USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 15
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TAME MOUNTAIN SHEEP
On this trip we saw for the first time a bunch of mountain sheep in the vicinity of Sherman. They were some five hundred yards from the road when first sighted and quite near a ranch we had just passed. On seeing us they be- came very curious, perhaps on account of our children, and walked quietly toward the wagon until they reached a knoll looking down upon us about fifty yards away. There they stopped, a big buck in the front with massive horns and five ewes grouped around him. I stopped the team, got out my rifle, they watch- ing us and I them. I got a bead on the big buck and was about to fire, when my wife said, "They can't be wild mountain sheep. They're too tame. They must be some breed of goats belonging to that ranch we passed. I wouldn't shoot them." We discussed the matter, the sheep still looking and wondering what on earth we were there for. As I put away the gun and continued the journey the sheep turned around and quietly walked away. If any visitor at our apartments fails to see that splendid pair of big horns on the walls they can blame Mrs. Bartlett for her mistaken opinions and merciful kindness.
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A SPASMODIC MINING CAMP
Incidental to this trip we visited Teller City, a new mining camp where great gold discoveries had just been reported. There was a great rush there. A town had been laid out in the timber and many houses, shacks and cabins were being built. A new hotel, roughly constructed of pine boards, was being built and I applied for a room. The proprietor said all the completed rooms were taken, but explained that the carpenters would have another room enclosed by night if we wanted to take it. We took it and the room was built round us during the day. The windows and door were put in and the boarding of the walls completed while we occupied the room. It was the first time I had ever seen a room "built around you while you wait." That night we had a grand reception. The mountains on the east were lit up by a great forest fire making a scene almost terrific in grandeur.
Another thing-in laying out the streets a great many pine trees had to be cut down. Therefore the streets and roadways were full of stumps and it re- quired the utmost skill in a driver to get through without smashing a wagon or breaking the horses' legs. Therefore, there were many stump speeches made, brief and emphatic, interlarded with "strange oaths" unfit for publication. However, we escaped safely with our team and our morals.
A FAKE LYNCHING
Going back a little, on our way to North Park we visited Cumming's City on the Laramie River, near Jelm Mountain. It was then the most noted mining camp in Wyoming and had among its population of gold hunters, many who afterward became Wyoming's most prominent citizens and officials. Bill Nye was one who made the camp the scene of some of his most excruciating stories. Judge Groesbeck, who afterwards became chief justice of the State Supreme Court, was another. Judge Bramel, who was at that time an enthusiastic mining pioneer was among the choice spirits of this camp. Women and children were rare in the camp and our coming through as campers attracted a great deal of interest. We put up at the big hotel and were invited around to see the wonderful gold mines, some of them capitalized at $1,000,000. Everybody seemed bent on making our visit enjoyable. The extent to which this effort was carried was seen the next morning. We started quite early to continue our journey. When about half a mile out, on turning a bend in the road, we saw suspended from the limb of a tree which stretched to the middle of the road, a man with a rope round his neck. The horses also saw the figure and stopped suddenly. They had evidently never seen a man suspended high in mid-air with no foundation for his feet. They snorted and pawed and really wanted to go back, although we were yet a hundred yards away. Before going after the coroner I concluded to make a closer examina- tion, first turning the horses around so they wouldn't cramp the wagon. I walked down to the place where the figure hung and found it was a well dressed dummy.
Afterwards I learned that the miners got up this little show for our enter- tainment. Things had been rather quiet with them for a week, no shooting scrapes or lynchings, and they wanted to liven up matters and give us a sample
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of what life in a genuine mining camp should be. We were entertained all right, but had the time of our lives trying to drive the horses under that suspended figure.
A REAL FISH STORY
In 1881 I assisted in organizing the Wyoming Copper Company and as one of the officers of the company went to Fairbank where we erected a copper furnace and buildings connected with the smelting works. Colonel Babbitt, a prominent cattleman, was the leading spirit of the enterprise and he had interested several Chicago millionaires in it, among them George M. Pullman and N. K. Fairbank and we gave our smelter settlement the name of the latter gentleman.
The smelter was located on the banks of Platte River at the mouth of the canyon about one mile and a half above Guernsey. It had been noted as the finest pike fishing resort on the river and was a favorite place for the sport of United States officers from Fort Laramie, which was then garrisoned and was the principal army post of the department.
One day Superintendent Bartlett (no relation) and myself looking down the river, saw an immense school of pike swimming up, their fins agitating the surface with dimpling waves. They kept in the center of the stream, and we could not reach them with poles. Accordingly we improvised a raft, having plenty of lumber and tools, rigged up our lines, got some fresh meat for bait and secured some heavy irons for an anchor. Taking one of our big ore tubs we placed it in the center of the raft and anchored in mid-stream where the water was alive around us. We had two hooks on each line and as soon as they were dropped they were grabbed by the hungry fish, and we hauled them in two at a time until the tub was nearly full and we were exhausted by our efforts and the excitement of the catch.
THE OLD CABIN HOME
Soon after the smelter was erected I built the first log cabin at Fairbank and brought my family up from Cheyenne. It was located in a most beautiful spot close to the river in a grove of cottonwood and boxelder trees. It was at the mouth of the canyon whose precipitous walls of red sandstone intermingled with strata of white limestone towered in prismatic beauty, and when shone upon by the sun were brilliant with nature's architectural effects. Just above the cabin the rapids plunged over a rocky bed and the murmer of the falling water was continuous music in our ears. Fremont on his first expedition camped across the canyon close by the side of our home, and in his report gives a glowing description of its scenic beauties.
The serpent entered this Eden, but without his ancient fascination. In the summer time the doors and windows were open. On two occasions we captured rattlesnakes that had entered the house and one time we got two big bull snakes who were making a home under the bed, lying in wake for mice. The bull snake is harmless but so much resembles a rattler that any tenderfoot will be deceived.
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GOOD RUNNING TIME
It is the unexpected that happens-sometimes. One day I was sitting in our office and laboratory building. Franklin Getterman, our chemist, sat at the desk writing. Suddenly a hugh bull snake dropped down "kerplunk," on the desk before him. He gave a yell and in about two jumps landed himself outside the door. For about two hundred yards he made as good time as I ever saw. The snake had crawled in under the eaves and was crawling over the loose boards of the ceiling when he fell. Getterman was a recent graduate from Freiburg, Germany, and if he had died of heart failure then the world would have lost a remarkable man, as he is now the president and general manager of the American Smelting Company, the largest smelting organization in existence.
THE PLAYFUL MOUNTAIN RAT
Shortly after we moved into the cabin, a family of mountain rats also moved in and occupied the space between the pole roof and the canvas ceiling stretched below. These animals are playful and humorous. They have several games, one especially that interested the children. They had a collection of little stones and ciay balls that they would bring to the ridge pole and then roll them down to the eaves and scamper after them. Then they would bring them up again and continue the sport. Then they had another game that I judge were wrestling matches. They would tumble around, roll over and squeal with joy. We finally killed two of them and the others took the hint and quit the premises disgusted with our inhospitality.
SPEAKING OF SKUNKS
Speaking of skunks, a colony of these interesting animals made their homes in a limestone ledge near our cabin. Limestone formations here are marked by many caves and openings extending in irregular passages through the rock. These afford ideal homes for skunks and rattlesnakes, while the larger caves are ap- propriated by mountain lions. The skunk is a handsome animal, and is also quite friendly and fearless. When not attacked they are harmless. Although moonlight nights were their favorite excursion hours, they often came around the house and under the house in the day time without any fear and usually inspected the remains of food thrown out from the kitchen. We finally killed three or four and smoked out a whole colony in the rocks, after which they quit us. If their skins had been as valuable then as now. I could have started a skunk farm and been rich enough probably to start a peace expedition to Europe 'by this time. Mountain lions were quite plentiful up the canyon and many were killed within a mile or two of our cabin :.
THE LOST CABIN GOLD PLACERS
The Lost Cabin mines of Wyoming have long been the subject of much con- jecture and romantic fiction. The true history of this famous find and the ac- companying adventures of those who participated in it was given me when I was.
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living in Washington in 1894, by Charles Clay, one of Wyoming's prominent and honored frontiersmen.
Mr. Clay was one of the pioneers and like Judge Gibson Clark and John Hunton was at one time employed at the post trader's store at Fort Laramie as clerk and assistant. Afterward he engaged in freighting. When the town of Douglas was located he opened a general store and for several years did the leading business there. Later he was elected county treasurer for two or three terms. He came to Washington, D. C., with a view of pushing a claim of losses sustained by Indian depredations, and having access to the Government departments I had the pleasure of giving him some assistance. We spent several evenings together, and as I was becoming interested in mining ventures and he was familiar with the placer grounds worked by the old gold miners, our conversation drifted that way. One evening just before he left Washington he said to me :
"I am going to tell you what I know about the Lost Cabin mines. I have kept the story to myself for nearly forty years expecting to go personally and locate the place, but something has always come up to prevent giving it my time and money. I think you can find it, and all I ask is give me a show in the find."
I have kept the story sub rosa for twenty years but now release it, trusting the directions given will enable some prospector to locate these rich placers, and I leave it entirely to him as to whether he owes me anything for the information. This is the story :
The Lost Cabin gold placers were discovered in the fall of 1865, and were worked three days by seven men from the Black Hills country. Five of the seven men were killed by the Indians. Two escaped and brought away seven thousand dollars in coarse gold. Since that time no effort for the discovery of the place has been successful although many attempts have been made by small and large parties to reach these wonderfully rich placers where the gold could almost literally be picked up from the ground. Under a treaty made by the Government with the powerful Indian tribes then occupying this territory they were given undisturbed possession of this area for many years and all white men were warned not to invade their hunting grounds.
Mr. Clay said that the two men who escaped came into Fort Laramie and as soon as they got in went to the Sutler's store and asked him to put their gold in the safe. In doing this they confided to him the story of the find and the fortunes of the expedition. This was in October, 1865. Early in that month the two men reached old Fort Reno at the point which is now the crossing of Powder River. They arrived there in a terribly weak and exhausted condition. They explained that they had belonged to a party of seven gold prospectors who went into the Big Horn Mountains on their eastern slope from the Black Hills of Dakota. They traveled along the base of the range in a southwestern direction, prospecting and testing the ground at all points where the streams came down from the mountains until they reached a park surrounded by heavy timber through which ran a bold and swift mountain stream, and which a few yards below joined a larger stream. Here they found rich signs of the yellow metal and on digging down struck bed rock at a depth of three or four feet where gold was very plentiful and coarse, with many good sized nuggets.
They immediately went into camp having tools and grub in addition to the wild game they had hunted which was then very plentiful. They had brought two pack
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animals to carry their tools and supplies. Among the tools was a big log saw especially valuable to gold miners, and they soon sawed the logs they needed to construct a flume. In two days by almost continuous hard work they also built a substantial log cabin. They then began to dig and wash out the gold in good earnest.
Late one afternoon on the third day they were suddenly surprised and attacked by Indians. It seemed to be a large band but they were almost concealed by the surrounding timber. The men fought as best they could until nightfall, but being in the open were at such disadvantage that five of their number were killed. The Indians would not expose themselves. The night was cloudy and as it soon became very dark the two men who had not been hurt gathered up the gold and succeeded in escaping without being seen by the Indians.
In addition to the gold, they carried their arms and some grub. Traveling on foot they put as much distance as they could between themselves and their foes during the first night and in the morning hid themselves among the trees where they remained until night came on. They then continued their journey not knowing where they were going. After three nights of continuous walking they reached Fort Reno, where there was a small garrison of United States soldiers stationed to protect the old trail and furnish a camp for settlers driven out by the Indians. They told their story to the lieutenant in command, but he did not credit it fully. About that time there had been a number of desertions of soldiers who wanted to hunt for gold and were willing to face dangers in the quest, so he held them under guard and sent them with a detachment and wagon train then about to leave for Fort Fetterman. When they reached Fort Fetterman, the com- manding officer had them under investigation and becoming convinced of the truth of their story allowed them to go to Fort Laramie with the next military wagon train departing for that point.
AT FORT LARAMIE
The two men spent the winter at Fort Laramie. When they brought the gold to Mr. Clay at the post trader's store it was in three baking powder cans. He put it in the safe where it remained until their departure from the fort. The men were Swedes and spoke broken English. They were practically ignorant of the country they passed through so far as the names of mountains and streams were involved, but could describe the topography and general aspect of the region through which they had traveled. As spring approached they determined to go back and brave new dangers to find their lost cabin and gold field. In order to insure success in their search, they decided to go back to the Black Hills and start anew over the same route they first took. Mr. Clay says they organized a new party in the Black Hills and started out on the old trail but that nothing was heard from them after they had reached the mountains of Wyoming and in all probability they were killed by the Indians.
OTHER EXPEDITIONS FORMED
As the knowledge of the famous discovery spread through Fort Laramie and among the settlers in the vicinity one of those big gold excitements characteristic
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of pioneer days resulted and many plans were formed by different parties to start prospecting expeditions to search for the lost cabin. The largest party was organized by Colonel Bullock, at that time post trader at the fort. Fort Laramie was then the most important post in the great northwest and was the headquarters of a large number of frontiersmen, hunters, trappers, scouts, army contractors and their employees, in addition to the army garrison. It was the midway resting place of numerous caravans of emigrants following the great Overland Trail to California and from these sources Colonel Bullock raised a company of one hundred and fifty men who were duly enlisted and officered. All preparations were made to start when the project came to the notice of the commanding officer of the department at Omaha. In view of the impending Indian wars an order was issued forbidding the expedition and if necessary ordering out the military forces to stop it.
For the next twelve or thirteen years it was unsafe for any party to go into that region as the Indians were very numerous and powerful, as well as generally hostile, so that the mystery that hung over the Lost Cabin mines was not lifted and hangs over them to this day, with the exception of this rift of light that comes from Charley Clay's narrative.
JOHN HUNTON AND FORT LARAMIE
To have lived in Wyoming from the organization of the territory down to the present day is indeed a rare privilege. John Hunton of Fort Laramie, who came into this state with a freight train from Julesburg before Cheyenne was on the map, and has since been prominently identified with the various phases of frontier development, as post trader, contractor, ranchman and engineer, has had that notable experience. He is especially identified with the history of Fort Laramie.
It would be difficult to put into cold type the interesting episodes of his life and of the early settlers who were in his group of comrades, like Colin Hunter, Hi Kelley, E. W. Whitcomb, Dan McUlvan and Gibson Clark, but his story is so typical of early days in Wyoming that the writer journeyed to Fort Laramie in May. 1918, to get from his own lips a relation, that only he could give.
Mr. Hunton was born in Madison County, Va., in the Blue Ridge Mountain. June 18, 1839. His father and mother, Alexander and Elizabeth (Carpenter) Hunton, were among the oldest, historic families of the South and it was natural that John should be among the first to join the Confederate army and remain in its ranks as a fighting man till the surrender at Appomattox. Even before the Civil war, Mr. Hunton, as one of the Virginia State Guards, was on duty at Charlestown. Va., eight miles from Harper's Ferry with four thousand of the guard, when John Brown was hung. Later, he was in Pickett's famous charge at Gettysburg.
He left home in the early spring of 1867. and went to Julesburg. Colo. From there he went to Fort Russell with a freight train carrying finished lumber to use in building Fort Russell, then a military camp established to protect the men engaged in building the Union Pacific Railroad. The camp had been started with the construction of log buildings and when the Government had decided to establish the fort, finished lumber and improved equipment was freighted in. This was before Cheyenne was started.
JOHN HUNTON
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In June, young Hunton went to Fort Laramie and was employed at the sutler's store as a roustabout by Seth E. Ward, who was then post trader. Later on he en- gaged as clerk, freighter and contractor, continuing at the fort under the sutlership of William G. Bullock, who had Benjamin B. Mills as his chief clerk in charge of the business. At this time Gibson Clark and Charles Clay were also employed as clerks and assistants. In those early days Fort Laramie was one of the im- portant Indian trading posts of the west, being the favorite center of traffic of numerous tribes, and of the most noted hunters and fur traders of that whole region. It was the headquarters of Bordeaux, Bissonett, Rishaw (Richard) Brothers, Pourier, Little and Big Bat ( Baptiste) Jim Bridger, and other noted scouts. The Sioux and Cheyennes ranged all over the country from north of the Platte to Cache La Poudre in Colorado. Many of the furs and hides were shipped to Robert Campbell who had a large establishment at St. Louis and was one of the most noted fur traders of that day. When in the West, Campbell made Fort Laramie his headquarters.
Mr. Hunton knew personally some of the most famous Indian chiefs of that day, such as Red Cloud, Otter Tail, American Horse, Spotted Tail and Young- man-Afraid-of-his-Horse, and attended many of their conferences and treaty councils. In the famous Treaty of 1868, Mr. Hunton was a witness to the names of the Indian chiefs, their signatures being a cross mark. Mr. Hunton remained at the fort till October, 1870. For several months while there he roomed with Jim Bridger, the famous guide and scout. In 1874 he established the S. O. Ranch and put in a herd of cattle at a point where the Overland Trail crossed the Box Elder, about twelve miles west of Fort Fetterman. This ranch passed through various hands till it was finally sold to Judge Carey and has since become one of the great farm and ranch establishments of the state.
At various times Mr. Hunton engaged in contracting with the Government for hay, wood and beef at Fort Laramie, Fort Fetterman and Fort McKinney, finally located a home ranch at Bordeaux and engaged extensively in the cattle business in that section. For several years "Hunton's," as the place was known then, being on the Fort Laramie and Black Hills Trail, accommodated travelers, stock men, cowboys, Black Hills gold hunters, soldiers and Government freighters with meals and supplies as a road station and stopping place.
Roving bands of Indians remained in that section till 1877, stealing stock and occasionally "sniping" a settler. While at Bordeaux, Mr. Hunton's brother James, was killed by the Indians. That was in 1876. About this time the road agents and horse thieves became numerous on the Black Hills road and the treasure coaches with their passengers were frequently held up and robbed. These were exciting times and the Cheyenne-Fort Laramie Road was the most frequented and best traveled route in the Mountain West.
In 1888 Mr. Hunton was appointed post trader at Fort Laramie succeeding John London. He held that position till the order was issued abandoning the fort, the last Government troops leaving the garrison April 20, 1890. The order of abandonment was issued in March, 1890, and shortly thereafter two public sales were made, one in March of the army material accumulated there, and one in April of the Government buildings. The reservation lands excepting forty acres where Mr. Hunton had his sutler's store, his residence and various other buildings he had erected at his own expense were thrown open to homestead settlement.
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A special act of Congress granted him the privilege of purchasing this forty acre tract at one dollar and a quarter per acre.
The reservation lands covered an area of six miles east and west by nine miles north and south, or fifty-four square miles. The best portion of this land was soon taken up by homestead settlements and Mr. Hunton by homesteading and purchase of choice land at the center of the post secured several hundred acres through which a canal was built making a beautiful ranch home with fertile lands and the picturesque scenes of his early life in Wyoming.
Mr. Hunton also acquired the Bullock Ranch, one of the most valuable ranches on Laramie River, which is now known as "Gray Rocks." In the meantime Mr. Hunton and his wife have made their home at Fort Laramie where all around them a rich agricultural region is being developed under the Interstate and Laramie canals recently constructed by the United States Reclamation Service, on each side of Platte River, from the Whalen Dam about five miles above Fort Laramie. Mr. Hunton has the distinction as an engineer, of individually making the original survey for the Whalen Dam and Canal System which became the basis of a Government reclamation project that cost over eleven million dollars, including the Nebraska canals.
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