An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 161

Author: Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913. cn
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Montana > An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 161

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To mention the individuals who have made this camp great would be tedions, but the com- panies and some of the mines may well be noticed. The Butte & Boston Company, the Boston & Montana Company, Anaconda Com- pany, the Clark Brothers, the Walker Brothers, the Colorado Company, the H. M. & R. Com- pany, and other establishments under the care of such able mining men as the Hon. W. A. Clark, Mareus Daly, Thomas Coneh, C. H. Palmer, Benjamin Tibbey, W. E. Hall, Charles W. Goodale, J. R. Gilbert and J. B. Trevar- then.

The Anaconda and the Original are the lead- ing eopper companies of Butte, and there are the Anaconda, High Ore, Modoek, Mountain View, Pennsylvania, Leonard, West Colnsa and others.

The Original Mining Company are working the Colusa, Parrot, Stewart and other mines in great numbers, carrying copper and silver; and of the silver mines carrying sufficient quanti- ties of gold to make the working of them profit- able, even with the present price of silver, the William Penn, Morning Star and a few others carry sufficient gold to enable them to be worked with profit, but nearly all of the silver mines are shut down and filled with water.

The best properties belonging to the various companies in Silver Bow may be properly men- tioned W. A. Clark & Company have the Origi- nal, Colusa, Parrot, Stewart, Acquisition, Monnt Norich, Black Rock, Elm Orlu, Travo- nia, Consolidated Morning Star, Neptune, Fraction, Ancient Ella, Spruce, Seymour, Ringgold, Home, Woolman, Joseph, Parrot, Dives and many others.

The Anaconda Company, managed by Mar- ens Daly, owns the Anaconda, St. Lawrence, High Ore. Bell Mountain Consolidated, Green Mountain, Wake Up Jim and others. The Boston & Montana Company own the Mountain View, Moose, East Colusa, West Colusa, Leon- ard Shott, Liquidation and others. The Butte & Boston work the Silver Bow Nos. 1 and 2, the East Grey Roek, Orphan Girl and other properties. The Parrot Company is working the Colnsa, Parrot, Moscow, Mina and other mines. The Colorado Mining and Smelting Company have the Gagnon, Nettie, Philadel- phia; and the Aliee Company run the Alice, Magna Charta, Blue Wing and Rising Star. The Alice is developed to the depth of 1,600 feet and the Magna Charta to 800 feet, the Lexington is down 1,500 feet and the Wild Bill 300 feet. The Lexington Company work the Lexington and other mines in this wonder- ful mining eamp. Many other companies and individuals own and work important mines in Silver Bow which deserve a more extended notice.

The Original Mining Company, owned mostly by W. A. Clark and J. K. Clark, has the first mine patented in Silver Bow. It has been worked for fifteen years, and is well de- veloped with shafts and levels to the depth of 800 feet. It carries ores of copper and native silver down to the 400-foot level, when zine

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

comes in. From the 400-foot level the copper was replaced in part by zine down to the 600- foot level, where the copper again appears and continues down to the 800-foot level. Deeper work will doubtless give a richer ore. The Colusa-Parrot is another copper-silver mine. The main shaft is down 800 feet and the ore is abundant from end to end and is continuous from the surface level. The Stewart is about 600 feet west of the Anaconda and is on the same vein. The shaft is down about 500 feet, in ores rich in copper and silver. A second vein on this property carries silver and gold. The Acquisition joins the Stewart on the west and the Mount Morris is another extension west. The Acquisition and Mount Morris are partially developed. The Black Rock is due east of the Moulton, and has a shaft down 400 feet. This is a very large vein, the ore, of sil- ver, being sometimes forty feet thick. The

WILBUR F. SANDERS, of Helena, was born in Leon, Cattaraugus county, New York, May 2, 1834. He was educated in the common and high schools of his native State. He taught school in New York, aud afterward, in 1864, removed to Ohio, where he continued in this work. He studied law at Akron, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in 1856. In 1861 he recruited a company of infantry and a battery, and in October following he was commis- sioned as First Lieutenant in the Sixty-fourth Ohio, of which regiment he was made adjutant. He served as acting assistant adjutant general on the staff of General James W. Forsyth, and in 1862 assisted iu the construc- tion of the defences along the railroad south of Nash- ville. Ill health compelled his resignation, and he went West, locating iu Idaho, now Montana. Here he re- sumed the practice of law and became an active partici- pant in the many exciting movements and incidents of this Western frontier. Among those whose earlier rem- iniscences are flavored with a savor of these most ex- citing periods, probably few who participated in them lived up to the full tension of the movements through which they passed, and of these, few survived them to look back and realize the danger through which they had passed or the results of these earlier happenings. Possibly the survival of the fittest of these echoes the truth of the axiom, certainly the evidences bespeak this to be the fact in the personnel of those leaders who first framed the foundations of the municipality which was to grow up under their fostering care and guidance.

Elm Orlu joins the Black Rock on the west and is developed to the depth of 500 feet. The ore is similar to thatin the Black Rock, and is sixty feet wide in some places. The Travonia is in the southwest corner of the Butte townsite The ore was rich in gold and silver, and was shipped East. The William Penn and Morning Star are in the old townsite of Butte. They were worked at an early day and the ore, rich in gold and silver, was shipped East. The Neptune is a similar property in the same neighborhood. These mines belong to the Clark Brothers.

The Anaconda Company has worked the An- aconda to the depth of 1,200 feet. It has made the company rich. The Belle is developed with the High Ore and worked through the same three compartment shafts. The High Ore is down 1,200 feet and is well developed. The Mountain Consolidated is well worked to the

To many who have achieved successes in the course of - the natural growth and advancement of the country, little actual credit need be given, as theirs were but the achievements of circumstances and fortunate environ- ment. As the most suitable guardian of the maiden claims of her young Statehood, the people of Montana chose Hon. Wilbur F. Sanders to be her first euvoy to the Senatoral chamber of the nation of which it had become an active member On the 12th of September, 1863, Colonel Sanders arrived in Bannack city, Montana, at that time a thrifty mining camp, where he began the practice of law. From his first advent within the borders of the State, Colonel Sanders' career was marked throughout with excitement and momentous occasions. Fearless and intrepid almost to rashness, he very soon cut for him- self a position of prominence among his associates, and with his peculiar genius soon adapted himself to the de- mands of the Western life. Keen in his perceptions, bitter in his sarcasm aud fearless in his advocacy of whatever cause he enlisted in, he would prosecute or defend as the case might be, hurling his anathemas of scorn or sounding the subtile sophistries of legal perspicuity with the same dauntlessness that he displayed when he stood upon the wagon in the full vision of a lawless and treacherous mob, on the 21st December, 1863, aud moved that George Ives, the road agent, be "hanged by the neck until dead." Many have wondered why Colonel Sanders escaped death at the hands of some beaten ad- versary or some member of the famous outlaw gang

N.8. Sander3

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

depth of 800 feet. The Green Mountain is worked 700 feet deep and has a double deek cage. The Wake Up Jim belongs to the same company, and is worked to the depth of 800 feet; the 500 and 600 feet levels are connected with the workings of the Green Mountain.

The Boston and Montana Company is work- ing the Mountain View to the depth of 1,100 feet. Pumps are on the 1,000 foot level, on the 800-foot and 400-foot levels. The East Colusa has a connection with the West Colusa. The lower workings were filled with water. The Moose mine was taking a rest. The East Colusa and the West Colusa are connected by the un- derground workings on the 500 foot levels, and all ores are raised by the same shaft. This company have rednetion works at Meaderville and Great Falls.

The Butte and Boston Company have been

which he so successfully prosecuted. An explanation may lay in Colonel Sanders' ability to adapt himself to any emergency. It has been said that men have left the court-room ashen with rage and lain in wait for the ap- pearance of Sanders to kill him. Sanders would walk out unabashed, and, discerning at a glance the sitnation, would deliberately talk the man into a good humor. This peculiar ability certainly entered largely into his marvelous career, and mingled with it the courage of conviction, the eloquence of moral integrity and a keen sense of doing the right thing in the right place. The combination of fearless energy, quick perception and daring, intrepid action, commanded a degree of respect and fear which carried him through these hazardous days of his early career.

Beginning in 1865, he rendered his first public service by going to Washington in behalf of the miners' taxation In 1872 he was elected a member of the Legislature, serving in this capacity until 1878. He was the Repub- lican candidate for a Delegate to Congress in 1864, '67 and '86; was delegate to the Republican national con- vention in 1868, '72, '76, and '84. In 1872 he declined the position of United States District Attorney and con- tinued his practice of law. In 1884 he was one of the delegates to the Republican national convention, and in 1886 was defeated as Delegate to Congress by Joseph K. Toole. In 1889 he was nominated by the joint session as Republican candidate for United States Senator, and was

doing much development work on a number of mines. The Orphan Girl is worked to the depth of 400 feet. The East Grey Rock is down 1,300 feet. The Silver Bow No. 1 has a three compartment shaft down 1,000 feet. The drifting and stoping are extensive. The Parrot has been worked some fourteen years, and the shaft levels and stopes are extensive. This company has a mill and a smelter.

The Glengarry is opened to the depth of 500 500 feet, and the levels and stopes are very ex- tensive. The Mountain Chief is worked to the depth of some 600 feet, and shows a good de- velopment of ore. The Lexington mine has been worked for nearly twent years. The main shaft is down 1,500 feet, has a three compart- ment shaft. Vast quantities of ore have been taken out and worked, but is now elosed down. The Lexington mill has sixty stamps. The

elected as one of the first two senators from the State of Montana, receiving a short term and serving until March, 1893.

It will thus be seen that Colonel Sanders has entered very largely into the affairs of this great State of the West. He has occupied some position of prominence or importance in its affairs ever since his arrival in 1863. The Senatorial contests in this State have been the hardest-fought battles known to American politics. In 1890 four candidates contested for the position,-the two organizations convening in separate session, each claim- ing a quorum, one on the strength of a fraud in one precinct, which, if thrown out, gave it to them, the other side with this precinct still holding the balancing power. After a long, legal controversy, which was carried into the courts, a decision was rendered in favor of the Repub- lican candidates and they were seated by the Republican Senate. In the dead-lock of 1893 Mr. Sanders was a prominent contestant. The first Republican cauens nominated him, giving him the thirty-three Republican votes of the joint assembly. On the last day he received one Democratic vote, but another caucus gave the nom- ination to Lee Mantle, of Butte, where it remained until the close of session. (The full account of the dead-lock will be found in the general political history, to which chapters are devoted in this volume.) Colonel Sanders has been for twenty five years president of the Historical Society of Montana, and is president of the Board of Trustees of Montana University. In 1868 he was Grand Master of the Grand Lodgeof Free and Accepted Masons.

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

Gambetta mine is developed to the depth of 500 feet. It has had some bad work, but the good ore has caused improved work.

The Oro Butte, Dispatch, Vulcan and Ophir mines are well developed to the depth of from 300 to 500 feet, and there ores were treated at the Butte Sampling Works and elsewhere.

The Little St. Laurence, Eveline, Germania, Ella, Spur and General Sheridan mines are worked to depths varying from 200 to 500 feet, and fairly well develsped. The Brittania mine, J. O. Hudnnt, superintendent, has a shaft down 150 feet, two levels and stopes. The ore was treated by the Butte Sampling Works. Many of the Great mines of Silver Bow are in the surrounding settlements.

The city of Walkerville has the Alice, Moul- ton, Blue Wing, Lexington, Belle of Bntte, Grey Rock, Magna Charta, Black Rock and many others.

Burlington has the Blue Bird, Nettie, Moody & Sankey, Republic and other mines. The Blue Bird mill is at Rocker.

Meaderville has the East Colusa, West Colusa and several of the smelters.

Centerville has the High Ore, Mountain View, Mountain Consolidated and other mines. A visit to this great camp now in the depressed state of the silver interest might surprise one to see so much activity,-so many men in the mines, and so many with money to buy a Butte mine. All still have faith in the "Greatest Mining Camp in the World."

MONTANA COAL.

The coals of Montana, with the exception of some unimportant lignite beds, belong to a series of rocks of great thickness, known as the Lignitic Group. Some call them Cretaceons, while others declare them Tertiary. The plants in them appear to place them in one formation

and the animals in the other age. Hence Dana and other geologists place these rocks in an age by themselves, between the Tertiary and Cre- tacions. Other geologists, ignoring Dana's classification, put these coal rocks in the Cre- tacions or the Tertiary, as appeared to them the most appropriate.

The development of coal and lignite is very great in many places in Montana, but in none of these numerous places has the full extent of the coal been determined. Large Quantities have been taken out of Sand Coulee and Rock creek, Timberline and Belt creek.

MONTANA COAL FIELDS.

According to the present development the coal areas of Montana are very numerous, but future developments may show that some of these are put parts of the same coal area; as the beds opened on Birch creek and on the Dry fork of the Marias. According to our present knowledge there are coal areas at Buford and coal banks on the Missouri, on Birch creek, on Dry fork of the Marias, and on Sun river, four miles sonth of Sun River Crossing. In a coulee four miles south of Snn River Crossing, and the same bed in the bluffs of the Missouri three miles further south, the same bed crops out on the northeast side of Sun river for several miles.

It may be most useful to treat the coals of Montana by counties; as locations will be better understood.

CASCADE COUNTY COAL.

Cascade county, while it has a scant supply of timber, save in the Highwood and a part of Little Belt mountains, is favored with a vast amount of excellent coal, well distributed over the county. Coal beds have been opened on both sides of Sun river, below Sun River Cross- ing; on Mnddy creek; in the Missonri river bluffs, north of Ulm; on Willow creek; on

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

Hound creek; on Deep creek, both above and below the mouth of Hound creek; in Sand Coulee; on Belt creek, and on Otter creek.

Following is a comparative analysis:

Coal ....

Sand Coulee

Coal ....

Conn'lIsville

Coal ....

Pittsburg

Specific gravity.

1.24

1.28

1.25

Water at 212 degrees F

3.98

4.50

3.00

Gas or volatile matter

33.15

24.00

33.76

Fixed carbon.

57.05

65.00

54 93

Ash white.

5.83

6.50

7.07

Coke ...

62.88

71.50

62.00

Weight per cubic foot.

77.50

80.00

78.12

The above table shows the ingredients of the bright coking part of the Sand Coulee coal, to- gether with the very celebrated Connellsville coal of Pennsylvania, so esteemed for making coke for foundry uses, and the well-known Pitts- burg coal, so generally used in the gas works of the country.

The same coal bed found on Deep creek and Sand Coulee has been opened in several places on Belt creek at Belt City. The position of the coal bed is nearly horizontal, and sufficiently above the bottom lands to be mined and put in cars and wagons at very low rates, nearly as above described in Sand Coulee coal. The quantity and quality of the coal on Belt creek is the same as that at Sand Coulee. In fact, it seldom happens that the coal in two localities on the same bed so far apart as Sand Conlee and Belt creek, agree so perfectly in position, thickness and character of the vein, and in quantity and quality of the coals, and facilities for working.

There are two coal beds in the bluffs on the south side of Sun river, two miles below the Crossing. One of these beds is four feet thick and of medium quality. The other bed is thin and would not pay for working while labor and coal command present prices. These beds are

nearly horizontal and sufficiently high above water to be worked with ease. A bed of coal similar to that on Sun river crops out in the bluffs of the Missouri below Ulm. It also comes to the surface in a conlee between Sun river and the Missouri. These facts, in connec- tion with the horizontal position of the rocks between Sun river and the Missouri, indicate the continuation of these beds of coal in the bench of those rivers.

A coal bed also crops out in the bluffs on the northeast side of Sun river in places for several miles. This coal bed doubtless underlies a large area in the bench lands to the north and east.

One or two beds of coal similar to those on Sun river have been opened in several places on Muddy creek, in the northern part of the county. These beds will be useful to supply the local demands for domestic uses.

The coal beds at Belt creek, at Sand Coulee and on Deep creek will yield 6,000,000 tons per square mile. As the area underlaid by this coal at each of these locations has not been de- termined, it is impossible to tell how many square miles have it.

The Cascade coal mines are situated in the midst of a vast prairie country, which is rapidly filling up with a teeming and industrious pop- ulation, whose homes must be warmed and lighted, whose factories, whose railroad trains, and whose machinery of all kinds must be pro- pelled by coal. These mines are seventy miles from the nearest timber on the west, and three hundred miles from the nearest available timber en the north, six hundred miles from the near . est accessible bodies of timber in Minnesota, and with very little timber and none to spare even to the Gulf of Mexico on the sonth. And this in the midst of a building, manufacturing

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

and mining population, and vast systems of rail- roads, which will soon exhaust all available sup- plies of timber and be wholly dependent upon our coal beds for fuel. And all this present and prospective growth of populations and in- dustries is under the forty-seventh parallel of north latitude, where we sometimes feel the frozen breath of the polar bear.

CHOTEAU COUNTY.

Milk River coal mines have been worked for several years to supply Fort Asssiniboine and other local demands. The coal underlies a large area of country on the northwestern side of Bear Paw mountains and is practically inex- hanstible. Some think it the same coal as that at Sand Coulee and Belt creek.

There are several extensive coal beds at Coal Banks on the Missouri. The earliest steamers that ascended the Missouri to Benton used these coals, but they did not prove satisfactory. Fu- ture developments will show the value of these extensive deposits of fnel.

Coal is also reported in the Little Rockies. It is said to be good and abundant.

CUSTER COUNTY.

The Miles City coal-field, which lies on the south of the Yellowstone and west of Tongue river, furnishes an abundant supply of cheap fnel for Miles City and the surrounding coun- try. Just how extensive these coal beds are and how much coal they will furnish, is not fully known. They have as yet given no indi- cations of petering out.

The Pumpkin Creek coal-field is another coal area in Custer county on S. L. creek, an eastern branch of Pumpkin creek, and sixty miles south of Miles City. This coal series has one bed of good coal fourteen to sixteen feet. thick and sev- eral thin beds. This bed is very important in a county of scant timber and it has been opened and worked for local uses.

Pumpkin creek coal gives the following as- say, in comparison with Rocky fork coal and Rock Spring coal in Wyoming:

Creek Coal ..

Pumpkin

Coal ....

Rocky Fork

Coal ....

Rock Spring

Specific gravity

1.36

1.32

1.28

Moisture at 212 degrees F.

12.45

2.50

1.30

Volatile matter

47.10

46.12

49.80

Fixed carbon.

34.45

46.20

42.80

Ash ..

6.00

6.01

7.40

Weight per cubic foot

85.00

82.50

80.00

The Little Pumpkin creek coal-field has a coal bed twelve feet thick on Little Pumpkin creek, about twenty miles northwest of the S. L. creek mines.

Powder river coal mines are on Powder river near the boundary between Montana and Wy- oming. But little is known of this coal-field. Those who have seen it are favorably impressed.

Coal has been discovered in T. 7 N. R. 41 E., T. 8 N. R. 44 E., and in T. 10 N. R. 48 E., on the north side of the Yellowstone; and in T. 6 N. R. 48 E., east of Tongue river.

Rosebud coal-field is situated in T. 5 N. Rs. 41 and 42 E., and T. 2 N. Rs. 41 and 42 E., on the west side of Rosebud river.

DAWSON COUNTY

Has large areas of coal not yet developed and proved up so as to enable me to give them special mention in these pages. But it is safe to say that the geological structure of Dawson county is such that we can predict an abundant supply of mineral fuel to meet all the future wants of a great grazing and agricultural popu- lation.

A coal bed has been opened at the mouth of the Yellowstone, which appears to contain an abundance of good fuel.

DEER LODGE COUNTY.

The Mullan Tunnel coal-bed is in an alpine valley just west of the Mullan Tunnel. The

Albert Kleinschick

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HISTORY OF MONTANA.

lower part of this coal bed is very similar to that at Sand Coulee. It has been worked and the coal shipped to Helena. This bed is high in the mountains and we would expect it to be changed to anthracite by the heat developed in forming the mountain. But when the monn- tain was elevated, this coal and the containing rocks were lifted bodily and kept on the surface where internal heat did not reach them in suffi- cient force to produce metamorphic roeks and change bituminons coal to anthracite. The bed is six or eight feet thick and about half of it is very good.

This coal and the containing rocks formed a part of the horizontal surface strata before the mountains were pushed np through then. Hence we may expect that these same rocks and the coal bed in them still lie in the valleys ou both sides of the mountains nndisturbed. But, if there, they are covered deep beneath the Tertiary and Quaternary rocks deposited by the lakes that filled these valleys for many ages after the mountains were formed, and which

were finally drained through the Gate of the Mountains on the east side and through Hell Gate on the west side.

We have in several places in Montana exten- sive beds of rocks of nearly the same age as this coal, lying nearly horizontal, high np in the moutains; as may be seen sonth of Cook City and on the head waters of the Sun river.

FERGUS COUNTY.

There are several very important coal fields in Fergus county. One extending from Fol- som creek across Swimming Woman's creek to Careless creek some twenty miles in length; one near Fort Maginnis; one six miles northwest of Maiden; one at Plum creek, north of Moccasin mountain; and another extending from the Judith river aeross Sage, Willow, Skull and Wolf ereeks, in a northwestern direction. These extensive coal regions have been but little ex- plored and worked, but enough has been done to show they contain vast quantities of available coal suitable for all ordinary nses.

The Judith river coal-bed, extending from

ALBERT KLEINSCHMIDT .-- We are now permitted to di- reet attention in a brief way to the life history of one who stands as an honored and representative business man of Helena,-Albert Kleinschmidt, a member of the merean- tile firm of Kleinschmidt Brothers.

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An illustrated history of the state of Montana, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 161

Author: Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913. cn Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913. cn
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1216