| Summary: | View from atop hill looking over grove of trees into broad valley with body of water in far distance and hill rising beyond. Lithographs; Color images; 21 x 29 cm. "U.S.P.R.R. EXP & SURVEYS 47 & 49 PARALLELS.; GENERAL REPORT - PLATE XIII.; Stanley del.; J. Bien N.Y. lith.; BUTTE DE MORALE. " - Printed on front of lithograph. "July 18 [1853] . We passed to-day a narrow lake, some three miles in length, somewhat resembling a canal. It lay at the foot of a high bluff or butte, called the 'Butte de Morale.' Here occurred an engagement between some half-breeds and Sioux, in which one of the former, by the name of Morale, was killed;; hence its name. The altitude of this butte, as determined by barometric measurement, is 281.8 feet above the level of the Shayenne River. Our way was strewn by the carcases of many buffaloes, killed by the Red river hunting party. At times the air was very much tainted. One of our men reported having rode through a section of land, some quarter of a mile square, on which were strewn the remains of some three hundred buffaloes. In killing these animals the choice pieces and hides are only taken, while the remainder is left as a prey to wolves or to rot on the prairie." - Text (page 54) accompanying image in report. "Butte de Morale. Butte de Morale is situated in Wells township on the NE1/4 section 10, but extends over onto the SE1/4 section 3, the SW1/4 section 2 and the NW1/4 section 11. It was named after Morale, a French-Chippewa half-breed who was killed there by the Sioux Indians about 1840. It was in the heart of the great buffalo country and is a relic of the “Bunch Grass Acres” as the old time bunch or buffalo grass is still found growing there. Butte de Morale is seven miles northeast of Harvey and south of Selz. It was a very prominent land mark and was known to the Hudson Bay Company’s hunters, the Red River Buffalo Hunters and the hunters and trappers from the Missouri River. Governor Stevens’ Expedition passed by it on the south in July 1853; Captain James L. Fisk’s wagon train of gold seekers passed to the north of it in July 1862, and again in 1863; and Gen. A. H. Sully’s army of Indian fighters marched to the east of it in 1865. It is a flat topped hill rising some three hundred feet above the level prairie and affords an excellent view for several miles in all directions. Lake Stevens (Goose Lake), a narrow canal-shaped lake some four and one-half miles long extends to the west to this butte." - Description on Wells County, N.D. website. Title from caption. Butte located northeast of Harvey, N.D. in Wells County.
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