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Gc 978.602 B98f 1523766
M. L"
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01066 9205
Photographeil In Daniel Dutro.
IN THE EARLY '60'S.
A BRIEF HISTORY
OF
BUTTE, MONTANA
THE WORLD'S GREATEST MINING CAMP
INCLUDING A STORY OF THE EXTRACTION AND TREATMENT OF ORES FROM ITS GIGANTIC COPPER PROPERTIES
Illustrated
By HARRY C. FREEMAN BUTTE, MONTANA
57
CHICAGO THE HENRY O. SHEPARD COMPANY Printers of The Inland printer 1900
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY H. C. FREEMAN.
ENGRAVINGS BY ILLINOIS ENGRAVING COMPANY CHICAGO
PRESS OF THE HENRY O. SHEPARD CO. CHICAGO
1523766
INTRODUCTION.
O UT of the boundless West from time to time comes literature of every descrip- tion concerning its resources, develop- ment, life, grandeur of scenery and every phase that can possibly serve as a vehicle to relieve the mind. One effort emanates from the pen of the student of events, who sees the unfolding of mighty things which shall leave their imprint upon the future of a great and growing nation. Another purports to be the work of the critic, who, after a superficial study of prevailing condi- tions, finds much delight in exaggerating the primitiveness of its institutions, the roughness of its life and the depravity of its public morality, with little or no thought as to the obstacles which have been overcome, the rapidity with which events have followed one another nor the influ- ences which have been thrown about them. Still another is of a commercial character, inspired by the demand for sensational nonsense upon the part of the great newspapers of the East, who still find profit in stigmatizing this new country as abnormally " wild and woolly " in contra-distinc- tion to the " civilized and effete East." The " cat- tle king," the " copper king," the " silver king " and a dozen other titles are still forced upon the credulity of the uninformed to assist in throwing an air of mystery and awe about this bountifully endowed country and to strengthen the stories of fabulous wealth popularly supposed to be found beneath every rock and along every stream thereof.
Some writers studiously adhere to the path of truthfulness; others assume that truthfulness is the last element required. The result can be but one. The average mind is confused and clouded. The resources of the country are admitted, but the state of society is too unattractive. Large opportunities are conceded, but it means a divorcement from all civilizing influences to grasp them. The delightful healthfulness of its climate is recognized, but the weather is too rigor- ous. Educational institutions are crude, plodding, and partake nothing of the higher standards.
Religious life is stunted and warped, and a thoughtful pulpit and a comfortable church home are impossible of attainment. A thousand things are lacking which are necessary and another thou- sand are present which must be eliminated to make the country tenable. And thus doth the imagination today perform the functions that should rest with certain knowledge, as much as was the case forty or forty-five years ago, when stories of Western exploration and discovery were beginning to work themselves from thence. At that time but little was known of true conditions. From California had come stories of great wealth and, in due course of time, the bones of many a hardy adventurer lay bleaching along the over- land trails to guide other courageous spirits toward the setting sun. Fremont's expedition had added a little cumulative testimony to that of dar- ing explorers who had previously sought the source of the great Missouri, but which still left to the imagination the task of adding all the details in arriving at any given fact concerning the whole West. The Mormons had shut them- selves in along the banks of the Jordan and about the shores of Great Salt Lake, and details of their fanatical crimes ofttimes carried with them mea- ger facts concerning the country contiguous, but to imagination was left the duty of setting the frame. As it was then, so it is now to almost as great an extent.
Misinformation has erected an average opinion concerning the Great West quite as much at vari- ance with the true conditions as lack of informa- tion in the past has done. The West has devel- oped so rapidly and transition from condition to condition has so speedily followed one another that today a new West is presented while the world is still wrestling with the traditions and the legends of the old. While the East is straining its eyes to catch a glimpse of some evidence of a higher degree of civilization, the unsatisfied trav- eler is wearing himself out in a vain search for lingering relics of primitive life.
Yet all seems to be the part of God's economy,
4
BUTTE, MONTANA.
and logic approves of the enveloping of true con- ditions in a certain mystery, which shall be dis- pelled by slow stages of discovery and develop- ment in the working out for the whole nation of a destiny palpably intended for it. It furnishes not only a school to the brawn and brain of coming generations, as in the past, but, equally as neces- sary, perhaps, it supplies a reserve of treasure which shall be at the disposal of the whole nation when most needed.
Step by step have the borders of civilization been pushed from the banks of the Mississippi and the shores of the Pacific until they have merged into one. Gradually have the agricultural, graz- ing and mineral resources of the Western plains, valleys and mountains been developed until today they are the great producers of raw materials for the gigantic industries of the East. And, so surely, in due time will the industries of the East come creeping westward to utilize these materials at the point of production, while in their wake will come the people of a congesting East. But it will all come in God's time. It will come when an increasing national vigor is vitally necessary. When the voice of power of a great nation in the events of the world must needs be reinforced by the best manhood, by the highest industrial attain- ment, by the greatest material wealth and by the broadest civilization. How better could this end be reached than by the methods which at present obtain? What better school for the development of the sturdiest, the best that manhood should know for the strenuous struggle for supremacy of a whole nation than the trials and hardships con- sequent upon the settlement of a great expanse like our West? It was the same school where was learned the spirit of the Revolution which gave us the Republic, and which perpetuated the Republic in the Civil War, and it is the same school which will develop the youth of coming generations who shall stand as sponsors for the Republic's integrity for all tinie.
There they will go on, seeking out the dangers and the hardships, redeeming the dark, forbidding places, developing and expanding the resources of the country until the East shall know no line of distinction, can see no flaw in its institutions and its civilization, and the best in customs and mor- ality of the one shall be engrafted into the lives and the minds of the people of the other; when the East shall be more Western and the West more Eastern. It is a consummation much to be
desired, a condition some day certain of realiza- tion. It is the most pregnant promise that is pre- sented to its people at the dawn of the new cen- tury of a continued survival and growth of the Republic unto the time when its voice shall be the most potent and its influence the most far reach- ing of all the nations of the earth. All honor to the West from whence beckoneth the star of empire to the youth of the East and the whole world - not to an empire where royalty reigns, but to a free country where brain and brawn are kings and where determination to do is a more priceless treasure than much fine gold.
That which follows is a story touching upon one of the great landmarks of the West. Here and there others have been erected which, in slight measure only, point what the future has in store. Many States of the great West enjoy such land- marks. They indicate the slow, certain develop- ment of the great industries of that great expanse. Still other States are but awakening to a realiza- tion of latent possibilities. A generation or so hence thousands, aye millions, of acres of arid lands, rendered, it once seemed, useless, will be reclaimed and put to the plow by the agency of irrigation, and Kansas and the Dakotas will be met by lusty rivals in new grain-bearing States. Stretching along the great Rockies from border to border discoveries are fast being made which tend to identify the whole range as a vast storehouse of mineral wealth. Great camps have sprung into existence whose futures for long years to come are assured. Some are gold camps, others silver, but that of which our story deals is a copper camp.
If the same elements had controlled the devel- opment of Butte as have shaped the destinies of other equally promising mining-camps, its end would, no doubt, have been as inglorious. Denuded, as it seemed, of all the wealth that nature had hidden beneath its surface and ren- dered unattractive as a source of further treasure, it seems nothing short of marvelous that the camp was not abandoned for at least a long cycle of years - perchance forever - unmarked save by the tell-tale ruins of its early exploitation.
Situated in an almost inaccessible valley, shut in by an abrupt curve of the Rocky Mountains and off-running spurs and foothills, it most cer- tainly would have been least sought in the pursuit of all the engagements of the human race but for that one industry which has made its fame world- wide as the greatest city of its kind on earth,
5
INTRODUCTION.
namely, mining. Mineral wealth was there and in abundance. God seems even to have allowed the scale of equal distribution to go sadly out of hori- zontal in his endowment of that small area of hills which surround Butte proper, from which have been taken the riches of an empire and which are yet but in the babyhood of their development. But upon their discovery hinges the most remark- able feature of the story of Butte, aside from the unequaled story of its wonderful development and growth and its present wealth and pregnant future.
It is with regret that the following contents are, of necessity, confined to the one city of Butte. So great are the other resources of the whole State of Montana that a recital of them all would immeasurably add to the value of the work in dis- pelling erroneous ideas concerning the common- wealth in particular and the whole West in gen- eral and create a more healthful opinion of the same in the minds of the uninformed. The great sheep-raising industries of the State surpass over- whelmingly those of any other State in the Union ; consequently this is true of wool. On a thousand ranges are fattened the cattle whose delicious qualities the whole world knows, and herein is presented an industry closely rivaling any other State, and so advantageously endowed is the State in this respect that a matter of a few years will place it at the head in this industry. No richer agricultural lands can be found the country over
than along many of the valleys of the State, and especially is this true of the Gallatin and Bitter Root valleys, whose fame has crossed the borders of the State, which present opportunities of the greatest magnitude. Irrigation is rapidly reclaim- ing large portions of the State for agricultural purposes and, when the fact is realized that the products of the State from this source are wholly inadequate to supply the needs of home consump- tion, the advantages here presented are palpable. Mining is being largely developed along the whole length of the Rockies and off-running ranges throughout the State and opportunities in this direction have but had their surface pricked.
In compiling the matter for this work the idea has been to create a healthful opinion and erect a curiosity for a deeper knowledge of the subject treated and present to the people of the city and State something that will adequately do justice to one phase of Montana's resources and prospects. To accomplish this it has been considered wise to depart from too dry details and wearisome statis- tics, seeking to encourage the reader to peruse its entire contents so that, at its conclusion, he may be forced to the admission that something new has been revealed and a desire excited for further facts concerning the great West. To this end the following humble effort is respectfully submitted.
HARRY C. FREEMAN.
BUTTE, MONTANA, November 17, 1900.
TABLE OF OUTPUTS OF LEADING MINING STATES.
No.
STATE.
COAL.
IRON.
COPPER.
GOLD.
SILVER.
TOTAL OUTPUT, INCLUDING LEAD AND ZINC.
I
Michigan
* 720,000
$186,433,371
$27,444,442
$214,597,813
2 Pennsylvania
161,209,231
3
Montana
2,227,998
40,941,906
$4,819,157
$21,786,834
68,447,309
. .
Butte's product
40,882,492
1,282,447
12,742,893
54,907,853
4
Colorado.
8,471,105
1,869, 169
26,508,675
13,771,73I
56,791,425
5' Arizona
22,079,023
2,575,000
1, 191,600
25,845,623
6
Illinois
18,443,946
7
California
430,631
4,211,517
14,800,000
357,480
19,799,628
8
Ohio
14,191,557
9
West Virginia
11,830,773
IO Utah .
1,639,550
3,506,582
4,279,695
9.425,827
12
Alabama
7,484,763
7,484,763
13
Kansas
5,124,248
7,277,554
I.4
Missouri
3,582, 11I
6,990,71I
15
Jowa ..
5,937,350
5,937,350
16 South Dakota
5,800,000
17
Wyoming
5,656,509
5,656,509
18
Indiana
5,542,402
5,542,402
19
Alaska
12,282
5,125,000
5,301,127
20
Maryland
4,318,211
4,318,211
21
Kentucky
3,811,697
3,811,697
22
Nevada
2,371,882
2,371,882
23 | New Mexico
1,600,588
1,600,588
Total U. S., including } remaining States. . .
$276,147,056
$248,577,829
$102,372,291
$70,096,021
$34,036, 168
$750,680,827
A classification of iron ore production can not be made, further than that southern and western States produced $62, 144,458, as against the remainder, which was all produced in the Lake Superior district. To Michigan is credited the entire Lake Superior output of this mineral, though, doubtless, a portion should be allotted to Minnesota and Wisconsin. This fact, however, could in nowise materially change the positions of respective States as shown above.
Lead and zinc are not shown, the products from these being of much smaller figures and of no bearing on this table, the totals in each case being credited to the States included in the table.
Idaho
1,750,000
2,859,840
9, 180, 376
20,343,682
14,191,557
11,830,773
5,800,000
163,845
161,209,231
HALLOWED DAYS.
IVE miles east of the present city of Butte rises the extreme apex of the eastern and western watersheds of the Rocky Mountains. Waters governed by the levels thus estab- lished start upon their widely separating courses, those descending the western slope fol- lowing their devious ways - under the successive names of Silver Bow creek, and Deer Lodge, Mis- soula, Flathead, Pen d'Oreille, Clarke's Fork and Semiacquitaine rivers-into the Willamette river, below Portland, Oregon, and thence to the Pacific Ocean; while the waters descending the eastern slope, in like manner, under different names of creeks and rivers, finally complete their flow at the junction of the Mississippi with the Gulf of Mex- ico. To Silver Bow creek belongs the distinction of being the stream whose rise is further east than that of any other stream whose waters eventually reach the Pacific.
CONTINENTAL DIY DE
.4
CONTINENTAL DIVIDE. Elevation, 6,350 feet.
About twelve miles southwest from the apex or watershed divide and at a point where the waters of this creek have ceased their precipitous flow and have entered into the level of the valley, with an altitude of 5,700 feet above sea level, rests
HON. GRANVILLE STUART.
today the ruins of Silver Bow village, a drowsy relic of its former boom days.
In the summer of 1864, four prospectors - Budd Parker, P. Allison, and Joseph and James Esler - unmindful of the rich discoveries the pre- vious year in Alder Gulch, at Virginia City - left that camp and pushed on across the main range of the Rockies, striking alluring placers along the banks of Silver Bow creek. It is worthy of notice
8
BUTTE, MONTANA.
that Silver Bow village ranks with Helena, or, as it was then more familiarly known, Last Chance Gulch, in point of discovery, as one of the pioneer mining settlements of the State, though never at any time so rich in placer deposits. Bannack was easily the pioneer of them all, followed closely by Virginia City, they being located in 1862 and 1863, respectively.
The point selected by these prospectors is " upon a bend of the stream, which forms a per- fect figure of a gracefully curved Indian bow, and,
Alder Gulch and speedily a stampede set in and, like all mining-camps of easily opened and pro- ductive placers, the section sprang up rapidly. Prospecting was extended along the creek in either direction and, during the winter following, or 1864-'65, had proceeded to within six miles of its mouth - within the present site of Butte, on Town Gulch. This same winter several wooden structures were erected at Silver Bow and one store was erected in Butte.
On February 6, 1865, a commission, of which
By C. M Russell, the Cowboy "Artist."
AMBUSH OF PACK TRAIN.
Printed by kind permission of Schatzlein Paint Co.
from the mountain peaks which surround the val- ley, the glistening. waters of the 'silver bow' etched in a shimmering sheen upon a dark ground of furzy grass, form a striking feature of the landscape." Thus was born the name of Silver Bow, which name was given to both village and creek.
While the advent of these adventurous prospec- tors marked the beginning of mining activity in this district, it is related that a party of prospec- tors, headed by Caleb E. Irvine, traveling through the section as early as 1856, found evidences of prehistoric mining.
News of rich strikes soon communicated to
Hon. Granville Stuart was a member, was empowered to lay out the town of Silver Bow. Silver Bow was made the county seat of Deer Lodge County in this year and on July 10 the first court was held. The village also enjoyed for a short time the distinction of being the capital of the young territory, but was soon removed by no other warrant than physical force to the village of Deer Lodge.
In the latter part of June of the same year the Democrats held at Silver Bow the first political convention of Deer Lodge County, and at the first election, upon September I following, the county seat followed the capital to Deer Lodge village.
9
HALLOWED DAYS.
By 1866 the entire creek channel from Silver Bow to Butte was worked by a company of four or more men to every two-hundred-foot claim. These toilers lived almost exclusively in tents or brush shanties adjoining their labors, worked faithfully six days of the week and generally showed up in one of the two towns on the seventh. This was the business day of the week. Gambling flourished, the merchant then made his weekly clean-up and the dance-house keeper panned out more than the richest placer. Prosperity was uni- versal ; every one was employed. Wages were $6 to $7 per day.
One writer at this time describes the style of architecture of the two towns as follows: "We should judge the prevailing style of architecture to be the Pan-Doric - a heathenish one of many evils. The material used is wood. Speaking of buildings, in Butte and Silver Bow, seven miles Hon. Granville Stuart, whose very faithful apart, year about houses are torn down in one portrait is shown on a preceding page, is at pres- and removed to the other. Last year houses were hauled from Silver Bow to Butte ; this year the movement is re- versed," concluding sarcastically : "This was to save timber, we suppose, as there is not more than a million or two acres of good timber in this immediate vi- cinity."
A decline in min- ing activity began in this vicinity in 1870 and even the revival of 1874-'75 did not strike the pioneer village of the county, and in 1880 the population had so dwindled that the census enumerators made no mention of the historic camp.
The early-day history of Silver Bow and that of Butte, which follows, is replete with the names of men who, at one time or another, became promi- nent in the affairs of the State. A great many have crossed the "Great Divide," while others have drifted to other parts in search of new dis- coveries. A few are still alive, some of whose names and faces have gone beyond the borders of the State and are found in the larger affairs of the
nation. They were men who came to Montana, as did hundreds of others, by ox-team and on horse- back, blazing the trail through an untraveled wil- derness - over snow-clad mountains, across treacherous, unbridged streams and through val- leys and passes infested with unfriendly tribes of savage Indians. Men who bore the hardships of the miner's life and discomforts of the primitive shack; who harbored their treasure, profited by frontier conditions and assured for themselves futures of plenty and comfort, and in many cases, of gigantic wealth, or, yielding to the lax moral conditions of the mining-camp, squandered their all in riotous living, and, in no few cases, are pub- lic 'charges today upon the charity of the city whose future they in part made possible. It is a story of a race for all - the survival of the fittest.
SILVER BOW VILLAGE. " A relic of bygone days."
ent a most honored citizen of the city of Butte. Mr. Stuart antedates any living pioneer of the Silver Bow district, if not of the entire State, having, in company with his brother and a party of prospectors, passed through the section in 1858. Mr. Stuart, after having held responsible positions in municipal and State affairs at various times during his long residence in the State, more recently represented the Government as general consul to the Argentina Republic under President Cleveland, with distinguished ability. His recollections of early days are very vivid,
10
BUTTE, MONTANA.
many of them having been reduced to print, and are worthy of careful perusal.
Meanwhile, in 1864, the same year of the orig- inal discoveries at Silver Bow village, William Allison, Jr., and G. O. Humphreys had pushed on up the stream and pitched their camp at the pres- ent site of Butte. At the time of their advent there were no stakes nor signs of mining having been previously prosecuted, save on what is known as the Original lode, where a hole four or five feet in depth was found. Indications pointed to the hole having been dug years before - by whom will probably never be known. No doubt it is the same hole reported to have been discov- ered by Caleb E. Irvine in 1856, and in all likeli- hood is attributable to the work of the native Indian.
Hon. Granville Stuart and others most inti- mately acquainted with early-day history are authority for the statement that the valley to the
The initial settlers above mentioned were shortly followed by Dennis Leary and H. H. Por- ter. Rich placers were rapidly uncovered and a marked influx of goldseekers from Silver Bow and Alder Gulch resulted. So important were the discoveries and large the influx that in this year the first mining district was formed and the old town was located on Town Gulch and the name of Butte was given it. This name was derived from the majestic butte which reared its peak to the northwest of the new mining-camp, like a grim and lonely sentinel guarding the approach to the encircled valley within, rich in that vast treas- ure of mineral stores, the extent of which to this day - thirty-six years hence - has not been com- passed.
In this year G. W. Newkirk, coming on from Alder Gulch, joined with Dennis Leary, T. C. Porter and the Humphrey Brothers in the erec- tion of the first wooden house within the town, located on what is now Quartz street, and, until
" BIG BUTTE."
east and south of the new camp and running west to the Deer Lodge valley was the scene of much large game before the advent of the white man. Countless buffalo here found excellent grazing and were hunted by the various tribes of Indians adjacent to the region. It is likewise learned that many conflicts arose between these several tribes as to which should enjoy the supreme right to these hunting-grounds and many a hapless band of braves, separated from the main tribe by pre- mature snows filling the passes of the divide, felt the sharp sting of chastisement for their presump- tuous trespass.
recently destroyed by fire, was occupied as a por- tion of the Girton house.
Even at this early date quartz-mining was receiving some attention, the first lead of this nature probably being the old Deer Lodge mine, now the Black Chief, this lead having been dis- covered by Charles Murphy and others in 1864.
The next authentic record of quartz-mining of an important nature is not found until 1867, at which time "Joe " Ramsdell, known, of all men, as the father of quartz-mining in this camp, struck a good character of ore in the Parrot lode and a company composed of himself, W. J. Parks, Den-
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