into the unknown lands. The Missouri was the first and last of
our great natural frontier roads. Its lower course swept along
the eastern edge of the Plains, far to the south, down to the
very doors of the most adventurous settlements in the Mississippi
Valley. Those who dared its stained and turbulent current had to
push up, onward, northward, past the mouth of the Platte, far to
the north across degrees of latitude, steadily forward through a
vast virgin land. Then the river bent boldly and strongly off to
the west, across another empire. Its great falls indicated that
it headed high; beyond the great falls its steady sweep westward
and at last southward, led into yet other kingdoms.

When we travel by horse or by modern motor car in that now
accessible region and look about us, we should not fail to
reflect on the long trail of the upbound boats which Manuel Lisa
and other traders sent out almost immediately upon the return of
the Lewis and Clark expedition. We should see them struggling up
against that tremendous current before steam was known, driven by
their lust for new lands. We may then understand fully what we
have read of the enterprises of the old American Fur Company, and
bring to mind the forgotten names of Campbell and Sublette, of
General Ashley and of Wyeth--names to be followed by others
really of less importance, as those of Bonneville and Fremont.
That there could be farms, that there ever might be homes, in
this strange wild country, was, to these early adventurers,
unthinkable.

Then we should picture the millions of buffalo which once covered
these plains and think of the waste and folly of their
slaughtering. We should see the long streams of the Mackinaw