USA > Montana > Yellowstone County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 15
USA > Montana > Park County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 15
USA > Montana > Dawson County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 15
USA > Montana > Rosebud County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 15
USA > Montana > Custer County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 15
USA > Montana > Sweet Grass County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 15
USA > Montana > Carbon County > An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana > Part 15
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understated the value of his discovery. He is evidently entitled to the distinction of having been first, by several years, of the thousands of enterprising men who have labored in the gold gulches of Montana and made so rich a contribution to the volume of the world's treasure.
The credit of being Montana's first gold miner, which from the foregoing would seem to properly belong to Silverthorne, has been disputed, and that by a man who knew Silver- thorne well in the early days. Matt Carroll, himself one of the leading and oldest settlers of Montana, has qualified the statement as made by Lieutenant Bradley by stating that the gold which was brought to Fort Bentou had been found in the Kootenai mine north of the boundary line. There is no means .of knowing whether or not the gold in question was mined in the territory which is now known as Montana.
The rumors of gold having been discovered on Benetsee, or as it was afterwards known, Gold, creek spread rapidly and it was this in- telligence that induced a party of miners who were on their way back to the states from Cali- fornia in 1857 to proceed to this place of re- ported discovery and spend the winter there prospecting. The members of this party were James Stuart. Granville Stuart, Thomas Adams, Reece Anderson, E. H. Burr and John H. Powell. The arrival of this party and the story of their settlement in Montana has been told at some length in the chapter devoted to the early settlements, and we shall treat of their doings here only as they relate directly to mining. Mr. Granville Stuart has very en- tertainingly told of the history of mining in Montana during the few years succeeding the arrival of this party, and we shall quote Mr. Stuart in telling of the early day incidents prior to the beginning of the big rush :
We accordingly wintered on the Big Hole river just above what is known as the Backbone, in com- pany with Robert Dempsey, Jake Meeks, Robert Here- ford, Thomas Adams, John W. Powell, John M. Jacobs and a few others. In the spring of 1858 we went over into the Hell Gate valley and prospected a little on
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
Benetsee's or Gold crerk. We got gold everywhere, in some instances as high as ten cents to the pan, but hav- ing nothing to eat save what our rifles furnished us. and no tools to work with (Salt Lake, nearly six hundred miles distant, being the nearest point at which they could be obtained), and as the accursed Blackfeet Indians were continually stealing our horses, we soon quit prospecting in disgust without having round anything very rich, or done anything to enable us to form a reliable estimate of the richness of the mines.
We then went out on the road near Fort Bridger, Utah territory, where we remained until the fall of 1860. In the summer of that year a solitary individual named Henry Thomas, better known to the pioneers of Montana, however, as "Gold Tom" or as "Tom Gold Digger," who had been sluicing on the Pend d'Oreille river, came up to Gold creek and commenced prospect- ing. He finally hewed out two or three small sluice boxes and commenced work on the creek up near the mountains. He made from one to two dollars a day in a rather rough, coarse gold, some of the pieces weigh- ing as high as two dollars.
After spending a few weeks there, he concluded that he could find better diggings, and about the time we returned to Deer Lodge (in 1860), he quit sluicing and went to prospecting all over the country. His favorite camping ground was about the hot springs near where Helena now stands. He always maintained that that was a good mining region, saying that he had got better prospects there than on Gold creek. He told me after "Last Chance," "Grizzly," "Oro Fino," and the other rich gulches of that vicinity had been struck that he had prospected all about there, but that it was not his luck to strike any of those big things.
About the 29th of April, 1862, P. W. McAdow, who in company with A. S. Blake and Dr. Atkinson (both citizens of Montana), had been prospecting with but limited success in a small ravine which empties into Pioneer creek, moved up to Gold creek and commenced prospecting about there. About the Ioth of May they found diggings in what we afterwards called Pioneer creek. They got as high as twenty cents to the pan, and immediately began to prepare for extensive opera- tions. At this time "Tom Gold Digger" was prospect- ing on Cottonwood creek, a short distance above where the flourishing burg of Deer Lodge City now stands, but finding nothing satisfactory, he soon moved down and opened a claim above those of McAdo & Co. In the meantime we had set twelve joints of 12x14 sluices, this being the first string of regular sluices ever set in the Rocky mountains north of Colorado.
On the 25th of June, 1862, news reached us that four steamboats had arrived at Fort Benton loaded with emigrants, provisions and mining tools, and on the 20th Samuel T. Hauser. Frank Louthen, Jake Monthe and a man named Ault, who were the advance guard of the pilgrims to report upon the country from personal
observation, came into our camp After prospecting on Gold creek for a few days Hauser. Louthen and Ault started for the Salmon river mines by way of the Bitter Root valley. Jake Monthe, that harum-scarum Dutchman who wore the hat that General Lyon had on when he was killed in the battle of Wil-un's creek, continued prospecting along Gold creek.
Walter B. Dance and Colonel Hunkins arrived on the 10th of July, and on the 14th we had the first elec- tion ever held in the country. It was marked by great excitement, but nobody was hurt-except by whiskey.
On the the 15th Jack Mendenhall, with several companions, arrived at Gold creek from Salt Lake City. They set out for the Salmon river mines, but having reached Lemhi, the site of a Mormon fort and the most northern settlement of the "Saints," they could pro- ceed no farther in the direction of Florence, owing to the impassible condition of the roads. so they cached their wagons, packed their goods on the best condi- tioned of their oxen, and turned off for Gold creek. They lost their way and wandered about until nearly starved, when they fortunately found an Indian guide, who piloted them through to the diggings. On the 25th Hauser and his party, having failed to reach Florence, also returned, nearly starved to death.
The discovery of gold in paying quantities and the consequent rush to the rich gold fields of Montana was brought about, or at any rate hastened, by the discovery of the rich Salmou river placers. Early in the spring of 1862 the rumors of the rich discoveries in that part of Washington territory which subsequently be- came Idaho territory reached Salt Lake, Col- orado and other places in the territories. A great stampede was the result. Faith and hope were in the ascendant among the motley crew that wended a toilsome way by Fort Hall or the south pass to the new Eldorado. At- tacked by hostile Indians, faint and weary from the long march and a scarcity of provi- sions, the miners toiled on, only to be met with the most disheartening information. As the trains approached the goal of their desires, within the unexplored regions which after- wards became Montana, the would-be immi- grants to the Salmon river mines were met by the information that it was impossible to get through with wagons, that several almost im- passible mountain ranges intervened. Still toiling on with a grim determination to reach
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
the mines at whatever cost, they received, a little later, tidings of a more discouraging na- ture. These were to the effect that the new mines were overrun by gold hunters from Cal- ifornia, Oregon and other parts of the coun- try to the west, and that it was not only impos- sible for any new comers to find claims, but that they would be unable to even secure work. Coupled with these tidings came also informa- tion of a more encouraging nature-that new placers had been discovered at Deer Lodge, on the east side of the Rocky mountains, and that already large bands of prospectors were spread- ing out over the adjacent territory.
The stream of emigration diverged from the halting place where this last welcome in- telligence reached the members of the several parties. Some of the miners turned toward Deer Lodge where, report said, rich diggings were to be found. They crossed the mountains between Fort Lemhi and Horse Prairie creek, and taking a cutoff to the left, endeavored to strike the old trail from Salt Lake to Bitter Root and Deer Lodge valleys. The reports of the rich mines to be found in the Rocky mountain country were of such a nature that the idea was rapidly adopted that the country was filled with rich placers and that it was not necessary to pursue the track of actual discov- ery, but that each man could discover his own mine. One party arrived at Deer Lodge in June, 1862. Some of the other members the party who were headed for Deer Lodge remained on Grasshopper creek, near the large canyon. Those who went to Deer Lodge were disappointed in the placers there and soon re- joined their companions. The party that had remained on the Grasshopper made some promising discoveries, and the place was given the name of "Beaver Head diggings"-that being the name which the Lewis and Clark party had given to the river into which Grass- hopper creek empties.
The Grasshopper placers, where was shortly afterward built the city of Bannack,
were discovered about the first of August, 1862, and the credit for the discovery is given to Jolin White. Among those detained in the Beaver Head valley because they could not go through from Lemhi to Salmon river was a party of which White and John McGavin were members. This party discovered the placers which resulted in the rush to Montana-plac- ers which yielded from five to fifteen dollars per day per man. John White, having done so much for his fame, has left us very little knowl- edge of his history. He and Rodolph Dorsett were murdered at the Milk ranch on the road from Virginia City to Helena by Charles Kelly in December, 1863. Almost at the same time that White and his party were discovering the placers on the Grasshopper, other rich discov- eries were being made in other parts of Mon- tana. Joseph K. Slack, who had been seeking his fortune in California and Idaho since 1858, discovered placers on the head of Big Hole river that yielded $57 a day to the man. Also about the same time John W. Powell found paying mines on North Boulder creek, in wha! later became Jefferson county. These repeated discoveries caused the greatest excitement, and the less profitable mines at Deer Lodge and Gold creek were abandoned.
But before the Grasshopper diggings had reached this prominence many miners had found their way to Gold creek and that part of the country, where a rich placer had been found and named Pike's Peak gulch. The ar- rival of these men was brought about as follows :
In April, 1862, a party of six men left Col- orado for "Salmon river, or Oregon, or any- where west to escape from Colorado, which we all then thought a sort of Siberia, in which man was likely to end his days in hopeless ex- ile from his home and friends because of the poorness of its mines." At a ferry on the North Platte they fell in with fourteen others, and finding Bridger's pass filled with snow, the winter having been of unusual severity, the
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
joint company resolved to proceed across the country to the Sweetwater, and through the south pass. On arriving at Plant's station, on the Sweetwater, it was found in flames, the In- dians having just made a raid on the stations along the whole line of the road between the Platte bridge and Green river. Here they found a notice that another party of eighteen men had retreated to Platte bridge to wait for reinforcements. They accordingly sent two expressmen to bring up this party, and by the time they were ready to go on, their force was 45 men, well armed and able to fight Indians. Replenishing their supplies at Salt Lake, they continued their journey, overtaking at Box Elder a small party with three wagons loaded with the frame of a ferry boat for Snake river above Fort Hall, J. Mix being one of the ferry owners. From the best information to be ob- tained at Salt Lake or Snake river, they would find their course to be the old Mormon settle- ment of Fort Lemhi, and thence sixty miles down the Salmon river to the mines. But on arriving at Lemhi, on the tenth of July, they found a company there before them under Samuel McLean and heard of another which had arrived still earlier, under Austin, all bound for the Salmon river mines. They had been deceived as to the practicability of the road, the route being three hundred miles long and impassible for wagons. The vehicles being abandoned and the freight being packed upon the draught animals, nothing was left for the owners but to walk. Thirty-five men decided to proceed in this manner to the mines, most of McLean's party remaining behind. The third night after leaving Lemhi, the com- pany encamped on Big Hole prairie, and on the following morning fell in with a Mr. Chat- field and his guide, who were coming from Fort Owen to Fort Lemhi to settle a difficulty aris- ing from the Lemhi Indians having killed and eaten one of McLean's horses; but learning from the company just from Lemhi that the matter had been arranged, Chatfield turne.l
back and his conversation induced twenty-tw ) of the company to resign the idea of Salmon river and turn their faces toward Deer Lodge, the remainder continuing on the trail to Elk City from the point where it crossed the Bitter Root river is near its head. Among those who stopped on the Montana side of the Bitter Root mountains were Henry Thrapp, M. Haskins, William Smith, Allen McPhail, John Graham, Warner, Thomas Neild Joseph Mumby, James Taylor, J. W. Bozeman, Thomas Woods, J. Caruthers, Andrew Murray, Thomas Dolelson, N. Davidson, James Patton, William Thompson, Murphy and Dutch Pete. Ten of the twenty-two remained at Fort Owen, taking employment there at the Flathead res- ervation, of which John Owen was at the time agent. The rest proceeded on their way and arrived at the newly discovered placers on the Grasshopper. When they arrived there their stock of provisions was nearly exhausted, but they decided to push on to Deer Lodge, hoping to find a more profitable field. They discov- ered gold on a branch of Gold creek, which they named Pike's Peak gulch. Several oth- ers, who had come from the states up the Mis- souri on their way to Walla Walla, stopped off to seek their fortunes in the new fields and some of these passed the summer at Gold creek and Deer Lodge. Among these were W. B. Dance, S. T. Hauser, Jerome S. Glick, David Gray, George Gray, George Perkins, William Griffith, Jack Oliver and Joseph Clark.
The parties under McLean and Russell, who had left the Beaver Head diggings on the Grasshopper in the hopes of finding richer. digging's, having found nothing better than that they had left behind, now returned to Grasshopper. No provisions having arrived in the country, most of them decided to at- tempt a return to Salt Lake City. The chance of making a journey of four hundred miles to the nearest Mormon settlement was prefera- ble to starvation in this desolate region. They could but die in the effort and might succeed.
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
After they had started on this Utopian jour- ney, Russell mounted his horse, followed them, and persuaded them to return. They then set to work in good earnest and found gold in abundance; but as their scanty supply of food lessened daily, they feared that soon they would have nothing but gold to eat. Just at this crisis a large train of provisions belonging to Mr. Woodmansee arrived, and all fear of starvation vanished. The camp was hilarious with joy and mirth over the good fortune.
The fame of the Bannack diggings reached the Salmon river mines late in the fall of 1862. and many of the Florence miners made their preparations to go to the new discoveries. Among these came the first of the robbers, gamblers, murderers and horse thieves who initiated that reign of infamy, which nothing but the strong arm of the vigilantes could over- come. The little village known as American Fork, which had grown up at the Stewart ranch, at the mouth of Gold creek, was aban- doned as soon as the superior richness of the Bannack diggings became known, and in a short time all of the Gold creek placers were abandoned.
The stampeders to the Bannack diggings in the fall of 1862 were informed of the location of the new discovery by a rude sign post with a ruder inscription, located at the confluence of Rattlesnake creek with Beaver Head river- the present site of the town of Dillon. On a rough hewn board nailed across the top of the post was daubed with wagon-tar the following intelligence :
TU GRASS HOP PER DIGINS 30 MYLE
KEPE THE TRALE NEX THE BLUFFE
On the other side of the board was the fol- lowing :
TU JONNI GRANTS
ONE HUNRED & TWENTI MYLE
The "grass Hop Per digins" were located where afterwards appeared the flourishing
town of Bannack; the city of Deer Lodge is built upon "jonni grants" place.
The spring of 1863 witnessed a wild rush to the new placers. Russell early in the spring set out on the return to Colorado, and after en- countering many dangers arrived in safety. He exhibited specimens of gold taken from the Grasshopper diggings to his friends in Color- ado, and the excitement they occasioned was intense. Large numbers left at once for the new and promising El Dorado. The town of Bannack City came into existence and soon had a population of 500. It was the first of the several rich placer camps to come into exis- tence in Montana. During the early period of Montana's mining history Bannack was the rendezvous of all emigration. Miners poured in here from Deer Lodge, the Idaho mines, the Bitter Root country, Salt Lake, Colorado and the east, and from this point started out all the early exploring parties who discovered the many rich placers in other parts of the Rocky mountain country.
One of these parties that set out from Ban- nack to search for gold, late in May, 1862, dis- covered the Alder gulch placers, where a few days later was built the town of Virginia City. This proved to be the richest placer mine ever discovered in Montana, if not on the North American Continent, and yielded before the close of the first year's work upon it, not less than ten million dollars. During the twenty years the ground was worked sixty million dollars worth of precious metal was taken from the ten miles of auriferous ground which com- prised the gulch. The discovery was like the rubbing of an Aladdin lamp. It drew eager prospectors from Colorado, Utah, Idaho and from all parts of the east, who overran the country on both sides of the upper Missouri and east and west of the Rocky mountains, many of whom realized to a greater or less extent their dreams of wealth.
The discoverers of Alder gulch were Bill Fairweather, Mike Sweeney, Barney Hughes,
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
Harry Rodgers, Tom Cover and Henry Edgar, and the discovery was made on May 26, 1863. It was on the first day of February of that year that the party set out from Bannack to prospect the Big Horn mountains. On the Gallatin river they came across the Crow In- dians, who ordered them out of the country. Glad to escape with their lives, the members of the party set out on the homeward journey, and on the day of discovery had reached Alder creek and made camp upon a level tract of ground between the bars which were later named Cover and Fairweather. We shall tell the story of the discovery in the words of one of the members of the party, Henry Edgar, as told by him in his diary, the entries having been made on the evening of each day :
May 26th: Off agin; horse pretty lame and Bill (Fairweather) leading him out of the timber; fine grassy hills and lots of quartz; some antelope in sight; down a long ridge to a creek and camp; had dinner, and Rodgers, Sweeney, Barney and Cover go up the creek to prospect. It was Bill's and my turn to guard camp and look after the horses. We washed and doc- tored the horse's leg. Bill went across to a bar to see or look for a place to stake horses. When he came back to camp he said, "There is a piece of rimrock sticking out of the bar over there. Get the tools and we will go and prospect it" Bill got the pick and shovel and I the pan and went over. Bill dug the dirt and filled the pan. "Now go," he says, " and wash that pan and see if you can get enough to buy some tobacco when we get to town." I had the pan more than half panned down and had seen some gold as I ran the sand around, when Bill sang out, "I have found a scad." I returned for answer, "If you have one I have a hundred." He then came down to where I was with his scad. It was a nice piece of gold. Well, I panned the pan of dirt and it was a good prospect; weighed it and had two dollars and forty cents; weighed Bill's scad and it weighed the same. Four dollars and eighty cents! Pretty good for tobacco money. We went and got another pan and Bill panned that and got more than I had; I got the third one and panned that-best of the three; that is good enough to sleep on. We came to camp, dried and weighed our gold. altogether there twelve dollars and thirty cents. We saw the boys coming to camp and no tools with them. "Have you found anything?" "We started a hole but didn't get to bedrock." They began to growl about the horses not being taken care of and to give Bill and me fits When I pulled the pan around Sweeney got hold of it
and the next minute sang out "salted." I told Sweeney that if he "would pipe Bill and me down and run us through a sluice box he couldn't get a color," and "the horses could go to the devil or the Indians." Well, we talked over the find and roasted venison until late ; and sought the brush, and spread our robes; and a more joyous lot of men never went more contentedly to bed than we.
May 27th: Up before the sun; horses all right; soon the frying pan was on the fire. Sweeney was off with the pan and Barney telling him "to take it easy." He panned his pan and beat both Bill and me. He had five dollars and thirty cents. "Well, you have got it good, by Jove!" were his greeting words. When we got filled up with elk, Hughes and Cover went up the gulch, Sweeney and Rodgers down, Bill and I to the old place. We panned turn about ten pans at a time, all day long, and it was good dirt too. "A grub stake is what we are after" was our watchword all day, and it is one hundred and fifty dollars in good dust. "God is good" as Rodgers said when we left the Indian camp. Sweeney and Rodgers found a good prospect and have eighteen dollars of the gold to show for it. Barney and Tom brought in four dollars and a half. * * *
May 28th : Staked the ground this morning; claims one hundred feet. Sweeney, wanted a water- a notice written for a water right and asked me to write it for him. I wrote for him; then "What name shall we give to the creek ?" The boys said "You name it." So I wrote "Alder." There was a large fringe of Alder growing along the creek looking nice and green and the name was given. We staked 'welve claims for our friends and named the bars Cover, Fairweather and Rodgers where the discoveries were made.
The finding of the particles of gold in the dirt that was being washed by Fairweather and Edgar was the main factor in the creation of Montana territory. The men realized the rich- ness of their discovery and it was mutually agreed that nothing should be said concerning their discoveries until further prospecting could be done that the best ground might be selected for claims. On the 28th the party broke camp and started for Bannack to pur- chase supplies and provisions. The party arrived there on the first day of June, having traveled since departing, over six hundred miles.
Notwithstanding the agreement that the discovery should not be revealed, the good news was written in the smiling faces of the lucky prospectors, and the few friends who
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HISTORY OF MONTANA.
were secretly informed of the strike secretly informed a few of their friends, and the result was a wild stampede. Every man who was not anchored to the mines at Bannack and could seize a horse made a rush for the new dis- covery during the month of June. Hundreds made the start, each striving to outstrip the other in order to secure claims. The first crowd, that which accompanied the Fair- weather party on the return to the diggings, numbered about three hundred men, of which thirty persons made the journey on foot. All were in light marching order and bore upon their backs their worldly goods.
While the discoverers admitted that rich diggings had been found, they wisely refrained from making known the location until after an agreement had been reached as to the rights of the discoverers. According to an under- standing arrived at in Bannack before the start was made, a public meeting of the excited com- pany that was hurrying to the mines was held on June 7 in a cottonwood grove, upon the banks of the Beaver Head river. Fairweather district, named in honor of one of the dis- coverers, was organized with Doctor Steele as president and James Fergus as recorder. Res- olutions were adopted unanimously confirm- ing the right of each of the six discoverers to two claims in Alder gulch and the water privi- leges. The main body of the stampeders ar- rived in the gulch on the 9th. Hughes, with a party of friends, had stealthily left the main body during the night and piloted his friends to the promised land ahead of the main crowd. Some other members of the stampeding party, in their anxiety to be the first on the ground, tried the same trick, but not knowing the exact location of the discovery, they wandered up the Stinkingwater, Granite and other streams and were distanced.
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