Scientist of the Day - John Mullan
Fort Benton on the upper Missouri River, detail of lithographed frontispiece by Gustav Sohon, Report on the Construction of a Military Road from Fort Walla-Walla to Fort Benton, by John Mullan, 1863 (Linda Hall Library)
John Mullan, an American Army officer, explorer, and road engineer, was born July 31, 1830, in Norfolk, Virginia. He graduated from St John's College in Annapolis before he was 16, and then convinced President Polk to give him an appointment to West Point, where he studied topographic engineering. After graduation, he joined the command of Isaac Stevens, who was about to lead the first of 7 Pacific Railroad Surveys out west, to find the best route for a transcontinental railroad. The surveys had just been authorized by Congress, and Stevens was off to survey the northernmost route, from St, Paul to Washington territory, through the territories of Dakota and Montana. Mullan was Stevens' right-hand man for the entire survey.
John Mullan monument with portrait statue, near Missoula, Montana, recent photograph (Wikimedia commons)
They concluded their survey work in 1854. As they forged their way west, Mullan became acquainted with one of the expedition artists, Gustav Sohon, who provided some of the illustrations for Stevens when his Report was published in 1855 (so says the title page, but it actually took 5 years to get it printed). We have written a post on Stevens, where you may see several lithographs based on Sohon's drawings.
Title page, Report on the Construction of a Military Road from Fort Walla-Walla to Fort Benton, by John Mullan, 1863 (Linda Hall Library)
Both Stevens and Mullan had pressed Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, for funds to build a military road from Fort Benton on the upper Missouri River to Walla Walla, Washington, with access to the Columbia River and the west coast, but to no avail. Suddenly, in 1860, funding was authorized by Congress, and Mullan was selected to lead the project. He did so with gusto, and he made sure to invite Sohon along. His company of road builders travelled from St. Louis to Fort Benton by steamboat, and then started cutting a road west, north of Great Falls, down toward Helena, and west across the continental divide through a pass Mullan had found on the Stevens expedition, not too steep for wagons, and still known today as Mullan pass.
Great Falls on the upper Missouri River, tinted lithograph by Gustav Sohon, Report on the Construction of a Military Road from Fort Walla-Walla to Fort Benton, by John Mullan, p. 54, 1863 (Linda Hall Library)
Flathead natives crossing a river, tinted lithograph by Gustav Sohon, Report on the Construction of a Military Road from Fort Walla-Walla to Fort Benton, by John Mullan, p. 50, 1863 (Linda Hall Library)
They had to chop their way through several hundred miles of forest in Idaho and Washington, but the rest was all prairie. The road was completed in 1862; it extended for some 640 miles, every inch of it brand new, and was soon in use not only by the Army, trying to quell native uprisings, but also by miners headed to gold strikes, and homesteaders too far north to use the Oregon Trail. Parts of the Mullan Road, as it is called, still remain.
Winter quarters, 1861-62, detail of tinted lithograph by Gustav Sohon, Report on the Construction of a Military Road from Fort Walla-Walla to Fort Benton, by John Mullan, p. 32, 1863 (Linda Hall Library)
Mullan published a book about his adventurous enterprise, which is one of the landmarks of U.S. Army exploration of the west, right up there with the 13 volumes of the Pacific Railroad Reports. It is just as handsome inside as the Reports, because it is illustrated with lithographs made after Sohon drawings. We show 5 of them here.
Interestingly, not a single lithograph shows roadbuilding, or the completed Mullan Road, which seems quite odd. They DO show: steamboat activity at Fort Benton; winter quarters in 1861-62; the falls at Great Falls, Montana; Lake Coeur d'Alene; and a family of Flathead natives crossing a river. For a few of these we show the entire plate; for others, we zoom in on a detail. Sohon was obviously quite talented, even if he didn't like drawing roads, and Mullan was wise to bring him along on his second western adventure.
Mission and camp at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Territory, tinted lithograph by Gustav Sohon, Report on the Construction of a Military Road from Fort Walla-Walla to Fort Benton, by John Mullan, p. 16, 1863 (Linda Hall Library)
Mullan’s Report does contain 3 maps at the end, but they are large, with many folds, and rather brittle. I decided not to try to unfold them for this occasion, although I am guessing that at least one of them maps the completed Mullan Road.
Mullan Pass, west of Helena, Montana, modern photograph (Wikimedia commons)
The last 45 years of Mullan's life was tumultuous, as he was involved in land ventures and lawsuits and was alternately rich and penniless. He died in the latter condition in 1909. There are a small number of identical monuments with a relief portrait of Mullan scattered throughout Montana and Idaho, emplaced by some historical society unknown to me; we show one of them (second image) in lieu of a proper portrait.
William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Comments or corrections are welcome; please direct to ashworthw@umkc.edu.
