Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 75 CONTINUED Western cat doodle by Lyndel Manuel Lisa were decanted out of his trunk and stuffed into a sack. A hole punched in the side of the trunk converted it into a satisfactory cat house for the mother cat and her brood. It was a large party, with 63 wagons and on the long journey, Myers recalled that his camp was the most popular, as "strong men, as well as women and children, gathered around the wagon to see the kittens romp and play in the grass." He claimed that by the time he arrived at Bannack, the whole town turned out to see his furry little family. He sold one kitten for $10 in gold dust, the other six for $15 each and kept the mother cat for himself. Furthermore, he sold his 100 pounds of tobacco at $5 a pound, thus confirming that cat houses and the fine old tradition of "mining the miners" were, indeed, the best ways to get rich in a gold camp. As for whether these were really the first cats in Montana, the Great Falls Tribune hedged its bets by noting, "We understand that other citizens of Montana have contended for the honor, but we naturally prefer to back the claims of a Great Falls citizen unless convincing proof is brought forth to the contrary." Well, stand aside, Mr. Myers, because convincing proof is there, as can be shown by a gradual journey into the past. Among the records of the Pierre Chouteau Jr. & Co. from Fort Benton, is a complete inventory of the stock at the fort, dated May 4th, 1851. It's an astonishing list, detailing dozens of bolts of fabric, women's blanket dresses and boys' summer pants. ere were more than 700 pounds of beads, "common" scalping knives, tools, medicine, ten gross of suspender button and, on the very last page, one cat. ere were other animals on the list: Horses, mules, bulls, oxen, cows, calves, hogs, and pigs. A value was given for each animal. e cat was valued at five dollars, equal in value to a calf, a hog or five pigs. e Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City boasts an 1845 painting by George C. Bingham (1811-1879) showing a stalwart cat standing at the prow of a canoe-like pirogue being paddled down the Missouri by a pair of fur traders. Fort Union Trading post at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers at the eastern edge of Montana was founded in 1828. Archeological explorations of the site by the Na- tional Park Service have turned up cat skeletons. Cats were of such importance to the fur trade that it is easy to imagine that they would have accompanied any trapping or trading party, back to the earliest explorations. irty-three years before Bingham's paint- ing, John Luttig of the Missouri Fur Company kept an interestingly punctuated journal of a fur trading expedition on the upper Missouri and noted that on July 31st, 1812, "is Morning we left our old she Cat at Camp, at breakfast I missed her and Mr. Manuel sent a Men [sic] for the Cat, he returned in the Evening with the Cat to our great satisfaction this Remark may seem ridiculous, but an Animal of this kind, is more valuable in this Country than a fine Horse. Mice are in great Abundance and the Company have lost for want of Cats, several ousand Dollars in Merchandize, which were destroyed at the Bigbellies station, there has not a night passed since our departure from Bellefontaine where I got that Cat, that she has not caught from 4 to 10 Mice and brought them to her Kittens." e mention of kittens in several fur trade ac- counts may provide a clue as to why cats were such accommodating travelers. eir offspring were hostages to their return from the hunt. e "Mr. Manuel" referred to in Luttig's journal was Manuel Lisa, who established the first trading post in Montana at the mouth of the Big Horn River in 1807. As one of the founders of the Missouri Fur Company, Lisa would have been well aware of the value of cats to such an enterprise. e Luttig journal and the Bing- ham painting bring the introduc- tion of cats into uncertain territory. How far up the Missouri did these cats travel? Had Canadian cats already descended into present-day Montana courtesy of the Hud- son's Bay Company or the North West Company? Were cats there for the founding of Fort Manuel Lisa? And how should Montana be defined, after all? Can North Dakota's Fort Union be included in the list, when only when it only edges 600 feet over the current boundary of Montana? Beechnut, a real cowcat, tall in the saddle at 21 T H E C AT WAS VA L U E D AT F I V E D O L L A R S , E Q U A L I N VA L U E T O A C A L F, A H O G O R F I V E P I GS .

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