Fort Benton — North-West Mounted Police

French, Macleod and a few men rode the 100 miles to Ft. Benton. In 1847, the American Fur Company opened for business at Fort Benton. After years as a busy post for trading cloth, pots and rifles for furs and buffalo robes, the traders found a more lucrative trade good - whisky. When French and Macleod arrived, they saw "a miserable hole, nothing but two stores and a collection of whisky shops." In spite of its rough look, Fort Benton had become a major trading center. Steamboats from St. Louis brought equipment and supplies and carried away furs, robes, and for a short time, tons of gold. Telegraph and mail service, even banking, was available. Many settlers and adventurers arrived in Montana and western Canada by this much easier route.

This rough town had a telegraph office and French was able to report to his superiors in the east. French bought some fresh horses, a wagon and other supplies, and left quickly to rejoin D and E Divisions for the march eastward. Macleod purchased boots, clothing and supplies to take back to his men. More supplies would follow by bull train.

The Boundary Commission, the traders and the American army all used bull trains to move supplies. Inspector Denny describes them:

"Each team of twelve or fourteen yoke (pairs) of oxen hauled three enormous canvas-covered wagons. There were often as many as eight teams of twenty-four wagons to a train. Loads ranged from seven thousand pounds up to ten or twelve tons to a team."

Their rate of travel was slow, ten to fifteen miles a day; but nothing stuck them.

A bull train leaving Fort Benton with supplies, and perhaps whisky, for trading posts.

A driver went with each team: a night herder and cook completed the outfit. … The drivers walked alongside the teams during the day, their heavy bull whips exploding as they swung them in reports like pistol shots.

Inspector Denny also contracted I. G. Baker and Company to supply building materials and other necessities for their winters quarters, planned near Fort Whoop-Up.

While in Fort Benton, Macleod met Jerry Potts. This meeting was to change the fortunes of the force in the west. Half Blackfoot and half white, Jerry Potts knew several languages, was an excellent tracker and hunter, and knew the trails and the people of the Alberta and Montana plains. He agreed to guide Macleod and his men to Fort Whoop-Up.

Leaving with sick men and tired horses to wait for the bull train's arrival Sub-inspector Denny, Macleod and the rest of his men headed north to Fort Whoop-Up.

The log palisade with bastions at the corners and loopholes in the walls amazed the men - in front of them was the reason for the March. But, only the caretaker, Dave Ackers, was there.

He invited the men into the fort and fed them a supper of buffalo meat and fresh vegetables. In spite of a diligent search, no whisky was found.

The whisky and fur trade posts in the west operated from fall through spring. Most were abandoned for the summer months. Furs are at their prime in the fall and winter when animals are preparing for the cold months. The Indigenous people trapped or hunted animals when the furs were thickest, then brought them to trade in late winter or spring. The traders moved their furs and hides out of the country in early summer. The trading posts were re-supplied in the fall. It is not likely that the Mounted Police would have found anything at Fort Whoop-Up or any other fort in late September.

Whisky arrived at the forts in barrels and kegs. It was very potent, and the whisky traders knew that even a small amount would get an Indigenous person, who was not used to alcohol, drunk. All the traders watered down the whisky.

As well as water, some added other things to the whisky: ink, tobacco, turpentine, molasses, ginger, red peppers, soap, even lye. This mixture was often heated and served in tin cups.

One cupful was worth a buffalo robe, eight cups traded for a pony. The whisky led to fights and even murders. Others died when they passed out in the winter cold. Those who lived often traded away all their possessions as well as their wives. The Blackfoot people, once a rich and proud nation, were very poor by the time the Mounted Police arrived in the west.

Jerry Potts lead the exhausted force to an island in the Oldman River. Here they built the first Fort Macleod.