| Summary: | Offers Walla Walla Monument Of Mullan: Montana Pioneers' Society Would Commemorate Builder Of Historic Road. Offers Walla Walla Monument Of Mullan: Montana Pioneers' Society Would Commemorate Builder Of Historic Road. Walla Walla, Wash., Oct. 11., The Society of Montana Pioneers has requested Walla Walla to accept the gift of a monument to the memory of Captain John Mullan, builder of the famous Mullan road from Fort Benton to Walla Walla, provided a reasonable interest is taken by the citizens of this city. The question is now under consideration by the newly formed Rotary club. Ex-Governor Miles C. Moore is one of the advocates of the proposition, as is T. C. Elliot and other wealthy pioneers. Governor Moore said: "When I was about 18 years of age I met Captain John Mullan, a scholarly West Point soldier. He was an interesting man and this county owes much to him. My party lost the Indian trail to Lewiston, so when we saw trees blazed 'M. R.,' which meant Mullan road, we held a council under one of the trees and decided to cast our lots in Walla Walla. That was 56 years ago. A great many others were induced to come this way by the same trail." The Mullan Road. The Mullan road, an undertaking of the federal government surveyed and completed between the years 1855 and 1862 was instituted and successfully carried through with the object of exploring the central northwest portion of the United States lying between the navigable headwaters of the Missouri river, Fort Benton and Walla Walla, a frontier outpost upon the Columbia river, in the then territory of Washington, as well as furnishing a nearer and more convenient route for emigrant travel into that and adjoining territories of Idaho and Oregon. Both the objects were accomplished. Traversed by Many. The county traversed by Captain Mullan was platted and its resources were carefully reviewed and set forth. Such was the substantial character of the road built by Captain Mullan that much of the settlement made in the states named, following his successful completion of the highway, was due to it. It has been stated by those well informed upon the subject that more than 300,000 emigrants passed over this new road to file homesteads upon the rich and fertile lands it passed through and upon which a furrow had never been turned. This frontier wagon trail survived in its usefulness until the completion of the Northern Pacific railroad in 1883. Since that date its disuse has culminated in abandonment and now but once national importance in the opening up and development of the northwest territories.
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