Image: Cow Creek flows into Missouri, near Cow Island in Missouri Breaks, Blaine County, Montana

Description: Panoramic photo with far left looking southeast and far right looking northwest. In the center of the photo Cow Creek flows into the Missouri. Cow Creek bottom is on the right half of the photo, and Cow Creek may be seen extending up into the breaks on the far right. On the left half of the photo is the smaller Bull Creek and Bull Creek Bottom. The Missouri flows into the right side of the photo, and curves around the highland on the opposite side of the river and then flows out of the photo to the southeast on the left half of the photo. Cow Island is in the Missouri, below the mouth of Cow Creek. Only the trees of Cow Island are visible on the left side of the photo, in this view. The steamboats dropping freight at Cow Island Landing during the steamboat era (1860 to mid 1880's) used landing sites both above and below the mouth of Cow Creek. However, the landing site on the right half of the photo would have a deeper channel against the north bank, and a snubbing post was reportedly set in the bank, in the vicinity of the Kipp homestead. Freight left by steamboats was freighted up Cow Island Trail which ran up Cow Creek (on the far right of the photo) through the breaks, until the trail gained access to the Montana plains and on to Ft. Benton. The abandoned Kipp Homestead is across Cow Creek on the right half of the photo. Another abandoned homestead is on Bull Creek bottom in the left half of the photo. On September 23, 1877 the Nez Perce crossed the Missouri at Cow Island, on the left half of the phto, in their flight to Canada. The entrenchments into which a small detachment of soldiers and civilians retreated is on the far right of the photo, probably in the vicinity of the Kipp homestead. Cow Creek and Cow Island, once a busy pathway of travel through the Missouri Breaks and across the Missouri River, and formerly a seasonal freight transshipment point, is now a quiet and remote spot in the extensive Missouri Breaks region of Montana.
Title: Cow Creek flows into Missouri, near Cow Island in Missouri Breaks, Blaine County, Montana
Credit: Own work
Author: Montana Geographic Society
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC BY-SA 3.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
Attribution Required?: Yes