Artist: George Catlin Copyright: Digital Reproduction © 2006 ScienceViews.com Date Added: 2006/09/15 Location: American

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Caption

View on Upper Missouri; Belle Vue; Indian agency of Major Dougherty, eight hundred and seventy miles above Saint Louis. Painted in 1832.

Belle Vue is a lovely scene on the west bank of the river, about nine miles above the mouth of the Platte, and is the agency of Major Dougherty, one of the oldest and most effective agents on our frontiers. This spot is, as I said, lovely in itself, but doubly so to the eye of the weather-beaten voyageur from the sources of the Missouri, who steers his canoe in to the shore, as I did, and soon finds himself a welcome guest at the comfortable board of the major, with a table again to eat from, and that (not groaning, but) standing under the comfortable weight of meat and vegetable luxuries, products of the labor of cultivating man.

by George Catlin, 1796-1872, American.