Cow Creek is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in north central Montana in the United States. Cow Creek rises in the southern foothills of the Bear Paw Mountains in western Blaine County and flows east and then south, joining the Missouri approximately northeast of Winifred, Montana—or upstream from the Fred Robinson Bridge.

Name

The creek's Gros Ventre name is , meaning 'big gulch'.

History

thumb|left|The junction of Cow Creek and Missouri River.

Prehistory

Cow Creek flows from the southern foothills of the Bear Paw Mountains to the Missouri through a unique and remote area known as the Missouri Breaks. The breaks are extensive and steeply eroded badlands. They are so rough that they are a barrier to travel by animals or man. They extend along the Missouri River for over . In this long stretch of river the Missouri Breaks extend back from the river on either side, for many miles. As the Missouri flows through this 200 mile stretch, the breaks limit access to the river from the wide undulating grasslands north and south of the river.

Cow Creek provides one of the few access routes down to the Missouri River through the Missouri Breaks. As Cow Creek flows through the breaks it passes between high canyon like walls, but the stream meanders back and forth over a canyon floor that is relatively level and from in width.thumb|right|The upstream end of Cow Creek Island, downstream from the mouth of Cow Creek

The canyon bottom along Cow Creek creates a corridor of travel from the northern Montana plains down to the river through the breaks. Sediments seasonally washed out from the mouth of Cow Creek into the Missouri River formed Cow Island, just downriver from the creek mouth. Cow Island divides the Missouri into two channels, which makes crossing the broad Missouri easier at this point. On the south side of the river opposite the Cow Island, a steep but relatively short four mile climb out of the breaks gains the wide plains of Central Montana south of the river.

This combination of geographic features made Cow Creek and the ford at Cow Island an ancient highway of travel. For thousands of years, Cow Creek and the Cow Island ford was used by migrating buffalo herds and other migrating animals, and by nomadic Native Americans bent on going between the plains north of the Missouri River Breaks and the plains lying south of the Missouri Breaks.

Lewis and Clark expedition

Lewis and Clark passed Cow Creek on May 26, 1805, after they had camped two miles below Cow Creek. Cow Creek was originally named Windsor Creek in the journals of the expedition for Pvt. Richard Windsor, but was later named Cow Creek by fur traders. May 26, 1805 was the day that Clark climbed out of the breaks (probably going up Bull Whacker Creek, and climbing up on a ridge), where he saw the Rocky Mountains for the first time.

The final of the river was called the "upper Missouri" – this stretch traversed remote unsettled plains, and the last few hundred miles to Ft. Benton passed through the Missouri Breaks. The mouth of Cow Creek is 126 river miles below Ft. Benton. Some 24 miles above Cow Island was Dauphine Rapids, which was the worst of the rapids. It was difficult to run even in high water, but was a deadly barrier to riverboats in low water. If a steamboat could get through Dauphine Rapids, they then faced Deadman Rapids, some 18 miles further up the river. In the stretch of river below Deadman and Dauphine Rapids, Cow Island landing was the best place from which freight could be offloaded and then transported overland to Ft. Benton, via the Cow Island Trail.thumbnail|right|View of the Cow Island Landing (upstream location) where freight was dropped off by steamboats

To offload cargo at Cow island, the steamboats used a landing point several hundred yards above Cow Creek, in front of the now abandoned buildings of the Kipp homestead (see photo), or down river, several hundreds of yards below Cow Creek. The steamboats used landing sites where the water of the Missouri was deep up against the north bank, so the river boats could pull in close to the bank to discharge cargo.

No permanent storehouses were erected at Cow Island. Once freight was offloaded at Cow Island, it was tarped and remained only briefly before being moved to Ft. Benton. The high profits on freight could only be realized once the goods had gotten to Ft. Benton. Another source indicates the homestead was claimed by Jim Kipp in 1913. Jim was the son of Joseph Kipp (1849–1913) who was the son of the historic figure James Kipp (1788–1880) and his wife Earth Woman.

The elder historic James Kipp (1788–1880) helped establish Ft. Union at the mouth of the Yellowstone in 1828 and he also founded Ft. Piegan at the mouth of the Marias River in 1831. The Kipp homestead is abandoned but a few cabins and outbuildings remain standing at the homestead site.<gallery> File:Kipp homestead buildings on Cow Creek, Missouri Breaks, Montana (1 of 10).jpg|Looking up river to the Kipp Homestead.

File:Kipp homestead buildings on Cow Creek, Missouri Breaks, Montana (3 of 10).jpg|Kipp homestead buildings – newer cabin in center, original cabin on right, dugout on left.

File:Kipp homestead buildings on Cow Creek, Missouri Breaks, Montana (6 of 10).jpg|Kipp homestead – detail of original cabin. Note mud chinking and earth roof.

File:Kipp homestead buildings on Cow Creek, Missouri Breaks, Montana (7 of 10).jpg|Kipp homestead – stable, dugout of bank going down to river from cabins.</gallery>

Just downstream from the mouth of Cow Creek is the mouth of Bull Creek. Here on Bull Creek bottom is another abandoned homestead with decaying and collapsing log buildings, and the debris from failed farming efforts. This homestead is attributed to the Jones family, related by marriage to the Kipp family. <gallery> File:BullBottoms-11.22 09.JPG|Three Homestead Buildings, Bull Creek Bottoms, Missouri River Breaks, Montana

File:Cow Creek Trip-11.22 09 (89).JPG|First Homestead Building, Bull Creek Bottoms, Missouri River Breaks, Montana

File:Cow Creek Trip-11.22 09 (90).JPG|Second Homestead Building, Bull Creek Bottoms, Missouri River Breaks, Montana

File:Cow Creek Trip-11.22 09 (92).JPG|Third Homestead Building, Bull Creek Bottoms, Missouri River Breaks, Montana

File:Cow Creek Trip-11.22 09 (78).JPG|Abandoned truck and farm equipment, Homestead on Bull Creek Bottoms, Montana

File:Cow Creek Trip-11.22 09 (82).JPG|Stove, Homestead on Bull Creek Bottoms, Montana

File:Chickenhouse and whats left of the old tractor.JPG|Homestead, Bull Creek Bottom, Chickenhouse dugout and what's left of the old tractor

</gallery>

Road access to both homesteads was along a primitive road that traveled downstream along the Missouri on the north side of the river to the site of a power plant. This road was still passable from the power plant site to Cow Creek a few years ago.

As for the old freight trail that went upstream from the mouth of Cow Creek, there is no longer any road to speak of in the first 15 miles. The multiple creek crossings of the old Cow Creek trail have been eroded away into cut banks, and the gravel bars where the wagons crossed have been swept down stream. Here and there the remnants of the old Cow Creek Trail can be observed along Cow Creek but it is sketchy.

Most of the roads in the breaks are simply dirt roads. Only a few are graveled. Dirt roads in the Cow Creek area (as well as most of the Missouri Breaks) can be traversed only with extreme difficulty (if at all) when wet. The breaks are partially eroded from clays of the Cretaceous formations which contain bentonite. When wet the surface of these clays becomes slick and then becomes "gumbo" which clings to and builds up on tires, wheels, feet and hooves. If caught on dirt roads in the breaks by rain the best (and sometimes the only) course is to simply wait till the surface dries out.

Notes

The journal of Lewis for May 26, 1805, states:

"Our hunters had killed two of the Bighorned Animals since I had left them. we also passed another creek [Cow Creek] a few miles below Turtle Creek on the Stard. 30 yds in width which also had running water bed rocky. (we called it Windsor Cr.) late this evening we passed a very bad rapid which reached quite across the river, [NB: water deep channel narrow gravel &c. on each side] the party had considerable difficulty in ascending it although they doubled their crews and used both the rope and the pole. While they were passing this rapid a female Elk and its fawn swam down through the waves which ran very high, hence the name of Elk rapids which they instantly gave this place, these are the most considerable rapids which we have yet seen on the Missouri and in short the only place where there has appeared to be a sudden descent." Windsor Creek became known as Cow Creek. for it to be 30 yards wide, it had to be in flood from snow melt in the Bearpaws. The rapids referred as Elk rapids became known as Bird rapids, and along with Cabin rapids, Dauphine rapids, and Deadman rapids they formed a barrier to steamboat travel in low water that caused Cow Island landing at Cow Creek to become the low water landing where freight was transferred to wagon trains for the final leg to Ft. Benton.

The Cretaceous shale which make up the surface of the breaks contain Ammonite fossils. Ammonites are an extinct form of the subclass Cephalopod. Fossil Ammonites have a disc like shape. In this area they commonly range from tiny up to about across. A Moby Dick of Ammonite fossils – one about across or larger – was identified by Shell Oil Company geologists engaged on a field survey in the Cow Creek area in the late 1950s. They did not mark the site on their maps, and never had an opportunity to return. The siting was at a remote spot on Cow creek or one of its tributaries, but in the breaks. Since it would take a crane to lift this monster, a heavy truck to haul it, and reasonably good roads to move it, this lost giant Ammonite fossil probably still awaits re-discovery on Cow Creek.

See also

  • Chief Joseph
  • Nez Perce tribe
  • Nez Perce War
  • Fort Benton, Montana
  • Missouri Breaks

References

  • Website of the "Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument Interpretive Center" at Fort Benton, Montana
  • Website of the "Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument" Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of Interior
  • Website discussing traveling to the Upper Missouri Breaks, sponsored by National Geographic Traveler