This is one of the original series of Captain Mullan monuments, of which thirteen were made and placed along the Mullan Road, which stretched 642 miles from Fort Benton, MT to Fort Walla Walla, WA. Mullan surveyed and built the road in the years 1853 to 1860. It was the first road to cross the Rocky Mountains into the Pacific Northwest.
Designed by Western frontier artist Edgar S. Paxton 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. This monument was erected under the auspices of the Montana Society of Pioneers and was dedicated in 1916. The statue was a gift of W.A. Clark Jr., the son of one of the four Butte Copper Kings, W.A. Clark Sr.
Below is the text from the nearby marker.
MULLAN ROAD
THE MULLAN ROAD IS NAMED AFTER CAPT. JOHN
MULLAN, US ARMY 2ND ARTILLERY. HE LOCATED AND
BUILT, ALONG WITH HIS TROOPS AND CIVILIANS, THIS
MILITARY ROAD THAT RAN FROM FORT WALLA WALLA
TO FORT BENTON DURING 1855-1862.
THE CAPTAIN PREDICTED THAT THIS ROUTE WOULD
BE USED BY TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROADS. HIS PRE-
DICTION PROVED CORRECT WHEN TWO RAILROADS, HIGH-
WAY 10 AND INTERSTATE 90 THE ROUTE.
MULLAN, HIS WIFE REBECCA AND THEIR CHILDREN LATER SETTLED IN WASHINGTON D.C. WHERE HE DIED ON<
DECEMBER 28, 1909 AT THE AGE OF 79
MINERAL COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY