John Mullan Jr. (July 31, 1830 – December 28, 1909) was an American soldier, explorer, civil servant, and road builder. After graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1852, he joined the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey, led by Isaac Stevens. He extensively explored western Montana and portions of southeastern Idaho, discovered Mullan Pass, participated in the Coeur d'Alene War, and led the construction crew which built the Mullan Road in Montana, Idaho, and Washington state between the spring of 1859 and summer of 1860.
He unsuccessfully sought appointment as Territorial Governor of the new Idaho Territory, although he played a significant role in the territory's formation and the establishment of its boundaries. Leaving the United States Army in April 1863, he failed at several businesses before profiting immensely as a real estate dealer and land attorney in California. At one point, the law firm he co-founded was the largest land speculator in the state. He later became an agent and lobbyist for the states of California, Nevada, and Oregon and for the Washington Territory, securing reimbursements from the federal government. The tarnished reputation he earned as a land speculator, coupled with state politics, led the three states and the territory to deny him most of the income he expected to generate from this business. He died penniless and ill in 1909.
Mullan also served from 1883 to 1887 as one of the commissioners of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, a private organization acting as an agent of the federal government.
Early life Mullan was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on July 31, 1830, to John and Mary ( Bright) Mullan. He was the oldest son of what would eventually be 11 children. The Mullans moved to Annapolis, Maryland, in 1833. John Sr. had enlisted in the United States Army in 1823, and about the time of John Jr.'s birth was an ordnance sergeant.
John Jr. began attending school in 1839. Despite the financial burden of raising so many children, the Mullans were able to finance secondary and higher education for John. He attended St. John's College in Annapolis, where he studied Greek, Latin, history, mathematics, philosophy, art, rhetoric, navigation, surveying, chemistry, and geology, among other subjects. Mullan graduated from St. John's in 1847 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He was just 16 years old.
In 1845, Secretary of War William L. Marcy transferred the Army post of Fort Severn (which guarded the entrance to Annapolis harbor) to the United States Navy, which converted the fort into the United States Naval Academy. At Marcy's request, John Mullan Sr. was assigned to the Navy (he formally joined the Navy in 1855 at the age of 54), and spent the rest of his career doing light general repair and cleaning at the Naval Academy.
West Point Probably due to his father's lengthy career in the Army, John Mullan Jr. sought admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. The Mullan family were Democrats, and John Sr. had briefly served as an alderman on the Annapolis city council. This made the Mullans extremely well-connected politically, and several respected citizens of Annapolis (including St. John's president Hector Humphreys) wrote John Jr. glowing letters of recommendation. The entire Democratic delegation in the Maryland General Assembly petitioned President James K. Polk to admit him.
In 1848, Mullan traveled to the White House in Washington, D.C., and asked Polk for an appointment to West Point. Sizing up the diminutive but muscular Mullan, Polk reportedly asked, "Well, don't you think you are rather small to want to be a soldier?" Mullan replied, "I may be somewhat small, sir, but can't a small man be a soldier as well as a tall one?" Polk, amused by Mullan's audacity, gave him the appointment six weeks later.
Mullan entered West Point on July 1, 1848. About 70 percent of classroom time at West Point was spent on three subjects: engineering, mathematics, and science. West Point was then the nation's preeminent engineering school, and Mullan studied under Dennis Hart Mahan, the nation's leading civil engineer. Mullan's was one of the first classes of cadets to learn how to navigate using a compass and odometer. Few cadets engaged in extracurricular reading at the West Point library, but Mullan checked out large quantities of books, many of them dealing with the newly acquired western United States. He graduated in 1852, 15th in a class of 43. Among Mullan's classmates were future generals such as George Crook, George B. McClellan, and Phil Sheridan.
Mullan was commissioned a brevet 2d Lieutenant in the United States Army after graduating from West Point. On July 1, he was assigned to Fort Columbus on Governors Island in New York Harbor.
On November 4, 1852, Mullan left New York City aboard a steamship, traversed the Isthmus of Nicaragua, and arrived in San Francisco on December 1, 1852, where he was assigned to the 1st Artillery Regiment.
The Stevens survey
Preparations for the survey On February 10, 1853, outgoing President Millard Fillmore signed legislation creating the Washington Territory. On March 17, newly inaugurated President Franklin Pierce appointed one of his supporters, Isaac Stevens, to be Territorial Governor of Washington Territory. The Senate confirmed the appointment the same day. Stevens knew that on March 3, 1853, Congress had appropriated $150,000 ($ in dollars) to survey railroad routes across the Pacific Northwest. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was eager to complete the surveys, which he believed would show a northern route to be impossible. This would force Congress to survey and fund the construction of a southern route, which in turn would lead to rapid development of the area and the creation of new slave-holding states (as permitted under the Missouri Compromise). Davis was determined to move as swiftly as possible on the surveys, and on March 25, 1853, appointed Stevens to lead the survey project.
The Stevens survey was the first transcontinental survey of the western United States since the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806, and considered very important by the United States government. Stevens largely had his pick of men for the survey project, and chose a wide range of common soldiers, laborers, topographers, engineers, doctors, naturalists, astronomers, geologists, and meteorologists. Private Gustav Sohon also served with the group. Captain John W.T. Gardiner of the 1st Dragoons (cavalry) was appointed the chief officer of the group. Mullan was assigned to the Stevens survey party as a topographical engineer. That Mullan, only recently arrived in San Francisco, would be ordered to join the Stevens survey is not unusual, as members of the team were drawn from all over the United States.
Mullan traveled east to the town of St. Louis, a booming town in the state of Missouri. On May 10, while in St. Louis, Mullan was promoted to 2d Lieutenant and assigned to the 2nd Artillery Regiment. Mullan now met with Stevens, Capt. Gardiner, and Lieutenant Andrew J. Donelson Jr. of the Army Corps of Engineers. Stevens, who arrived in St. Louis on May 15, 1853, met Mullan and instructed Donelson to take a party to Fort Union (at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers near what is now the North Dakota/Montana border about from Williston, North Dakota) and establish a supply depot there.
Fort Union and Fort Benton Donelson booked passage on the steamboat Robert Campbell for the trip. He and Mullan had interior cabins (which cost $100 each, or $ in dollars), while the six sappers slept on the deck (at $47 each, or $ in dollars). The Donelson/Mullan party left St. Louis on May 21, and arrived at Fort Union on July 3. During the trip, Mullan made meteorological observations whenever the ship halted. Mullan also assisted Donelson in mapping the territory the ship passed through from St. Joseph, Missouri to Fort Union. During this trip, Mullan met his first Native Americans, members of the Eastern Dakota tribe. The Robert Campbell deposited Donelson, Mullan, and their supplies at Fort Union.
While at Fort Union, Donelson led Mullan and 11 other men on an exploration of the nearby country. Departing the fort on July 12, they traveled up Big Muddy Creek, then proceeded due east to the White Earth River. They went down the White Earth River for before paralleling the Missouri River for another to reach Fort Union again.
Stevens departed St. Louis for St. Paul, a small town in the Minnesota Territory, on May 23. He and the majority of the survey party left St. Paul on May 28, and extensively mapped the region along what is now Interstate 94. They finally reached Fort Union on August 1. On August 9, the reunited survey party left Fort Union. Stevens originally intended for Donelson and Mullan to lead a party north along the Big Muddy to its headwaters (near modern Plentywood, Montana) before heading west along the border with Canada before turning south to reach Fort Benton—the highest navigable point on the Missouri River. He intended for the main body of the Stevens survey to travel slightly up the Missouri until it reached the Milk River. The main body would then follow the Milk River to a point near present-day Havre, Montana, before heading south to Fort Benton. Traveling on the north bank of the Missouri, the united survey team crossed the Big Muddy on August 11. Then Stevens changed his mind, and decided the entire party should travel together along the Milk, with only small mapping parties sent off at various points to briefly explore the surrounding land. The group reached Fort Benton on September 1. During the trip, Mullan made topographic and meteorological observations.
Mission to the Salish On September 9, Stevens sent Mullan on a peace mission to the Salish nation. Mullan was instructed to convey the peaceful intentions of the government of the United States, implore the Salish to make peace with the Piegan Blackfeet, and express the desire of the United States to build up the settlement at St. Mary's Mission. Mullan was also to obtain several guides from the Salish, and to explore any nearby passes through the Rocky Mountains. Survey party aide F.H. Burr, three local men, a hunter, and a Piegan Blackfeet guide named White Crane accompanied him.
Mullan traveled south from Fort Benton along Shonkin Creek, west of the Highwood Mountains. Skirting the Little Belt Mountains by driving southeast, he crossed Arrow Creek, passed south through the Judith Gap (the Big Snowy Mountains to the east, the Little Belts to the west), and crossed several tributaries of the Judith River. Reaching the Musselshell River, he explored along its banks up and down stream for several miles, before striking south and finally finding the Salish encampment about south of the river. On September 18, Mullan encountered about 50 lodges of Salish and 100 lodges of Kalispel, who received him very warmly. At one point during the meeting with the Salish, Stevens found himself without his interpreter. But after realizing a few Salish spoke French, Stevens was able to converse with them (having studied French for two years at West Point). The Salish chief agreed to consider the goodwill message, and sent four of his men back with Mullan as guides to the mountain passes.