Tu jonni grants one Hunred & twenti myle The “grass Hop Per digins” are at the town of Bannack; and the city of Deer Lodge is built on “jonni grants” ranche. CHAPTER XIV CAPTAIN FISK’S EXPEDITION 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 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. The Government had grudgingly appropriated the meagre sum of five thousand dollars in aid of the enterprise, which was not sufficient to pay a competent guard for the protection of the company. The quasi-governmental character of the expedition, however, with the inducement superadded that it would visit the Salmon River mines, soon caused a large number of emigrants to join it. The Northern Overland Expedition, as it was called, left St. Paul on the sixteenth of June, 1862. It was confided to the leadership of Captain James L. Fisk, whose previous frontier experience and unquestioned personal courage admirably fitted him for the command of an expedition which owed so much of its final success, as well as its safety during a hazardous journey through a region occupied by hostile Indians, to the vigilance and discipline of its commanding officer. His first assistant was E. H. Burritt, and second assistant, N. P. Langford (the writer); Samuel R. Bond, secretary, David Charlton, engineer, Dr. W. D. Dibb, surgeon, and Robert C. Knox, wagon master. About forty men were selected from the company, who agreed, for their subsistence, to serve as guards during the journey. One hundred and twenty-five emigrants accompanied the expedition to Prickly Pear Valley. This company was thoroughly organized, and ready at all times for instant service while passing through Indian country. Fort Abercrombie, Devil’s Lake, Fort Union, Fort Benton,[2] and Milk River were designated points of the route, and it was generally understood that the company should pursue as nearly as possible the trail of the exploring expedition under command of Governor Isaac I. Stevens in 1853. Footnote 2: