While the little community at Bannack were snugly housed for the
winter, anxiously awaiting the return of warm weather to favor a
resumption of labor in the gulch, numerous companies were in
progress of organization in the States, intending to avail
themselves of the same seasonable change to start upon the long
and adventurous journey to Salmon river. The fame of Bannack and
Deer Lodge had not yet reached them. In the summer of 1862 an
expedition under the direction of the Government was planned in
Minnesota for the ostensible purpose of opening a wagon road
between St. Paul and Fort Benton, to connect at the latter point
with the military road opened a few years before by Captain John
Mullen [Mullan] from Fort Benton to Walla Walla. This route of
nearly two thousand miles lay for most of the distance through a
partially explored region, filled with numerous bands of the
hostile Sioux and Blackfeet. Government had grudgingly
appropriated the meagre sum of five thousand dollars in aid of
the enterprise, which