UNDER BACKWATER
Tales from the Missouri Breaks
as heard from Bee B. Knapp
to
Robert B. Ward
The backwater of the Fort Peck Dam covers homesteads of early Missouri River settlers. Before the days of the dam, the valley was a good place for raising alfalfa seed. The only drawback was that some of the best land was on the south side of the river. Although the north bank was generally open, the south side was bounded by acres of badlands. The breaks of the Missouri could mean a broken leg to a wandering pony or a careless traveler. Because of the barren wilderness and impassable terrain, the settlers clinging to the south bank of the Missouri paddled across the river in the summer or waited for solid ice for winter trips.
The Missouri was dangerous, and not just in the high water season. In winter it developed pot holes in the ice. Sometimes these holes drifted over with snow. Valley folks often carried dry cotton wood poles to catch themselves in case they broke through the ice.
One such traveler, Shorty Brannan, was a gentleman. He wore a white canvas suit and kept clean, which was rather a novelty for bachelor homesteaders of those times. When he rode into the Charlie Knapp place he insisted on helping with the dishes. One winter the little man came up missing. When they checked out his cabin, they found his tracks going to the barn. From there horse tracks led down to the river. About halfway across the ice the tracks ended. In the spring Brannan’s horse washed up on a sand bar twenty miles down stream. Shorty was never found.
Old Skyler was one of the Irish settlers on the Missouri in the area now under the lake. Skyler and his Indian wife lived on the south side of the river and raised alfalfa for seed. Skyler’s harvest was paddled across the river, pulled up the steep back by a horse hooked on to a rope and pulley. Then it was loaded on a wagon and hauled north to Malta. Sometimes it took a week of paddling to get a loaded wagon. One year Skyler sold a good crop and bought a new fangled Model T Ford. When he got the creature on the ice the throttle stuck open and the front wheels got in a cramp. The "T" model roared around in circle after circle. Skyler got on an outside curve and deserted it. Later he got the Ford broke to "Whoa" and could herd it to the winter socials at the nearest one-room schoolhouse.
Bee Knapp – now past his four score years – rowed a broad bottomed boat for Skyler. When Knapp or other riders came to the Skyler holdings, they would be asked to work a few days whether there was any work or not. Seems like the valley, cut off one way by the breaks, and the other way by the river, collected a lot of loneliness as well as content. Groceries came by paddle wheeler from Fort Benton. Sometimes they were ordered six months ahead of delivery time. The isolation didn’t keep the river water from getting in a fellow’s veins, though. When Old Skyler got sick, they hauled him away to a hospital. He moaned and groaned and insisted on going back to the Missouri. When he returned, his son in law, Frank Reynolds, took him in. Skyler seemed well content. His appetite came back.
"Give me some sourdough hotcakes," he said.
Reynolds took out his makings and mixed them with a batch of flour. "They will be ready to cook in the morning."
Skyler looked disappointed, but sat down to the table. After a sizable supper he looked at the batter. "Is it ready to go?" he asked.
"No, it’s gotta work slow."
About eleven o’clock Skyler got up and walked the floor. "If you don’t cook some hotcakes, I’ll do it myself."
The old man ate his bait of pancakes, but in the morning he woke up sick. He kept getting worse. Finally Frank decided to take him to the doctor. Skyler didn’t want to go. Anyway, when he got so sick he couldn’t jump out of a wagon, Reynolds loaded him and headed for town. It was too late for the doctor to do any good. Probably Skyler wanted to get to the Missouri to die and figured the pancakes would do the trick. If so, he came close to getting his wish.
A bachelor named Peck had a cottonwood log house on the Missouri above the junction with the Musselshell. Like other river settlers Peck had some livestock and raised alfalfa seed. When a ferry was put in near the mouth of the Musselshell, Peck scooped a narrow road down the alley and used the ferry to transport his harvest.
Peck was an old timer and likely never had much. When he was about seventy-five he ordered a wagon and a new saddle. Bee Knapp was one of the young men making the delivery. The crated wagon was brought into the house. So was the saddle. A big cottonwood log with four peg legs was sitting in the middle of the floor. The old man threw the saddle on the log and cinched it up.
He stood back and admired his new possession. "What a beauty," he said. "Every feller ought to have a new saddle."
Peck was so proud of his saddle that he wouldn’t use it. He left it mounted on the log saw horse. It was there when he died, so was the new wagon that had never been uncrated and assembled. Perhaps, like the ancient Pharaohs, the old timer was saving his best for days to come.
Jimmy and Mickey Carter came from Ireland. Mickey carried his brogue. He raised alfalfa hay, cattle and half-breed children. Sometimes the last named were harder to round up than the long haired yearlings. One harvest, Mickey’s brother, Jimmy, brought his haying crew. The two Irishmen began to talk about the old times and the changes that had come their way. When they got around to their families, Mickey remarked, "Our poor ault Mither back in Ireland should say me now, trayin’ to shaphard all these heathen."
The Missouri and the mouth of the Musselshell and points east have long since been covered with water from the Fort Peck Lake. Motor boats anchor above alfalfa fields covered by the backwaters from the dam. On a cool morning, a mist can be seen rising above the water. Some say it is the ghost mist of the past. But more likely it is a symbol that the spirit nourished by the river settlers and "shapharded" into their offspring is not destroyed – not, by a dam site.
background: Knapp family going to visit neighbors