For the most part, we don’t spend too much time thinking about transportation or the logistics behind the packages we receive regularly. It all sort of just happens. We have, at our disposal, airplanes, cars, trucks, trains, boats, and even drones to rely on for transportation or the delivery of mail. Those options weren’t all available for those living, working, and trading at Fort Stevenson.

Steamboats served many important roles in the late 1800s. For those at Fort Stevenson, arrival of a steamer often meant a delivery. A delivery of mail, wool, buffalo robes, goods, and, in one case, bad news. In 1876, the Far West steamboat arrived at Fort Stevenson, carrying grave news from out west. Captain Grant Marsh shared the details of the Battle of Little Bighorn and the death of George Armstrong Custer.

Another notable steamboat to pass by Fort Stevenson was the Deer Lodge, a double decker steamer, complete with a dining room and cabins facing a gallery on two sides. This particular boat was designed to carry passengers, and that it did! Transportation on the Deer Lodge ran $150.00 per day, and often carried freight as well, charging ten cents a pound.

Oftentimes, the steamboats would deliver goods to Fort Stevenson, while convoys of wagons and ox-driven carts waited to deliver the grains and provisions across the prairie, to places like Fort Totten. A necessary delivery once arrived on the Mary MacDonald steamboat, a boat of considerable tonnage. She had been sent by the quartermaster general’s department in St. Louis, and her whole cargo was destined for Fort Stevenson. She brought twenty complete teams of six mules each, with wagons, harnesses, a wooden storehouse, windows, doors, shingles, timberwork, planks, and grain, amongst other things. The people of the Fort were elated as mules were a necessary part of life in Dakota Territory. It is said that the unloading of the cargo went on well into the night. Just imagine what it must have been like to wrangle 120 mules on the loose, coaxing some onto the gangway while others jumped overboard! Delighted to be on land again, the mules jumped and kicked and rolled in the dust, thankful their journey on the river was over.

Winter in Dakota Territory brought some challenges in terms of transportation. The snow wasn’t easy to travel through, so sled dogs were used for winter communication between Fort Totten and Fort Stevenson. Nine dogs made up three teams and were responsible, along with their driver, for delivering letters.

Like everything, our transportation and delivery methods have evolved. Steamboats exist primarily as tourist attractions at this point. And while some areas of the world still utilize sled dogs, it would be an uncommon sight along North Dakota highways today!