Trips of Trade History

With oxen the trip two or three weeks to complete, if the weather was good that is. The trail was freezing cold in the winter and then one of them Chinook winds would blow up and turn ‘em into miles of mud. Summer weren’t much better with dust and bugs. A variety of trade goods were shipped north from Fort Benton: Blankets, calico cloth, hats and clothing, pots and pans, knives and hatchets, hoop iron, flour, salt, sugar, tea, bells, beads, guns and tobacco. In demand, were repeating rifles, cartridges, ammunition and powder, but the most profitable was the trade of whiskey. Alcohol was shipped in pure form in five-gallon tins. At the Fort, it was mixed with variety of other ingredients to give flavour and colour.

While it looked like whiskey, it wasn’t. The actually amount of alcohol varied as much as the recipes used. The whiskey was purchased on site, by the cup or taken in jugs back to the camps, sometimes to be traded again or more often consumed. .... Continue to part II