USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 80
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 80
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 80
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MINING AND CATTLE-RAISING.
lation, with no exports except the precious metals and a few hides and furs, and with a recklessly extrava-
pany. In 1864-5 there was taken out a good quantity of ore worth on an average forty dollars per ton, and iu Sept. 1866 the mill of the National Min- ing and Exploring Company commenced crushing it, followed by several others which were erected in this and the following year. These were the Turnley, Hendie, Sensenderfer & Whitlatch, and Ricker & Price mills, the first 2 erected in 1866. Virginia Montana Post, Dec. 25, 1867. Over 32,000 tons were worked before the close of 1867, yielding $1,001,500. The cost of mining and milling ores in Montana at this period was enormous, being $7 per ton to get out the ore, and from $15 to $18 for crushing it, in gold, when gold was worth a premium of 100 per cent. The profit was therefore small, but such as it was, Whitlatch, with the true enterprise of a pioneer, devoted to the further development of his own and neighboring mines. IX L, owned by J. C. Ricker and M. A. Price, was claim No. 1 west of Whit- latch discovery claim. Whitlatch and Sensenderfer was claim No. 3 east and claim No. 3 west on the lode, from discovery, a half-interest in which was sold to Sensenderfer in June 1869, and a 30-stamp mill erected thereon. The property was resold to a Philadelphia company under the name of The Co- lumbia Mining Company of Montana, managed by B. H. Tatem. Claim No. 4 east was owned equally by this company and by E. Mansfield & Co. Claim No. 2 east was owned by Mansfield and E. Hodson. The westward extension on the Union lode was called the Parkinson, and was owned by J. W. Whit- latch, J. Parkinson, W. Parkinson, and C. McClure. On the extension, the Essex Mining Company, composed of Thomas Parkinson, W. Parkinson, Thomas Argyle, and C. McClure, owned 1,800 feet. They received a patent for the ground from the U. S., the first granted in Montana under a law of congress concerning quartz claims. The mill site included 10 acres on Grizzly gulch, ¿ mile from the mine. More fortunate than many other men of his class, he secured a fortune for his own uses.
The discovery of the Whitlatch lode led to a quartz excitement, not only about Helena, but iu every other part of Montana. The Cliff was a promising lode at Helena, discovered by Worden and Hall, on which 18 claims were located, 9 of which were consolidated in one company known as the Croesus Mining Company. The crevice of the Cliff was from 20 to 200 feet wide, and it rose in many places 30 feet above the surface. It formed a dividing line between the slate and granite formations. It crossed the gulches in the vicinity of Helena, all of which paid well below it, and none paid above it, from which it would appear that it must have been the source of their riches. The Owyhee Park mincs also were famous in 1866. Professor Hodge was agent of the National Mining and Exploring Company of New York, which owned them. Turnley's mill commenced running on the orcs in the latter part of August 1866. Ilelena Republican, Sept. 1, 1866. Hodge and his son Russell were indicted in January 1867 for killing George Moore because he took timber from the company's land. Virginia Montana Post, Feb. 2 and March 9, 1867. The Bullion Mining Company, of Nilson's gulch, com- menced crushing their ores in November 1866. The Sultana, at the head of Grizzly gulch, had a ten-stamp mill erected by J. Gormley & Co. at work in November also. It was erected by Richard Fisher. His partner, Clifford, was superintendent for a New York company which owned 5 mills in Georgia before the rebellion. The property being confiscated, Clifford migrated to Colorado, and mined there for 5 years before coming to Montana. Among other mines partially opened in 1863 near Helena was the Uncle Sam, owned by a miner from Scotland named Brown, who had formerly worked on the Gould and Curry lode of Nevada. This mine was said at the period of its discovery to be the richest in the known world, being a well-defined ledge five feet wide, three fourths of which was pure gold, and the remainder prin- cipally bismuth. The quartz easing containing the vein, it was stated, would
725
QUARTZ-MINING.
gant system of government, Montana must be brought to comparative poverty, or at all events, was no better
assay from $500 to $2,000. Making every allowance for over-enthusiasm, the Uncle Sam was undoubtedly a mine of very unusual richness, with one of those bonanzas at the top which have not been altogether unknown in other mines.
While quartz-mining was being followed with so much earnestness in the regions of Bannack and Helena, it was being prosecuted also in the neighbor- hood of Virginia City. In Summit district, five miles south of the then cap- ital of Montana, four mills were running on ores from the mines in that vicinity. In Hot Springs district, 30 miles north of Virginia City, were three others. Idaho mill was the first in Madison county, and began pounding ore with 12 stamps in Dec. 1865. It was not successful, being replaced by another little more than a year later. Virginia Montana Post, Dec. 30, 1865. The follow- ing ycar Seneca Falls mill, in a large frame structure with excellent machin- ery, Scranton mill with a Dodge ernsher, in a stone building, and Excelsior mill with 20 stamps, in a fine, large building, were added. In a gulch just below Summit was the Foster mill with 24 stamps, crushing ore from the Mesler lode. A 50-stamp mill was on its way from the east, in May, intended for Mill Creek mines in the same county. The owners were James A. Dowdall, Manlius Branham, and C. C. Branham. The first run was made on the Lady Suffolk lode. Two mills arrived in Summit in Oct., for Frank Chistnot, from Nebraska City, overland. The best known lodes of Summit district were the Yankee Blade, Lucas, assaying $2,000,000 per ton, Caverone from 15 to 40 feet in width, Oro Cache, and Keystone.
There was one belonging to Raglan, Cope, and Napton, a custom mill, and one to the Clark and Upson Mining Company, and of which Professor Eaton was the agent. Helena Republican, Sept. 13, 1866. The mines in the Hot Springs district which were worked at this period were the Cotopaxi, Gold Hill, Esop, Oro Fino, Sebastopol, Buena Vista, Poco Tiempo, Alpha, Cleopatra, Mark Antony, May Reid, Megatherium, Brooklyn, and Pony. The latter was the leading mine. Virginia Montana Post, Feb. 24, 1866. Several other mills and mines appear in 1867, owned by H. A. Ward, McAndrews, Warre & Co., Isaacs, and L. W. Borton. At Pipestone, a few miles north of Hot Springs, a mill was erected in 1866. At Fish Creek, a short distance south of Pipe- stone, the Red Mountain district was opened too late in the season for the introduction of mills.
North-east of and within about fifteen miles of Helena, on the east side of the Missouri, was the Trout Creek district, in which both mills and arastras were busily at work grinding and pounding out gold from rock of great rich- ness, at a place called New York, on a creek flowing into the Missonri, with a Brooklyn on the opposite side, the two towns having a population of about 400. John A. Gaston, one of the first comers, aud an Englishman, was asso- ciated with Simpson in a 30-stamp quartz-mill. Each stamp weighed 600 ponnds, and dropped 35 times a minute, pounding 22 tons in 24 hours. It started up Aug. 28, 1866. A water-power mill, with an 11-foot overshot wheel, was located west of the steam-mill, and carried six 500-pound stamps, crush- ing a ton a day each. This was the pioneer mill of Tront Creek district, and belonged to Wessel & Wilkes, and started Aug. 25th. It had an arastra at- tached. Another water-inill was erected by Cullen, and a 20-stamp steam- mill by Hendrie & Cass, during the summer. An arastra belonging to Rumlay & Watrons consisted of a circular basin 12 feet in diameter, with 5 mullers, weighing in the aggregate 3,000 pounds. It reduced 1,000 pounds of ore in 6 hours, with one hand, and was run by water-power from au over- shot wheel, 8 feet in diameter.
The Star of the West was the first ledge developed in this district. Seven tons yielded $387.50 in Wessell & Wilkes' arastra, at a total expense of $97.50. The Nonpareil. Grizzly, Alta, Excelsior No. 2, Little Giant. Zebra,
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MINING AND CATTLE-RAISING.
off than other new countries which were without gold mines. This, indeed, was her condition for a number
Chief of Montana, Hidbard, Trout, Keystone, Humboldt, Sampson, and Old Dad were more or less worked in 1866.
The mines, both placer and quartz, were discovered in January, by four hunters returning from an exploring expedition to Sun River. These men were Moore, Price, Ritter, and Spivy. The valley of Trout Creek was 2} by 12 miles in extent. The stream furnished the famous New York and other gulches, and numerous bars. A rumor of rich discoveries at the mouth of Sun River, in the winter of 1865-6, drew a rush of prospectors in that direc- tion in the months of January and February. Many were frozen to death, or had their hands and feet frozen. Five bodies were found in the spring. Most of the explorers returned disappointed. Idaho World, Feb. 24 and March 17, 1866. A large number of immigrants by the northern route (Fisk's train) stopped there in the summer, but abandoned that region in October. Virginia and Helena Post, Oct. 11, 1866. They also explored the Bear Paw Mountains. Helena Republican, Aug. 21, 1866.
In June 1866 both quartz and placer mines were discovered on Crow Creek, on the west side of the Missouri, nearly due west of the south end of the Belt Range of mountains, which has furnished so great a number of good mines on the east side. At this place the town of Radersburg was laid off in October, one mile from the road leading from Helena to Gallatin. The first lode found was the Blipp, by J. A. Cooper and George Beard. The Johnny Keating, by Keating and Blacher, Ironclad, Leviathan, Twilight, Nighthawk, Ohio, Ultramarine, Robert E. Lee, and 20 others were located during the sum- mer. l'irginia Montana Post, May 2, 1868. The district, a rich one, and Raders- burg had, in 1868, 600 inhabitants. In the Silver Bow and Blackfoot regions quartz was being daily discovered. In December 1865 there had been dis- covered the Lioness, Rocker, Shamrock, Original, Alhambra, Wild Pat, Mountaineer, Polar Star, Lepley, Dewey, Arctic, Fairmount, and a host of others. Quartz was discovered near Mcclellan gulch by Henry Prosser and Charles Melvin, 1,000 feet of which sold for $10,000. This was the Glencoe mine. Helena Republican, Aug. 18, 1866. But there appear to have been no mills introduced west of the Rocky Mountains until later.
The first arrival of hydraulic machinery in Montana was in November 1865, when the Nelson Hydraulic Mining Company imported four engines of ten-horse power, throwing water eighty feet high, with iron piping and india- rubber hose extensions. Another powerful hydraulic machine was imported by N. G. McComb in September 1866, and put up on Zoller's bar, near Ban- nack. The construction of bed-rock flumes and extensive ditches was only just begun. There were 500 or more gulches in Montana which produced well, and about twenty that were remarkably rich. Some were soon ex- hausted, but a good number paid well for the introduction of improved means of mining. As early as 1867 there were over thirty-two miles of ditching at French bar, near Cañon ferry, east of Helena, and ninety-six flumes, the cost of which was $75,000, and was at that period the largest improvement of the kind in Montana. The Bowlder ditch, owned by McGregor, Metcalf, & Speigle of California, which supplied the mines around Diamond City, was five miles long, and cost $60,000. The excessive cost of the work was occa- sioned by having to use 1,716 feet of pipe in crossing Confederate gulch. S. F. Alta, March 23, 1868. The El Dorado bar ditch, north of French bar, was 43 miles long, and cost $50,000; and many smaller ditches had been con- structed east of the Missouri, whose aggregate cost was about a quarter of a million. The Ten-Mile ditch at Helena was completed in June 1867. It was built by Henry B. Truett, who came to Montana in 1866. Truett, born in Maryland in 1814, removed to Illinois, and worked a lead mine; thence to Cal. in 1849, where he made and spent a fortune. He operated in mining in Nevada, and from there went to Montana. A good citizen and courteous
727
SILVER MINES.
of years, from about 1869 to 1873. But this period was not lost upon its permanent population. Those
gentleman. Died April 23, 1869, aged 58 years, leaving a family. Virginia Montana Post, April 30th. Deer Lodge county had, in 1869, nearly 300 miles of ditches, costing $498,000, and carrying an aggregate of 20,350 inches of water. Deer Lodge New Northwest, Aug. 27, 1869. A nine-mile ditch, car- rying 2,500 inches of water, was completed to Norwegian gulch, in Madison county, in 1876, and similar expenditures will yet be made in some of the richer placer districts. A flume was completed to Confederate gulch in 1879. There had been one built in 1876, which a flood destroyed. It was rebuilt by the owner, James King. It was but one mile in length, but it was esti- mated that it would require 25 years of constant work to exhaust the ground controlled by it. Helena Herald, Nov. 18, 1879.
In mining countries the usual succession is, first placer gold, then quartz gold, and lastly silver mining. In Montana the discovery of gold and silver quartz was contemporaneous. The first experiments with silver quartz were made in the Blue Wing and Rattlesnake districts, a few miles east and north- east of Bannack. The first lodes of the Blue Wing district were the Huron, Wide West, Blue Wing, Arizona, and Silver Rose; of the Rattlesnake dis- trict, Legal Teoder, White Cloud, New World, Watson, and Dictator. Vir- ginia Montana Post, March 31, 1866. The ores carried enough galena to make them reducible by the smelting process, furnaces being set up in 1866 by sev- eral companies. The first smelter was erected at Marysville by the New York and Montana Mining, Prospecting, and Discovery Company. Their scientist was A. K. Eaton, and their general manager E. Loring Pratt of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1868 the St Louis Smelting Co. erected furnaces at Ar- genta. The Rocky Mountain Gold and Silver Mining Company put up a cu- pelling furnace at Marysville, just east of Bannack, Charles D. Everett super- intendent. The ore smelted was from the Wide West in Blue Wing district. A blasting-furnace was erected by Professor Eaton; a furnace and a 24-stamp mill by Duran & Co .; a cupel furnace in Rattlesnake district by Professor Augustus Steitz, on Legal Tender lode. The ore yielded 80 per cent lead. The mine was owned by Esler and others. The Stapleton and Henry Clay ores were also worked in this furnace. Virginia and Helena Post, Oct. 11 and Nov. 8 and 15, 1866. The Huron Silver Mining Company erected furnaces, Thomas W. Wood superintendent. A small town in this district, hitherto called Montana, suffered a change of appellation by the command of Augus- tus Steitz, and was henceforth known as Argenta, which name it seemed really to deserve from the quantity of argent which it turned out.
This was the beginning, and when the miners had begun to look for silver leads the epidemic had to run its course. They also began to talk about the placers being exhausted, and to dilate upon the importance of developing quartz, and doubtless the world is richer for their vagaries. When they came to look the country over, there really was no end of silver. Silver Bow, which in the first instance referred to a shining crescent of water, now meant that the crescent was backed by a wall of silver leads. In 1869 the judges at the industrial exhibition held at Helena gave the first premium to silver specimens from the S. C. Day mine, on Moose Creek, in the south end of Sil- ver Bow county, then Deer Lodge. Deer Lodge New Northwest, Oct. 8, 1869. Mining in Colorado and Montana, by George Aux, is a manuscript of 14 pp., containing good references to early mining in the latter. In the most fertile and beautiful valleys, which should bave been sacred to bucolic pursuits, cropped up legions of silver lodes, notably in the country about the three forks of the Missouri River, and on both sides of that river for a hundred miles. Silver lodes were found in Jefferson county, in 1866, near where the most famous mines of the present are being worked. The Gregory, owned by Axers and Mimmaw, was located near Jefferson City. Virginia and Helena Post, Nov. 10, 1866.
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MINING AND CATTLE-RAISING
who owned quartz mines and mills, and who had not found them remunerative by reason of defects in ma-
But it now began to be observed that Montana was not advancing in wealth as it should have been with these grand resources. In January 1868 there were forty quartz-mills in the country already in operation, and half a dozen not yet set up, yet there had been a steady falling-off in the treasure produc- tion since 1865, which was continued during a period of ten years. I borrow from Strahorn's Montana the following table, which by comparison with the most reliable statements I find to represent, as nearly as possible, the gold and silver production of the territory:
1862
$600,000
1872
$7,000,000
1863.
8,000,000
1873
5,200,000
1864
16,000,000
1874
4,000,000
1865
18,000,000
1875.
4,100,000
1866
17,000,000
1876
4,500,000
1867
16,000,000
1877
3,750,000
1868
15,000,000
1878
4,867,000
1869
11,000,000
1879
5,000,000
1870
9,000,000
1880
6,500,000
187
8,000,000
Total
$164,517,000
Which amount is distributed by counties as follows:
Madison .
$79,500,000
Beaverhead.
$19,500,000
Lewis and Clarke.
29,000,000
Jefferson
5,500,000
Deer Lodge
26,367,000
Missoula.
1,000,000
Meagher.
13,000,000
Gallatin
650,000
Total.
.$164,517,000 W. A. Clark, Centennial Historian for Montana, in Arant Courier, Feb. 23, 1877. Strahorn gives these figures. J. Ross Browne makes a lower estimate for the first 6 years; but Brown did not get his statistics at first hand. See Mineral Resources of Pacific States, 511. The Helena and Deer Lodge newspapers, which should be well informed, place the figures much higher. For instance, the secretary of the treasury makes the product of 1866 $18,000,- 000, while territorial authorities place it at $30,000,000 for that year.
To account for this reverse of progress is not difficult. The same happens in all mining countries in the first twenty years. The majority of the 30,000 or 40,000 people who flocked to Montana in the earlier years gathered up the most easily obtainable wealth and hurried away with it, often the same season. When a few years of this depletion had gone on, and it was becoming more difficult to pick up a fortune in a creek-bed or ravine, the discovery of new mining districts in Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming drew away a large proportion of the mining population, who never returned or were replaced by others. Of those who were left, some settled upon land claims, investing their gold in farm-stock, mills, agricultural implements, and buildings. Two classes were left, merchants who lived upen the profits of trade, and mining men who had a real interest in the country; and they had a heavy burden to carry in the cost of transportation. To get a quartz-mill from the Missouri River to its destination in Montana required from thirty to fifty wagons, which were often loaded at some point in Kansas or Nebraska. Or if they came by steamboat from St Louis to Fort Benton, it was the same thing-wagons had to be used to carry them to the point selected, several hundred miles from the landing. Often low water prevented steamers coming above Fort Union, or Cow Island. Freights during the first decade were enormous, costing the country between a million and a half and two millions annually, even after the population had shrunk to eighteen thousand. Many plans were resorted to to lessen the cost of transportation, but without materially affecting it.
729
ROUTES OF TRANSPORTATION.
chincry or ignorance of methods, took time to right themselves, or found others willing to take the prop-
The subject of transportation in Montana is one full of interest and even of romance. Taking up the recital at 1864, there was at this time no settled plan of travel or fixed channel of trade. There had been placed upon the Missouri a line of steamers intended to facilitate immigration to ldaho, which was called the Idaho Steam Packet Company. The water being unusually low, or rather, not unusually high, only 2 of the boats reached Fort Benton- the Benton and Cutter. The Yellowstone landed at Cow Island, and the Effie Deans at the mouth of Milk River. The Benton, which was adapted to upper- river navigation, brought a part of the freight left at other places down the river, by other boats, to Fort Benton; but the passengers had already been set afoet in the wilderness to make the best of their way to the mines. Overland Monthly, ii. 379; and a large portion of the freight had to be forwarded in small beats. At the same time there was an arrival at Virginia City of 200 or 300 immigrants daily by the overland wagen-route, as well as large trains of freight from Omaha. Boisé City Statesman, Jan. 21, 1865; Portland Oregonian, Sept. 14, 1864. In 1865 there were 8 arrivals of steam- beats, 4 of which reached Benton, the other 4 stopping at the mouth of Maria River. In this year the merchants of Portland, desirous of controlling the trade of Montana, issued a circular to the Montana merchants proposing to make it for their interest to purchase goods in Portland and ship by way of the Columbia River and the Mullan road, with improvements in that route of steamboat navigation on Lake Pend d'Oreille, and S. G. Reed of the O. S. N. Company went east to confer with the Northern Pacific R. R. Company. In 1866 some progress was made in opening this ronte, which in the autumn of that year stood as follows: Frem Portland to White Bluffs on the Colum- bia by the O. S. N. Company's boats; from White Bluffs by stage-road to a point on Clarke fork, where Moody & Co. were building a steamboat 110 feet long by 26 feet beam, called the Mary Moody, to carry passengers and freight across the lake and up Clarke fork to Cabinet landing, where was a short portage and transfer to another steamboat which would carry to the mouth of the Jocko River, after which land travel would again be resorted to. The time to Jocke would be 7 or 8 days, and thence to the rich Blackfoot mines was a matter of 50 or 60 miles. It was proposed to carry freight to Jecko in 17 days from Portland at a cost of 13 cents per pound. Frem Jocko to Helena was about 120 miles, and from Helena to Virginia about 90. By this route freight could arrive during half the year, while by the Missouri River it could only come to Benton during a period of from 4 to 6 weeks, de- pendent upon the stage of water. The lowest charges by Missouri steamer, in 1860, were 15 cents to Benton for a large contract, ranging upward to 18 and 21 cents per pound, or $.360 and $420 per ton to the landing only, after which there was the additional charge of wagoning, at the rate of from 5 to 8 cents, according to whether it reached Benton or nut, or whether it was des- tined to Helena or more distant points. Sacramento Record-Union, May 7, 1866. San Francisco merchants offered for the trade of Montana, averring that freight could be laid down there at from 15 to 20 cents per pound over- land. S. F. Alta, May 7 and Aug. 11, 1866. Chicago merchants competed as well, taking the overland route from the Missouri. Meanwhile Montana could not panse in its course, and took whatever came. In 1866 there was a large influx of population, and a correspondingly large amount of freight com- ing in, and a considerable flood of travel pouring out in the autumn. The season was favorable to navigation, and there were 31 arrivals of steamboats, 7 boats being at Fort Benton at one time in June. One, the Marion, was wrecked on the return trip. These boats were built expressly for the trade of St Louis. They brought up 2,000 passengers or more, and 6,000 tons of freight valued at $6,000,000. The freight charges by boat alone amounted to $2,000,000. Some merchants paid $100,000 freight bills; 2,500 men, 3,000
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MINING AND CATTLE-RAISING.
erty off their hands at a discount, and make improve- ments. Those who owned placer claims were driven
teams, 20,000 oxen and mules were employed conveying the goods to differ- ent mining centres. Helena Republican, Sept. 15, 1866; Virginia and Helena Post, Sept. 29 and Oct. 11, 1866; Goddard's Where to Emigrate, 125. Large trains were arriving overland from the east, both of immigrants and freight, from Minnesota, and conducted by James Fisk, the man who conducted the Minnesota trains of 1862 and 1863, by order of the government, for the pro- tection of immigrants. The plan of the organization seems to bave been to make the immigrants travel like a military force, obeying orders like sol- diers and standing guard regularly. From Fort Ripley, Fisk took a 12-pound howitzer with ammunition. Seouts, flankers, and train-guards were kept on duty. These precautions were made necessary by the recent Sioux outbreak in Minnesota. The officers under Fisk were George Dart, Ist assist; S. H. Johnston, 2d assist and journalist; William D. Dibb, physician; George North- rup, wagon-master; Antoine Frenier, Sioux interpreter; R. D. Campbell, Chippewa interpreter. The guard numbered 50, and the wagons were marked 'U. S.' Colonels Jones and Majors, majors Hesse and Hanney, of the Oregon boundary survey, joined the expedition. The wagon-master, Northrup, and 2 half-breeds deserted on the road, taking with them horses, arms, and accoutre- ments belonging to the government. The route was along the north side of the Missouri to Fort Benton, where the expedition disbanded, having had no trouble of any kind on the road, except the loss of Majors, who was, however, found, on the second day, nearly dead from exhaustion, and the death of an invalid, William H. Holyoke, after reaching Prickly Pear River. In 1864 abont 1,000 wagons arrived at Virginia by the central or Platte route. In 1865 the immigration by this route was large. The roundabout way of reach- ing the mines from the east had ineited J. M. Bozeman to survey a more direet road to the North Platte, by which travel could avoid the journey through the South pass and baek through either of the passes used in going from Bannack to Salt Lake. The road was opened and considerably travelled in 1866, but was closed by the Indian war in the following year, and kept closed by order of the war department for a number of years. In July 1866 a train of 45 wagons and 200 persons passed over the Bozeman route, com- manded by Orville Royce, and piloted by Zeigler, who had been to the states to bring out his family. Peter Shroke also travelled the Bozeman route. Several deaths occurred by drowning at the crossing of rivers, among them Storer, Whitson, and Van Shimcl. One train was composed of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin people. In the rear of the immigration were freight-wagons, and detached parties to the number of 300. Virginia Montana Post, July 12, 1866.
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