Designed by Western frontier artist Edgar S. Paxson and fabricated by Western Montana M & G Company, the original statues of
Captain John Mullan were fourteen feet tall, cut from white Vermont marble and placed on concrete bases. They were initially placed at various points along
The Mullan Road. We suspect that, since 1914, several copies have been made, for there seems to be much more than seven identical (except for size) Mullan statues in Montana, Idaho and Washington. This statue, for example, is in Two Rivers Memorial Park in Bonner, which was established in 1996.
Two Rivers Memorial Park is just off I-90 Exit at 109, a few short miles east of Missoula, on Highway 200 and across the road from the Pilot Flying J Truck Stop.
Below is a short history of his over wintering nearby in 1861 while building a bridge over the Blackfoot River. It is from a historical marker beside the statue.
A biography of Captain Mullan, and especially of his road, can be found
HERE.
Brave New World
Despite Civil War Turmoil, progress was bravely pushing Westward, leading into the Gilded Age of substantial growth in population and wealth.
CANTONMENT WRIGHT AND HELL GATE
In November 1861, John Mullan established Cantonment Wright just across the Blackfoot River to the east of here. The little camp consisted of six crude log cabins from which he planned the next year's construction program while his men built a bridge across the Blackfoot River. The camp was located near a trading post established by Frank Worden and Christopher Higgins in 1860. Called Hell Gate, it was one of the toughest settlements in the territory. Over its four year history and a permanent population that never exceeded twenty people, nine men met violent ends, including four hanged by vigilantes in 1864.
Mullan clearly did not like the area, which he called a "cold and bleak place" and the camp an "abode of not over much comfort." Mullan's men built the bridge during the winter, completing the 235-foot log structure in March and then abandoned Cantonment Wright two months later. Described as a "picturesque piece of architecture," the bridge carried wagons and pack trains over the Blackfoot for only a couple years before high water destroyed it. Mullan's bridge was the first of many bridges that would span the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers here.
From the Historical Marker