothing is more difficult than to estimate by the eye the distance of an object seen on these plains. Soon after leaving our camp we thought we discovered several bison feeding at a distance of half a mile. Two of our party dismounted, creeping through the grass with great care for some distance, found them to be a wild turkey with a brood of half grown young. We often found hoofs, horns and bones of the bison and elk near former camping places of the Indians; also great numbers of tent poles and scaffolds.”

On the 24th a camp was made on the banks of a beautiful river, and during the night a terrible storm came hurling the forest trees, uprooted and shivered, around them. Their terrified horses broke loose and ran wildly over the plains. The next day the party ascending a high range of hills, looked over a broad valley and saw the Missouri winding its way far off below. They had crossed the southwest corner of Iowa from some point on Grand River, probably passing through portions of Taylor, Page, Montgomery and Mills counties, striking the Missouri near the mouth of the Platte River. They were probably the first white men who ever traversed the beautiful rolling prairies of that region.

It had now been sixteen years since the western borders of Iowa had been partially explored by Lewis and Clark, and through their reports made known to the country; but so far as is known no permanent settlers had erected cabins in that region, or broken the prairie sod for farms. French and half-breed traders made their trips up and down the Missouri and its tributaries in pursuit of their vocation for many years after this before we find any attempts to open farms or lay out towns.