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Full text of "An illustrated history of the Yellowstone Valley : embracing the counties of Park, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Yellowstone, Rosebud, Custer and Dawson, state of Montana"

^. r.o v^.oTrM 3 1833 01 103 4854 
PSYNOLDS HSSTOl 
GENEALOGY COLLtCTlON 



Gc 

978.6 
1/6 
1783790 



AN 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



OF 



THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY 



EMBRACING 



THE COUNTIES OF PARK, SWEET GRASS, CARBON, 

YELLOWSTONE, ROSEBUD, CUSTER 

AND DAWSON 



STATE OF MONTANA 



WESTERN HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

SPOKANE, WASHINGTON 



irsoTso 



ACKMOWLEDGMCK'T 



nT is impossible to mention individually each one who has assisted to 
produce this book, therefore we make use of this general method of 
extending our thanks to each and ever}- one who have so kindly given 
information or pointed out where we might obtain it. The hearty and 
ready responses to our requests lead us to believe the people are deeply 
interested in having the history correct. To this end we have labored as 
faithfully as as we could do and trust the results will be found worthy of 
approval. 

One of our presidents has said: " The best heritage the pioneer can leave 
to future generations is the simple yet powerful story of his life; of hardships 
endured, of dangers passed, and the final victory over wilderness and desert 
plain." In the spirit of this excellent quotation our work has been carried 
forward and we now pass it to a generous and intelligent public. 

The Publishers 



ENDORSEMENTS 



Livingston, Montana. 
Having read, in manuscript form, the histon,' of Park county, Montana, which is to be a part of the 
volume entitled, "History of the Yellowstone Valley," to be published by the Western Historical Publishing 
Company, of Spokane. Washington, we certify that, to the best of our knowledge and belief, the work is sub- 
stantially accurate, authentic and complete, forming a standard and reliable record of events from the earliest 
.days of exploration and settlement to the present time. .\s such we endorse it and commend it to the people 
of Park County. 

Signed, 

S. L. HoLLIDAY, 

Frank Henry, 
Alfred Myers. 



Big Timber, Montana. 
W.'. the undersigned, a committee of citizens of Sweet Grass county, have read, in manuscript form, 
that part of the "History of the Yellowstone Valley" relating to Sweet Grass county, to be published by the 
Western Historical Publishing Company, of Spokane, Washington. The work bears evidence of extensive 
research and a careful compilation of data relating to the history of our county, and is a clear, comprehen- 
sive and accurate record of events in this county from the arrival of the first white men to the present time. 
As such we endorse and commend it as substantially accurate. 

Signed, 

Thos. K. Lee, 

A. G. Yule, 

Mrs. C. T. Busha. 



Red Lodge, Montana. 



We. tlic undersigned citizens of Carbon county, hereby certify that we have examined with care that 
portion of the "History of the Yellowstone Valley," that relates to Carbon county, which is to be published 
by the Western Historical Publishing Company of Spokane, Washington, and we cheerfully endorse it as 
being a true and comprehensive narration of facts as they occurred, to the best of our knowledge. 



Signed. 

W. A. Talmace, 
D. G. O'Shea, 

J. E. MUSHBACH. 



ENDORSEMENTS 



Billings, Montana. 
The undersigned, a committee of Yellowstone county. Montana, citizens, have examined so much of the 
"History of the Yellowstone Valley" as relates exclusively to Yellowstone county, which work is to be 
published by the Western Historical Publishing Company, of Spokane. Washington. We find the history to be 
a substantially accurate and comprehensive record of events of this county from the time of the earliest ex- 
plorers up to the present day, and as such we endorse it. 

Signed, 



Fred H. Foster, 
J. M. V. Cochran, 
J. D. Matheson. 



Forsyth. Montana. 
We, the undersigned citizens of Rosebud county, Montana, having examined that part of the "History 
of the Yellowstone Valley," which relates to Rosebud county, and is to be published by the Western Histor- 
ical Publishing Company, hereby certify that it is a true and comprehensive narration of facts, and as such we 
endorse it. 

Signed, 

Jereml-\h F. Crimmins. 
T. J. Thompson, 
Thos. Alexanper. 



Miles City, Montana. 
We, the undersigned citizens of Custer county, Montana, having been selected as a committee to ex- 
amine the manuscript of the history of this county to be published by the Western Historical Publishing 
Company, hereby endorse it as an authentic and comprehensive record of events from the earliest days of set- 
tlement of this county to the present time; and we cheerfully commend it as reliable and worthy. 

Signed, 

W. F. Schmalsle, 
H. C. Thompson, 
Mary E. Savage. 



Glendive, Montana. 

We, the undersigned citizens of Dawson county, Montana, certify that we have examined that portion 
of the "History of the Yellowstone Valley," which relates to Dawson county, and which is to be published by 
the Western Historical Publishing Company, of Spokane, Washington, and we hereby endorse it as an 
accurate and comprehensive record of events as they occurred in this territory. 

Signed, 

D. R. Mead, 
H. S. Davis, 
Henry Dion. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PART I 

HISTORY OF MONTANA. 

CHAPTER I. 

Dawn of Discovery. 

Spaniards First White Men to Visit Montana— Cabezo de Vaca 1535-36— John of Padilla 1537— Francisco 
Vasqiiez de Coronado 1541 — Juan Roderiquez Cabrillo in the Waters of the Smiling Pacific 1543 — 
M. de la Verandrye, French E.xplorer. Penetrates Country to Near Present Site of Helena T743 — 
Pierre Coquard. Historian of Verandrye E.xpedition— Expeditions of 1752-53— Jonathan Carver's 
Explorations 1766-68 i 

CH.APTER It. 

Mississippi to the Co.^st. 

Personnel of the Lewis and Clark Party — .Ascent of the Missouri Begun May 14, 1804^ Wintering at the 
Mandan Village— Sacaj a wea, the Bird Woman— At the Mouth of the Yellowstone— Up the Missouri— 
The Big Muddy— Milk River— The Musselshell— Windsor Creek— First View of the Rockies— Ju- 
dith's River — Slaughter River — Indecision as to the Right Course at the Mouth of Marias River — ■ 
.\rrival at the Great Palls of the Missouri— Through the Gates of the Rocky Mountains— .At the 
Three Forks — Up the Jefferson— .\cross the Continental Divide— Find the Headwaters of a Tributary 
of the Columbia — .'Xcross the Bitter Roots — To the Pacific Ocean — Return to Travelers' Rest June 30, 
1806 — The Return Journey .Across Montana 4 

CHAPTER III. 

The Indi.\n W,^RS. 

Most Disastrous Indian Battle nn Record, the Custer Massacre— Cause of the War— Force Sent to Sub- 
due tlic Hnsliles— Sioux Chiefs Sitting Bull. Crazy Horse. Gall. Black Moon and Low Dog— General 
Sheridan Conducted .Ml Directions— Plans for the Campaign— General Custer with the Seventh 
Cavalry Proceeds .Against Sitting Bull's Forces — Fighting bv Major Reno — Custer's Entire Command 
Killed— Not One Left to Tell the Story— Lieutenant Godfrey's .\rticle on the Battle— Fixing the Re- 
sponsibility-General Miles' Campaign After the Battle of the Little Big Horn— Defeat and Surrender 
of the Hostiles— The Messiah Craze of 1890— Death of Sitting Bull— The Nez Perce War- Cause of 
the Breaking Out of Hostilities— Thirteen Settlers Killed— Joseph Defeats Colonel Perry in First 
Battle— General Howard Engages the Nez Perce in Battle— Joseph's Masterly Retreat— He Defeats 
General Gibbon in Big Hole Valley— Captured by General Miles Near Bear Paw Mountains— De- 
portation to Indian Territory— Return to Northwest 22 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Fur Tk.\ders. 

Manuel Liza. First Montana Fur Trader, Leaves St. Louis in Spring of 1807— Establishes Fort Liza at 
Moutlh of Big Horn River— The First Buildifig Erected in Montana— The .Adventures of John Colter- 
Organization Missouri Fur Company. 1808-9— Fort at the Three Forks of the Missouri— The Com- 
pany Goes Out of Business— Rockv Mountain Fur Company Organized 182J— Posts Built at Mouth 
of Yellowstone and Mouth of Big Horn— Government's Expedition Under C.eneral Henry Atkm.son 
1825 a Failure— Changes in Management of the Rockv Mountain Fur Company and Disorganization 
—John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company Begins Operations in Montana 1828— Establishes Fort 
Union— Description of Fort— Winning the Blackfeet's Friendship— Estaljlishment Fort Piegan— .At- 
tacked by Bloods— Fort McKenzie— F. A. Cheardon Massacres Piegan Indians— Fort Cheardon— 
Fort Lewis— Fort Benton— Fort Campbell— Fort Van Ruren— Fort Cass— Fort .-Mexander- Fort Spary 
—Other Fur Companies and Trappers— Operations of the Hudson's Bay Company in Montana 34 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTER V. 
From Beaver Pelt to Ballot Box. 

Catholic Missionaries Take Up the Work in Montana— Father P. J. DeSmet Visits the Flathead Country 
1840— Comes Again Ne.xt Year, Accompanied by Fathers Nicholas Point and Gregory Mengarmi— 
Establishment St. Mary's Mission— Fathers Peter DeVoss and Adrian Hoeken Arrive 1843— St. 
Mary's Mission Abandoned 1850— John Owen Purchases the Property and Establishes Fort Owen— St 
Ignatius Mission Founded 1854— Settlers of the Early Fifties— Life in the Settlements in Bitter Root 
Valley and Hell Gate Ronde During Fifties— The Stuarts Arrive in Montana— Early Settlers East 
of Mountains — First Towns — Fort Benton — LaBarge City — Deer Lodge City — Bannack City — Virginia 
City — Helena^Butte — Philipsburg — Pioneer -Bozeman — Transportation and Emigration 47 

CHAPTER VL 

The Political Divisions. 

Montana Formed From Original Territory of Louisana and the "Oregon Country" — Louisiana Pur- 
chased by the United States — Territory of Orleans and District of Louisiana — Later Divisions of 
Original Louisiana Territory — Creation of Nebraska Territory , Dakota Territory, Idaho Territory — 
West of the Rockies — Tlie Oregon Controversy — -Creation of Oregon Territory — 'Washington Territory 
— ^Montana Territory Created May 26. 1864 — Those Instrumental in Creation of Territory — Bitter Root 
Valley Saved to Montana — Counties Formed by Early Washington Legislatures — Western Montana 
a Part of Clarke, Skamania. Walla Walla. Shoshone, Spokane and Missoula Counties — Montana 
Counties Created by Idaho Leoi-I.iturc — Counties Formed bv First Montana Legislature — Missoula — 
Deer Lodge — Beaver Head — Ma.li-ini — Ji-ffcrson — Edgerton (Lewis and Clark) — Gallatin — Choteau — 
Big Horn — Indefiniteness of C'luniy I'm nimlaries — Meagher — Dawson — Custer — Silver Bow — Yellow- 
stone — Fergus — Park — Cascade — Flathead — \'alley — Teton — Ravalli — Granite — Carbon — Sweet Grass — 
Broadwater — Powell — Rosebud — Sanders 60 

CHAPTER VII. 

History of Montana's Mines. 

Character of Montana's Mineral Deposits — Coal — Precious Stones — Presence of Precious Metals Known 
at Early Date— ■'Benetsee" the Discoverer of Gold in Montana— Prospectors of 1856— John Silver- 
thorne, the Mvsterious Miner — The Stuart Partv — "Gold Tcm" — Discovery of the Grasshopper Placers 
—Placer Mine's Found on Big Hole River. Xnrth Boulder Creek, Gold Creek, Deer Lodge— Rush to 
the Grasshopper Dicgings and Fnmidingof Bannack — Discoverv of the .-Mder Gulch Placers — Ex- 
tract from Henry Edgar's Diarv-The Big Stainprdc-The Most Pmlit^c Placer Ever Discovered on 
Earth— Founding of Virginia Citv— Population -t Ten rii,.usan,l Wiilini Xmety Days— Other Set- 
tlements in Alder Gulch— More Placer Discuiries ni \-icinity— Disc-viTv nf Last Chance Gulch- 
Story of the Discovery by R. Stanley — Rush to the New Mines — RattlcMiake District Formed — Found- 
ing of Helena — Selection of the Name — Other Gulches — Oro Fino. Grizzly. Nelson, Confederate. 
Ophir. McCIellan, First Chance. New York, Montana Bar— Placer Discoveries in the Butte Neigh- 
borhood-German Gulch— Elk Creek, Bear. Lincoln and Highland Gulches— Placers on Cedar Creek 
-Hydraulic Machinerv and Ditches- Amounts Taken from Placer Mines— Famous Nuggets- 
Quart? Miiiins:- First' Lode Worked— Mines and Mills of Bannack. Helena. Virginia Citv— Trout 
Creek, Tr^iw Creek. Silver Bow. Blackfoot and McCIellan Districts— Silver Mining— First E.x- 
periment Near Bannack— First Silver Mill— First Smelter— Lull in Mining Operations— History of 
the Butte Mines — Other Early Mining Districts— Montana's Production of Gold and Silver 71 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Reign of Terror. 

Condition of Society in Early Days— Arrival of Vanguard of Desperate Characters, Henry Phminier. 
Charlie Reeves, "Cyrus Skinner and .Augustus Moore— Organization of Road Agent Band— Personnel 
of the Band— Methods of Operating— Character of Henry Plummer— First Atrocity to Arouse Pub- 
lic Indignation to an Extent of Attempting to Mete out Punishment— .A Remarkable Trial— Toughs 
Control the Town of Bannack— Plan to Kill All Participating in the Trial— Murder of Dillingham 
—Miscarriage of Justice in Dealing with his Murderers— Graphic Description of Life in Bannack and 
Virginia City— Murder of Nicholas Tbalt by George Ives — Indignation of People .^roused- Trial and 
Execution o'f Ives— Effect of the Execution 93 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Vigilantes. 

A Reversal in Conditions— List of Men Executed by Visilantes- Organization of the Vigilance Society- 
Oath Taken— Pursuit of the Murderers Begins— Confession of Yager (Red)— Execution of (Jeorge 
Brown and Erastus Yager — Consternation Among the Lawless — Bannack Citizens Co-operate with the 



COXTEXTS. 



Virginia City Organization — Plummer, Ray and Stinson Attempt to Leave tlie Country — Their Arrest 
and Execution — Public Opinion Approves Work of Vigilantes — Spectacular Execution of Jo Pizan- 
thia — Dutch John Wagner Meets the Fate of His Comrades — Capture and Execution of Jack Galla- 
gher, George Lane (Club Foot George), Boone Helm, Frank Parish and Hayes Lyons — Steve 
Marshland Hunted Down and Hanged — Bill Bunton the Next to Suffer the Penalty for liis Crimes^ 
Executions of George Shears, Cvrus Skinner, AKc ('.utcr. lohnnv Cooper. Bob Zachary and William 
Graves (Whiskey Bill)— Bill Hunter, the Last AKnilHi- mi I'lummer's Gang, is Dealt with by the Vig- 
ilantes — End of the Reign uf Teirnr — F.nconiiiim- I )in i\w Vigilantes — Langford's and Dimsdale's 
Opinions— Later Work of the Vigilance OrganizatiMii^ 105 



PART II. 



PARK COUNTY, 



CHAPTER I. 



EXPLOR.MION AST) E,\RLV SeTTLE.MENT lSci6 TO 1882. 

Captain William Clark's Party First White Men in the County — Evidences nf White Man's Occupancy 
—Jim Bridger's Story of the Elk Horns— Creating the Crow Reservation— Ca[)tain Raynolds Expedi- 
tion Discovery of Gold in Montana — Prospectors Visit Park County— The James Stuart 

Party— The Discovery of Gold in the Emigrant Gulch— The Opening of liuzcnian Route— Boze- 
man and Bridger Emigrant Trains— Other Trains— The Rush to Emigrant Gulch— The Curry 
Mining District Formed— The Shorthill Party— Sharthill District Formed — Laws of the District- 
Founding Yellowstone City — Description of "Town — Social Life — Living on 'Meat Straight' — Prices of 
Provisions— (Sold Found on Shields River— Discovery Hunter's Hot Springs— Indian .\ttack— Many 
Leave Emigrant Gulch— Curry District Deserted— Emigrant Gulch Abandoned— All Flee for Safety- 
Resumption of Mining — Discovery of Gold in Bear and Creice Gulches — Amount of Gold Taken from 
Emigrant Gulch— First Farming' in Park County— John Bozeman Killed by Indians— Operations of 
Territorial Militia in Park Countv — The Mutiny — New Boundaries Crow Reservation — Crow Agency 
on Mission Creek— Benson's Landing— Early Stock Raisers— the Folsoni Party— Washburn— Doane Ex- 
pedition Through the County —Dr. Hunter Settles at the Hot Springs— Dr. Hayden's Expedition- 
Discovery and Earlv Historv Clark's Fork Mims— Murder of Dr. Frost— Dr. Hunter's Place At- 
tacked—Removal of Crow .\gencv— Tallin Iliij:i ■ Killed — Pursuit of the Murderers— -Alfred Myer's 
Relief Expedition— Fight With theiii.l:!^ >' mmhs by Nez Perces— Attack on Henderson's 

Ranch— Crows Finallv Cede Park Cmii i , ! ^h of Prospectors to Newly Opened Clark's 



Fork Mines— Building the Northern 



CHAPTER II. 

P.^ssiNG Events — 1883 to 1907. 

Beginning of a New Era— Earlv Countv Formations— First Attempt to Create ViUard (Park) County- 
National Park Branch Completed— Bozeman Tunnel Finished— Congress Asked to Create Park 
County— Refuses to Act— Plans to Secure the Gallatin County Representation in Legislature of 1885— 
Results in Defeat— Death and a Special Election Give East Siders One Representative— .•\lmost a 
Sectional Feud Over Countv Division Question- .'Kbortive Attempt of Bozeman tn Give Part of 
County to Yellowstone— Bridger (Park) County Bill Introduced— Stubborn Fight— Bill Defeated— 
Reaction from Boom Davs— Return of Prosperous Times— Severe Winter of 1886-87— Early Prepara- 
tions for Campaign in Legislature of 1887— A Strong Petition— Park County Bill Passes Council and 
House— News in Livingston— Gov. Leslie Signs the Bill— Boundaries of New County— Provisions of 
Bill— Organization of the County Government— The First .Assessment- County Seat Contest— -Abortive 
Attempt to -Annex Red Lodge Countrv to ^■^l!-wslMnc Oninty— Fir^t Attempt to Build Court House- 
Bonds Defeated— Census of 1890— -Anotlur .Attempt to Cut Off Red I^d.ge Oiuntry— Fight for Pos- 
session of the Ceded Crow Lands— Park C>.uu{\ Rested by Yellowstone— County Grows in Wealth 
and Population— Voters -Again Decide .\t;ain-t Building Court House— -Attempt to Create Sweet Grass 
County Defeated— Panic of iSg.^ Hits Park Countv Hard— Every Bank in County Fails— Business 
Paralyzed— The Great Railroad Strike— Northern Pacific Completely Tied Up— Stranded Passen- 
gers -Appeal to President Debs— .And are Refused Relief— Railroad to Hold Park County Responsible 
for Damage to Propertv— Tempnrarv Mail Facilities— Engine Leaves Livingston for the West— Engin- 
eers Go on Strike— Engine Returns to Livingston— Writs Issued Out of United States District Court 
Served on Strikers— Strikers Withdraw Protection to Company's Property— Prevent the Pulling Out 
of a Train— Failure of the Company to Enlist Deputies— Superintendent Appeals to Park County for 



CONTENTS. 



Protection — Gets Little Satisfaction — Fort Yellowstone Troops Guard Muir Tunnel — Northwest 
Placed Under Martial Law — Arrival of Train Guarded by Government Troops — Assault by Captain 
Lockvvood — Soldiers Patrol the Town — Indignation of Citizens — Protests to War Department and 
Governor of Montana — End of Strike — Whitewashing Captain Lockwood — Execution Robert Ander- 
son — Loss of Territory by Formation Sweet Grass County — Also Carbon County — Desperate Strug- 
gle to Defeat These Bills — Court House Litigation — Voters Finally Approve Construction — Building 
Completed — Return of Prosperous Times — Murder of Sheriff Young — The Man Hunt — Census of 
1900 — Murderer Martin Zidmair Suicides — The Park County of Today 131 

CHAPTER in. 

Livingston. 

Towns and Postoffices of Park County — Location of Livingston — Its Scenery — .'\s a Commercial Cen- 
ter — The Advance Guard of Railroad Construction — ^Benson's Landing — Founding of Clark City (Liv- 
ingston ) — Rapid Growth of that Village — Platting of Livingston Townsite — Proves Death Knell of 
Clark City — .^11 Move to New Townsite — Business Enterprises in December, 1882 — The Boom Year 
of 1883 — Why the Railroad Shops Were Built Here — .Active Building Operations — First Business 
Houses — A Fire Company — Education and Religion — Organization Congregational Church — Meth- 
odist — Episcopal — Early Secret Societies — Review of the Year's History — The Reaction of 1884 — First 
National Bank Fails — A Year of Fires — Vigilantes Drive Out "Tough" Element — Better Fire Protec- 
tion — .Another Fire — Rebuilding — Recovery From Hard Times — Prosperous Years — Livingston Ranks 
Seventh .Among Cities of Montana — Population in 1888 — Incorporated — First Municipal Election — City 
Government Begins — Electric Lights — 1889 a prosperous Year — Early Postofifice Business — First Regu- 
lar Election — Census of 1890 — Water Works — Substantial Improvements in 1891 — New School Build- 
ing — Other Improvements in 1892 — Panic of 1893 — Livingston National, Merchants and National 
Park Banks Go Under — Bankruptcy — Business Paralyzed — The Yellowstone Out of Its Banks — ■ 
Cloudburst Brings Disaster — Peoples Party Enters Municipal Politics — Opera House Burned — City 
Hall Built — Livingston Begins Prosperous Era — Census of 1900 — Turn Down Municipal Ownership-^ 
County High School — Election 1900 — Improvements by Railroad Company — Great Activity in 1901 — • 
Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Invested in 1902 — The New Depot — Real Estate Values — More 
Fires— High School Building— Worst Fire in City's History— E.xcellent Showing in Census of 1904— 
Carnegie Library— Flood in 1905— Livingston in Late Years— Livingston's Churches— Secret Socie- 
ties — Unions I4g 

CHAPTER IV. 
Other Towns. 
Gardiner — Located at Entrance to Yellowstone National Park — The Name — Why a Town was Built at 
the Mouth of Gardiner River — Its Founding — First Business Houses — Contest for Possession of the 
Townsite — Railroad Does Not Come to Gardiner — Ed Stone Secures Title to Site — Townsite Platted 
— Litigation — Uncertainty as to Title — Expecting Railroad to Extend — During the Eighties — Wiped Out 
by Fire — Rebuilding — .Activity in 1895 — Railroad Extends in 1902 — Followed by a Boom — L^nsuccess- 
ful .Attempts to Incorporate — Electric — Formerly Horr — Camp of a Coke Company — Postoffice Es- 
tablished — Early History — Rapid Advancement in 1900 — Fire — Name Changed to Electric — Strikes 
— .Aldridge — Coal Mining Camp — Founding — Townsite Platted — Cooke — .A Mining Camp — Oldest 
Town in County — Visit of Jay Cooke, Jr., and Associates — Naming the Camp — Rush to the Camp in 
1882 — Rapid Building of the Town — A Typical Mining Camp — Platted — Town Lot "Jumping" — Pro- 
posed Change in Name — Mining Operations in Middle Eighties — Long and Continued Struggle for 
Railroad — Defeated by Congress — Depressing Effect — Title to Lots Finally Cleared — Quiet for Many 
Year.s — Mining Resumed in too; — Present Status of Cooke — Jardine — Gold IMining Camp — Com- 
paratively Xiw T>i\vii--K:ipiil Muilding — Large Sums of Money Expended — Fridley — First Known 
as Emmrani Siahnii- Sriil.d m ]SS6 — Shields — Clvdepark — Springdale — Hunter's Hotsprings — A 
Noted Ilcalih Ri-Mii-|),.CMMiv -f the Springs— Dr. A. J. Hunter Settles There— Building of Sana- 
torium — Sale 01 Propertv — Inipriivement in 1886 — Platting Mendenhall Townsite — Later History- — 
Cokedale— Formerly a Thriving Village— Founded in 1886— A Lively Camp— Townsite Platted— Post- 
office — Census of 1890 — Disastrous Fire — Mine Closed — Town Depopulated — Mines Reopened — -Again 
a Prosperous Village — Fire Destroys Business Part of Town — Permanent Shutdown of Mine — Death 
Knell of Cokedale — Cinnabar Station — Founding the Town — -Slow Growth — .Attempt to Boom the 
Town — A Second Attempt — Extension of the Road to Gardiner a Death Blow to Cinnabar — Chico — 
The Warm Spring.s — Chicory — Was to Have Been the Site of a City — Looked Fine on Paper — Muir, 
the Tunnel Station — Historic Ground — History of Muir City — The Tunnel Town — Its High Altitude 
— Rockcreek — Myersburg — -Lat — Bruffeys — Contact — 'Pinecreek — Chimneyrock — Miner — Brisben — Trail 
Creek — Daileys — Sphinx — Muhlerin — Coal Spur — Hopper.s — Mission — Elton — Maxwell — Hoflfman — 
Hicks Crevasse— Cowles—Cleora— Bryan 160 

CHAPTER V. 
Political. 
Early Political Hi.stor>---Part of Gallatin County— First County Officials Named by Legislature-Appoint- 
ments Caused by Resignations— Minor Officers Named— Conventions in 1888-First Election Precincts 
—first Election— Shows Park County Republican— Election of Delegates to Constitutional Conven- 



CONTEXTS. 



tion — First Election Under State Auspices — Nearly a Clean Sweep for the Republicans — Election 
1890 — Democrats Make Showing in 1892 — Republican Landslide Two Years Later — Park County 
Almost Unanimously for Bryan in 1896 — County ( Irticc^ 1 )i\ idcd — Four Tickets in Field in 1898 — 
All Get a Slice— Campaign of 1900 Most Exciting in Hi>ti:ry of Park County— Six Tickets to Select 
From^Result is Close — Mixed Set of Officers Chosen — (Juiet Campaign of h.joj— K. ]iuiili, ms Get 
Majority of Offices — Republican Landslide in 1904 — Roosevelt's Big Majority — Ciuit. i i. : 1 ittue of 
School Superintendent— Democrat Wins— Election of 1906— Number of Votes Ca-.t h) I .hli |'i>,;inct— 
Republicans Secure Most of the Offices 174 

CFL^PTER VI. 

Descriptive. 

Location and Boundaries — Geology of the County — The Glacial Period — The Mountain Ranges — Belt — 
Bridger — Crazies — Absaroka — Prominent Peaks — Story of Old Baldy — Cinnabar Mountain — Electric 
Peak— Yellowstone River— Its Tributaries— Shields River and Tributaries— Clark's Fork— Soda Butte 
Creek — Boulder River and Tributary Creeks — Industries--Mining — ^Minerals Found in the County — 
Gold and Silver Mining — Report of State Mine Inspector for 1906 — Coal Mining — Copper and Iron 
Ores — Farming and Stock Raising — Irrigation — Paradise Valley — Shields Valley — Timber 183 



PART III. 
SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 

CHAPTER I. 

Before County Organ iz.\tiox — 1743 to 1894. 

The Name Sweet Grass — M. de la Verandrye First White Man to Put Foot on Sweet Grass County 
Soil — Captain Clark's Trip Through the Countv — The Fur Traders — ^Opening of the Bnzeman 
Route — Travel .Across the Future Sweet Grass County— The Treaty of 1868— The Crow 
.\gency — The Northern Pacific Survey — First Settler in Sweet Grass County — Settlers of 
Year 1877 — Arrivals in 1878— First Voting Precinct— The Bozeman-Miles City Stage Line— 
The Stage Stations — Settlers of 1879 — Drowning of Thompson and Gage — Settlers of Early 
Eighties — The First School — Crows Cede Lands West of the Boulder— Many Settlers in 1882 — Build- 
ing Northern Pacific Railroad— Railroad Brings New Conditions — Passing of Stage Stations— Kil- 
ling of John Brady— First Irrigating Ditch— Park County Created— Crows Cede Last Sweet Grass 
County Lands— Prosperity in 1892— First Attempts to Create Sweet Grass County— Defeated in the 
Senate — How Livingston Received the News — How Big Timber Took the Defeat — Panic of 1893. 190 

CHAPTER II. 

After County Organ: z.\tiox — 1895 to 1907. 

Divisionists Lay Their Plans— Secure Solid Delegation to the Legislature— The Sweet Grass County Club 
^The Big Timber Convention — The Resolutions — County Officers Selected — Petition Circulated — Liv- 
ingston Marshals Its Forces Against Dismemberment — ^Representative Collins Introduces Bill in House 
— House Committee Favorably Reports Bill — Amendment by Committee — Bill Passes the House — 
Reported in Senate — Passes the Senate 7 to 11 — Receipt of the News in Big Timber — Governor Rick- 
ards Signs th Bill — A Monster Demonstration — The Boundaries — Provisions of the Bill — County Gov- 
ernment Begun— Settlement With Old Counties— D ebts of $57,943.67 Assumed— First Assessment- 
Big Timber Made Permanent County Seat— Census of 1900— Park County .Attempts to Get a Slice of 
Svveet Grass County — Tables are Turned at Next Session of the Legislature — Boundaries .Are I'n- 
changed — Current Events of Later Years — Fina ncial Standing of the County — Fight Against 
Formation of Roosevelt County — Opposition Successful 198 

CHAPTER III. 

Political. 

Taxation Without Representation — Naming the First Officer-^— Change Made by Committee of the House 
of Representatives— Constitutionality of Section of Bill Naming Officers Questioned— County Officers 
-Appointed to Remedy the Defect— First Conventions— Republicans Split— Democrats and Silver Re- 



CONTEXTS. 



publicans Fuse — Precincts and Judges for the First Election — Exciting Campaign of 1896 — Bryan Car- 
ries the County — Standoff on County Ticket — Three Tickets in the Field in 1898 — Republicans Gener- 
ally Successful — McKinlcy Carries the County in 1900 — Republicans Again Get Majority of Officers 
—Dominant Party Elects Every Candidate in 1902 — J. W. Bailey Elected Senator at Special Election 
in 1903 — Roosevelt's Big Majority in 1904 — Republicans Take Everything — The Primary Election of 
1906 — Genera! Election Names All Republicans 205 

CHAPTER IV. 

Descriptive. 

Boundaries — Area — Character of Land — The Mountains — A Well Watered Comity — The Streams from 
the South — Boulder River — Power Going to Waste — Stillwater River — Streams from the North — 
Tributaries of the Musselshell— Relation of Streams to the County's Prosperity— Irrigation— 'Valley of 
the Yellowstone- Boulder 'Valley- In the Valley of the Sweet Grass- Big Timber and Other Valleys 
Farming on the Stillwater— Prices of Farm Lands— Yields— Stock Raising— The Mineral Resources- 
The Boulder District— Building Stone — Coal— Lime Rock— Iron Ore— Copper— Minerals in the Crazies 
History of Mining Operations in the Boulder District 211 

CHAPTER V. 

Big Timber and Other Places. 

Towns and Postoffices of Sweet Grass County— Big Timber— Its Location— The Boulders— As a Busi- 
ness Center — The Name — The Big Timber Road House — Is Succeeded by the Bridge Construction 
Camp of Dorni.x — A Little Village Comes Into Existence — Platting of Dornix — Business Houses 
of the Little Town— Railroad Moves Its Station Up the River— Names the Place Big Timber— Dornix 
Deserted— Everybody Moves to the new Town of Big Timber— First Business Houses— The Fern.— 
Sunday School and Church Work— A Noted Wool Shipping Point— The Town as Seen by a Living- 
ston Editor in 1886— John Anderson Plats Townsite— Additions— The First Fire— Census of 1890— 
Prosperous Times — The First Bank — Building Operations of 1891 — First National Bank Started — 
Prosperous Times of 1892— The Panic— Business is Paralyzed— First National Bank Fails— The 
Cause — Reorganizes as the Big Timber National Bank — Series of Disastrous Fires — Work of Incen- 
diary — Criterion Building Burned — Mastin & Co's Feed Barn — Conflagration of March 29. 1894 — 
$20,000 Loss the Following Month — ^Becomes a County Seat Town — Flouring Mill Established — An 
. Electric Light Plant — Fire in 1896 — First Effort to Bring About Incorporation — Attempt Abandoned 
— Passing of the Hard Times Period — Prosperous Year of 1899 — Census of 1900 — County High 
School Established — First Woolen Mill in Montana — People Ask for Incorporation — A Hard Fought 
Campaign— /Incorporation Defeated — The Cause — Militia Company Organized — Another Attempt to 
Incorporate — Legal Tangle Over Petition — Commissioners Call an Election — Incorporation Carries — 
Exciting Campaign for the Selection of First Officers — "Progressive Citizens" Win — Officers Chosen — 
Municipal Government Begun — Old Officers Reelected — Election of i904^Fire Company Organized — 
Another Disastrous Fire — Elections of 1905 and 1906 — Vote to Issue Bonds for Water Works — Prog- 
ress During 1906— Big Timber as a Business Center— Schools— Churches— Secret Societies— Melville- 
Its Location— Its Business Houses— Founding of the Town— The Town in 1888— Later History— Nye 
— Early Prospectors on the Upper Stillwater— A Minneapolis Company Begins Operations— Found- 
ing Nye City— A Big Rush— Townsite Platted— A Flourishing Camp— the Postoffice— Mining Oper- 
ations Suspended— The Camp Deserted — Postoffice Moved— Other Places— Grey Clifif— Reed— Howie 
— Formerly Sweet Grass — The Change in Name — McLeod — Wormser — Platting Wormser City — 
Merrill— B'usteed— Reynolds— Manila— Dehart ". . . 218 



PART IV. 

CARBON COUNTY. 
CHAPTER I. 
Current Events. 



Prior to 1892— Inception of Red Lodge— Development of the Coal Deposits— Agricultural Possibilities At- 
tract Early Settlers — Indian Reservation Opened — Settlers Come Rapidly — Some Movement for 
County Organization— Takes Definite Form— Bill For Carbon County Passes— Enabling Act— First 
County Officers— Early County Business— Prosperity of County in Various Lines— Forest Reserve- 
Assessed Valuation — New Coal Fields — Brilliant Future for Carbon County 231 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTER n. 

Cities and Towns. 

Red Lodge — Early Davs of the Town — First Business Men — Incorporation of Red Lodge — Early Officers 
—Rapid Growth— First Large Fire— Need of Fire Protection Patent— Move> for This End— Excel- 
lent Results of Fire Protection— A City's Pndc— Bonds for Water Supply- R..ckv Creek Source of 
Water Supply— Best in the State— Infantry C.inii)anv Organized— Increased Output in Mnies— Catas- 
trophe in Mines— Bad Condition of .\ir in Mines— City Officials- Churches in City— Secret Socie- 
ties of City — Advantages of Red Lodge — Bridger — Business Houses, Churches, and Societies — 
Joliet, Location and Advantages — Gebo and other Towns of the County 234 

CHAPTER III. 

Descriptive. 

Carbon County, the "Gem of the Mountains" — Resources — Place of Former Range — Now Supporting 
Many Agriculturists — Alfalfa a King — Fertility of Soil — Fruit Possibilities — Irrigation — Coal the 
Leader — Bear Creek Company — Amalgamated Copper Company's Coal Holdings — Butte & Helena 
Parties — Petroleum Fields — Limestone — Cement — Sulphur — ^Dairying — Honey Product — Thorough- 
bred Horse Raising — Altitude and Climatic Conditions 241 

CHAPTER IV. 

Education. ^L. 

Beginning of the Educational History of County- — ^First Log Building — Organization of Districts — 
Numbered from One to Eighteen — Reports of County Superintendent — Rapid Increase in School Pop- 
ulation — High School — Curriculum Contains Three Courses 244 

CHAPTER V. 

Political. 

Enabling .^ct — Officials Take Oath — Precincts Established — First Election — Later Elections — County 

Seat Election — Other Elections in Order — Special Election — Carbon County not Strongly Partisan... 247 



PART V. 



YELLOWSTOXE COUNTY. 

CHAPTER I. 

Early Exploration — 1743 to 1863. 

The Word "Yellowstone" — Its Derivation — Mi-tsi-a-da-zi — Rouche Jaune — Yellov -Stone — Yellowstone 
— In-dian Inhabitants of the Yellowstone Valley— Bannacks — Crows — Captain William Clark Passes 
Down the Valley in 1806 — Clark's Description of Pompey's Pillar — Father P. J. DeSmet Passes 
Through the County in 1840 — The Future Yellowstone County Placed in Crow Reservation — Cap- 
tain John Mullan Carries Survey Through the County in 1853 — The Stuart Party of 1863 — Enters 
Future Yellowstone County — -Adventure With the Thieving Crows — Annihilation of the Party Nar- 
rowly .-K verted — A Terrible Ordeal 257 

CHAPTER II. 

Later E-xploration and Early Settlement — 1864 to 1882. 

Condition of the Yellowstone Valley in the Early Sixties— Efifect of the Gold Discoveries— Opening the 
Bozeman Route — Crow Reservation of 1868 — Northern Pacific Survey of 1871 — Plans for the Survey 
of 1872 — Major Baker Commands the Escort — Colonel Hayden Undertakes the Survey — .Attacked 
by the Siou.x — Baker's Battle — The Commander's Conduct — Indians Repulsed — ^The Losses — The 
Survey Abandoned — Who Was Scared? — Survey Comjilcted in 187.1 — The Expedition under Colonel 
Brown — First Steamers on the Yellowstone — Ypno\'-;tiiiir \\'ia;i"i Road and Prospecting Expedition 
— Its .Adventures — Results in Failure — Horace Countryman the First Settler of Yellowstone County 
— Other Settlers of 1875 — Government Expedition Under General Forsyth — The Josephine and Rose- 



CONTEXTS. 



bud on the Upper Yellowstone — The F. D. Pease Expedition — Plans to Settle the Yellowstone Val- 
ley — Buikling Fort Pease — Relentless War of the Sioux — Garrison Almost Wiped Out — Relief from 
Fort Ellis— The Wolfers and Hunters— Their Adventures— Eflfect of the Custer Massacre and Sub- 
sequent War on the Sioux — Settlers of 1876 — The Bozenian-Miles City Stage Line — Settlers of 
1877 — The Stage Stations — Cantonment Terry — History of its Establishment by General W. T. Sher- 
man — The Nez Perce Flight — Whites in Full Possession of the Country — Founding of Towns and 
Trading Posts — Settlers of 1878 and 1879 — Census of 1S80— Big Emigration of 1882 — Founding of 
Billings — Northern Pacific Enters Future Yellowstone County — Beginning of a New Epoch 255 

CHAPTER III. 
Since County Organ iz.\tio.\ — 1883 to 1907. 

A Country Irrigated with Human Blood — Wonderful Change in One Decade — A Division of Custer 
County Demanded — Plan of Action Outlined — Campaign for Erection of Yellowstone County 
— Friends of the Movement in Power — Sele<:ting the Name — Little Opposition — The News in Bil- 
lings — Mass Meetings — Provisions of the Act — First Meeting of the County Commissioners — Unsuc- 
cessful Attempt to Make Settlement with Custer County— Court. House Purchased— Jail Erected— 
First Tax Levy — First Assessment — Trouble with Piegans — Progress of the County Shown by 
.Assessed Valuations — Railroad Building— A Try for the "Panhandle" of Park County— Poor Show- 
ing at the 1890 Census — Struggle Between Park and Yellowstone Counties for Possession of the 
Ceded Crow Lands — Yellowstone County Wins and Extends Its Boundaries — The "Hard Times" Pe- 
riod—Building the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad— Big Loss of Territory by the Creation 
of Carbon and Sweet Grass Counties — Another Act Giving Yellowstone County Jurisdiction Over 
Portion of Crow Lands — The Census of 1900 — Erection of Court House — Opening of Crow Lands 
in 1906^-Boundaries Extended — Defeat of the Roosevelt County Bill — Progress During Recent Years 273 

CHAPTER IV. 
Political. 

Politics Before Birth of County— The First Election Precincts— One Thousand Votes Cast at Election 
of 1882 — The Vote by Precincts — Yellowstone County Formed — Commissioners Named in the Bill — • 
Treasurer Apipointed — Preparations for the First County Election — Twelve Precincts Created — Short, 
Active Campaign — First Party Conventions — Democrats Win Everything — Change in County Officers 
Before Next Election — Democrats Sent to Constitutional Convention of 1884 — Republicans Elect Every 
Officer in 1884— The Tax-payers" and "Peoples" Tickets— Politics of the Several Precincts— A "Stand- 
off" in 1886— Republicans Elect Majority of Officers in 1888— Election of Delegates to Constitutional 
Convention of 1889 — Big Majority for Constitution in Yellovi-stone County — Republicans Make Nearly 
a Clean Sweep at First State Election — Election of 1890 — Harrison Carries County over Cleveland in 
1892 — Both Parties Represented in Court House — Big Vote in 1894 — Republicans Capture County — Ex- 
citing Campaign of 1896— Bryan Carries County — Democrats and People's Party Get Majority of 
Offices — Fusion .\gain Successful in 189S — Complications in 1900— McKinley Carries the County over 
Brvan— Fusion Forces and Republicans are Both Represented in the Court House— Republicans Win 
in '1902— Exciting Election to Name Representative— Bever Wins by One Vote— The Enormous Vote 
of 1904— Roosevelt Carries the County Over Parker by a Record-Breaking Majority— Three Demo- 
crats Elected— Election of 1906 Gives Republicans Most of County Offices— Democrats Elect Three... 279 

CHAPTER V. 
Billings, the "Magic City," 

Why Termed the "Magic City"— Location— Occupies a Strategic Position— Railroads— Population— Com- 
pared with Other Cities of Montana— Reason of Its Supremacy— Date of Its Birth— Superseded by 
Old Town of Cnulson— First Settlers in the Vicinity— Founding of Coulson— Its Early History— 
Tcwnsite Platted — Lively Times in the Spring of 1882— Why Billings Was Not Built at 
Coulson— Coulson in the Fall of 1882— Slowly but Surely It Moves to New Town— Now 
Onlv a Memorv— Billings a Fiat Town— Minnesota & Montana Land & Improvement Company Or- 
ganized — Search for a fownsite— Whv It was Decided to Build on Clark's Fork Bottoms— The Part 
P'aved by .■\lkali Creek— Townsite Platted— First Buildings Erected — The Boom — Thirty Days' 
History— Pace Continues All Summer— Trafficking in Town Lots— The Water Question— Postoffice 
Established— -Arrival of the Railroad— .\ttempt to Incorporate in 1882— First Street Railway in 
Montana— Was a Failure— The Irrigating Canal— Its Effect on Billings— Progress ef the Town Dur- 
ing Fall of 1882— Business Houses in October- The Depot Controversy- The Land Company Scored 
—Comparative Dull Times in Winter 1882-83— Renewed .Activity in the Spring— .Artesian Well 
Com,pany— Sinks a Nine Hundred Foot Hole— No Water— Billings Board of Trade Organized— In- 
corporation Defeated in 1883— A Handsome School Building Erected— Progress During 1883— End of 
the Boom Days— Big Business Done in 1884— Fire of Tuly 14— Proves a Benefit to the Town— Fire 
Company Organized — Territorial Legislature Grants Charter— Adopted hv the People- Beginning of 
Municipal Government — Officers of the City 1885 to 1907— -A $60,000 Blaze— Followed by Another 
Fire— Insurance Companies Threaten to Withdraw— Hook and Ladder Company Organized— Condi- 
tions of i88s-^Water Works Svstem Installed— Building Record for 1886— Lighted by Electricit.v— 



CONTENTS 



Billings Fire Department Organized — Succeeded by the Maverick Hose Company — Conditions Dur- 
ing Late Eighties — ^Census of 1890 — -Murder and Lynching — Billings Club Organized — Yellowstone 
Fair Association — Re-incorporation Under General Law — "Hard Times" Period — Quick Recovery — 
Events of the Late Nineties — Census 1900 Shows Big Increase — The Library — Marvelous Growth 
Since 1900 — Cause of the Growth — Billings' Manufactories — Its Wholesale Houses — The Things of 
Which the City is Proud — Building Operations in 1907 — The Churches — History of the Congrega- 
tional Church — Methodist Episcopal — St. Luke's Episcopal — Catholic — Baptist — Secret and Frater- 
nal Societies — History of the Masonic Orders — A. O. U. W. — ^Grand Army of the Republic — Odd 
Fellows — Knights of Pythias — Other Early Day Societies — Trades and Labor Organizations 290 

CHAPTER VI. 

Other Towns. 

Columbus — Its Location — Formerly Stillwater — First Settled Portion of Yellowstone County — Stage Sta- 
tion and Postoffice — Coming of the Railroad — The Town in 18S5 — Townsite Platted — Name Changed 
to Columbus — 1899 a Prosperous Year — Census of 1900 — Ambition to be a County Seat Town — In- 
corporation — Laurel — Its Birth — Townsite and Additions — A Growing Town — Park City — Its Busi- 
ness Houses — Its Beautiful Site — Founded bj' Ri.pon, Wisconsin, Colony — Its Founding as Told by a 
Correspondent — First Business Houses — Postoffice Secured — The Town in 1883 — In 1885 — Today — 
Huntley — Formerly in the Reservation — A Growing Town — The "Huntley Project" — Old Town of 
Huntley — Built on Historic Ground — The First Citizens — Postoffice and Stage Station — Named by 
Hunters — Census of 1880 — Business Houses in 1885 — Junction — Location and Business Enterprises — 
Founding — Formerly Terry's Landing — Later Junction City — A Lively Town in the Early Days — In 
1880— Townsite Platted— Destroyed by Fire— One Year Later— In i8is,S— At the Present Time— Mus- 
selshell — Leading Town of North Yellowstone County — Allendale — .Anita — Ballantine — Bull Mountain- 
Clermont — Corinth — Custer — Fattig — Lockwood — Mifflin — Peritsa — Pompey's Pillar — Ronald— Round- 
up — Summit — Toluca — Waco — Wolf Spring — Rapids 307 

CHAPTER Yll. 

Descriptive. 

Boundaries — Area — Topography — Elevation — Soil — Scenic Beauties — Tribute to the County by Fred H. 
Foster — County Well Watered — The Yellowstone and Tributaries — The Musselshell and Tributa- 
ries — Creeks of the Lake Basin — Climate — Temperature Statistics — Stockraising Industry — Cattle — 
Horses — Sheep — Poultry — Swine — Bees — The Farming Industry — Corn — ^Wheat — Barley — Oats — 
Flax — Potatoes — Dairying — Garden — Fruits — Sugar Beets — Alfalfa — Irrigation — What it has 
Done — Its Possibilities — History of the First Canal — ^Comparison of the Principal Ditches — Crops 
Under the Big Ditch — ILarly Day Irrigation Canals — 'Work of the Billings Land & Irrigation Com- 
pany — What it has Done for Billings and Yellowstone County — Report of the Carey Board — The 
Huntley Project — Coal Fields_ of Yellowstone Conn ty 312 



PART VI. 



ROSEBUD COUNTY. 

CHAPTER I. 

Current Events. 

Rosebud County Correctly Named — Scene of Custer Massacre — First Settlers in Rosebud County — North- 
ern Pacific Railroad— Government Agency at Lame Deer — Agitation for New County of Rosebud — 
Enabling Act— County Starts— Settlement of Crow Indian Reservation— Yellowstone Valley— Mil- 
waukee Railroad 319 

CHAPTER II. : 

Cities and Towns. 

Forsyth. County Seat— Name— First Merchant— First Fire— Fire of 1901— School Building— Churches- 
Outfitting Center— Bonds for Bridges— Railroad Payroll — Business Men's Association— Roscljud— 
Busby— Crow Agency— Other Postoffices 323 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

Descriptive. 

Size of Rosebud County — Resources Varied — -Population — Productive Valleys — Yellowstone Valley — 
Froze-to-Death Valley — Rosebud Valley — Tongue Valley — Porcupine Bottom — Soil — Irrigation 
Ditches — Stockraising — Sheep and Cattle in County — Railroad Land — ^Crow Reservation — Crow Ii> 
dians — Climate — Railways — Coal — Development 326 

CHAPTER IV. 

POLI TICAL. 

Appointment of Officers for New County by Governor — County Seat — Election of 1902 — Election of 1904 
— Election of 1906 — Registry Districts 328 

CHAPTER V. 

Educational. 

County's Short Existence Makes Little Educational History — First School in County — First School in 
Forsyth — School Report of 1901 — County High School Not Decided — New School Building in For- 
syth 330 



PART VII. 

CUSTER COUNT V. 

CHAPTER I. 

Current Events. 

General History in Previous Chapters — Early Partition of Territory Now in Custer County — Early Settle- 
ments—Military Forts— Custer County Named— First Tax and Officers— BufTalo Hunting— North- 
ern Pacific Railroad — ^Sheep and Cattle Ranging in the County — Indian Depredations — Mission of 
Bishop Brondel— County Commissioners Discharged by Legislature— Stock Losses in 1886-7 — Capt. 
Brown Forms Company to Fight Indians — Tribute to Custer and Men — Crow Indians Cede Land — 
Assessed Valuation of Custer County — Financial Statement of County — Stock Industry — Irrigation 
— Fuel — Oimatic Conditions ' 331 

CHAPTER II. 

Cities and Towns. 

Miles City — First Merchant — Change of Location — Live Newspaper — Water in Spring of 1881 — Railroad 

Reaches Miles City — Exodus of Undesirable Element — Population in 1881 — Death of Wm. Rigney 

Incendiary Fire — First Artesian Well — Another Fire — Numerous Fires — Electric Lighting Bonds 

Voted — Carnegie Public Library — Churches — Officers of the Town — Shipments of 1905 Other 

T°^vns 343 

CHAPTER III. 

Descriptive. 

Large Territory — Climate — Thin Population — Streams — Description of Country — Best Horses and Cattle 

in Custer County — County High School '. 354 

CHAPTER IV. 

POLIT ICAL. 

Political History Romantic— County Board Holds First Session— Record of Elections— Officers Ousted 

from Office — Record of other Elections to Date .356 

CHAPTER V. 

Educat ional. 

Custer Population Wide Awake for Education— Largest School District in the United States— First 
School— School Report for 1879— Other School Reports— Review of the Schools— Other Reports— 
Ursuhne Convent— Coming of the Nuns— Struggle for the Institution— Progress of the Convent.. .. 363 



CONTENTS 



PART VIII. 



DAWSON COUNTY 



CHAPTER I. 

Current Events. 

Early History — Boundaries of First County — No Organi ii i. m FnK Encampments — First Settlers — 
Route of Northern Pacific— Re-creation of Dawson ( ■ T n- of the Butifalo in 1883— Small 
Ranching — -Sheep Industry — Dawson County Loses l>: iSi}i, — Area — Better Facilities for 
Crossing Yellowstone — Bonds Issued — -Bridge Built — Imyi!i i! i.-M-rnment Project — Assessed Val- 
uation of Dawson County — Superior Advantages 369 

CHAPTER II. 

Cities and Towns. 

Glendive, "Gateway of Montana" — First Thought of Building Glendive — Railroad Completed in Spring of 
iSSi— Early Business Men— Killing Buffalo Principal Industry— Stock Business— First Fire— Dispute 
Concerning Title to Townsite — Glendive Fire Department — Fire in 1903 — Water System — -Sewerage 
System — Religious Denominations — Fraternal Soci eties — Wibaux — Tokna — Other Postoffices 372 

CHAPTER III. 
Political. 
Early Political History — First County Commissioners — S 



CHAPTER IV. 

Descriptive. 

Prior to the .-Kdvent of the Northern Pacific — Early Settlers Change the Scenes — Watered Well — Rich 
Agricultural Lands — ^Climate Excellent — Paramount Industry is Stock Raising — Bad Lands — Fuel — 
Rich Resources — Excellent Prospects 382 



PART IX. 



CHAPTER I. 

Press of the Yellowstone Valley. 

Park County — Livingstone Gazette, First Newspaper — Is Succeeded by Livingston Tribune — Birth of the 
Daily Enterprise — Its Suspension — The Weekly Enterprise — Its History — National Park Pioneer — 
Livingston Sentinel — Establishment of the Livingston Post — Its Subsequent History — Livingston 
Herald Has an Existence of Seven Years — Is Sold at Mortgage Sale — Montana Agriculturist — Silver 
Republican — Park County Republican Plays a Part in the Press History of Park County — Wonderlan-d 
— Revived as the Wonderland News 655 

Sweet Grass County — Only One Paper in the County — Four Started — -Big Timber Pioneer — First Printed 
in Livingston — Changes in Proprietorship — In Politics — In Size — Sweet Grass and Boulder Blade — 
Comes to an Untimely End — Big Timber E.xpress — History of That Paper — Its Suspension — Yellow- 
stone Leader — Story of Its Birth — Later History — Consolidated with the Pioneer 659 

Carbcn County — Red Lodge Picket, the Pioneer Paper — The Vociferator — The New Idea — Carbon County 
Sentinel — Carbon County Democrat — Carbon County Chronicle — Carbon County Republican — Joliet 
Taxpayer — Later Named Joliet Journal — Bridger Tribune 661 

Yellowstone County — Newspaper History of Over Twenty-five Years — Newspapers of Today — Recollec- 
tions of the Early Days — A. K. Yerkes Founds the Coulson Post — Moves to Billings^. D. Matheson 
Becomes Proprietor — Post Joins the Merger— Bromley & Devine Launch the Billings Herald — Made 



CONTENTS 



a Daily — Changes in Ownership — Suspends Publication to Enter the Gazette Combine — Short Life of 
the Daily Rustler — Gazette Publishing Company Formed — Absorbs All the Billings Papers — All 
Three Plants Destroyed by Fire — The Daily Gazette and Montana Stock Gazette — History of These 
Publications — J. D. Matheson Starts the Billings Times — History of that Journal — Montana Wool 
Journal — The Lurid Montana Vociferator — Its Happy End — Stillwater Bulletin — Yellowstone Valley 
Recorder — ^Brief Existence of the Columbus Express — Billings Republican — Billings News — Tri- 
County News — Laurel Sentinel — Billings Daily Journal-^Montana Farm — Editorial Writers of the 
Early Days 662 

Rosebud County — Dearth of Newspapers — Forsyth Times the First — Rosebud County News — Its Sus- 
pension 667 

Custer County — Yellowstone Journal. First Newspaper in the Yellowstone Valley — Major McElrath — 
General Nelson A. Miles Interested in its Publication — The Daily Journal — History of the Paper — 
The Chronicle — Weekly Press — Daily Press — 'Daily Rustler — Daily Record — Stock Growers Journal — 
Daily Gazette— Miles City Independent 667 

Dawson County — Glendive Times — Daily Times — Yellowstone Press — -Glendive Independent — Dawson 

County Review — Yellowstone Monitor 66g 



I 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Adamson. William C 4/8 

Albin, Bert R 437 

Algaard, Albert 439 

Allen. George J 620 

Allen, William A 419 

Allen, William H 412 

Ailing, Ira M 434 

Ames, John T 555 

Amos, Henry S 447 

Anderson, Arthur C 533 

Anderson, August W. T 583 

Andrew, Robert 596 

Arne^nn. Anthony H 391 

Anhnn. Martin 531 

Arihun, nW H 599 

A^h, Gtorse W 6 

Austin. Thomas R 426 

Awe, Fred 601 

Babcock, Albert L 652 

Badgett. L. S 619 

Ball. William 439 

Ballinger, M. S 549 

Bamber, John 486 

Barley. Matthias 543 

Bauman, Herman 602 

Bedford, Daniel C 623 

Bickerdvke^ Hiram B 592 

Bigelow, Deforest W 5" 

Billman, Andv 557 

Birkeland. Ole 408 

Bishop, Jerome A 532 

Bitle, Arthur 421 

Black, Madison M 651 

Blair, Ervin G 506 

Blair, Harrv B 

Blakesley, Reinza W 493 

Blewett, John 553 

Boggio. Charles 63 

Bohne. Henrv A 628 

Bonefield, Peter S86 

Bostic, Elmer T 473 

Bottler, Philip 547 

Bowker. Joseph J 5I7 

Brady. Samuel O'N. C 498 

Bray. Monfort 

Breck William C 

Brewer, Isaac W 584 

Brewster. George W 400 

Brooks, Warren E 582 

Brown. Joseph 521 

Brownlee, Robert 469 



643 



PAGE 

Brown. Joseph T 387 

Bruffev. George A 404 

Burg, Charles A 616 

Burke, J. O. L 464 

Burla. Gwen F 460 

Burnett, James M 639 

Cahoo, George H 647 

Calhoun. James H 484 

Camp, Edgar B 451 

Campbell, George C 525 

Carlson, Charles 472 

Carlton, Paul H 430 

Carwile, Nathaniel G 429 

Cedergren Brothers 444 

Cedergren. Money 444 

Cedergren. Richard E 444 

Chance, Nathan 415 

Chapman. Henry 503 

Cheney. William H 454 

Clark, John G 554 

Clark, Samuel E 626 

Cleveland. George W 600 

Connell. Merritt E 594 

Cook, J. W 584 

Coppedge. John D 627 

Corbin, Harvy A 515 

Cowan. Walter 453 

Crawford. A. M 417 

Crinuiiin*. Tereniiah F 5';6 

Cross Charles R 524 

Cutler, Robert E 519 

Danim. Jnlm 623 

Darroch, John M 565 

Dickson. William E 514 

Dow, George R 606 

Draper, Frank W 496 

Droste, John 631 

Duffev. William 463 

Duffv. Owen 520 

Duffield, Harry 394 

Dumont, Charles 44' 

Dunning, Grant 61 1 

Edwards. John E 399 

Eggen, Ole 540 

Eichhorn, Joseph 577 

Ellis, Harry 585 

Enochs, W. A 565 

Fevler Samuel 523 

Fitzgerald, Selleck M 505 



PAGE 

Flanagan, Michael 610 

Flvnn, John 456 

Fo'ster, Fred H 465 

Forster. John 453 

Fowler. John T 493 

Eraser, John 559 

Frost, John H 459 

Garrison, Albert T 445 

Gass, Alexander S 647 

Geisdorff, Fred 620 

Goodwin, William E 447 

Goulding. Frederick J 46s 

Grant. Charles F 527 

Greenway, Henry J 621 

Grosfield, Abraham M 398 

Gruel, Louis 5i8 

Gruel. Max 507 

Guiler, John L 483 

Hall. John H 466 

Halvorsen, Hans J 390 

Hanning, Emil 561 

Harrington. Abraham 528 

Harris Charles L 409 

Hartley, Jacob M 563 

Haskin, Orlando E 495 

Hatch. Charles E 645 

Hawkins, James B 448 

Hayden. Nathaniel 50i 

Ha'vnes. William N 396 

Heigeland. Sivert 617 

Henderson, C. W 597 

Hendrickson, Henry C 572 

Henrv. Frank 650 

Herbert. Kirk E 443 

Herbert, George 539 

Herein! Osten E S02 

Herman. Frank N 5I5 

Hiber. Charles E 542 

Hicks. Theron W 492 

Hirsch. George 483 

Hogan, Ben 635 

Hogan. Thomas S 520 

Hoines, Gunder 1 618 

Hollopeter, Beniamin S 479 

Hooper, John C 474 

Hooper. Joseph G 411 

Hope. John C ■• 489 

Hoppe, Walter M 587 

Hopple Samuel J 558 

Horton, W. H 49' 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Howard. A. McC 446 

Howard, Henry C 480 

Hudson, Claud E 402 

Hudson. Robert B 486 

Humplircvs. Nathaniel J 607 

Hundley.' Alexander 566 

Hunter, Guv D 49.3 

Huntington. William C 623 

Hurley, Michael 529 

Hutton. J. W 560 

Huxtable, John P 497 

Hym. James 59i 



Indreland, Samuel 
Itzin, William ... 



Jellison, Francis J 399 

Johnson, Albert 548 

Johnson, Anton H 435 

Johnston. William B 649 

Jones, William C 542 

Kaiser, Edward 525 

Kellett, Frank 45° 

Kelsey S. Walter 49° 

Kemmis. Thompson .\ 397 

Kennedy, Edward B 450 

Kennedy, James 574 

Kennedy, James F 403 

Kent, Thomas 442 

Kimes, John 638 

King, James 618 

Kirscher, Peter 541 

Knapp. Louis R 472 

Knapp. William J 467 

Knowles. William E 543 

Koch, Charles 640 

Krise. John W 405 

Kujath, Herman 615 

LaMott, Allen B 471 

Lande, Jacob T 581 

Laney, John W 462 

Lantis, Charles D 576 

LaRoche, Fernando 499 

Larsen, John 531 

Lathom, George D 575 

Lavelle. William 484 

Lay. Joseph 436 

Lehfeldt, Hermann 545 

Lehfeldt. Ludwig C 544 

Leimbach, Ferdinand 567 

Lennon, Martin 430 

Leslie. Edward 431 

Lindsay. William 458 

Logan, Arthur C 444 

Logan. John T 618 

Lovely. John A 566 

Lovering. Owen 422 

Lowe, Milton C 488 

Lowe, William 461 

Lukinbeal. William E 588 

Lutzenhiser, J. H 5,30 

Mace, George ^2i 

MaGee, Elias F 626 

Mahr, Charles 598 

Marsh, Jesse 416 

Maryott, John L 643 

Mason, Joseph E 513 

Mattson, Olaf W 568 

McCarty, Francis M 418 



PAGE 

McCune, Mary S 581 

McDonald, Hector 503 

McDonald. Malcolm M 573 

McDonald. Richard L 568 

McGehee, Edward 613 

McGirl, Thomas 432 

Mcintosh, A. W 509 

Mcintosh, Daniel 596 

McKinney, Frank 604 

Meadors, Annette 440 

Meadors, John P 431 

Melum, B. M 455 

Mendenhall, Conway B 583 

Mendenhall, Cyrus B 413 

Mentch. Alexander 585 

Merritt, Orson 437 

Meyer, William F 624 

Miles, Arthur W 614 

Miller, John A 595 

Miller, Soren R 608 

Milligan, Grant 634 

Morgan, John A 564 

Morris, Robert 600 

Morrison, A. J 571 

Morse, Sidney F ; 409 

Moss. Preston B 490 

Myers. Benjamin F 575 

Myrebo, Betuel 605 

Neilson, Peter 582 

Nelson. Nels .A 550 

Nelson. Olof 523 

Nelson, Peter W 475 

Newman, Edwin M 630 

Newman, Mark T 625 

Newnes, Sam 526 

Nichol, John 591 

Nielsen, Ole C 519 

Nilson, Olaus 552 

Nix, William J 539 

Northway, Joseph Z 410 

Nutting, William B 632 

O'Brien, John 407 

O'Connell, Samuel 5S9 

O'Donnell. Ed 448 

O'Leary, Albert P 495 

Olson, Gus 612 

Osborne, Frank B 498 

O'Shea, Daniel G 634 

Ostrum, Gunder 648 

Padden. Willard B 605 

Palmer, William W 608 

Peden, David 406 

Phelps, George H 598 

Pierce. George W 546 

Piper. Lewis C . . . 587 

Potter, Charles J 401 

Powers, George "W 433 

Powers, Maurice ;;79 

Prewett, Silas C 475 

Pruett. Levi C>o3 

Rademaker. M. "B 1 jo6 

Ramsey, Charles A 602 

Randall. James N 504 

Rea. James E 537 

Reed, George W 550 

Renlund. Sanfrid 637 

Reno, Ludlow B 427 

Rich. .Mbert A 415 

Rife, S. L 61Q 



P.VGE 

Robison, William 826 

Rowland, Robert B 535 

Rowland. William 420 

Russell. David H 457 

Russell, Edwin C 639 

Sample, Henry A 47° 

Sanford, Jacob T 392 

Schaudel, Julius 551 

Schmalsle, William F 434 

Scott, James N 529 

Scott, William J 424 

Selleck, Charles W 516 

Selway, J L 417 

Seupke, Wfilliam 562 

Shaf er, Louis H 537 

Sickler, Arthur R 393 

Simpson, Charles M 569 

Simington. George R 022 

Simpkins. Joseph T 558 

Sirrine, Clarence 425 

Sirrine. Warren 423 

Solberg. Jacob 613 

Sorenson. Marce 560 

Spang, .■\lban D 426 

Sproule, George 595 

Stack, Thomas F 506 

Staffek, John C 403 

Stafford. John M 548 

Stanbach, Henry J 494 

Standen, Fred 527 

Steele. James 609 

Steele. Robert 609 

Stewart. John S 637 

.Stole. Jonas P 402 

Stone, William B 389 

Strickland, Benjamin 570 

Strider. Frank 636 

Strong, William 579 

Sumcr. Rudolph 509 

Succetti. John 530 

Swan, Lawrence T 563 

Teesdale, R. B 552 

Terrett, William W 488 

Thompson, Henry C 540 

Thompson, Iver 536 

Toliver, Solomon C 556 

Toston, George 517 

Town, Annie E 500 

Tripp. Daniel W 478 

Troger. .Albert 534 

Tunnell. Sam. P 508 

Tuttle, Samuel J 570 

Tyler Riley 644 

Van Houten, John W 512 

Volin, Charles E 438 

Wakefield. George W 393 

Walters. I. W 562 

Wastpeter. Tnhn 553 

Weast, |acr,l, P 534 

Weaver. Cliauncev R 636 

Weaver. J. R 650 

Welcome, George W 601 

Wentworth. Maurice S 646 

Wesch. Philip 404 

West, James 627 

Westbrook, Walter R 640 

Whitbeck. James K 632 

White, W. D 628 

Whitney, Frank S 617 



PAGE 

Wilder. Elmer '466 

Wolff, William W 641 

Wood. G. W 629 

Woosley, James 522 



PAGE 

Wright. Eugene P 545 

Yegen. Christian 476 

Yegen, Peter 476 



PAGE 

Young, George T 590 

Young, William W 421 

Youngstrom. Swan 635 

Youst. Claudius D 468 



INDEX 



PORTRAITS 



PAGE 

Arch, Entrance to Yellowstone 

National Park i6l 

Bab'^ock, Albert L 632 

Bickerdyke, Hiram B 592 

Bison, a herd of 319 

Brewster, George W 400 

Brown, Joseph T 387 

Burke, J. O. L 464 

Calhoun, James H 480 

Crawford, A. M 416 

Custer Battlefield 319 

DeSmet, Father -48- 

Dickson, William E 512 

Draper, Frank W 496 

Eichhom, Joseph 576 

Emigrant Peak 119 

Flanagan, Michael 608 

Guiler, John L 480 



PAGE 

Harrington, Abraham 528 

Hawkins. James B 448 

Herman, Frank N 512 

Hirsch, George 480 

Howard, Henry C 480 

Hutton, J. W 560 

Kellett. Frank 448 

Kennedy, Edward B 448 

Koch, Charles 640 

Lantis, Charles D 576 

Lantis, Mrs. Charles D 576 

Lantis, Miss L. E 576 

Lehfeldt, Hermann 544 

Lehfeldt. Ltidwig C 544 

Marsh, Jesse 416 

Maryott, John L 640 

Mason, Joseph E 512 

McCarty, Francis M 416 



PAG 

McGirl. Thomas 432 

Miller, Soren R 608 

Meyer, William F 624 

Montana Haying Scene 191 

O'Dor.nell, Ed 448 

Palmer. William W 608 

Palmer, Mrs. William W 608 

Powers. Maurice 576 

Powers, Mrs. Maurice S76 

Selway, J. L 416 

Sheep, Band of 233 

Steele, James 608 

Steele. Robert 608 

Van Houtcii. John W 512 

Westbronk. Walter R 640 

Wolflf, William W 640 

Wright, Eugene P 544 

Wright, Mrs. Eugene P 544 



PART I 

HISTORY OF MONTANA 



CHAPTER 



DAWN OF DISCOVERY. 



To the Spaniards is due the credit of being 
the first white men to explore the territory now 
within the confines of the State of Montana, 
and to Cabezo de Vaca should the distinction 
of being the very first be given. He, in 1535, 
with two soldiers and a treacherous Moor, 
Stephen the Moor, left Mexico with the purpose 
of exploring the north, of which they had so 
often heard the Indians speak. They returned 
in 1 536, and, while it is not known what terri- 
tory they traversed, fi-om their description and 
physical geography, their travels must have led 
them to what is now known as the South 
Saskatchewan and Sun rivers, beyond the ]Mis- 
souri and Yellowstone. 

The first missionary father who visited this 
northern territory was a Franciscan Friar, 
John of Padilla. In the year 1537 he was sent 
by Coronado, then governor of New Gallia, to 
explore the country to the north. The treach- 
erous Moor, Stephen, was again chosen as 
guide. The Moor with a few followers pre- 
ceded the main company and because of many 
attempted depredations was finally killed by the 
native Indians. The party who had accompan- 
ied the Moor in the lead now turned back and 
met the priest and his followers, but the priest 
was not to be influenced by this and pushed on 



to the northward, but on sight of the Seven 
Cities he stopped. 

The Cavalier of Salamanca, Francisco Vas- 
quez de Coronado, arrived in Mexico about 
1539, and in 1540 set out in charge of an army 
corps, composed of 800 natives and 300 Span- 
ish nobles, and according to the statement of 
Coronado they took possession of the entire 
territory of the Missouri, south and north of 
the 40th parallel of latitude, beyond the domain 
of the Emperor Tartarax in May, 1541. 

On May tenth, 1543, is recorded the first 
discovery of Oregon, of which western Mon- 
tana was once a part. Juan Roderiquez Ca- 
brillo, in command of a Spanish squadron, 
came up the coast of California and anchored 
in a bay as far north as 40 degrees of latitude. 

Nothing more was accomplished in the way 
of explorations in the northwest for two hun- 
dred years after the Spaniards made their at- 
tempt to find out the nature of the territory 
under their possession. The next explorations 
were made by the French in 1737-38 when 
Jean Frederick Philippearin, known as Count 
de IMaurepas, was secretary of state in France. 
He sent explorations to the equator, north and 
south pole, and to then imperfectly known 
coasts and countries. In 1738 M. de la Ver- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



andrye was despatched to America and was 
to make an overland journey to the Pacific 
ocean. To this able explorer we have to look 
for the first authentic history of the state of 
Montana. The traveler, having reached Can- 
ada, started with his party from Montreal, 
passed through Lake Superior, and, going as 
far to the westward as possible, passed along 
the foot of Lake Winnipeg, ascended the As- 
siniboine river and directed his course toward 
the Rocky mountains. For many days they 
traveled over large tracts of land free from 
timber but covered with very tall grass. In 
several places where it was known that no 
European had ever traveled, were found great 
pillars of stone leaning upon each other. The 
pillars consisted of one single stone each, and 
sometimes such stones were found laid one 
upon eacli other, resembling a wall. At one 
place on the prairie several hundred miles west 
of Montreal, the party discovered a large stone, 
like a pillar^ and in it a smaller stone about a 
foot long and four or five inches broad, covered 
on both sides with characters unknown. This 
curiosity was separated from the pillar and 
transmitted to the secretary of state at Paris, 
where missionaries conversant with Eastern 
languages affirmed that the inscription was in 
Tartaric characters. Without reaching the 
main range \'erandrye was compelled to aban- 
don the expedition, his party having got mixed 
up in a war which the Indians of these parts 
were waging against each other. The editor 
of the New York Documents, concludes from 
his analysis of many letters and official docu- 
ments bearing on the expedition, that the coun- 
try then explored was west and north of Min- 
nesota. Three hundred miles west of Lake 
Winnipeg on the Assiniboine, he states, they 
erected Fort La Reine, three others being 
erected further west, the most distant of which 
stood on the l)ank of the Paskoyac, a fork of 
the Shekatchiak. Against this opinion are 
many references to the waters of the upper 
Missouri, which leave no doubt that the Ver- 



anclrye party reached many of the valleys of 
Montana. Kalm, the Swedish scholar, who 
met the A'erandrye party in Canada in 1749, 
agrees with Garneau that the party did not 
cross the main range; but both are willing to 
concede to its members the honor of entering 
the valleys between the Great Belt and the 
main range. Granville Stuart and his fellow 
members of the Montana Historical Society 
agree in the belief that the explorers left Fort 
La Reine, on the Assiniboine river, went up 
the Mouse river in a southerly direction, and 
then crossed over to the Missouri to a point 
a little below where is now Fort Berthold. 
Then they ascended the Missouri as far as the 
Gates of the Mountains where the river breaks 
through the Belt range (near Helena), and 
ascended those mountains on the first of Janu- 
ary, 1743. Thence they passed up Deep or 
Smith's river, and over to the head of the Mus- 
selshell ; thence south to the Yellowstone cross- 
ing, through which they went up Pryor's Fork 
and through Pryor's gap, to Stinking river, 
which they crossed, and continuing south came 
among the Snake Indians on Wind ri\-er, who 
told them that on the south of Wind river 
mountains was Karoskiu, now Green river. 
The Snakes also told them not to go further 
south or they would be killed by the Sans Arcs, 
a branch of the Sioux, who were watching at 
Wind river pass for any parties that might be 
passing that way that they might kill and rob 
them. On the 19th of Alay, 1744, they re- 
turned to the upper Missouri, and in the Petite 
Cerise (choke cherry) country, they planted on 
an eminence a leaden plate bearing the arms (f 
France, and erected a monument of stones, 
which they called Beauharnois. After erecting 
the monument, they doubtless descended the 
Missouri, to where they first struck it on their 
outward journey. Then they returned by way 
of the Mouse river and the Assiniboine to the 
Lake of the Woods, where they arrived July 
2, 1744, after an absence of about a year. 

It has been asserted, and on good authority. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



that the visit of Verandrye to the country 
wliich is now known as Montana was brought 
about because of the shining appearance of the 
Rocky Mountains. The Imhans of this coun- 
try told the natives fartlier east, and these in 
turn to their eastern neiglilxirs, the rumors of 
the wonderful country finaJIy reacliing the 
French in Canada. According to tlie rumors, 
the shining appearance of the country was sup- 
posed to indicate the presence of gold, dia- 
monds and other precious stones. It was on 
the first of January, 1743, when Verandrye 
reached the shining mountains. The point at 
which the ascent was made was near the pres- 
ent city of Helena. Here the exploring party 
discovered the Prickly Pear river and learned 
of the Bitter Root from the Indians. The 
Bear Tooth mountain near Helena was de- 
scribed, and in other ways the party left evi- 
dence of the visit. 

The Jesuit, Pere Coquard or Cociuillard, 
was one of the party of 1738, and to him is 
given the honor of being the first Christian 
minister to visit the region now called Mon- 
tana. To him must be given the credit for 
nearly all the records of the expedition. While 
he was neither laudations nor severe in his crit- 
icisms, he gave a just and plain statement of 
facts. He was Verandrye's oldest friend and 
an associate in the expedition and had much 
Ijetter opportunities of observation than the 
chief. For this reason if no other, his state- 
ments must be accepted as correct and the fol- 
lowing dates and events taken in history — 
Fort La Reine on the Assinilxiine erected Oc- 
tober 3, 1738: the Alandan country explored 
by \'erandrye, Jr., and the Chevalier Veran- 
drye. sons of the Sieur de la Verandrye; Belt 
mountains reached January i, 1743; Monu- 
ment erected bearing French coat-of-arms in 
upper Missouri country on May 12, 1744; re- 
turn to the Lake of the Woods July 2. 1744: 
Sieur de la \'erandrye died in Canada Decem- 
ber 6, 1749; Chevalier Verandrye lost in the 



wreck of the Auguste on the ocean in Novem- 
ber, 1 761 ; the Sieur Jules Verandrye and Pere 
Coquard returned to France. From their story 
and the writings of Carver and others many 
stories of their discovery were told. 

In a letter from Mr. LTpham, of the Minne- 
sota Historical Society, to the Montana His- 
torical Society, in regard to the Verandrye ex- 
pedition, he says in part : 'T believe Veran- 
drye's camp of January the eighth. 1743, was 
in the south edge of Montana or on the north 
edge of Wyoming, not far northeast of the Big 
Horn mountains, and near the southeast corner 
of the present Crow Indian reservation. The 
part of Montana which this expedition crossed 
was only its southeast corner, south of the Yel- 
lowstoae ri\er." The location of the lead 
plate and cairn, mentioned above, he says "was 
close to the fort of the Choke Cherry Indians 
on the Missouri, somewhere in the region of 
the line between South Dakota and Nebraska." 

For many years after the Verandrye ex- 
ploration this country was absolutely aban- 
doned by the military and as a consequence the 
French traders worked themselves into the 
good graces of the Inilians. In 1752 and 1753, 
two expeditions were sent out by Governor 
Jonquierre-Lamarque de Martin in charge of 
the Missouri division and Jacques Logardeurde 
St. Pierre and Boucher de Niverville in com- 
mand of the Saskatchewan division. These 
expeditions met with little success, but the re- 
sults were beneficial in that many men of each 
expedition remained in the country. They 
established Fort Jonquierre, Fort Bourlxin and 
a number of temixjrary forts on the Missouri 
river. 

Jonathan Carver, a soldier, is also sometimes 
credited with having- crossed the continent, cer- 
tain authorities stating that he left Boston June 
6, 1766, crossed the continent to the Pacific 
and returned in October, 1768. This view is 
not held by any of the historians of the present 
dav, however. 



CHAPTER II 



MISSISSIPPI TO THE COAST. 



Louisaiia had become a part of the terri- 
tory of the United States, by treaty of Paris, 
April 30, 1803. In the meantime the Lewis 
and Clark expedition had been organized. 

That portion of Lewis and Clark's expedi- 
tion with which this history concerns itself 
must relate chiefly to the achievements of these 
intrepid captains after they had entered the ter- 
ritory known as Montana. 

Aside from Captains Clark and Lewis, the 
party of the expedition consisted of nine young 
men from Kentucky, fourteen L'nited States 
soldiers, who had volunteered their services, 
two French watermen (an interpreter and 
hunter), and a black servant employed by Cap- 
tain Clark. Before the close of 1803 prepara- 
tions for the voyage were all completed, and 
the party wintered at the mouth of Wood river, 
on the east bank of the Mississippi. 

The following is President Jefferson's opin- 
ion of Captain Lewis : 

Of courage undaunted : possessing a firmness and 
perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossi- 
bilities could divert from its direction ; careful as a fa- 
ther of those committed to his charge, yet steady in the 
maintenance of order and discipline ; intimate with In- 
dian character, customs and principles; habituated to 
the hunting life, guarded by exact observation of the 
vegetables and animals in his own country, against 
losing time in the description of objects already pos- 
sessed; honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound under- 
standing, and a fidelity to trust so scrupulous that 
whatever he should report would be as certain as if 
seen by ourselves ; with all these qualifications, as if 
selected and implanted by nature in one body for this 
express purpose. I could have no hesitation in confiding 
this enterprise to him. 

July 5, 1803, Captain Lewis left Washing- 
ton, D. C, and was joined at Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, by Captain Clark, and proceeded on to 
St. Louis, where they arrived in December. 



The Spanish officers were still in possession 
of the forts at St. Louis, not having been offi- 
cially notified of the transfer to France and 
back to the United States. The expedition 
camped at the mouth of the Wood river on the 
east bank of the Mississippi river out of the 
jurisdiction of the Spanish. The winter was 
spent here in preparation for setting out early 
in the spring. They broke up their winter 
quarters on May 14, 1804, and began the as- 
cent of the Missouri river. This was practi- 
cally an unexplored country. On October 27, 
1804, they arrived at the Mandan village, re- 
maining here during the winter. Here they 
were apprised of the French traders from the 
British possessions, who had made overland 
trips to this territory. But further west than 
these villages the country was practically un- 
known to the white race. The vast country of 
the Platte, the Little Missouri, the Yellowstone 
and the head waters of the Missouri had never 
been penetrated by civilized man. 

It was here in the winter of 1804 that a 
Frenchman named Charbineau joined the party 
with his wife, Sacajawea, or "Bird Woman," 
Sacajawea was a- woman of the Snake Indian 
tribe who had been captured in war by the 
Minnetarees, of whom she was purchased by 
Charbineau. Brackenridge's Journal says: 
"We had on board a Frenchman named Char- 
bineau, with his wife, an Indian woman of the 
Snake nation, both of whom accompanied 
Lewis and Clark to the Pacific, and were of 
great service. The woman, a good creature, 
of a mild and gentle disposition, much attached 
to the whites, whose manners and dress she 
tries to imitate ; but she had become sickly and 
longed to visit her native country ; her husband 
also, who had spent many years among the In- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



dians, had become weary of civilized life." 
Clark said of Charbineau : "A man of no pecu- 
liar merit. Was Useful as an interpreter only, 
in which capacity he discharged his duties with 
good faith from the moment of our departure 
from the Mandans on the "th of April, 1805, 
until our return to that place in August last. * 
* *■ He would have been a minus function 
in comparison with his wife, Sacajawea, the 
wonderful 'Bird Woman," who contributed a 
full man's share to the success of the expedi- 
tion, besides taking care of her baby." 

Orin D. Wheeler in his "Trail of Lewis 
and Clark," says that Sacajawea was called 
the "Bird Woman" of the jMinnetarees, who 
uncomplainingly bore her burdens with as 
much fortitude as the male members of the 
party and withstood the same hardships, be- 
sides taking care of her child. Many times in 
their travels and meetings with other tribes, 
she was able to act as interpreter when her 
husband failed, and many times her advice was 
asked for by the captains and was always given 
true weight. Sacajawea was never remuner- 
ated for her trip with the expedition and it 
should be the purpose of the government to 
perpetuate the memory of this noble woman 
with a statue in some conspicuous place. The 
United States Geological Survey recently fit- 
tingly named a peak in the Bridger range of 
mountains, Sacajawea Peak, on the sight of 
the place where she was captured as a child 
by the Minnetarees, and where she pointed out 
the pass over the mountains to Captains Lewis 
and Clark. 

Sacajawea was of the royal blood of the 
Shoshoni. her brother, Cameahwait. being a 
noted chief of that tribe. \Miile her husljand, 
Charbineau. has not been very well spoken of 
by historians, we must give him credit for do- 
ing an honorable act in marrying her after he 
had purchased her from the Minnetarees. 

Dr. J. K. Hosmer, the well known histor- 
ical \\'riter. in speaking of -Sacajawea, says: 
"Her doings were of such a character as to 



make it cjuite right to claim for her a place 
among heroines; in the whole line of Indian 
heroines, indeed, from Pocahontas to Romona, 
not one can be mentioned whose title to hon- 
ored remembrance is any better than hers." 

Not much can be learned of the infant who 
traveled so many miles with his parents on 
this expedition. In regard to this Ferris, in 
speaking of a trapping party, says : "The 
party was enroute from the falls of the Snake- 
Shoshone falls to the Miladi river in southern 
Idaho, and after nearly perishing from thirst 
on the desert, finally found the river. We 
spent the night carrying water to our enfeebled 
companions who lingered behind, and to horses 
left on the way. All were found except Char- 
bineau and his animals who was supposed to 
have wandered from the trail and got lost." 
He was afterward found among a party of 
the Hudson's Bay company, where he had 
strayed. In a footnote Ferris says : This was 
the infant, who together with his mother, was 
saved from a sudden flood near the walls of the 
Missouri by Captain Lewis — "c'ldc Lewis in 
Lewis and Clark Journals." — (It was Clark, 
however, and not Lewis who saved their 
lives.) 

It is impossible to determine the time, place 
or manner of the death of Charbineau and wife, 
but it is supposed that they were the victims of 
a small-pox epidemic that killed so many In- 
dians in the years 1838 and 1839. 

On the opening of spring the party contin- 
ued up the ^Missouri, reaching the confluence 
of the Yellowstone and Missouri. April 26, 
1805. This was a great hunting ground, 
abounding in buffalo, deer, elk, antelope, and 
other small game. Timber was abundant, and 
grew to a greater size than in moSt places on 
the Missouri. The timber consisted principally 
of Cottonwood, box-alder, elm and ash. 

In describing the two rivers at the mouth 
of the Yellowstone, the journals give the width 
of the Yellowstone, including a sandbar, as 858 
yards, with 297 yards of water; the Missouri 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



with a bed 520 yards and the water occupying 
330 yards witli a deep channel. Continuing 
up the Alissouri, the country was found to be 
uneven and broken; the timber was not as 
heavy; the woods were green; two small 
streams flowed from the north; game was 
abundant. 

Early the next morning, the wind being 
favorable, they proceeded up the river, cover- 
ing twenty-fi\'e miles during the day, and in 
the evening camped at the mouth of ^Martha's 
river, now known as the Big Muddy. Lewis, 
who was on shore with a hunter, met two white 
bears. We must not confound these bears with 
the polar bear, as they have never been found 
in this latitude. The probability is that they 
were of a light shade, and belonged to the same 
species as the bear commonly known in these 
parts. The Indians spoke of the white bear as 
a ferocious animal. On approaching these 
two, Captain Lewis and the hunter fired, each 
wounding a bear. One escaped, the other 
turned upon Captain Lewis, followed him 
about eighty yards, and was brought down by 
the third shot from his gun. It weighed about 
300 pounds. The Martha's river was de- 
scribed as being fifty yards wide, with water 
for fifteen yards. Captain Clark ascended 
the river for three miles and reported the width 
to \-ary but little from what it was at the 
mouth, that the banks were steep, but not deep, 
and that the bed was muddy. 

The following day they passed some lodges 
of driftwood, which, from all appearances, had 
not been inhabited lately. On the approach of 
evening, after having traveled a distance of 24 
miles, they camped on a sand island. Farther 
on a curious collection of bushes was observed, 
about thirty feet in height, and from ten to 
twelve inches in diameter, tied together at the 
top, which was supposed to have been left as a 
religious sacrifice by the Indians. 

With game of all sorts in abundance they 
went on, and on May the eighth, reached a 
stream of a peculiar whiteness, which they 



named from the milky color of its water. ]\Iilk 
river, which name it still retains. On the 
following day they passed a most ex- 
traordinary river, which was called Big 
Dry. Like many mountain streams it is 
a raging torrent when the snow is melting and 
at other times completely dry. ,\t this time 
there was no water in the stream, hence the 
name. 

On the nth of ]\lay, one of the party who 
had been permitted to walk on shore had an ad- 
venture worthy of mention here: "About five 
in the afternoon, one of our men who had been 
afflicted with the piles and suffered to walk on 
shore, came running to the boat with loud cries 
and every symptom of terror and distress; for 
some time after we had taken him on Ijoard he 
was so much out of breath as to be unable to 
describe the cause of his anxiety, but at length 
told us that about a mile and a half below he 
had shot a brown bear, which immediately 
turned and was in close pursuit of him ; but the 
bear being badly wounded could not overtake 
him. Captain Lewis with seven men went in 
search of him and having found his track, fol- 
lowed him by his blood for a mile, and found 
him concealed in some thick brush wood, and 
shot him with two balls through the skull. * 
* Our man had shot him through the lungs, 
yet he had pursued him furiously for half a 
mile, then returned more than twice that dis- 
tance, and with his talons had prepared for 
himself a Ijed in the earth two feet deep and 
five feet long, and was perfectly alive when 
they found him, which was at least two hours 
after he had received the wound." 

May 14th was a notable day for the explor- 
ers. We read in the journals of two remarka- 
ble incidents that occurred on this day. "To- 
wards evening the men in the hindmost canoes 
discovered a large brown bear ; * * * six 
of them, all good hunters, concealing them- 
selves by a small eminence, came unpercei\-ed 
within forty paces, of him. Four of the hunt- 
ers now fired, and each lodged a ball in his 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



body, two of them directly through his lungs. 
The furious animal sprang up and ran open- 
mouthed upon them : as he came near, the two 
hunters who had reserved their fire gave him 
two rounds, one of which, breaking his should- 
er, retarded his motion for awhile, but before 
they could reload he was so near that they 
were obliged to run to the river. * * * 
Two jumped into the canoe; the other four 
separated, and concealing themselves in the wil- 
lows, fired as fast as each could reload. * * 
* At last he (the bear) pursued two of them 
so closely that they threw aside their gims and 
pouches and jumped down a perpendicular 
bank of twenty feet into the water. The bear 
sprang after them, and was within a few feet 
of the hindmost when one of the hunters on 
shore shot him in the head and finally killed 
him. They dragged him to the shore, and 
found that eight balls had passed through him 
in different directions." 

In camp an accident was barely escaped 
which would have meant much to the progress 
of the party. One of the canoes, containing all 
the papers, instruments, medicine and other in- 
dispensable articles, being under sail when a 
sudden squall of wind came up, was almost lost. 
Had not the accident been averted when it was 
three of the men on board might have been 
lost, they being unable to swim. This incident 
was due to Charbineau, who was at the helm, 
and who instead of doing the right thing at the 
right time lost his head, and by so doing al- 
most lost the boat ; and not until the bowsman 
threatened to shoot him did he do his duty. 
All credit is due Sacajawea, who calmly con- 
ducted herself and saved many of the articles 
that would have been lost but for her. The 
next da}- v»'as spent in drying the goods. The 
gi-eatest loss sustained was the loss of 
medicines. 

On the 17th the party started early and pro- 
ceeded very well. The banks being firm and 
the shores bold, they were enabled to use the 
towline, which, whenever the banks would per- 



mit it, proved to be the safest and most expedi- 
tious mode of ascending the river, except under 
sail with a steady breeze. The country in gen- 
eral was found to be rugged, the hills high, 
with their sides and top covered with timber. 
The lower part of the hills was a rich dark 
loam. The timber on the ri\er consisted of 
scarcely anything more than a few scattered 
Cottonwood trees. The game abounded in 
great quantities, but the buffalo were not so 
numerous as they were some days before; two 
rattlesnakes were seen that day, and one of 
them killed. It resembled those of the middle 
Atlantic states. 

The next day nineteen miles were covered. 
Weiser's creek was discovered and named after 
Peter Weiser, one of the privates of the com- 
pany. The towline was used this day and the 
following to good advantage, the shore;-, being 
clear. 

Of ]\Iay 20th the journals say: "As usual. 
we set out early, and the banks being 
convenient for that purpose, we used the tow- 
line. The river is narrow and crooked, the 
water rapid, and the country much like that 
of yesterday. At a distance of tw'O and one- 
fourth miles we passed a large creek from the 
south with but little water, to which we gave 
the name of Blowing-fly creek, from the quan- 
tity of those insects found in this neighborhood. 
They are very troublesome, infesting our meat 
while we are cooking, and our meals. After 
making seven miles we reached by eleven 
o'clock the mouth of a large river on the south 
and camped for the day at the upper point of 
its junction with the INIissouri. 

"This stream, which we suppose to be that 
called by the JNIinnitarees (jMahtush-ahzhah) 
the jMuscleshell (Musselshell) river, empties 
into the Missouri 2,270 miles above the moutli 
of the latter river, in latitude 47 north. It is 
no feet wide, and contains. more water than 
streams of that size usually do in this country : 
its current is be no means rapid, and there is 
every appearance of its being susceptible of 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



navigation by canoes for a considerable dis- 
tance. Its bed is chiefly formed in coarse sand 
and gravel, with an occasional mixture of black 
mud; the banks are abrupt and nearly twelve 
feet high, so that they are secure from being 
overflowed; the water is of a greenish yellow- 
cast and much more transparent than that of 
the Missouri, which itself, though clearer than 
below, still retains its whitish hue and a portion 
of its sediment. Opposite the mouth of the 
junction the current of the Missouri is gentle, 
and 222 yards in width ; the bed is principally 
of mud, the little sand remaining being wholly 
confined to the points, and the water is still too 
deep to use the setting pole. 

"If this be, as we suppose, the Musselshell, 
our Indian information is that it rises in the 
first chain of the Rocky mountains not far 
from the sources of the Yellowstone, whence 
in its course to this place it waters a high 
broken country, well timbered, particularly on 
its borders, and interspersed with handsome 
fertile plains and meadows. We have reason, 
howe\-er, to believe, from their giving a sim- 
ilar account of the timber where we now are, 
that the timber of which they speak is similar 
to that which we have seen for a few days past, 
\\hich consists of nothing more than a few 
straggling small pines and dwarf cedars on the 
summits of the hills, nine-tenths of the ground 
being totally destitute of wood, and covered 
with short grass, aromatic herbs, and an im- 
mense quantity of prickly pear; though the 
party who explored it eight miles represented 
the low grounds on the river to be well sup- 
plied with Cottonwood of a tolerable size and 
of an excellent soil. They also report that the 
country is broken and irregular, like that near 
our camp ; and that about five miles up, a hand- 
some river, about fifty yards wide, which we 
named after Charbineau's wife, Sacajahweah's 
or the Birdwoman's river, discharges into 
the Musselshell on the north or upper side. 

"Another party (i. e. John Shields) found 
at the foot of the southern hills, about four 



miles from the Missouri, a fine bold spring, 
which in this country is so rare that since we 
left the Mandans we have found only one of a 
similar kind. That was under the bluffs on 
the south side of the Missouri, at some dis- 
tance from it, and about five miles below the 
Yellowstone. With this exception, all the 
small fountains, of which we have met a num- 
ber, are impregnated with the salts which are 
so abundant here, and with which the Missouri 
is itself probably tainted, though to us, who 
have been so much accustomed to it, the taste 
is not perceptible. 

"Among the game we observed today were 
two large owls, with remarkably long feathers 
resembling ears on the sides of the head, 
which we presume are hooting owls, though 
they are larger and their colors are brighter 
than those common in the United States." 

During the next few days several small 
streams were found, each being named after 
some of the men of the party. The buffalo, 
were scarce; beaver, bear, antelope, and deer 
not as plentiful as farther down the river. 

On the 26th Windsor creek was discovered. 
A few miles beyond they came to another creek 
flowing from the north. It was from here, 
after ascending to the topmost hills, that Cap- 
tain Lewis first got a view of the Rockies. 
Four and a half miles beyond this creek they 
came to the upper point of a sand island. Says 
the journal : "At a distance of five miles be- 
tween high bluffs, we found a very difficult 
rapid, reaching quite across the river, where 
the water is deep, the channel narrow, and 
gravel obstructing it on each side ; we had great 
trouble in ascending it, although we used both 
the rope and the pole and doubled the crew. 
This is the most considerable rapid on the 
Missouri, and in fact, the only place where 
there is a sudden descent ; as we were laboring 
over them a female elk with its fawn swam 
down through the waves, which ran very high, 
and obtained for the place the name of Elk 
Rapids." 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



Wednesday, the 29th was an eventful day: 
"Last night we were alarmed by a new sort of 
enemy," reports the journal. "A buffalo swam 
over from the opposite side to the spot where 
lay one of our canoes, over which he clamb- 
ered to the shore; then taking fright he ran 
full speed up the bank toward our fires, and 
passed within 18 inches of the heads of some 
of our men, before the sentinel could make 
him change his course. Still more alarmed, 
he ran down between our fires and within a 
few inches of the heads of the second row of 
men, and would have broken into the lodge if 
the barking of the dog had not stopped him. 
He suddenly turned to the right, and was out 
of sight in a moment, leaving us all in confu- 
sion, everyone seizing his rifle and inquiring 
the cause of alarm. On learning what had hap- 
pened, we had to rejoice at suffering no more 
injury than the damage to some guns which 
were in the canoe which the buffalo crossed. 

"In the morning early we left our camp, 
and proceeded as usual by cord. We passed 
an island and two sandbars; at the distance of 
two and one-half miles came to a handsome 
river which discharges on the south, and which 
we ascended to the distance of a mile and a 
half. We called it Judith's river. It rises in 
the Rocky mountains, in about the same place 
with the Musselshell, and near the Yellow- 
stone. Its entrance is 100 yards wide from 
bank to bank, the water occupying about 75 
yards, and in greater quantity than that of the 
Musselshell river; though more rapid, it is 
equally navigable, there being no stones or 
rocks in its bed, which is composed entirely 
of gravel and mud with some sand. The water 
is clearer than any which we have yet seen ; 
and the low grounds, as far as we could dis- 
cern, are wider and more woody than those of 
the Missouri. Along its banks we obsen-ed 
some box-elder intermixed with cnttnnwood 
and willow, the undergrowth cnnsisting of 
rose bushes, honey-suckles and a little red 
willow. There was a great abundance of 



the argali, or big-horned animal, in the high 
country through which it (Judith's river) 
passes, and a great number of beaver in its 
waters. 

"Just above the entrance of it we saw the 
fires of 126 lodges, which appeared to have 
been deserted about 1 2 or 15 days ; and on the 
other side of the Missouri a large camp, ap- 
parently made by the same nation. On exam- 
ining some moccasins which we found here, 
our Indian woman said that they did not be- 
long to her own nation, the Snake Indians, but 
she thought that they indicated a tribe on this 
side of the Rocky mountains, and to the north 
of the Missouri; indeed it-is probable that these 
are the Minnetarees of Fort de Prairie. At the 
distance of six and one-half miles the hills 
again approach the bank of the river, and the 
stones and rocks washed down fmni them 
form a very bad rapid, with rocks and ripples 
more numerous and difficult than those we 
passed on the 27th and 28th. Here the same 
scene is again renewed, and we had again 
to struggle and labor to preserve our small 
craft from being lost. Near this spot are a few 
trees of ash, the first we have seen for a great 
distance and from which we named the place 
Ash Rapids. On these hills there is but little 
timber, but the salts, coal and other mineral 
appearances continue. 

"On the north we passed a precipice about 
130 feet high, under which lay scattered the 
fragments of at least 100 carcases of buffaloes, 
although the water which washed away the 
lower part of the hill must have carried off 
many of the dead. These buffaloes have been 
chased down the precipice in a way ^•ery com- 
mon on the Missouri, by which vast herds are 
destroyed in a moment. The mode of hunting 
is to select one of the most active and fleet 
young men, who is disguised by a buffalo skin 
around his body ; the skin of the head with the 
ears and horns being fastened on his own head 
in such a way as to deceive the buffalo. Thus 
dressed, he fixes himself at a convenient dis- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



tance between the herd of buffalo and any of 
the river precipices, which sometimes extend 
for some miles. His companions in the mean- 
time get in the rear and side of the herd, and 
at a given signal show themselves and advance 
toward the bufYaloes. These instantly take 
the alarm, and finding the hunters beside them, 
they run toward the disguised Indian or decoy, 
who leads them on at full speed toward the 
river; when, suddenly securing himself in some 
crevice of the rock which he had previously 
fixed on, the herd is left on the brink of the 
precipice. It is then in vain for the foremost 
buffaloes to retreat or even to stop; they are 
pressed on by the hindmost rank, which, see- 
ing no danger but from the hunters, goad on 
those before them until the whole are precipi- 
tated, and the shore is strewn with dead bodies. 
Sometimes in this perilous seduction, the In- 
dian is himself either trodden under foot by the 
rapid movements of the buffaloes or missing 
his footing in the cliff is urged down the preci- 
pice by the falling herd. The Indians then se- 
lect as much meat as they wish; the rest is 
abandoned to the wolves, and creates a dread- 
ful stench. The wolves which had been feed- 
ing on these carcasses were very fat. and so 
gentle that one was killed with an espontoon. 
"Above this place we came-to for dinner 
at the distance of 17 miles (from camp), oppo- 
site a bold running river, 20 yards wide, fall- 
ing in on the south. From the objects we had 
just passed we called this river Slaughter river. 
Its low grounds are narrow, and contain 
scarcely any timber. Soon after landing it 
began to blow and rain, and as there was no 
prospect of getting wood or fuel farther on, 
we fixed our camp on the north, three quar- 
ters of a mile above Slaughter river. After 
the labors of the day. we gave each man a 
dram, and such was the effect of long absti- 
nence from spirituous liquors that, from the 
small quantity of half a gill of rum, some of 
the men were considerably affected, and all 



very much exhilarated. Our game today con- 
sisted of an elk and two beaver."' 

The next day they passed several places 
where Indians had been camped not many 
weeks previously, who were supposed to be 
moving slowly up the river. From where they 
left the Minnetarees there had been no sign of 
permanent abodes of Indians, although no 
place was exempt from occasional visits. 

The next day, ]May 31, after having as- 
cended nine miles : "We came to a high wall 
of black rock rising from the water's edge on 
the south, above the cliffs of the river; this 
continued about a quarter of a mile, and was 
succeeded by a high plain, till three miles 
farther a second wall 200 feet high, rose 
on the same side. Three miles farther a 
wall of the same kind, about 200 feet 
high and 1,200 feet in thickness, appeared 
to the north. These hills and river cliffs ex- 
hibit a most extraordinary and romantic ap- 
pearance; they rise in most places nearly per- 
pendicular from the water, to the height of 
200 and 300 feet, and are formed of very 
white sandstone. In trickling down the cliffs, 
the water has worn the soft sandstone into a 
thousand grotesque figures, among which with 
a little fancy may be discerned elegant ranges 
of freestone buildings, with columns variously 
sculptured, and supporting long and elegant 
galleries, while the parapets are adorned with 
statuan- ; on a nearer approach they represent 
elegant ruins; columns, some with pedestals 
and capitals entire, others mutilated and pros- 
trated, and some rising, p3TamidalIy, over each 
other till they terminate in a sharp point. In 
the midst of this fantastic scenery are vast 
ranges of walls, which seem the productions 
of art, so regular is the workmanship." 

On the first of June, they dragged along 
against a contrary wind for twenty-three miles. 
During this day, chokecherries, yellow and red 
currant bushes, and wild roses and prickly pear, 
were observed. The wild roses were in bloom. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



Game was very abundant through this section, 
and they spoke of the necessity of beginning 
a collection of hides for the pin^pose of making 
a leather boat, the same having been under 
consideration. 

The hunters, on the second, brought in six 
elk, two buffaloes, two mule deer and a bear. 
During the day Several islands were passed, 
most of them containing some timber. After 
having traveled i8 miles, they camped on the 
south side of the iNIissouri, opposite the mouth 
of a large river. Here our explorers were at a 
loss. They had gathered all the information 
they could from the Indians, but this river had 
not been mentioned, so the expedition was in 
absolute ignorance as to this body of water. 
Before proceeding, these streams must be ex- 
plored, and accordingly, as narrated in Coues 
journals, we have the following examination : 
"^Monday, the third, we crossed and fixed our 
camp at the point formed by the junction of 
this river with the Missouri. It now became an 
interesting question, which of these two 
streams is what the Minnetarees call Ahma- 
teahza, or Missouri, which they describe as ap- 
proaching very near the Columbia. On our 
right decision much of the fate of the expedi- 
tion depends; since if, after ascending to the 
Rocky mountains or beyond them, we should 
find that the river we were following did not 
come near the Columbia, and be obliged to re- 
turn, we should not only lose the traveling 
season, two months of which has already 
elapsed, but probably dishearten the men s.i 
much as to induce them to abandon the enter- 
prise, or yield us a cold obedience, instead of 
the warm and zealous support which they have 
hitherto afforded us. We determined, there- 
fore, to examine Avell before we decided on our 
future course. For this purpose we dispatched 
t\v(i canoes with three men up each of the 
streams, with orders to ascertain the depth, 
width, and rapidity of the current, so as to 
judge of their comparative bodies of water. 
At the same time parties were sent out by land 



to penetrate the countr}-, and discover from the 
rising grounds, if possible, the distant bearing 
of the two rivers ; and all were directed to re- 
turn toward exening. 

"While they were gone we ascended to- 
gether the high grounds in the fork of these 
two rivers, whence we had a very extensive 
prospect of the surrounding country. On 
every side it was spread into one vast plain, 
covered with verdure, in which innumerable 
herds of buffaloes were roaming, attended by 
their enemies, the wolves ; some flocks of elk 
also were seen, and the solitary antelopes were 
scattered with their young over the face of the 
plain. To the south was a range of lofty (up 
to about 6,000 feet; High wood) mountains, 
which we supposed to be a continuation of the 
south (i. e. Judith) mountain, stretching from 
southeast to northwest and terminating ab- 
ruptly about southwest of us. These were 
partially covered with snow ; but at a great dis- 
tance behind them was a more lofty ridge (Lit- 
tle Belt .mountains), completely covered with 
snoAV, which seemed to follow the same direc- 
tion as the first, reaching from west to north- 
west, where their snowy tops were blended with 
the horizon. The direction of the rivers could 
not, however, be long distinguished as they 
were soon lost in the extent of the plain. On 
our return we continued our examination; the 
width of the north branch (Marias river) is 
200 yards and that of the south t,/2. The 
north, although narrower and with a gentler 
current, is deeper than the south branch, its 
waters are of the same whitish brown color, 
thickness, and turbidness, and run in the same 
boiling and rolling manner which has uniform- 
ly characterized the Missouri; the bed is com- 
posed of some gravel, but principally mud. 
The south fork (i. e. the Missouri itself) is 
deeper, but its waters are perfectly transparent ; 
its current is rapid, but the surface smooth and 
unruffled : and its bed is composed of round and 
flat smooth stones like those of rivers issuing 
from a mountainous country. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



"The air and character of the north fork 
so much resembles those of the Missouri that 
ahnost all the party believe that to be the true 
course to be pursued. We, however, though 
we have given no decided opinion, are inclined 
to think otherwise; because, although this 
branch does give the color and character to 
the Missouri, yet these very circmnstances in- 
duce an opinion that it rises in and runs through 
an open plain country, since if it came from the 
mountain it would be clearer, unless, which 
from the position of the country is improbable, 
it passed through a vast extent of low ground 
after leaving them. We thought it probable 
that it did not even penetrate the Rocky moun- 
tains, but drew its source from the open coun- 
try toward the lower and middle parts of the 
Saskaskawan, in the direction north of this 
place. What embarrasses us most is that the 
Indians, who appeared to be well acquainted 
with the geography of the country, have not 
mentioned this northern river; for 'the river 
that scolds at all others,' as it is termed, must 
be, according to their account, one of the rivers 
which we have passed ; and if this north fork be 
the Missouri, why have they not designated 
the south branch, which they must also have 
passed in order to reach the great falls which 
they mention on the Missouri. 

'Tn the evening our parties returned, after 
ascending the rivers in canoes for some dis- 
tance and then continuing on foot, just leaving 
themselves time to return by night. The north 
fork was less rapid, and therefore afforded the 
easiest navigation ; the shallowest water of the 
north was five feet deep, that of the south six 
feet. At two and one-half miles up the north 
fork is a small river (Teton) coming in on 
the left or western side, 60 feet wide, with a 
bold current three feet in depth. The party 
by land had gone up the south fork in a straight 
line somewhat north of west for seven miles, 
where they discovered this little river (Teton) 
came within 100 yards of the south fork; and 
on returning down it, found it a handsome 



stream, with as much timber as either of the 
large rivers, consisting of the narrow and wide 
leaved Cottonwood, some birch and box-elder, 
with an undergrowth of willows, rosebushes 
and currants. They also saw on this river a 
great number of elk and some beaver. 

"All these accounts were, however, very 
far from deciding the important question of 
our future route. We therefore determined, 
each of us, to ascend one of the rivers during 
a day and a half's march, or further if neces- 
sary for our satisfaction. Our hunters killed 
two buffalo, six elk, and four deer today. 
Along the plains near the junction are to be 
found the prickly pear in great quantities ; the 
chokecherry is also very abundant in the river 
low grounds, as well as the ravines along the 
river bluffs; the yellow and red currants are 
not vet ripe; the gooseberry is beginning to 
ripen, and the wild rose which covers all the 
low grounds near the river is in full bloom. 
The fatigues of the last few days have occa- 
sioned some falling ofi in the appearance of 
the men; who, not being able to wear mocca- 
sins, have had their feet much bruised and 
mangled in passing over the stones and rough 
ground. They are, however, perfectly cheer- 
ful, and have an undiminished ardor for the 
expedition." 

On the morning of the fourth, Captaia 
Lewis and Captain Clark, set out to explore 
the two streams. Captain Lewis crossed the 
north fork and explored this river. He pro- 
ceeded in a northerly direction until the sixth 
when he decided to return, having convinced 
himself that this stream pursued a direction too 
far north for the route to the Pacific. He 
waited until noon to take a meridian altitude 
and then returned, arriving at the camp at the 
confluence of the two rivers on the eighth. "1 
determined to give it a name," he said, "and in 
honor of Miss Maria Wood, called it Maria's 
river." 

Captain Clark explored the south branch 
for a distance of fortv-five miles, and returned. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



13 



arriving at camp on the evening of the sixth 
Here he remained until the arrival of Captain 
Lewis on the eighth. Captains Lewis and Clark 
compared their observations and concluded 
that the south branch must be the stream which 
leads well into the mountains. They had been 
apprised by the Indians of the clear water of 
the river at the falls. This was true of the 
water of the south branch. It seemed to them 
that this must be the right course to take, for 
were it not the Indians would certainly have 
made mention of a stream of this size flowing 
from the south. 

The conclusions were communicated to the 
party, who to a man, was of a contrary opin- 
ion. However, they were willing to abide by 
the conclusions as arrived at. 

It was agreed that one of them (Lewis or 
Clark) should ascend by land and the other 
take the river. In the meantime, in order to 
lessen their burdens as much as possible, they 
determined to leave one of their periogues and 
all the baggage not absolutely needed. This 
they did, securely fastening the periogue on 
an island near the mouth of the Maria, and se- 
creting the baggage that could be dispensed 
with. 

On the morning of the eleventh, Lewis, 
with a party of four men, set out by land. Two 
days later they heard the sound of a fall of 
water. As they drew nearer the sound became 
too tremendous to be anything else than the 
water pouring over the Great Falls of the 
Missouri. 

Captain Lewis describes the river at this 
point in a very graphic way as follows : "The 
river immediately at this cascade is 300 yards 
wide, and is pressed in by a perpendicular cliff 
on the left, which rises to about 100 feet and 
extends up the stream for a mile : on the 
right the bluff is also perpendicular for 300 
yards above the falls. For 90 or 100 yards 
from the left cliff, the water falls in one smooth 
even sheet, over a precipice of at least 80 feet. 
The remaining part of the river precipitates 



itself with a more rapid current, but being re- 
ceived as it falls by the irregular and project- 
ing rocks below, forms a splendid prospect of 
perfectly white foam, 200 yards in length and 
80 in perpendicular elevation. This spray is 
dissipated into a thousand shapes, sometimes 
flying up in columns 15 or 20 feet, which are 
then oppressed by larger masses of white foam, 
on all which the sun impresses the brightest 
colors of the rainbow. As it rises from the 
fall it beats with fury against a ledge of rock 
which extends across the river at 150 yards 
from the precipice. From the perpendicular 
cliff on the north, to the distance of 120 yards, 
the rocks rise only a few feet above the water; 
when the river is high the stream finds a chan- 
nel across them 40 yards wide and near the 
higher parts of the ledge, which then rise about 
20 feet and terminate abruptly within 80 or 90 
yards of the southern shore. Between them 
and the perpendicular cliff on the south the 
whole body of water runs with great swiftness. 
A few small cedars grow near this ridge of 
rocks, which serves as a barrier to defend a 
small plain of about three acres, shaded with 
Cottonwood, at the lower extremity of which 
is a grove of the same tree, where are several 
Indians' cabins of sticks; below the point of 
them the river is divided by a large rock, sev- 
eral feet above the surface of the water, and ex- 
tending down the stream for twenty yards. At 
the distance of 300 yards from the same ridge 
is a second abutment of solid perpendicular 
rock about 60 feet high, projecting at right 
angles from the small plain on the north for 
134 yards into the river. After leaving this, 
the Missouri again spreads itself to its usual 
distance of 300 yards, though with more than 
its ordinary rapidity." 

Several days were spent in working their 
way up the succession of falls. The most re- 
markable of these they called Crooked Falls. 
While viewing this romantic fall, Captain 
Lewis heard a loud roar from above them. 
Crossing over the point, which lay between 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



them and the noise of rushing water, they came 
in sight of one of nature's grandest scenes. 
Captain Clark described it in the following 
picturesque language: "The whole of the ^lis- 
souri is stopped by one shelving rock, which, 
without a single niche, and with an edge as 
straight and regular as if formed by art, 
stretches itself from one side of the river to the 
other for at least a quarter of a mile. Over 
this the water precipitates itself in an even, 
uninterrupted sheet, to the perpendicular depth 
of fifty feet, whence dashing against the rocky 
bottom, it rushes rapidly down, leaving behind 
it a spray of the purest foam across the river." 

The journal tells us that "Just below the 
falls is a' little island in the middle of the river, 
well covered with timber. Here on a cotton- 
wood tree an eagle had fixed her nest, and 
seemed the undisputed mistress of the spot, to 
contest which dominion, neither man nor beast 
would venture across the gulfs that surround 
it." The story of the eagle's nest had been 
related to the party by the Indians at a much 
earlier date and this helped to impress upon 
their minds the fact that they could not be mis- 
taken in the course. 

After Captain Lewis departed Captain 
Clark remained in the camp one day to secrete 
the articles which could be dispensed with, and 
on the 1 2th started up the river. Navigation 
was slow and difficult, due to the rapidity of the 
current. On the 13th they reached the spot 
where Captain Clark had encamped on the 
fourth. At this place they were met by one of 
Lewis's men who came with the welcome intel- 
ligence that Lewis had discovered the falls. By 
noon of the i6th they had approached within 
five miles ol the falls, having crossed one con- 
siderable rapids in the morning. Lewis joined 
them here, having come down from the falls, 
and they discussed the most feasible method of 
crossing over the falls. It was decided that 
Clark make a tour of the country up the river 
and locate a route by which the baggage could 
be most easily transported. After the most 



feasible route had been determined upon the 
men were put to work transferring it to where 
the river was navigable above the falls, a dis- 
tance of some seventeen miles. They again 
deposited part of the baggage before beginning 
the trip around the falls. 

Anticipating the need of a light boat that 
could be easily carried where the stream was 
not navigable, the explorers brought with them 
an iron frame from which to construct a boat. 
Skins of buffalo and elk were stretched over 
this skeleton, making it the lightest possible. 
"The boat was completed," says the journal, 
"except what is in fact the most difficult part, 
the making her seams secure." 

To use the words of the journal, "We had 
intended to dispatch a canoe with part of our 
men to the United States early this spring ; but 
not having yet seen the Snake Indians, or 
knowing whether to calculate on their friend- 
ship or enmity, we had decided not to weaken 
our party which is already scarcely sufficient 
to repel any hostility. \\'e were afraid, too, 
that such a measure might dishearten those 
who remained ; as we have never suggested to 
them, they are all perfectly and enthusiastically 
attached to the enterprise, and willing to 
encounter any danger to insure its success.'' 

On the fifth the boat was ele\ated so that a 
fire could be kindled under it, in order that it 
might be dried more rapidly. A composition of 
powdered charcoal with beeswax and buffalo- 
tallow was used to prevent it from leaking. 
The journal says : "Besides the want of tar, 
we have been unlucky in sewing the skins with 
a needle which had sharp edges instead of a 
point merely. Although a long thong was 
used in order to fill the holes, yet it shrinks in 
drying and leaves them open, so that we fear 
the boat will leak." A few days later we read : 
"The boat having now become sufficiently dry, 
we gave her a coat of the composition, which 
after a proper interval was repeated, and the 
next morning she was launched into the water. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



and swam perfectly well. The seats then were 
fixed and the oars fitted; but after we had 
loaded her, as well as the canoes, and were on 
the point of setting' out, a violent wind caused 
the waves to wet the baggage, so that we were 
forced to unload the boats. The wind con- 
tinued high until evening, when to our great 
disappointment we discovered that nearly all 
the composition had separated from the skins 
and left the seams perfectly exposed; so that 
the boat now leaked very much. To repair this 
misfortune without pitch is impossible, and as 
none of that article is to be procured, we there- 
fore, however reluctantly, are obliged to aban- 
don her, after having so much labor in the con- 
struction." 

Now that the boat had proved a failure, 
they must construct others to take its place. 
The timber was very scarce throughout the 
upper course of the river — timber large enough 
for their purpose. The country was searched 
for trees large enough and at about eight miles 
distant they found two cottonwoods. which 
when fallen, did not prove to be very well 
suited for the purpose, but as nothing better 
was attainable they were used. 

These boats being constructed, the party 
continued on to the three forks of the river, 
reaching there in ten days. During this time 
the journal makes mention of observing many 
wild roses, sage, box-elder, service berries, 
chokecherries, black, yellow, red and purple 
currants, wild onions, garlic, abundance of sun 
flowers, aspen, and a few species of trees, but 
none of large dimensions ; elk, deer, otter, black 
snakes, beaver, sand hill cranes, pheasants, 
wild geese and ducks, a few bear and buffalo. 
The buffalo were not so numerous as at points 
down the river, neither were other game 
animals found in such great numbers. 

A few miles distant from tlie falls a large 
Indian lodge was passed which evidently had 
been designed as a great council fire, but in 
construction it differed from any the party had 
seen further down the river. It was built in 



the form of a circle, 216 feet in circumference 
at its base. It was composed of 16 cotton wood 
poles the thickness of a man"s body and about 
fifty feet long, which converged to a point and . 
were tied together with withes of willow brush. 
On the 1 6th 40 little booths were passed. The 
journal says : "These seemed to ha\e been 
deserted about ten days, and as we supposed by 
the Shoshonees or Snake Indians, whom we 
hoped soon to meet, as they appeared, from 
their tracks, to have a number of horses with 
them." 

During the same day they passed on the 
left side of tlie river a frame of a large lodge, 
which was 60 feet in diameter, around which 
was the remains of 80 leather lodges, all of 
which seemed to have been built during the last 
fall. On the i8th the journal says: "Being 
very anxious to meet with the Shoshonees or 
Snake Indians for the purpose of obtaining the 
necessary information of our route, as well as 
to procure horses, it was thought best for one 
of us to go forward with a small party and 
endeavor to discover them, before the daily 
discharge of our guns, which is necessary for 
our subsistence, should give them notice of our 
approach. If by accident they hear us they 
will most likely retreat to the mountains, mis- 
taking us for their enemiies, who usually 
attack them on this side." 

Accordingly Captain Clark with three men 
followed the course of the ri\-er on the north 
bank until well in the afternoon, when he cross- 
ed over a mountain to the river beyond, thus 
cutting ofif several miles. In so doing he dis- 
covered an Indian trail, which he followed. 

The Gates of the Rockies, a remarkable 
canyon of the jNIissouri. results from the con- 
finement of the Missouri by a spur of the Big 
Belt mountains, and is described by Captain 
Lewis in the following manner : 

A mile and a half beyond this creek (now the Cot- 
tonwood), the rocks approach the river on both sides, 
forming a most sublime and extraordinary spectacle. 
For five and three-quarter miles these rocks rise per- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



pendicular from the water's edge, to the height o£ 
nearly 1,200 feet. They are composed of a hlack gran- 
ite near the base, but from their lighter color above, 
and from the fragments, we suppose the upper part to 
be flint, of a yellowish brown or flint color. Nothing 
can be imagined more tremendous than the frowning 
darkness of these rocks, which project over the river 
and menace us with destruction. The river, 150 yards 
in width, seems to have forced its channel down this 
solid mass ; but so reluctantly has the rock given away 
that, during the whole distance, the water is very deep 
even at the edges, and for the first three miles there is 
not a spot, except one of a few yards, in which a man 
could stand between the water and the towering per- 
pendicular of the mountain. The convulsion of the pas- 
sage must have been terrible, since at its outlet are 
vast columns of rock torn from the mountain, which 
are strewn on both sides of the river — the trophies, as 
it were, of a victory. Several fine springs burst out 
from the chasms of the rocks, and contribute to in- 
crease the river, which has now a strong current; but 
very fortunately we are enabled to overcome it with 
our oars, since it would be impossible to use either 
the cord or the pole. We were obliged to go on some 
time after dark, not being able to find a spot large 
enough to camp on; but at length about two miles 
above a small island in the middle of the river, we met 
with a spot on the left side, where we procured plenty 
of light wood and pitch pine. This extraordinary range 
of rocks we called the Gates of the Rocky mountains. 

Continuing the account of the journey, the 
journal says : 

"At a mile from the Gates a large creek 
comes down from the mountains and empties 
behind an island in the middle of a bend to 
the west. To this stream, which is 15 yards 
wide, we gave the name of Pott's creek, after 
John Potts, one of our men. 

"Up this valley about ten miles we discov- 
ered a great smoke, as if the whole coimtry had 
been set on fire; but were at a loss to decide 
whether it had been done accidentally by Cap- 
tain Clark's party, or by the Indians as a sig- 
nal on their observing us. We afterward 
learned that this was the fact; for they had 
heard a gun fired by one of Captain Clark's 
men, and believing that their enemies were ap- 
proaching, had fled into the mountains, first 
setting fire to the plains as a warning to their 
countrymen." 

On July 22 after the party had passed sev- 



eral small islands and a creek that flowed from 
their right as they ascended, we read from the 
journal as follows : "We were delighted to 
find that the Indian woman recognized the 
country ; she tells us that to this creek her coun- 
trymen make excursions to procure white paint 
on its banks, and we therefore call it White- 
earth creek. She says also that the Three Forks 
of the Missouri are at no great distance — a 
piece of intelligence that has cheered us all, as 
we hoped soon to reach the head of that river." 
On Thursday, July 25, Captain Clark ar- 
rived at the Three Forks of the Missouri, the 
Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin. After exam- 
ining the three rivers he found that the right 
branch contained the most water, and that it 
bore further to the west. Having this knowl- 
edge he determined to ascend it. He left a 
note informing Captain Lewis of his intention, 
and then ascended that stream, proceeding up 
the stream to his right. They camped for the 
night, having cut off 25 miles. The ne.xt morn- 
ing the party, except Charbineau and one of 
the men left with him, the former being una- 
ble to accompany them, advanced up the river 
and to the top of a mountain where he had a 
splendid view of the surrounding country. No 
signs of the Indians were to be seen. They 
returned to the camp where they left Charbi- 
neau. Captain Clark having decided to cross 
over to the Madison and examine it, they 
crossed over to the east side of the Jefferson 
and then to a branch of it that empties into it 
a few miles above the Three Forks. In the 
meantime, while crossing the Jefferson Charbi- 
neau was swept off his feet, and being unable 
to swim, would have lost his life had not Clark 
rescued him. They camped for the night about 
four miles distant from their last encamp- 
ment. Captain Clark was well worn out and 
during the night had quite a fever. The next 
day, however, he was able to resume his route 
for eight miles to the middle branch, the Madi- 
son. From here he proceeded down the stream 
to the forks and joined Lewis and his party. 



I 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



During this time Captain Lewis had ad- 
vanced to the confluence of these rivers and 
made some explorations. 

After speaking of the unl<no\vn country, of 
not having seen the Indians, of the fear that 
game would be scarce, of the possibility of not 
finding a passage across the mountains that 
would lead to the Columbia, the journal con- 
tinues : "Our consolation is that this south- 
west branch can scarcely head with any other 
river than the Columbia ; and that if any nation 
of Indians can live in the mountains we are 
able to endure as much as they can ; and have 
even better means of procuring subsistence." 

On the 30th of July the canoes were loaded, 
and they moved forward from the Three Forks 
of the Missouri up the JefYerson river. Near 
tioon they reached the spot where the Bird- 
woman had been made a prisoner. Her story 
was that the men being too few to contend 
with the Minnetarees, mounted their horses 
and fled as soon as the attack began. The 
women and children dispersed, and Sacajawea, 
as she was crossing a shoal place, was over- 
taken in the middle of the river by her pursuers. 

Captain Clark being unwell, Lewis took the 
advance. August the fourth he reached the 
mouth of a ri\-er which flows from the south- 
west, the Wisdom. This stream is now known 
as the Big Hole, or Wisdom, river. The party 
marched up this stream to a point near where 
it issues from the mountains. Here they went 
into camp for the night. In the morning Lewis 
and Drewyer continued up the river to a nar- 
row canyon, from which place they ascended a 
mountain. From this eminence they were in 
full view of the valleys of both the JefYerson 
and Wisdom. 

In the meantime, before leaving the mouth 
of the Wisdom, Lewis left a note for Clark, 
instructing him to ascend the Jefferson. Clark 
reached the confluence of these streams Au- 
gust 6th, "but unluckily Captain Lewis's note 
had been left on the green pole which the 
beaver had cut down and carried off with the 



note." Clark was now at a loss to know which 
branch to ascend; but decided on the right, 
which stream he ascended for several miles, 
until he met one of the hunters of Lewis's party 
who was coming down the ri\'er, who apprised 
him of his mistake. Clark returned to the 
forks of the river. 

Before Clark reached the Jefferson he was 
overtaken by Captain Lewis, who accompanied 
him down the stream. Having reached the 
confluence of the rivers, they went into camp 
for the night, intending to ascend the Jefferson 
in the morning. 

Immediately after breakfast in the morn- 
ing, August the 9th, Captain Lewis took three 
men, "and set out with a resolution to meet 
some nation of Indians before they returned, 
however long they might be separated from the 
party." He did not follow the course of the 
river, but took his course across the country. 
By the next evening they had come to a beauti- 
ful cove, which he called Shoshone cove. They 
spent the night here and early the next morn- 
ing they started up the river. Scarcely had 
they advanced five miles when Captain Lewis 
percei\-ed a man on horseback. He was at a 
distance of two miles and was approaching 
them. ^Vhen within one mile distance of Cap- 
tain Lewis be observed him and suddenly 
stopped. Captain Lewis employed the signs of 
friendship most common among Indian tribes 
and at the same time calling to him, repeating 
the words, "fabba bone." which means in the 
Shoshonean language, white man. But the In- 
dian did not approach any nearer, but remained 
in the place where he had stopped. Lewis 
advanced towards him until he had approached 
within one hundred yards, when he "suddenly 
turned his horse, and giving him the whip, 
leaped across the creek and disappeared in an 
instant among- the willow bushes. With him 
\anished all hopes which the sight of him in- 
spired, of a friendly introduction to his coun- 
trymen." 

On the morning of the 12th of August they 



i8 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



continued up the main stream on their right. 
The stream gradually became smaller, till, after 
going two miles, it had so greatly diminished 
that one of the men in a fit of enthusiasm, with 
one foot on each side of the river; thanked God 
that he had lived to bestride the Missouri. They 
had now reached the hidden source of the river, 
which had never yet been seen by civilized 
man. They then crossed the continental di- 
vide and "followed a descent much steeper than 
that on the eastern side, and at a distance of 
three-quarters of a mile reached a handsome, 
bold creek of cold, clear water, running to the 
westward. They stopped to taste for the first 
time the waters of the Columbia; and after a 
few minutes followed the road across the steep 
hills and low hollows, till they reached a spring 
on the side of the mountain." 

The next day they discovered two women, 
a man, and some dogs. They were at the 
distance of a mile and fled at the approach of 
the party. Continuing their journey the party 
had not gone more than a mile when they saw 
three more Indian women. Lewis and his 
party were not observed until within thirty 
paces of them. "One of them, a young woman, 
immediately took flight, the other two, an eld- 
erly woman and a little girl, seeing they were 
too near- for them to escape, sat on the ground, 
and holding down their heads seemed as if re- 
conciled to the death which they supposed 
awaited them." Lewis repeated to them the 
words "tabba boiic," and at the same time strip- 
ping up his shirt sleeves to prove that he was a 
white man. This relieved them from their 
alarm. Lewis informed them by signs that he 
desired to go to their camp to see the chiefs. 
While being directed in the direction of the 
camp, they were met by sixty warriors, all 
mounted. The women, who had gone in ad- 
vance, informed the warriors that they were 
white men; and when they approached each 
other, they were given a warm welcome. Cap- 
tain Lewis lighted a pipe and offered it to the 



Indians, who had now seated themselves in a 
circle around the party. \Mien the smoking 
was concluded, the warriors and the party 
moved on to the camp of the Indians, which 
was four miles distant. Here Lewis informed 
them of his mission. After spending some time 
time with the chiefs he walked down to the 
Lemhi river. "The chief informed him that this 
stream discharged at a distance of a half day's 
walk, into another (Salmon river) of twice 
its size — and that it was rocky, rapid, and so 
closely confined between mountains that it was 
impossible to pass down it by land or water 
to the great lake (Pacific ocean) where, as 
he had understood, the white man lived." 

Captain Lewis, having secured the good 
will of Cameahwait, the chief, informed him of 
his party at the forks of the Jefferson, and en- 
deavored to engage him and a number of his 
men to accompany him, and assured them they 
should be rewarded for their trouble. Many 
of them were skeptical, fearing that they might 
be enemies. After the chief and a few of the 
men started, nearly all the warriors followed. 
After reacliing the main party they were given 
many little trinkets and clothing. Here 
Sacajawea. while acting as interpreter, recog- 
nized, in the person of Cameahwait, her broth- 
er. "She instantly jumped up, and ran and em- 
braced him, throwing over him her blanket 
and weeping profusely," in the language of the 
explorers. 

Ten horses were purchased and paid for in 
merchandise. At noon August 24, they were 
all ready and started for the Shoshone camp. 
The Indians were paid to assist in transporting 
the baggage across the mountains to the other 
side. 

The Indians informed them that the river 
was very rapid and rough, and that it was im- 
possible to descend it. The explorers, how- 
ever, advanced down the river for about thirty 
miles, only to learn that it would be impossible 
to continue further. When with the Shoshones 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



19 



at the Lemhi camp, tliey secured the services 
of an old Indian guide, which were found to 
be very valuable to them. 

After a few days observation, they decided 
to advance farther to the north. On the fourth 
of September they crossed the Bitter Root 
mountains and followed down a stream for 
three miles to where it joined with a larger 
stream, the Ross fork. In the valley at the 
junction of the streams they found an Indian 
encampment. These were the Ootloshoots, or 
Flatheads. They numliered thirty-three lodges, 
or 400 souls, eighty of which were men. They 
purchased from the Indians a number of horses, 
which, with the ones brought along with them 
from the Shoshones, made fifty in all. 

After leaving the Indian village, they con- 
tinued in a northerly course down the Bitter 
Root valley, reaching Tra\'elers-rest creek, 
now the Lolo. September 9th, where they re- 
mained two days. On the afternoon of the 
eleventh, the expedition left Travelers-rest, 
turning to the west, and advanced up the 
stream — which country was found to be very 
rough and hard to travel over. 

The Indians had informed them of the 
scarcity of game when near the top of the 
mountains and on the west side, which state- 
ments they found to be true. The Indians of 
this region depended for sustenance, to a great 
extent, on berries and various roots. We read 
from Gass's journal of the twelfth, that after 
"having traveled two miles we reached the 
mountains which are very steep: but the road 
over them very good, as it is traveled much by 
the natives, who come across to the Flathead 
river to gather cherries and berries." 

During the two days following the depart- 
ure of the party from Travelers-rest the moun- 
tains wxre crossed and the descent of the west- 
ern slope was made. It is not within our pro- 
vince tO' here relate the interesting story of the 
trip from this point to the Pacific ocean. We 
have told in detail of the trip across the great 
state of Montana. From the point the Lewis 



and Clark party traveled in a general western 
direction to the Clearwater, to the Snake, tJ 
the Columbia, to the Pacific ocean. Wintering 
on the coast, they started back early in the 
spring of 1806, and in June we fintl them again 
in the Bitter Root mountains. 

They arrived back at their old camp on 
Travelers-rest creek June 30, 1806, without the 
loss of a man. From the time the party started 
out until this time they had never been separ- 
ated for any great length of tiine. Now they 
were to be separated, and we let the journal 
tell of their plans and separation. 

We now formed the following plan of operations : 
Captain Lewis, with nine men, is to pursue the most 
direct route to the falls of the Missouri, where three 
of his party are to be left to prepare carriages for 
transporting the baggage and canoes across the portage. 
With the remaining six he will ascend Marias river to 
explore the country, ascertain whether any branch of 
it reaches as far north as the latitude 50 degrees, after 
which he descends the river to its mouth. The rest 
of the party will accompany Captain Clark to the head 
of Jefferson river, which Sergeant Ordway and a party 
of nine men will descend with the canoes and other 
articles deposited there. Captain Clark's party, which 
will then be reduced to ten men (besides himself 
and Sacajawea), will proceed to the Yellowstone at its 
nearest approach to the three forks of the Missouri. 
There he will build canoes and go down that river with 
seven men of his party, and wait at its mouth till the 
rest of the party joins him. Sergeant Pryor with two 
others will then take the horses by land to the Mandans. 

On July third, we read from the journal 
that, "All preparations being completed, w^c 
saddled our horses, and the two parties who had 
been so long companions, now separated with 
an anxious hope of soon meeting, after each 
had accomplished the purpose of his destina- 
tion." 

Captain Lewis followed down the left bank 
of Clark's river to its junction with the "east- 
ern branch." This stream is now- known as 
Hellgate river. A short distance below this 
branch they constructed raftsand crossed over to 
the other side, the horses swimming the river. 
Lewis then proceeded up the Hellgate to the 
mouth of the Cokalahishkit (now Big Black- 



HISTORY OF ^lONTANA. 



foot) river, advanced up it eight miles and 
camped for the night. Tliis was the trail taken 
by the Indians to the buffalo country. By the 
seventh they had reached the divide. We quote 
the record of this day from the journal of Gass : 
"Having gone about five miles, we crossed the 
main branch of the ri\er, which comes in from 
the north, and up which the road goes five 
miles further and then takes over a hill towards 
the east. On the top of this hill there are two 
beautiful ponds, of about three acres in size. 
We passed over the ridge and struck a small 
stream, which we at first thought was of the 
headwaters of the Missouri, but found it was 
not. Here we halted for dinner, and after stay- 
ing three hours, proceeded on four miles up 
the branch, when we came to the dividing 
ridge between the waters of the ^lis- 
souri and the Columbia, passed over the 
ridge and came to a fine spring, the waters of 
v.-hich'run into the Missouri. We then kept 
down this stream or branch about a mile ; then 
turned a north course along the side of the di- 
viding ridge about eight miles, passing a num- 
ber of small streams or branches, and at nine 
o'clock at night encamped after coming thirty- 
two miles." 

Here they abandoned the trail and pro- 
ceeded north to the Medicine, or Sun, river, 
following the course of this stream to its 
mouth, arriving there July eleventh. After 
spending a few days here Lewis departed on 
the exploration to the headwaters of the Marias 
river. He took with him three men. leaving 
the others of the party to construct boats and 
bring the baggage they had deposited on the 
west bound trip, to the mouth of the Marias 
river where they had been instructed to wait 
his arrival. They crossed from the great falls 
to the Teton river. Here they noticed the 
fresh tracks of a bleeding buffalo, which pre- 
sumably had been injured by Indians. This 
created a feeling of uneasiness, for the ]\Iinne- 
tarees, a very treacherous tribe, were supposed 
to be in this country. This scare proved to be 



a false alarm and the next day they continued 
their journey to the Marias river, crossing six 
miles above the point where Lewis had as- 
cended the previous fall. After having com- 
pleted their explorations of the river, and on 
their return, they met with a band of Indians 
who proved to be Minnetarees. They all 
camped together for the night. During the 
early morning the Indians stole some of their 
guns and part of their horses. This resulted 
in one of the Indians being stabbed by one of 
the party, and in Captain Lewis shooting one 
who was making away with the horses. After 
being shot he took aim at Captain Lewis, the 
ball passing within a few inches of his head. 

During the evening they were apprised of 
the fact that to the west and north, at a dis- 
tance of some 30 miles, a large band of Indians 
were camped. Fearing that the news would be 
carried to them, and that the whole tribe would 
pursue them, they traveled with the utmost 
speed to the Missouri. They did not go direct 
to the mouth of the ^larias, but kept to the 
west, where the country was not so broken, 
and came to the Missouri above the mouth of 
the Marias. Here they met the party coming 
down the river. The horses were turned loose 
and the party embarked in the boats, and 
hastened to the mouth of the Marias. After 
loading their boats with the baggage, deposited 
the year previous, they, on July 28, embarked 
down the river, reaching the junction of the 
Missouri and Yellowstone on August 7. Here 
they found a note left by Clark, showing that 
he had passed this point several days previous, 
and had advanced down the river and would 
wait at some convenient place. 

For convenience we have followed Captain 
Lewis from Travelers-rest creek to the mouth 
of the Yellowstone. Now we return to this 
same place and trace Clark's party as they 
journey across to the Yellowstone and down its 
course to its confluence with the ^lissouri. 

On the same day, July 3, that Lewis set 
out in an easterly direction, Captain Clark with 



HISTORY OF AIOXTANA. 



the remainder of the party, started up tlie 
river, crossed the mountains and through Ross' 
hole and camped on Camp creek. They ad- 
vanced up the creek tliree miles, leaving to the 
right the trail by which they had crossed the 
mountains the fall before, "and pursued the 
road taken by the Ootloshoots, up a gentle 
ascent to the dividing mountains which separ- 
ates the waters of the middle fork of Clark's 
river from those of the Wisdom and Lewis 
rivers." Turning eastward they were once 
more on the headwaters of the Wisdom river. 
The course from here was in a southeasterly 
direction across the divide between the Wis- 
dom and the Jefiferson rivers, and down Grass- 
hopper creek to the Jefiferson. 

On July lo the party began their journey 
down the Jefferson. The boats were now load- 
ed, and Captain Clark divided his men into 
two bands, one to descend the river with the 
baggage, while he, with the other, proceeded 
on horseback to the Roche jaune. 

The two divisions reached the three forks 
at about the same time, July 13. The same day 
Ordway and nine men, with six boats, sailed 
down the Missouri to the great falls, where he 
was to meet Lewis and party, which was suc- 
cessfully accomplished. Captain Clark at the 
same time struck out in an easterly direction 
with eleven men and Sacajawea and her child. 
Here Sacajawea was found to be of great 
value, as she had been over the country when a 
child and knew just where to direct the party. 

On the 15th of July they crossed the divide 
between the Gallatin and Yellowstone rivers, 
and on descending the ridge they discovered 
a stream flowing into the Yellowstone, which 
course they pursued. Nine miles from the top 
of the ridge they reached the Yellowstone itself, 
about a mile and a half below where it issues 
from the Rocky mountains. It now appeared 



that the communication between the two rivers 
was short and easy. From the head of the 
Missouri at its three forks to this place is a dis- 
tance of 48 miles, the greater part of which is 
through a level plain ; indeed, from the forks of 
the eastern branch of the Gallatin river (near 
Bozeman), which is there navigable for small 
canoes, to this part of the Yellowstone, the dis- 
tance is no more than 18 miles, with an excel- 
lent road o\'er a high, dry country, with hills 
of inconsiderable height and no difficulty in 
passing. 

They immediately descended the river and 
on July 18, "a smoke was descried to the 
south-southeast, towards the termination of the 
Rocky mountains, intended most probably as a 
signal by the Crow Indians." On the follow- 
ing day, another or the same smoke was seen 
"on the highlands on the opposite side of the 
river." During the same day, "Captain Clark 
determined to make two canoes which, being 
lashed together, might be sufficient to convey 
the party down the river, while a few men 
might lead the horses to the Mandan nation." 

On the 22nd, "at noon the two canoes were 
finished. They are 28 feet long, 16 or 18 
inches deep, and from 16 to 24 inches wide, 
and being lashed together, evervthing was pre- 
pared for setting out tomorrow." The boats 
having been completed, they, on the 24th, pro- 
ceeded down the river. The trip down the 
river was uneventful, the journal for these days 
simply mentioning the character of the country, 
animals, and birds that were found. 

About 2 o'clock on August the 23rd, they 
reached the junction of the Yellowstone with 
the Missouri, and formed a camp at the same 
place where they had camped on the 26th of 
April, 1805. On the 23rd of September, at 
12 o'clock, noon, they reached St. Louis, their 
starting point. 



CHAPTER III 



THE INDIAN WARS. 



During the whole of ^Montana's early his- 
tory Indian troubles of a more or less serious 
nature were almost constantly annoying the 
white settlers. It would be impossible for us, 
in a work of this kind, to treat of all the many 
little wars and skirmishes which took place be- 
tween the white settlers and volunteers and the 
red men. We shall confine ourselves to the 
two greatest events — the Custer battle of 1876 
and the Nez Perce war of the year following. 

Of the many battles fought with the In- 
dians none proved more disastrous than the 
battle of the Little Big Horn, where Gen. Cus- 
ter and all his command were surrounded by 
the hostile Indians and killed. This battle is 
remarkable in so far that not one escaped to 
relate the story. The simple fact that all per- 
ished upon the battle field, not one being alive 
when the other columns came up the third day 
after the battle, has made an accurate descrip- 
tion of the battle impossible; but the move- 
ments as traced by Colonel Reno together with 
the infomiation gathered from the Indians en- 
gaged in the battle has brought to light enough 
information that writers are enabled to give 
almost an accurate statement of the posi- 
tions of the different troops and the methods 
pursued by the Indians and a general descrip- 
tion of the battle. 

The Sioux Indians, after having relin- 
quished their rights in the state of Minnesota, 
gradually drifted westward into the Dakotas 
and made the Black Hills their stronghold. In 
the early seventies gold was discovered in the 
Black Hills. Many of the gold seekers were 
killed and commerce and travel was impeded. 
All efforts on the part of the government tc; 
pacify the Indians having failed, force was sent 
to subdue them. 



The Indians causing the trouble were 
known as the hostiles. The hostiles were made 
up of Indians from the various agencies who 
were not content to stay in the territory as- 
signed them. Chief among these was Sitting 
Bull. Other prominent chiefs were Crazy 
Horse, Gall, Black Moon, and Low Dog. In 
reality there w-as no chosen leader of these 
various tribes, but Sitting Bull w^as looked up 
to by all bands as their leader and his councils 
were heeded. 

Sitting Bull first became famous in the 
Sully and Sibley expeditions of 1863 and 1864. 
He engaged Sully north of the Black Hills and 
defeated him, forcing him through the Bad 
Lands beyond the Powder river. 

Order had gone forth to all the hostile In- 
dians that they should be on their agencies by 
January 31, 1876, and if not, that armed force 
would be sent to subdue them. 

Lieutenant General Sheridan conducted all 
directions. The headquarters of General Sher- 
idan was in Chicago. He sent orders to Gen- 
eral Crook, who was located at Fort Fetter- 
man, to march against Crazy Horse and di- 
rected Terry to send a mounted column under 
General George A. Custer to move against Sit- 
ting Bull. Crazy Horse was located on Pow- 
der river in W'yoming and Sitting Bull on the 
Little Missouri in Dakota. Sheridan divided 
the forces into three columns; one under Gen- 
eral Crook, consisting of fifteen companies of 
cavalry and five companies of infantry (1,049 
men), who was located at Fort Fetterman, was 
ordered to march north May 29 ; one column 
under General Terry, comprising the seventh 
cavalry, consisting of twelve companies (600 
men), and six companies of infantry, three of 
which were to be sent on the supply steamer, a 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



23 



battery of Gatling guns, and forty Indian 
scouts, was to move westward from Fort Abra- 
ham Lincoln in Dakota May 17; a third under 
General Gibbon, consisting of four companies 
of cavalry and six companies of infantry (in all 
450 men), was to march from Fort Ellis, in 
Montana, eastward and meet General Terry 
on the Yellowstone ri\-er June 21. 

Gibbon was under the command of Terry, 
but Crook and Terry were independent of each 
other. Knowing that Sitting Bull was soudi 
of the Yellowstone, General Sheridan's object 
was to have the three forces each coming in a 
different direction, surround Sitting Bull and 
Crazy Horse, thus to prevent their escape. 

According to orders General Custer moved 
westward to the Little Missouri river. He 
divided his command into three columns, the 
right wing CDmmanded by Major Marcus Reno' 
the left by Captain T. \V. Benteen, and Custer 
himself having charge of the center column. 
On the 30th of May, Custer was sent with four 
troops to scout up the Little Jvlissouri for a dis- 
tance of twenty miles and to return the same 
day. He did not find any sign of the Indians. 
From the Little Missouri the command passed 
over to the Powder river. Here Terry left Cus- 
ter and went to the Yellowstone to communi- 
cate with the supply steamer, and thence up the 
Yellowstone to communicate with General Gib- 
bon. L^pon returning he ordered Reno to scout 
up the Powder river, taking with him, twelve 
days' rations. If he found no sign of the In- 
dians he was to cross over to the Tongue river, 
scout up that stream and return and join the 
regiment at the mouth of Tongue river by the 
time his supplies were exhausted. Custer 
marched across country to the mouth of the 
Tongue river, remaining there until the 19th 
of June, awaiting news from Reno. On the 
19th of June Reno arrived and reported having 
found a trail that led up the Rosebud river. 
They first discovered the trail on the Tongue 
river, followed it over to the Rosebud, and up 
this stream for forty miles. 



In the meantime General Crook had 
marched north and met Crazy Horse and was 
badly defeated on the 17th of June. Neithei 
officer knew of the nearness of the other al- 
thouigh they were less than 'forty miles apart 
when Reno returned. 

Gibbon, Terry and Custer held a conference* 
and it was decided that Custer should follow 
the trail reported by Reno. On the morning 
of the 23rd Custer with his command, consist- 
ing of twelve companies of the seventh cavalry, 
moved across to the Rosebud and up that 
stream to follow the trail reported by Reno. 
After Reno's report Terry concluded that the 
Indians must be camped somewhere in the 
valley of the Little Big Horn, and by sending 
the two forces, one under Custer to attack from 
the south, one under Gibbon to attack from the 
north, that if they were in the Little Big Horn 
valley, there would be no possible chance of 
escape. During the 23rd and 24th several 
traces of the Indians were discovered on the 
Rosebud river. The scouts located the trail of 
the Indians over the hill on the afternoon of the 
24th, so Custer decided to march to the top of 
the hill that night that he might be able to lo- 
cate the village in the morning if the hostiles 
should be camped in the valley beyond. Dur- 
ing the early morning the scouts brought tid- 
ings that the village was about twelve miles 
distant in the valley. During the middle of 
the day they marched to the divide. The ad- 
vance column under Major- Reno consisted of 
troop "M," Capt. French; troop "H," Capt. 
Maylan and Lieut. DeRudio; troop "G," 
Lieuts. Mclntosli and Wallace; Indian scouts 
under A'arnum and Hara, and interpreter Gir- 
ard ; Lieut. Hodgson acting adjutant, and Doc- 
tors DeWolf and Porter, medical officers. 
Custer's battalion was composed of troop "I," 
Captain Keough and Lieutenant Porter; troop 
"F," Captain Yates and Lieutenant Reily; 
troop "C," Captain Custer and Lieutenant 
Harrington ; troop "E." Lieutenants Smith and 
Sturgis; troop "L," Lieutenants Calhoun and 



24 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



Crittendon; Lieutenant Cook adjutant and Dr. 
Lord medical officer. Captain Benteen's col- 
umn consisted of troop "H," Captain Benteen 
and Lieutenant Gibson ; troop "D," Captain 
Weir and Lieutenant Edgerly; troop "K," 
Lieutenant Godfrey. The pack train was un- 
der the escort of troop "D," Captain Mc- 
Dougall, and managed by Lieutenant Mathey. 
After ha\'ing reached the divide, Benteen's 
force was ordered to a line of high, ragged 
bluffs to the south and west with instructions 
to send a messenger to Custer immediately if 
he came in sight of the Indians. Reno's battal- 
ion marched down a small valley towards the 
river. Custer's command followed Reno's for 
a few miles, then turned north. Reno con- 
tinued on down to the valley, crossed the river 
to the west side, finding but little resistance 
until his troop had almost reached the village. 
At this point the Indian warriors seemed t) 
spring from all directions and Reno was forced 
to retreat. His efforts to recross at the same 
ford were made impossible by a band of the 
Indians who circled to the south of him, so 
he marched a little to the south of where he 
had ad\anced and made the ford some distance 
down the river from where he first crossed. A 
messenger sent to carry the news to Custer 
found his way cut off and returned to his com- 
pany. After having gained the east side of 
the river he was joined by Benteen and Mc- 
Dougall. The Indians pursued him to this 
side of the river and beseiged him until nine 
o'clock that evening; then quietly withdrew. 
Not having heard from Custer the general 
opinion was that he must have been driven 
across the hills or down the river. No assist- 
ance could be expected from this source and 
with a fear of an early attack in the morning 
the night was spent in digging gun pits and 
building breastworks as best they could for 
protection. Just at break of day June 26th, 
the attack was renewed and with more vigor 
than the day previous. The entire band was 
now gathered around the command and heavy 



firing was kept up all through the day until the 
middle of the afternoon. Reno's command had 
the advantage of position, being located be- 
tween the bluffs and having rifle pits to fire 
from. Having the superior advantage their 
loss was not very heavy, although surrounded 
by the entire hostile band. 

Between two and three o'clock in the after- 
noon the grass was set on fire by the Indians 
and smoke filled the air to such an extent that 
it was impossible to see the village or the move- 
ments made by the Indians. However, just 
about dusk they were seen crossing over the 
hills in the direction of the Big Horn river. 
The grass was set on fire to cover up their 
mo\-ements that Reno would not know in which 
direction they were retreating. Their scouts 
had reported the coming of Terry and his com- 
mand which were only a few miles distant 
down the river. Had they stood their ground 
they would have been subjected to a cross fire, 
Terrv' from the north and Reno from the 
south. Terry's force would have arrived in 
the morning. The Indians, knowing this, 
thought best to make good their escape before 
his arrival. 

On the 26th the Crow scouts brought tid- 
ings to Terry that Custer's command had met 
the Indians and were all killed. Immediately 
he advanced up the river and found that all the 
command were dead upon the field. Word 
was then carried to Reno's line, the first in- 
formation they had of the disastrous defeat. 

Nearly all the bodies were stripped of their 
clothes, and nearly all scalped and mutilated. 
A notable exception was the body of Custer 
which had been left on the field as it fell. He 
was shot in two places, one taking effect in his 
side, the other passing through his temple. 

As there was not a survivor of the battle no 
definite report could be made, and the only in- 
formation attainable, as has been heretofore 
mentioned, was that gathered from the field 
after the defeat and the description given by 
the Indians who were engaged in the battle. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



25 



From these sources Lieutenant E. S. Godfrey 
has written an extended article wliich is tlie 
best infomiation attainable. From this article 
we quote the following description : 

Keogh and Calhoun's troops were dismounted to 
fight on foot. These two troops advanced at double 
time to a knoll. The other three troops, mounted, 
followed them a short distance in the rear. The led 
horses remained where the troops dismounted. When 
Keog-h and Calhoun got to the knoll the other troops 
marched rapidly to the right ; Smith's troops deployed 
as skirmishers, mounted, and took position on a ridge, 
which on Smith's left ended in Keogh's position and 
on Smith's right ended at the hill on which Custer took 
position with Yates and Tom Custer'.s troop, now 
known as Custer hill, and marked by the monument 
erected to the command. Smith's skirmishers holding 
their gray horses remained in groups of fours. The 
line 'occupied by Custer's battalion was the first con- 
siderable bluff back from the river, the nearest point 
being about half a mile from it. His front was ex- 
tended about three-fourths of a mile. The whole vil- 
lage was in full view. A few hundred yards from his 
line was another but lower ridge, the further slope of 
which was not commanded by his line. It was here 
that the Indians under Crazy Horse, from the lower 
part of the village, among whom were Cheyennes, 
formed for the charge on Custer's hill. All the In- 
dians had now left Reno! Gall collected his warriors 
and moved up a ravine south of Keogh and Calhoun. 
As they were turning this flank they discovered the led 
horses without any other guard than the horse holders. 
They opened fire upon the horse holders, and used the 
usual devices to stampede the horses — that is, yelling 
waving blankets, etc. : in this they succeeded very soon, 
and the horses were caught up by the squaws. In this 
disaster Keogh and Calhoun probably lost their reserve 
ammunition, which was carried in the saddle bags. 
Gall's warriors now moved to the foot of the knoll 
held by Calhoun. A large force dismounted and ad- 
vanced up the slope far enougih to be able to see the 
soldiers when standing erect, but were protected when 
squatting or lying down. By jumping up and firing 
quickly, they exposed themselves for only an instant, 
but drew the fire of the soldiers, causing a waste of 
ammunition. In the meantime Gall was massing his 
mounted warriors under the protection of the slope. 
When everything was in readiness, the dismounted 
warriors arose, fired, and every Indian gave voice to 
the war-whoop; the mounted Indians put whip to their 
ponies and the whole mass rushed upon and crushed 
Calhoun. The maddened mass of Indians was carried 
forward by its own momentum over Calhoun and 
Crittendon down into the depression where Keogh was, 
with over thirty men, and all was over on that part of 
'he field. 

In the meantime the same tactics were being pur- 



sued and executed around Custer hill. The warriors 
under the leadership of Crow-King, Crazy Horse, 
White Bull, Hum^p, and others, moved up the ravine 
west of Custer hill, and concentrated under the shelter 
of the ridge on the right flank and back of his posi- 
tion. Gall's bloody work was finished before the anni- 
hilation of Custer was accomplished, and his victorious 
warriors hurried forward to the hot encounter then go- 
ing on, and the frightful massacre was completed. 

Smith's men had disappeared from the ridge, but 
not without leaving enough dead bodies to mark their 
line. About 28 bodies of men belonging to the troops 
and other organizations were found in one ravine near 
the river. Many corpses were found scattered over the 
field between Custer's line of defense, the river, and 
the direction of Reno's hill. These, doubtless, were of 
men who had attempted to escape ; some of them may 
have been sent as couriers by Custer. One of the first 
bodies I recognized and one of the nearest to the ford 
was that of Sergeant Butler, of Tom Custer's troop. 
Sergeant Butler was a soldier of many years' experience 
and of known courage. The indications were that he 
had lost his life dearly for near and under him were 
found many empty cartridge shells. 

All the Indian accounts that I know of, agree that 
there was no organized close-quarters fighting, except 
on the two flanks ; that with the annihilation at Cus- 
ter's hill the battle was virtually over. It does not 
appear that the Indians made any advance to the at- 
tack from the direction of the river ; they did have a 
definite force along the river, and in the ravines which 
destroyed those who left Custer's line. 

Two Moon, a chief of the Cheyennes, in de- 
scribing the battle, states that they surrounded 
Custer from all sides and kept "swirling and 
swirling around the soldiers." "Once in a 
while," he says, "a soldier would break out 
and run toward the river, but never would 
reach it. At last about a hundred men and five 
horsemen stood on the hill and bunched to- 
gether. All along the bugler kept blowing his 
commands * * *. Then a chief was killed. 
I heard it was Long Hair (Custer), and then 
the five horsemen and the bunch of men. maybe 
some forty, started toward the river. All the 
soldiers were killed and stripped." He states 
that they counted the dead and they numbered 
388. and that 39 Sioux and 7 Cheyennes were 
killed and about 100 wounded. From the best 
authority we are acquainted with Custer's abil- 
itv. He had served in the war of the rebellion 



26 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



with destinction and honor, and had taken part 
in many engagements with the Indians. No 
one who is at all familiar with his career 
doubted his ability. General Terry had no ex- 
perience in Indian warfare. Then, would it 
not be natural that he should leave Custer to 
his own judgment as far as possible under the 
circumstances? The following written instruc- 
tions were given Custer on the 22nd : 

Camp at Mouth of Rosebud River. 

Montana Territory. Ju.\E, 22. 18/6. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Custer, 7th Cavalry, 

Colonel : — The Brigadier-General commanding di- 
rects that as soon as your regiment can be made ready 
for the march, you will proceed up the Rosebud in pur- 
suit of the Indians whose trail was discovered by Ma- 
jor Reno a few days since. It is, of course, impossible 
to give j'ou any definite instructions in regard to this 
movement, and were it not impossible to do so, the 
Department Commander places, too much confidence in 
your zeal, energy, and ability to wish to impose upon 
you precise orders which might hamper your action 
when nearly in contact with the enemy. He will, how- 
ever, indicate to you his own views of what your 
actions should be, and he desires that you should con- 
form to them unless you shall see sufficient reason for 
departing from them. He thinks that you should pro- 
ceed up the Rosebud until you ascertain definitely the 
direction in which the trail above spoken of leads. 
Should it be found to turn towards the Little Horn, he 
thinks that you should still proceed southward, per- 
haps, as far as the head waters of the Tongue, then 
turn towards the Little Horn, feeling, however, con- 
stantly to your left, so as to preclude the possibility of 
the escape of the Indians to the south or southeast by 
passing along your left flank. The column of Colonel 
Gibbon is now in motion for the mouth of the Big 
Horn. As soon as it reaches that point it will cross 
the Yellowstone and move up as far as least as the 
forks of the Little and Big Horns. Of course its fu- 
ture movements must be controlled by circumstances 
as they arise, but it is hoped that the Indians, if upon 
the Little Horn, may be so nearly encircled by the two 
columns that the escape will be impossible. The De- 
partment Commander desires that on your way up the 
Rosebud you should thoroughly examine the upper part 
of Tul lock's creek, and that you should endeavor to 
sent a scout through to Colonel Gibbon's column, with 
information of the results of your examination. The 
iower part of the creek will be examined by a detach- 
ment from Colonel Gibbon's command. 
Very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

E. W. Smith, 
Captain iSth Infantry, .\cting Assistant Adjutant-Gen. 



In accordance with Terry's instructions, as 
given above, Custer and Gibbon were to meet 
on the Little Big Horn on the 26th, the pre- 
sumption being that the Indians were camped 
in this valley, that they might make a joint 
attack and if possible surround and capture the 
hostiles. We also note on previous pages that 
Custer did not wait until the 26th, but on 25th 
made attack. Was he justified in making this 
early attack ? Some writers say he was ; others 
say he was not. Those who say he was, con- 
tend that the instructions were not binding, 
that it was not the intention of Terry that 
Custer shuld not be permitted to vary from the 
instructions if he thought best, and in proof of 
their contention they cite from the instructions 
given Custer the following sentences : "It is im- 
posible to give you definite instructions in re- 
gard to this movement. * * * The Department 
Commander places too much confidence in 
your zeal, energv' and ability to wish to impose 
upon you precise orders which might hamper 
your action when nearly in contact with the 
enemy." They further infer that these instruc- 
tions were not definite orders, but simply a 
guide, and that if Custer thought best after 
overtaking the enemy, he was to exercise his 
own judgment as to what he should do under 
the circumstances. 

The other writers contend that the instruc- 
tions were definite orders and. that under no 
circumstances should he have varied from 
them. They contend that a request from a mil- 
itary officer is a command and that Custer 
should under no circumstances have varied 
from the written instructions. 

One writer says, that "Custer might have 
been prompted to immediate action fearing that 
the enemy might abandon the village after 
learning the position of the soldiers, and thus, 
in order to prevent their abandoning the vil- 
lage made the attack on the day previous to the 
appointed time of the meeting of the two 
forces." 

Had Custer ascertained the position of the 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



enemy, g"i\'ing orders for a simultaneous attack 
from the right (Custer), from the left (Ben- 
teen), and from the upper end of the village 
(Reno), the advantage would all have been in 
favor of the soldier. The Indians not know- 
ing the strength of the soldiers and being sub- 
jected to a cross fire from the three different 
columns, would no doubt have abandoned the 
village. 

From information gathered from the chiefs 
who took part in the battle we must credit them 
with some very skillful moves. Their plan for 
surrounding Reno was tactful and had it been 
carried out Reno's forces would have been sur- 
rounded and met the same fate as Custer and 
his men. 

Reno found but little interference until he 
reached iiearly the upper end of the village. 
In the meantime, the Indians had circled 
around him to the south with the expectation 
of preventing his return across the same ford 
by which he crossed to the west side, thus sur- 
rounding him. They did not know that there 
was a ford farther ni )rth where he could retreat 
to the east side of the river. Their plan to sur- 
round him having failed, and he having gained 
the east side, they now planned to surround his 
force before it could ascend to the high blufTs. 
In order to do this the force of Indians south 
of Reno crossed the same ford where Reno 
crossed to the west side, and another detach- 
ment of the warriors was sent across at a ford 
farther north. The Indians arrived just a few 
minutes too late to accomplish their designs, 
and Reno was well on his way up the bluff be- 
fore they arrived. 

The number of warriors taking part in the 
battle has been variously estimated, military 
officers placing the number at about -^,500. 
General Sheridan estimates the number of 
hostile band at from 500 to 800. Major James 
McLaughlin, U. S. Indian Agent at Devils 
Lake, N. D., for many years, has made an esti- 
mate of the number engaged, in which he 
states that one-third of the Sioux Indians, in- 



cluding the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, were 
present at the battle; that the entire band to- 
gether numbered about forty thousand, and 
that there must have been from twelve to 
fifteen thousand assembled in the valley at this 
time, one-fourth of which should be counted 
in estimating the number of warriors, which 
would make a fighting force of twenty-five 
hundred to three thousand men. Dr. Charles 
Alexander Eastman, a full blood Sioux, has 
made a very careful study of the number of 
warriors who were in the Little Big Horn at 
this time. He bases his estimate on the number 
of Indians in. the different agencies, the number 
absent from the agencies, and also upon infor- 
mation gathered from his own people who were 
of the hostile tribes at this time. Below we 
quote from an article published in the Chautau- 
qua Magazine in the year 1900 by Dr. East- 
man. He says : 

The camp was in the following order from south 
to north down the river: Hunkpapaws, 224 tepees; 
Sans Arc, 85 tepees: Inkpadutas, 15 tepees; Brules, 140 
tepees; Minneconjus, 190 tepees; Ogallallas, S40 tepees; 
Cheyennes, 55 tepees ; making a total of 949 tepees. 
If we allow five persons to the tepee, we 'have 4,945 In- 
dians, and counting one-quarter of this number -war- 
riors (which is allowing too large an estimate), there 
will be 1. 21 1 warriors. Suppose we add to this num- 
ber 200 warriors who may possibly have come from 
the various agencies in Dakota, the number of fighting 
men all told will be 1,411. This will bring it within 
the number that General Custer expected to meet. In 
fact, if we exclude the boys under 18 years of age, and 
the old men over 70 ( a numl)er of whom did not have 
sufficient weapons), the number of warriors would be 
about 800 or 900, and that was about the estimate 
General Sheridan made before the e.xpedition was 
sent out. 

After the battle of the Little Big Horn the 
hostiles divided into two bands. Sitting Bull':" 
Indians remaining in the west. Crazy Horse's 
moving towards the east. In October Sitting 
Bull, having given up hopes of accomplishing 
anything during the winter, came to General 
Miles with propositions of peace. His terms 
of peace embodied the following clauses: He 
and his followers were to be left to roam and 



28 



HISTORY OF ^lONTANA. 



hunt over unoccupied territory ; they were 
to Hve the free life of the Indian; they 
were not to be supplied with rations 
or annuities. General Miles sent them 
word that there was only one proposition — 
they must accept terms of peace and move to 
the agencies. Sitting Bull would not accept 
General Miles' terms so the hostilities con- 
tinued. Shortly after this Miles surprised the 
Indians, defeated them, and captured 400 of 
their lodges. Sitting Bull escaped to the north 
and was here joined by a few small bands. 
Early in December Lieutenant Baldwin at- 
tacked Sitting Bull, driving him across the Mis- 
souri. At this time Sitting Bull was reduced 
to 190 lodges. About the middle of the month 
Baldwin again surprised their camp, captured 
sixty horses and nearly all their food supplies. 
Having lost their food supplies, they were now 
in almost destitute circumstances. 

Crazy Horse, learning of the reverses of 
Sitting Bull, of his defeat and of having lost 
his supplies, sent word to him to join his camp 
as he had plenty of men and provisions for the 
winter. General Miles, however, learned of 
this through his spies and kept a force between 
the two hostile bands, thus preventing them 
from uniting forces. Crazy Horse was camped 
on the Tongue river. On December 29th Miles 
started with 436 men and two cannons against 
Crazy Horse. The Indians, learning of his 
coming, abandoned their quarters. Miles fol- 
lowed in rapid pursuit, capturing one warrior 
and seven women and children. The captives 
were relatives of one of the Cheyenne chiefs. 
That evening desperate efforts were made to 
recover them, but not succeeding, the attempt 
was renewed in the morning by the full force 
of the warriors. They were defeated and suf- 
fered heavy loss. Communications were 
opened through the captives. On February 
first, Miles sent word to them that they mu;t 
surrender, and if they did not he would attack 
with renewed force. Their strength being 
much reduced, being unable to unite with Sit- | 



ting Bull, and their supplies becoming scarce, 
they sent word to Miles that they would con- 
clude terms of surrender. 

Three hundred Indians under Two Moon, 
Hump and other chiefs surrendered on April 
22 ; two thousand under Crazy Horse surrend- 
ered at Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies in 
May. 

Sitting Bull, finding it impossible to join 
forces with Crazy Horse, his force being 
greatly reduced, realized the uselessness of 
further resistance with the troops and fled into 
British Columbia. In British Columbia he was 
joined by Chief Gall. The only remaining hos- 
tiles now were a few of the Minneconjous, who 
broke off from Crazy Horse's band when he 
surrendered. They did not exceed in numbers 
fifty lodges. General Miles surprised and 
routed them on the Rosebud. They lost four- 
teen killed, all their supplies and 450 ponies. 
The remaining few scattered in different di- 
rections and finally surrendered to the various 
agencies. 

In September, 1876, the Sioux concluded a 
treaty by which they surrendered the Black 
Hills and Powder river country. In lieu of 
this they were to receive rations from the gov- 
ernment until such time as they could become 
self-supporting. 

Sitting Bull and his followers soon become 
tired of living under Canadian rule. Under 
this government they did not receive rations; 
the hunting was not the best, and they were 
kept under a strict watch. Protection was all 
that was assured them, and if they expected 
protection they were obliged to remain peace- 
able, not only in Canada, but also on this side 
of the line. Tiring of this method of living, 
small bands would leave, cross to this side and 
surrender to the agencies. After nearly all his 
followers had deserted him. Sitting Bull, 
realizing the uselessness of further resistance, 
surrendered to the authorities at the Standing 
Rock agency. 

Sitting Bull, the acknowledged leader of 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



29 



the Indians in the Custer figlit, met his death 
sixteen years later. After that fight he conduc- 
ted himself in a very peaceable manner until 
the summer of 1890, when the Indians at the 
agency were becoming imbued with the "Mes- 
siah Craze." F'ossessed of a personality re- 
markably striking, he had a powerful influence 
over his people, and in this craze they were 
easily influenced by the teachings of Sitting 
Bull, who now called himself the High Priest. 
He promised them that the white race would 
be exterminated, that the wiiite man's gun 
would be no longer a deadly weapon, but that 
the ball would drop from it harmlessly, that 
their ancestors would return to the earth, that 
their hunting grounds would again be re- 
stored, that the former wild life of the Indians 
would be enjoyed by all Indians in the future, 
and that, should any be killed in obeying this 
call of the Messiah, they would immediately 
join their ancestors, who at this time had been 
restored to some distant part of the country. 
Fearing the outcome of Sitting Bull's teachings, 
Major James McLaughlin, the Indian agent, 
notified the Indian department of Sitting Bull's 
conduct and asked what should be done under 
the circumstances. In response to the above 
message from Major ^McLaughlin the follow- 
ing telegram was sent to the commanding of- 
ficer at Fort Yates, the nearest fort to this 
agency : 

The division commander has directed that you 
make it your special duty to receive the person of Sit- 
ting Bull. Call on the Indian agent to co-operate and 
render such assistance as will best promote the pur- 
pose in view. By command of General Ruger. 
(Signed) M. Barbek, 

Ass't. Adjutant-General. 

Troops were sent from the fort to the 
agency to quell any disturbance. In order that 
the Indians might not know of their coming, 
they kept well back of the hills from the village. 
At the same time a number of police, most of 
them Indians, were sent to Sitting Bull's cabin 
to arrest him. Early in the morning the police 



enteretl the house and made the arrest. The 
chief accepted the arrest quietly, but his son, 
Crowfoot, commenced upbraiding him for go- 
ing with the police, upon which Sitting Bull 
became obstinate and refused to go. He was 
removed from the house, and no sooner were 
they outside that they were surrounded by the 
ghost dancers, frenzied with rage. Sitting Bull 
called on the Indians to release him. The po- 
lice kept the Indians driven back, and had it 
not been for Sitting Bull's appeal to them, there 
might not have been any trouble. But his fol- 
lower believing in his teachings, thought no 
harm could come to them by resisting and that 
they must obey the command of Sitting Bull, 
According they opened fire on the police, kill- 
ing- and wording several. Bull Head, an 
Indian policeman, was se\'erely wounded by 
the first fire. No sooner was he wounded than 
he shot Sitting Bull. The fight now became 
general. The police gained the house and sta- 
ble from which they fired, driving the ghost 
dancers to the timber. The troops, who were 
stationed some distance away, approached and 
opened fire on the Indians. Soon everything 
was quiet. Sitting Bull now being killed, the 
Indians, having no leader, returned to their 
homes and no further disturbance was created. 

One of the most remarkable campaigns 
ever carried on by an Indian against United 
States troups was that of Joseph, in the Nez 
Perce war of 1877. For months that astute 
chieftain waged war — and all but a successful 
one — against a larger force of United States 
troops. The war started in Idaho and ended 
in ^Montana, Joseph having retreated several 
hundred miles, carrying with him all his tribe 
and 'belongings. 

In speaking of the Upper and Lower Nez 
Perce we do not refer to distinction of tribe, 
but to destinction of land, of territory. The 
Lower Nez Perce, under the chieftainship of 
Joseph, were considered to own the country 
south and east of the Blue Mountains, and west 
of the Snake River south of Powder River, a 



30 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



tributary of the Snake. The Upper Nez Perce 
were extended the privilege of hunting on this 
territory, but were not supposed to liave any 
control over it. 

The treaty of 1855 set aside for these peo- 
ple a large reservation in western Idaho and 
eastern Oregon, and declared that, "no white 
man shall be permitted to reside on said reser- 
vation without permission of the tribe and the 
superintendent and agent." The Nez Perce 
were peaceable, and settlers came in and took 
up land in the valleys granted them by the 
treaty. Their policy was peace and confidence 
in the Great Father that he would see that their 
lands would not be taken away from them. The 
whites came in and took up land in nearly all 
the fertile valleys. What must be done? 
Another treaty was decided upon. In 1863 the 
chiefs were called together. The Upper Nez 
Perce accepted the present reservation of Lap- 
wai, in western Idaho, the Lower Nez Perce 
refusing to join in the treaty. A peculiar pro- 
cess of reasoning, the one adapted, by which the 
non-treaty Indians were to be removed to the 
Lapwai reservation. In the treaty of 1855 
Joseph joined in the sale of part of their lands, 
thereby recognizing himself and his followers 
as part of the tribal organization, and now, the 
majority of the chiefs having joined in the 
sale, they sold Joseph's land with the land of 
the Upper Nez Perce. 

Joseph died in 1871, and his son. Young 
Joseph, commonly known as Chief Joseph, be- 
came leader of the Lower Nez Perce. His dy- 
ing words were : "Always remember that 
your father never sold his country. A few 
years more and the white man will be all 
around you. They have their eyes on this land. 
My son; never forget my dying words. This 
country holds your father's body. Never sell 
the bones of your father and mother." 

These were peaceable people; they were 
never known to shed white man's blood ; they 
refused aid to hostile tribes; they kept at peace 
with those who encroached upon their grounds ; 



they cared for the horses of the Lewis and 
Clark expedition during the winter, and when 
they returned in the spring they refused to take 
pay; they called for missionaries; they raised 
great herds of cattle; they committed no 
crimes; they loved the land of their fathers, 
they loved the beautiful Wallowa Valley m 
northeastern Oregon, the valley of their homes ; 
but the government demanded their removal to 
the Lapwai reservation. They pleaded; they 
counseled, but all in vain. All their efforts to 
retain their native home having failed, they, 
true to their principles of peace, made ready 
to depart for the reservation, and on the date of 
departure, after everything had been packed 
and ready and the little band was on the way, 
trouble arose between a division of the band 
and the settlers in which several of the settlers 
were killed. 

The commission that met from day to day 
to treat with the Indians found many objec- 
tions to meet. Joseph argued at length and 
met the various reasons advanced by the com- 
mission for their removal to the reservation. 
After all efforts on the part of the commission 
had failed Joseph was told that there was but 
one course to pursue, and that, that they must 
abandon the valley. They were given thirty 
days after May 14th to gather their stock to- 
gether and vacate the land. Joseph's advice 
to his people was to leave peaceably. They 
went out to the range to gather in their cattle 
and horses and found many of them missing. 
They could not be found. Learning this the 
hot headed among the Indians became desper- 
ate ; Joseph counselled peace, but was unable 
to overcome the infuriated warriors. 

The thirty days passed; the soldiers had 
not come. The loss of their stock bore heavily 
on their minds, and then the Indians, hereto- 
fore unknown to have taken white man's blood, 
turned from their pathway of peace. On 
Salmon river an old hermit by the name of 
Divine was killed. This deed was committed 
on the I ^th of Tune, the day, according to the 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



command of the commission, on which the 
Indians were to remove to the Lapwai reserva- 
tion. On the 14th they kihed four more. Their 
savage nature which had been pacified these 
many years burst forth at the sight of human 
blood. Mounting the horses of their victims 
they hastily rode to Camas Prairie where the 
greater portion of the Indians were camped. 
Riding through the camp they displayed the 
spoils of their deeds, and called upon all who 
were present in the camp to assist, and at the 
same time asserting their determination to re- 
turn and kill the other settlers in that locality. 
Seventeen warriors joined them and eight 
more settlers lost their lives. 

Chief Joseph was not in the camp at the 
time these deeds were being planned. His wife 
was sick and he had moved her to a tepee some 
distance away, that she would not be disturbed 
by noise and conversation of those who might 
be angered because they were forced to leave 
their homes. 

Colonel Perry, who was stationed at Lap- 
wai, hurried down with ninety men. Ten set- 
tlers joined them, making in all one hundred 
men. In order to intercept the retreat of the 
Indians and prevent their crossing the river. 
Colonel Perry marched to the White Bird can- 
yon, and thence up it, reaching the head of the 
canyon by daylight of the 17th. They ex- 
pected to give the Indians a surprise, but 
Joseph had learned of their coming and was 
waiting for them. The attack was a signal 
failure, and 35 of the hundred men were killed. 
Joseph pursued them for 12 miles, then con- 
tinued his retreat. This was Joseph's first 
battle, and being a complete victory gave his 
men courage. 

General Howard with a batallion of 400 
men, was crossing over the country to en- 
counter the Indians. Not until the nth of 
July did he come in sight of Joseph. On the 
above date Joseph was camped on the Clear- 
water, and was waiting for Howard to come 
up. In number of fighting men Joseph was 



outnumbered, and while slightly worsted in 
the battle which ensued, still he was able to 
effect a retreat and gain the Lolo Trail. While 
not a victory for Joseph, it could not be termed 
a defeat, for General Howard was not able to 
head him off, and he retreated to the Bitter 
Root. A-fter having reached the Bitter Root 
he retreated south up the valley and into the 
Big Hole river valley. He thought he was well 
in advance of the soldiers and camped in this 
valley to rest his men and their families. 

Joseph had but one means of knowing of 
the approach of soldiers, the scouts who were 
sent out. Through this means he would not 
likely learn of an approaching enemy many 
hours in advance of its approach. He was not 
aware that there were any other soldiers with 
whom he must contend at this camping place 
other than the force of General Howard. But 
the telegraph wires had been working and Gen- 
eral Gibbon, who at this time was stationed 
at Helena, had crossed to Fort Missoula to in- 
tercept him. He, however, arrived too late 
to intercept the Indians, so pursued them up the 
valley, and on August 9th, just at break of day, 
made a furious charge and surprised them 
where they were camped in the valley of the 
Big Hole. The surprise was complete and the 
Indians lost many of their horses. They were 
driven from their position and General Gibbon 
thought he had made a successful surprise, 
but Joseph after having been driven from his 
position, rallied his warriors, and made a des- 
perate attack on the soldiers, defeating them 
and driving them back to a wooded countr}-. 
where they took refuge. The victory was com- 
plete. Gibbon's command being so crippled that 
it could not pursue the Indians. Gibbon was 
wounded in the engagement. Howard crossed 
the country and joined Gibbon here. The Ban- 
nack scouts scalped the dead Indians, a barbar- 
ous custom not resorted to by the Nez Perce 
during the entire retreat. 

From the valley of the Big Hole Joseph 
crossed over the continental divide and camped 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



on Camas Prairie in Idaho. Howard's com- 
mand was one day behind and camped on the 
same prairie. Joseph was retreating towards 
Yellowstone park. In order to intercept him 
a detachment had been sent ahead under Lieu- 
tenant Bacon. The most accessible way to the 
Yellowstone National Park was through 
Thatcher's pass. This pass was to be guarded by 
Bacon. Howard knowing that it would be al- 
most impossible for Joseph to cross the moun- 
tains in any other place, thought by guarding 
this pass that the Indians would be held at bay 
until the main force would come up, and thus 
possibly force a surrender. But Joseph was 
not yet ready to cross the divide into the park. 
During the stillness of the night he returned 
over the same trail and made a night attack 
upon the troops. The attack was very suc- 
cessful and they captured the greater number 
of Howard's horses. Howard rallied his men, 
pursued the Indians, and was able to recapture 
part of the horses. Later in the evening the 
Indians made another successful attack, and so 
complete was the surprise that they captured 
nearly all the remaining horses of Howard's 
command. Joseph had accomplished all he de- 
sired and continued his retreat. There was no 
danger of pursuit now as the soldiers could not 
follow them until horses could be obtained 
from Virginia City. In Joseph's retreat 
through the pass he was not intercepted by 
Bacon, who had been sent to head him off. 
Bacon having lost the trail. 

After reaching the park they passed down 
by Yellowstone lake, over the Yellowstone 
river, crossing Baronet's bridge, burning the 
bridge behind them ; thence to Clark's fork, and 
down it to the Yellowstone. By so doing they 
avoided Colonel Sturgiss, who had come over 
from Powder river with three hundred and 
fifty soldiers and some friendly Crows. On the 
13th of October, Sturgiss overtook Joseph at 
the mouth of canyon creek. The Indians were 
divided into guards, one detachment remaining 
at the mouth of the canyon, the other taking 



position some distance up the canyon. Here 
they were so completely surrounded that they 
lost four hundred ponies. From here they re- 
treated to the Musselshell river, crossed the 
river and marched in a northerly direction, 
striking the Missouri at Cow island on the 
23rd. 

Cow island was the limit of low water navi- 
gation on the upper Missouri, 125 miles below 
Fort Benton. There was a landing here but 
no settlement. The landing was guarded by 
twelve soldier and four citizens. The Indians 
attacked it but at night drew off. They burned 
all the freight at the landing. A detachment 
came down from Fort Benton and followed the 
Indians for a couple of days, but abandoned 
the pursuit after a skirmish in which they were 
defeated. 

From Fort Keogh on the Yellowstone, Col- 
onel Miles was marching across the country 
with nine companies of mounted men, a com- 
pany and a half of infantry, a company of 
white and Indian scouts, a breech loading 
Hotchkiss gun and a twelve pound Napoleon. 
After reaching Cairo on the Missouri, below 
Cow island. Miles learned of the event at the 
latter place, and on the 25th three hundred and 
seventy-five men began the march to cut ofif 
the retreating Nez Perce. 

In the meantime the Nez Perce had 
marched north and taken position in the Bear 
Paw mountains, camping on Smoke creek, a 
tributary of the Milk river. Joseph was now 
within fifty miles of the British line, and not 
knowing of the approach of Colonel Miles, he 
went in camp here, expecting after a day's rest 
to continue their retreat into the British Pos- 
sessions. 

On the morning of the 30th, the camp was 
attacked, the Indians knowing nothing of the 
approach of Colonel Miles until within a few 
miles of where they were camped. The Indians 
took position in a ravine which led into the 
creek valley along the bluffs. They were com- 
pletely surrounded and 800 of their cattle cap- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



33 



tured. The fighting continued for four days 
and nights. The Indians were well located in 
the ravine but completely surrounded by the 
troops, making their escape almost impossible, 
Colonel Miles did not deem it wise to capture 
the camp by storm as it would necessitate the 
loss of a great many men. Having the Indians 
surrounded and damaging them with shell he 
felt sure that they must eventually surrener. 

Sitting Bull was in Canada not many miles 
distance from the boundary. Besides Sitting 
Bull there were bands on various reservations 
which could be depended on by Joseph to 
render him assistance. Joseph says that he 
could have held out until such time as he could 
have gotten assistance from these bands. But 
during the four days he was being besieged he 
was negotiating with Miles. Several times 
during these days he sent messengers to Miles, 
asking upon what terms Miles would accept a 
surrender. After having received satisfactory 
terms upon which he was to surrender, Joseph 
says that, "on the fifth day (October 4th) I 
went to General Miles and gave him my gun, 
and said 'From where the sun now stands, I 
will fight no more; my people need rest; we 
want peace.' " 

General Howard had arrived and was on 
the ground at the surrender. Joseph held out 
for five days against great odds. The troops 
were fresh; his people were worn and tired 
from many miles of travel. White Bird es- 
caped during the night with 105 warriors, and 
fled into Canada. Joseph contends that he, 
with the men, could have effected a retreat, had 
they left the wounded, the children and the old 
women, but he preferred to surrender rather 
than do this. 

Chief Joseph upon his surrender left this 
very pathetic message for General Howard : 
"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What 
he told me before I ha\-e in my heart. I am 
tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Look- 
ing Glass is dead. Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. 
The old men are all dead. It is the young men 
3 



who say yes or no. He who led on the young 
men is dead. It is cold and we have no blank- 
ets. The little children are freezing to death. 
My people, some of them, have run away to the 
hills and have no blankets, no food ; no one 
knows where they are, perhaps freezing to 
death. I want to have time to look for my 
children and see how many of them I can find. 
Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear 
me, my chiefs. I am tired ; my heart is sick 
and sad. From where the sun now stands I 
will fight no more forever." 

The day of the surrender, under a flag of 
truce, Joseph was informed through General 
Miles that so far as he knew that he was to 
be returned to Lapwai reservation, (jcneral 
Miles' understanding was that this was the 
course to be pursued, and so' expressed himself 
to the Indian leader. This seemed to be an ab- 
solute guarantee to Joseph that he would be 
sent to the Idaho reservation. 

The saddest page in all their history is the 
record showing the government's intention to 
establish them in the Indian territoi-y. They 
were accustomed to a northern climate, to the 
invigorating air of the mountains ; and when 
subjected tO' the warm southern country the 
little band rapidly decreased. Public clamor 
demanded their removal. The commissioner 
of Indian affairs reports that : 



These Indians are in some respects superior to 
tliose of any other tribe connected with the agency. 
They are unusually bright and intelligent; nearly one- 
half of them are consistent members of the Presbyte- 
rian Church. They meet regularly for weekly services 
in the school house, and so far as dress, deportment, 
propriety of conduct are concerned, they could not be 
distinguished from an ordinary white congregation. 
The entire band, with probably one of two exceptions, 
are quiet, peaceable, and orderly people. They are ex- 
tremely anxious to return to their own country. They 
regard themselves as exiles. The climate does not 
seem to agree with them, many of them having died, 
and there is a tinge of melancholy in their bearing and 
conversation that is truly pathetic. I think they should 
be sent back, as it seems clear that they will never take 
root and prosper in this locality. 



34 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



In 1895 there were 268 of Chief Joseph's 
band still hving, and it was decided to send 
them back into a colder climate, one better 
suited to their health and prosperity. One 
hundred and eighteen were brought to the Nez 



Perce reservation in Idaho, the remainder, 1 50, 
to the Colville reservation in \\'ashingt(in. 
Among the latter was Chief Joseph. He died 
in September, 1904, and departed for the 
happy hunting grounds. 



CHAPTER IV 



THE FUR TRADERS. 



The vast stretch of country between the 
Mississippi river and the Pacific coast, which 
had been truly a terra incognito before the ex- 
pedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804-6, was not 
!cng to remain so. The knowledge of the coun- 
try which these intrepid explorers gained and 
disseminated throughout the country awak- 
ened an active interest in the Northwest. Trap- 
pers, adventurers and fortune hunters were not 
slow to penetrate the country about which the 
Lewis and Clark party told in such glowing 
words. The next period of Montana's history 
has to deal with the adventures of the hardy 
trappers and traders, who almost immediately 
after the return of the successful exploring 
party set out for the upper Missouri. 

Manuel Lisa, quick to grasp the informa- 
tion gained from the Lewis and Clark expedi- 
tion, was the first to fit out a trading expeditioa 
for this far away country. In the spring of 
1807 he left St. Louis for the upper Missouri, 
intending to establish trading posts with the 
Indians of that countyr. The Sioux, Aricaras 
and Mandans were visited, the latter two tribes 
showing signs of hostility ; but without serious 
resistance the expedition was privileged to con- 
tinue its course up the river. 

It seems to have been the original intention 
of Lisa to establish a fort near the mouth of the 
Yellowstone, or at some convenient place 
farther up the Missouri, for the purpose of 



trading with the Blackfeet. This he did not 
do, but after having reached the confluence of 
these rivers, he ascended the Yellowstone. The 
only assignable reason for this move is the in- 
formation Lisa received from John Colter, 
who had become a member of the party at the 
mouth of the Platte, concerning whose move- 
ments this history will treat later. 

At the mouth of the Big Horn river a fort 
was established. This fort, or trading post, 
consisted of two buildings, one on the right 
bank of the Big Horn and the other on the 
right bank of the Yellowstone, directly opposite 
the mouth of the Big Horn ri\er. This fort 
has been known by different names — Fort Lisa, 
Fort ^Manuel and IManuel's Fort. These two 
buildings erected by Manuel Lisa enjoy the dis- 
tinction of being the first buildings erected 
within the limits of the state of Montana. No 
trace of the old fort now remains. 

We have noted above that Lisa diverged 
from his original plan of building the fort at 
the mouth of the Yellowstone. The Crows and 
Blackfeet were deadly enemies, and the estal> 
lishment of a trading post in the country of 
the Crows would be sufficient cause for the 
Blackfeet to consider the traders in league with 
their old-time enemy and to arouse their jeal- 
ousy. Whatever the future results of this 
move may have been can not be estimated, but 
the immediate outcome was an unfriendly re- 



1T8G790 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



35 



lationship with tlie Blackfeet. Trade was 
opened with the Crows and many valuable 
furs secured. Lisa and his party spent the 
winter of 1807-8 at the post, and the next 
spring returned to St. Louis, elated with 
success. 

\\'hile ALanuel Lisa had been the first to 
organize an expedition to penetrate the upper 
Missouri country, there was one who was a 
year ahead of that bold trapper in exploring 
portions of the Montana country. This one 
was John Cclter, who was a private soldier 
with Lewis and Clark during the memorable 
expedition of 1804-6. When that party ar- 
rived at Mandan on the homeward journey 
in 1806 Colter asked to be granted a discharge 
that he might remain in the upper country to 
trap and hunt, and his request was granted. 
We ha\-e nothing definite as to where he passed 
the winter of 1806-7, but most writers credit 
him with having visited the Yellowstone river 
country and having passed the winter there. 

The next spring he set out for St. Louis 
in a small canoe. He descended the Missouri 
as far as Platte, where he met the party under 
Manuel Lisa on its way up the river. Colter 
was prevailed upon to join the expedition and 
thenceforth became one of Lisa's most active 
workers. Lisa, of course, was not acquainted 
with the country and he knew that Colter would 
be of great value to him. However important 
an event the acquisition of Colter to the party 
was, we find no mention of him in the journal 
of the expedition from the point where he 
joined the party until the confluence of the 
Yellowstone and the Big Horn rivers was 
reached. 

The party having reached the Big Horn, 
Colter was dispatched to notify all the Indians 
in the surrounding counti-y that a trading post 
had been established at the mouth of the Big 
Horn river. This brave explorer at once set 
out on his perilous mission. Loaded down 
with a pack of thirty pounds weight, besides 
carrving his gun and ammunition. Colter made 



a trip upwards of fi\'e hundred miles alone and 
on foot through an unknown and trackless 
country, notified the Crows of the establishment 
of the post and then endeavored to carry the 
news farther into the interior. The Crows 
were supposed to be somewhere on the Big 
Horn river, but it seems that they were at this 
time camped on the Wind river. Proceeding 
westward from here, accompanied by a num- 
ber of Crow guides, he advanced to Pierre 
Hole, where he and his guides were attacked 
by a party of Blackfeet. The attacking party 
waS' repulsed, but Colter was wounded in the 
leg. The Crow guides then left him and re- 
turned to their camps, leaving Colter entirely 
alone. Without guides or escorts of any kind 
this bra\'e man then worked his way back to 
the establishment, several hundred miles. Hav- 
ing had a skirmish with the Blackfeet he be- 
lieved it would be folly to go on the three 
forks of the Missouri to inform the Blackfee; 
of the establishment of the post. He crossed 
from Pierre Hole in a northeasterly direction 
to wdiat is now the Yellowstone National park, 
thence in an almost northeasterly direction 
through it to the Yellowstone river, which 
stream he followed to where it bends to the 
northwest. Here he took an east branch, fol-' 
lowed its course a few miles, then advanced in 
a northeasterly course to Lisa's fort. 

The winter was spent at and near the fort. 
When spring opened Colter, accompanied by 
one Potts, was again sent out with instructions 
to meet the Blackfeet at the three forks. Ar- 
riving there they found no Indians, and so en- 
gaged in trapping until such time as the In- 
dians should put in an appearance. The story 
of the adventures of these two men on this 
trip reads like a romance. We leave its telling 
to the able pen of Washington Irving : 

They were on a branch of the Missouri called Jef- 
ferson's Fork, and had set their traps at night about 
si-x miles up a small river that einptied into the fork. 
Early in the morning they ascended the river in a 
'^anoe to examine the traps. The banks of each side 



36 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



were high and perpendicular and cast a shade over the 
stream. As they were softly paddling along, they heard 
the tramping of many feet upon the banks. Colter im- 
mediately gave the alarm of "Indians!" and was for 
instant retreat. Potts scoffed at him for being scared 
at the trample of buffaloes. Colter checked his un- 
easiness and paddled forward. They had not gone 
much further wihen frightful whoops and yells burst 
forth from each side of the river and several hundred 
Indians appeared on either bank. 

Signs were made to the unfortunate trappers to 
come on shore. They were obliged to comply. Before 
they could get out of their canoes a savage siezed the 
rifle belonging to Potts. Colter sprang on shore, 
wrested the weapon from the hands of the savage, and 
restored it to his companion, who was still in the 
canoe, and immediately pushed into the stream. There 
was a sharp twang of a bow and Potts cried out that 
he was wounded. Colter urged him to come on shore 
and submit as his only chance for life ; but the other 
knew there was no prospect of mercy and determined to 
die game. Leveling his rifle; he shot one of the savages 
dead on the spot. The next moment he fell himself, 
pierced with innumerable arrows. 

The vengeance of the savages now turned upon 
Colter. He was stripped naked, and, having some 
knowledge of the Blackfeet language, overheard a con- 
versation as to the mode of dispatching him, so as to 
derive the greatest amount from his death. Some were 
for setting him up as a mark and having a trial of 
skill at his expense. The chief, however, was for nobler 
sport. He seized Colter by the shoulder and demanded 
if he could run fast. The unfortunate trapper was too 
well acquainted with Indian customs not to comprehend 
the drift of the question. He knew he was to run for 
his life, to furnish a kind of human hunt to his perse- 
cutors. Though in reality he was noted among his 
brother hunters for swiftness of foot, he assured the 
chief that he was a very bad runner. His strategem 
gained him some vantage ground. He was led by the 
chief into the prairie, about four hundred yards from 
the main body of savages, and then turned loose to 
save himself if he could. A tremendous yell let him 
know that the whole pack of bloodhounds was off in 
full cry. Colter fled rather than ran ; he was as- 
tonished at his own speed ; but he had six miles of 
prairie to travel before he should reach the Jefferson 
fork of the Missouri : how could he hope to hold out 
such a distance with the fearful odds of several hun- 
dred to one against him ! The plain, too, abounded 
with the prickly pear, which wounded (his naked feet. 
Still he fled on, dreading each moment to hear the 
twang of a bow, and to feel an arrow piercing his 
heart. He did not even dare to look around, least he 
should lose an inch of the distance on which his life 
depended. He had run nearly half way across the 
plain when the sound of pursuit grew somewhat fainter, 
and he ventured to turn his head. The main body of 



his pursuers was a considerable distance behind ; sev- 
eral of the fastest runners were scattered in advance ; 
while a swift-footed warrior, armed with a spear, was 
not more than one hundred yards behind. 

Inspired with new hope. Colter redoubled his ex- 
ertions, but strained himself to such a degree that the 
blood gushed from his mouth and nostrils and streamed 
down his breast. He arrived within a mile of the river. 
The sound of footsteps gathered upon him. A glance 
behind showed his pursuer within twenty yards, and 
preparing to launch his spear. Stopping short he 
turned around and spread out his arms. The savage, 
confounded by this sudden action, attempted to stop 
and hurl his spear, but fell in the very act. His spear 
struck in the ground and the shaft broke in his hand. 
Colter plucked up the pointed part, pinned the savage 
to the 'earth, and continued his flight. The Indians, as 
they arrived at their slaughtered companion, stopped to 
howl over him. Colter made the most of this precious 
delay, gained the skirt of Cottonwood bordering the 
river, dashed through it, and plunged into the stream. 
He swam to a neighboring island, against the upper 
end of which driftwood had lodged in such quantities 
as to form a natural raft ; under this he dived, and 
swam below water until he succeeded in getting a 
breathing place between the floating trunks of trees, 
whose branches and bushes formed a covert several 
feet above the water. He had scarcely drawn breath 
after all his toil when he heard his pursuers on the 
river bank, whooping and yelling like so many fiends. 
They plunged into the water and swam to the raft. 
The heart of Colter almost died within him as he saw 
them through the chinks of his concealment, passing 
and repassing, and seeking for him in all directions. 

They at length gave up the search and he began to 
rejoice in his escape, when the idea presented itself 
that they might set the raft on fire. Here was a new 
source of horrible apprehension, in which he remained 
until nightfall. Fortunately the idea did not suggest 
itself to the Indians. As soon as it was dark, finding 
by the silence around that his pursuers had departed, 
Colter dived again and came up beyond the raft. He 
then swam silently down the river for a considerable 
distance, when he landed, and kept on all night to get 
as far as possible from this dangerous neighborhood. 
By daybreak he had gained sufficient distance to re- 
lieve him of the terrors of his savage foes. 

From here Colter made his way to tlie trad- 
ing post on the Yellowstone, where he remained 
until 1809, when he returned to St. Louis. 

Lisa's report of the great wealth to be ob- 
tained in the upper Missouri country aroused 
the enthusiasm of the merchants of St. Louis 
and of the trappers and traders throughout the 
Missouri and Mississippi river points. So 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



37 



strong an impression did the news make thai 
the Missouri Fur company, sometimes called 
the St. Louis-Missouri Fur company, was in- 
corporated with a capital of forty thousand 
dollars. The organization was effected during 
the winter of 1808 and 1809. and was to ex- 
pire at the end of three years. Manuel Lisa 
was made head of the new company and that 
gentleman turned over to the new organization 
all the equipment of the expedition of 1807, in- 
cluding the post established at the mouth of 
the Big Horn river. The members of the Mis- 
souri Fur company were Manuel Lisa, Benja- 
min Wilkinson, Pierre Chouteau, Sr., Augus- 
tin Chouteau, Jr., William Clark, Reuben 
Lewis, Sylvester Labadie, Pierre Menard, Wil- 
liam Morris, Dennis Fitz Hugh and Andrew 
Henry. 

The expedition organized by the company 
left St. Louis in the early spring of 1809. It 
consisted of about one hundred and fifty men 
and merchandise sufficient to supply half a 
dozen posts and equip as many small outfits 
as it might be found necessary to send out. 
The main part of the merchandise was to be 
taken to Lisa's iort on the Yellowstone, where 
the party intended to spend the winter. Several 
posts were to be established at various places 
along the Missouri below the Yellowstone. 
These ports were established; then the main 
party went on to the mouth of the Big Horn, 
arriving there some time in October. 

Headquarters were made at Fort Lisa un- 
til spring, trade being carried on with the 
Crow Indians during the winter months. Early 
in the spring of 181 a stron^- party set out 
for the three forks of the M:-s<irin tn trap and 
to open relations with the Bhicklcct. Cap- 
tains Lewis and Clark had made mention of 
the great number of beaver to be found in this 
country: also had Colter. The establishing of 
a post here, then, was for a double purpose — 
the Indian trade and the trapping of Iieaver. 
In the party who went to the three forks were 



Andrew Henry and Pierre Menard, two of thf 
partners. 

The post was erected on the neck of lam 
between the Jefferson and Madison rivers 
Lieutenant James H. Bradley describes it ana 
its location as follows : "It was a double 
stockade of logs set three feet deep, enclosing 
an area of alxjut 300 square feet, situated upon 
the tongue of land (at that point only half a 
mile wide) between the Jefferson and Madisoii 
rivers, about two miles from their confluence, 
upon the south bank of the channel of the 
former stream called Jefferson slough." Trap- 
ping was begun at once and every day's catch 
showed that they were in the midst of a great 
harvest. The territory was virgin, and, the 
old trappers stated, the greatest they had ever 
seen for bea\-er. 

But in the midst of their glowing success 
a black cloud of disaster broke upon them ; the 
Blackfeet swept down upon the trappers while 
tending their traps and several lost their lives. 
This was the first seen of the Indians and the 
introduction was disheartening. No opportun- 
ity had presented itself by which the Indians 
could be informed of the intention of the trad- 
ers. Depredations continued at intervals ot 
every few days. One thing must be done — the 
Indians informed of the purposes of the fort. 

It will be remembered that this was the 
place where Potts killed an Indian of the 
Blackfeet and where Colter made his remarka- 
ble escape from the same people. These inci- 
dents the Indians no doubt remembered. They 
also knew of the p(ist i>n the Yellowstone, 
where their enemies, the Crows, were receiv- 
ing merchandise for their furs. Considering 
the newcomers in the light of enemies, and be- 
ing jealous because the Crows had been fav- 
ored with a trading post, they determined to 
intercept the white trappers on all sides. In 
order that the Blackfeet might be informed of 
the true purpose of the pest. Menard proposed 
to \isit the Flathead and Snake Indians with .1 



38 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



view of getting them to assist in a war against 
the Blackfeet. His purpose was to take a pris- 
oner, and after having informed him of the 
friendly intentions of the whites and their de- 
sire to trade, to release him and let him return 
to his people. But before this scheme could be 
carried out the Blackfeet fell upon then again 
with more fury than before. 

Disheartened with these experiences, ^len- 
ard with the greater part of tlie men. most of 
them unwilling to remain longer, started for 
St. Louis. Henry with the few remaining men 
stayed at the fort for some time, then crossed 
over the continental divide and established him- 
self on the north fork of the Snake, where he 
spent the winter. Game was very scarce and 
many hardships were endured before the open- 
ing of spring. Recrossing the continental di- 
vide in the early spring of i8i i, he set out for 
St. Louis. Whether he descended the Yellow- 
stone or Missouri on this trip out of the coun- 
try is not known. He reached the ]\Iandan 
village in July and here met Lisa, who was re- 
turning from St. Louis. 

Because of the hostility of the Indians the 
Missouri Fur company had not proved a finan- 
cial success, and the company went out of 
business. 

It was not until the spring of 1822 that 
another fur company began operations on an 
extensive scale in the territory which is no\v 
known as the state of Montana. That year 
William H. Ashley, a trader, business man and 
politician, organized the Rocky Mountain Fur 
company, which during the years of its exist- 
ence became one of the most powerful concerns 
engaged in the fur trade in the Rocky moun- 
tains south of the British possessions. Asso- 
ciated with Ashley was Andrew Henry, who 
has been mentioned in these pages in connection 
with the operations of the Missouri Fur com- 
pany. 

Two expeditions, consisting of one hundred 
men each, were equipped, one under Henry, 
the other under Ashley. The expedition com- 



manded by Henry left St. Louis in April, 1822 ; 
the one commanded by Ashley did not depart 
until March 10 of the following year. 

The plan was to establish trading posts as 
far up the Missouri as the three forks, thus 
making it possible to trade with all the tribes 
of the upper Missouri country. The country 
around the upper waters of this river was 
known to abound in beaver, and the trapping 
of these was another coveted object of the or- 
ganizers of the company. 

Henry left St. Louis with two keel-boats 
loaded with merchandise, trapping equipment 
and such utensils as would be useful to the 
party. On the way up the river the party pur- 
chased horses. The expedition's progress was 
not impeded until it ascended to or near the 
mouth of the Little Missouri. Here the land 
party was attacked by a party of the -\ssini- 
boine Indians, who got possession of the horses. 

It was the object of this party to ascend as 
far as the falls and establish a fort there, but 
the loss of the horses prevented the carrying 
out of this object. A post was built at the 
mouth of the Yellowstone and the party win- 
tered there. The men engaged in hunting and 
trapping during the winter, and in the spring 
of 1823, having secured a fresh supply of 
horses, they set out for the countn,' of the 
Blackfeet. Having ascended as far as the great 
falls, they were attacked by the Blackfeet. 
Four men lost their lives and the party was 
driven out of the country. The return was 
then made to the fort at the mouth of the 
Yellowstone. 

In the meantime General Ashley had as- 
cended the Missouri from St. Louis. He was 
fiercely attacked by the Aricaras and driven 
down the river. Henrj^, anticipating his ar- 
rival, had descended the Missouri from the 
fort on the Yellowstone and brought the win- 
ter's catch with him. He was not molested by 
the Indians and passed through their village, 
joining General Ashley at the mouth of the 
Chevenne river. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



39 



The attack on General Ashley was reported 
to the United States troops, and in the com- 
paign which followed the Indians were badly 
defeated and taught a severe lesson. 

The road being again clear for the traders, 
Ashley, after securing the required number of 
horses from the Indians, sent Henry with eighty 
men across to the post at the mouth of the 
Yellowstone, where twenty men had been left. 
This place was abandoned and the party as- 
cended the Yellowstone as far as Powder river. 
Henry here organized a party which was sent 
toward the southwest, while he with the main 
body went on to the confluence of the Big Horn 
and Yellowstone and there established a post. 
Trapping parties were sent out in different di- 
rections, and when they met the next year they 
had collected a great number of beaver furs, 
which Henry took to St. Louis in the spring. 
The expedition was a success and Henry re- 
turned the next year. 

Jedediah S. Smith was one of the leading 
employes of the Rocky Mountain Fur company. 
From the post at the mouth of the Big Horn he 
crossed over to the west side of the continental 
divide, where he met with detached trappers 
of the Hudson's Bay company. After spend- 
ing some time in this country he went north, 
and it has been said spent the winter with the 
Flathead Indians. Wherever he may have 
spent the winter, he went to St. Louis in the 
spring. Henry resigned from the partnership 
and Smith became a partner, being identified 
with the company until 1826. 

General Ashley returned to St. Louis, not 
having attempted to establish a post in the 
Blackfoot country. The next year he equipped 
an expedition and went into the Salt Lake 
country. Detachments were sent out in every 
direction and many valuable furs were secured. 
The party worked well toward the headwaters 
of the Yellowstone and determined to descend 
that stream to the Missouri, and from thence 
go on to St. Louis. When they reached the 
mouth of the Yellowstone Ashlev beheld for 



the first time the fort built by Henry. It was 
here that the party met General Atkinson with 
a large military force, who was in this country 
to make peace treaties with the Indians of the 
upper Missouri country. 

We shall here interrupt the story of the 
Rocky Mountain Fur company long enough to 
tell of this government expedition. The In- 
dian tribes of the Missouri and Yellowstone 
had become restless and the government deter- 
mined to make treaties with them. Accord- 
ingly in 1824 congress passed an act providing 
for the equipment of an expedition to visit and 
treat with the various tribes inhabiting the 
country. The president appointed General 
Henry Atkinson, of the army, and Major Ben- 
jamin O'Fallon, Indian agent, to act as com- 
missioners to visit the Indians and conclude the 
treaties. 

The commissioners left St. Louis on 
March 20, 1825. and proceeded to Council 
Bluffs, arriving there April 19. Here they 
were joined by an escort of 476 men, of whom 
40 were mounted, the intention being to have 
the others travel by boat. On August 17 the 
party reached the mouth of the Yellowstone, 
having visited the Indian tribes inhabiting the 
valley between Council Bluffs and that point. 
One mile above the mouth of the Yellowstone 
the expedition came upon the traders' fort. 
Here they were surprised at hunters descend- 
ing the river in boats. The hunters proved to 
be General Ashley with a party of 24 men, who 
had just arrived from Salt Lake valley with a 
cargo of furs. Being invited to wait until the 
military expedition should ascend the river and 
to accompany it. General Ashley did so. 

Ashley had not seen the Indians anywhere 
on the Yellowstone, and from what informa- 
tion he had gathered from straggling bands, he 
concluded that the Blackfeet, the ones whom 
the authorities most desired to meet, were 
somewhere on the Missouri above the falls. 
The Assiniboines were supposed to be on the 
Yellowstone, but Ashley's party found no trace 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



of them. This information was discouraging 
to the expedition. General Atkinson deter- 
mined, however, to ascend the river. Part of 
the force remained at the fort; the others, ac- 
companied by General Ashley, set out on the 
20th to go up the river. 

No trace of the Indians was found and the 
party returned to the fort. Soon after the com- 
missioners returned to the states, the expedi- 
tion, so far as accomplishing anything was con- 
cerned, having been a failure. General Ash- 
ley accompanied the party to St. Louis. 

In April of the next year, 1826, Ashley 
returned to the Salt Lake valley. While here 
he sold his interests in the mountains to Jed- 
ediah S. Smith, David E. Jackson and William 
L. Sublette, the leading spirits of the company, 
retaining, however, his company interests in 
Sf. Louis. This transfer marks the beginning 
of the second period of the company's history. 
General Ashley was a man of much ability. 
Having tired of mountain life, and having 
made his fortune, he retired to enter the politi- 
cal arena. 

Smith. Jackson and Sublette agreed on 
plans to be executed during the next three 
years. Jackson and Sublette went into the 
mountains, while Smith crossed mto Cali- 
fornia, thence north to the Hudson's Bay post 
on the Columbia. He sold his furs to the com- 
pany and struck out for the headwaters of the 
Snake. Here he was to meet Sublette and 
Jackson in the summer of 1829. 

Smith was royally treated by the Hudson's 
Bay men, and he agreed not to hunt in the ter- 
ritory claimed by that company. According to 
the plans of three years before, when the three 
partners struck out in different directions, they 
all met at the headwaters of the Snake. Smith 
informed his partners of his agreement with the 
Hudson's Bay company, who were not friendly 
to this move, but reluctantly consented to abide 
by their partner's promise. 

Concerning the adventures of the partners 



during their management of the company we 
quote from Chittenden as follows : 

All set out on their fall hunt in October, taking a 
northeasterly direction to the Yellowstone, with the 
intention of swinging around into the Big Horn basin, 
w^here Milton Sublette had been left. Just as they 
were starting they had a slight brush with the Black- 
feet Indians, who attempted to steal their horses. It 
was a little too early in the morning, before the horses 
had been turned out to graze, and the Indians were 
beaten off through the energetic action of Fitzpatrick. 

While crossing the range of mountains between 
the Gallatin and Yellowstone rivers, a little to the north 
of the modern National park, they had a severe skir- 
mish with the Blackfeet, in which two men were killed 
and the rest of the party scattered. It was some time 
before they all came together again ; in fact not until 
they were east of the mountains and in the Big Horn 
basin. The journey through the rugged mountains 
bordering the park on the north was one of great peril 
and suffering. One of the party. Joseph Meek, became 
separated from the rest and utterly lost, wandering into 
the springs country just east of the Yellowstone river, 
where he was found by some of his companions. 

At length the party was reunited in the Big Horn 
basin, where they found Milton Sublette, and all to- 
gether went south with the furs to the valley of the 
Wind river. It being too late to carry the furs to St. 
Louis, they were cached in the side of a cut bank. This 
locality was fixed as the next rendezvous, and there- 
upon Sublette, w-ith one man, set out for St. Louis to 
bring out the outfit for the following year. It was 
about Christmas time that he started on the journey, 
and he reached his destination on the wth of February 
following. This is one of the very few examples at 
this early day of crossing the plains in the dead of 
winter. 

The party which remained behind was too large to 
find subsistence in one locality, there being no- buffalo 
in the vicinity, and Smith and Jackson were compelled 
to shift their camp-, although in mid-winter, to better 
ground. They accordingly went over into the Powder 
river country, where they found buffalo, and spent the 
winter in plenty. On the first of April Jackson set out 
for a spring hunt at his old stamping ground in Jack- 
son Hole, while Smith, with Young Jim Bridget as 
guide, started by way of the Yellowstone for the upper 
Missouri. Smith went as far as the Judith basin, made 
a successful 'hunt, and returned to the rendezvous on 
Wind river without any untoward accident. Jackson 
likewise came back after a successful hunt, and here 
the two partners waited the arrival of Sublette from 
the states. At about this time an unfortunate accident 
occurred. While removing the furs from the cache 
made the previous December the bank caved in, killing 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



41 



one man and severely injuring another. * * * 

Smith, Jackson and Sublette, following the ex- 
ample of Ashley four years before, relinquished their 
trade and sold out to several young men, who had now 
become distinguished by their ability and experience. 
These were Thomas Fitzpatrick, Milton G. Sublette, 
Henry Fraeb, Jean Baptiste Gervais and James Bridger, 
and the firm was called the Rocky Mountain Fur Com- 
pany, the only instance when any firm did business un- 
der this specific name. The transfer of the business 
from the old to the new firm took place August 4, 
1830. Smith, Jackson and Sublette left the same day 
for St. Louis with iqo packs of beaver. 

The new company carried out much the 
same plans as those inaugurated by the old com- 
pany. Trapping parties were sent over the old 
grounds, and some virgin territory was opened. 
From the Wind river rendezvous Fitzpatrick, 
Sublette and Bridger, with a party of two hun- 
dred men, crossed over to the Big Horn basin, 
through it to the Yellowstone, thence across 
to the Missouri river in the vicinity of the great 
falls. The party was so strong that the Black- 
feet did not molest it. After spending some 
time in the neighborhood of the great falls the 
expedition moved up to the three forks, thence 
up the Jefferson to the divide. This expedition 
proved to be a very profitable one, and a large 
quantity of furs was taken. 

They now moved south to the Salt Lake 
country, where they also met with success, and 
returned to the Powder river valley to spend 
the winter. 

Says Chittenden of an event of the follow- 
ing spring: "With opening of spring of 183 1 
the partners again set out for the Blackfoot 
country, but they had not gone far when the 
most of their horses were stolen by the Crows. 
A catastrophy of this kind, so fatal to the 
mobility of a party, destroyed its effectiveness, 
and it was imperative to retake the horses. A 
party was organized for this purpose, and, 
after considerable delay and adroit manage- 
ment, succeeded in not only retaking their own 
horses, but in capturing those belonging to the 
Indians." 

Much of the same territory was traversed 



this season as the year previous. At various 
intervals the furs would be taken to St. Lotiis. 
The company continued in business until the 
summer of 1834, when a dissolution of the 
partnership was agreed upon. During the last 
few years the profits had not been so large ; the 
American Fur company was scouring the same 
territory. Bitter animosities arose between 
the rival concerns. The American Fur 
company was the more powerful of the 
two, and the Rocky Mountain Fur com- 
pany, the weaker of the adversaries, could no 
longer take from the country the great wealth 
it had up to the time of the coming of the com- 
peting fur company. Then, it has beeii said, 
the new company used its influence to induce 
the Indians to oppose the old company. 
Whether this contention was true or not, the 
Indians became more hostile to the Rocky* 
Mountain company. These causes led to the 
dissolution of the Rocky Mountain Fur com- 
pany, the first powerful concern of the kind to 
operate in the Rocky mountain country. 

The next fur company to begin operations 
in the upper Missouri country was the Ameri- 
can, which proved to be the strongest that ever 
carried on business with the Indians of Mon- 
tana. It continued in existence many years and 
its operations were an important event in the 
early history of our country. 

The American Fur company was incorpor- 
ated in New York, April 16, 1808. John Jacob 
Astor, a trader in furs in New York and Lon- 
don, constituted the company. Heretofore Mr. 
Astor had not engaged in operations in the 
field, but he now determined to broaden his 
business and extend his transactions to the field 
operations as well as the traffic after the furs 
had been gathered and placed on the market. 
The earlier operations of this powerful con- 
cern were confined to the headwaters of the 
Mississippi and the territory around the great 
lakes; and not until 1822 did it extend its field" 
of operations to the country farther south and 
west. In that year the company established a 



4-2 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



western headquarters at St. Louis, which move 
was bitterly opposed by the traders of St. 
Louis. 

The Rocky Mountain Fur company, the 
only large company at that time which was 
operating in the upper Missouri and surround- 
ing country, had brought to St. Louis furs of 
almost untold value. The American Fur com- 
pany, desirous of a portion of this vast wealth, 
determined to invade those regions from which 
wealth was being so easily gathered. 

Accordingly, in the summer of 1828, a 
definite advance was commenced, and in a few 
months a fort was established near the mouth 
of the Yellowstone. This was the objective 
point, for from all directions the trade must 
pass through here. Kenneth McKenzie was 
given charge of this northern trade. He had 
been at one time a member of the Hudson's 
Bay company, and had also been associated 
with smaller trading and trapping companies 
operating in the upper Mississippi country. He 
desired to strike boldly into the mountain coun- 
try and at once open up trade with the 
Indians of the upper territory and to send out 
trapping parties to that country. The head 
office, less sanguine in its councils, thought 
best to go a little slow and to first establish a 
post at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and to 
extend future operations from there into the 
upper country. 

A post was erected near the mouth of the 
Yellowstone and called Fort Union. In 1872- 
yj, Mr. James Stuart prepared an article relat- 
ing to the upper Alissouri river which is of 
much value in describing conditions as they ex- 
isted in the early days of the fur trade. Es- 
pecially interesting is the description of Fort 
Union and the manner of living of those who 
made their homes there under the protection of 
the American Fur company. His information 
was gathered from trappers, traders and others 
who happened to be in the country at that time. 
The article was published in the Montana His- 
torical Society's contributions of 1876. From 



these contributions we quote the following: 

Fort Union was the first fort built on the Missouri 
river above the mouth of the Yellowstone. In the 
summer of 1829 Kenneth McKenzie, a trapper from the 
upper Mississippi, near where St. Paul, Minnesota, is 
now located, with a party of 50 men, came across to 
the upper Missouri in looking for a good place to es- 
tablish a trading post for the American Fur Company. 
(McKenzie was a member of said company.) They 
selected a site a short distance above the mouth of the 
Yellowstone river, on the north bank of the Missouri, 
and built a stockade, two hundred feet square, of logs 
about twelve inches in diameter and twelve feet long, 
set perpendicular, putting the lower end ten feet in the 
ground with two block house bastions on diagonal 
corners of the stockade, twelve feet square and twenty 
feet high, pierced with loopholes. The dwelling 'houses, 
warehouses and store were built inside, but not form- 
ing the stockade, leaving a space of about four feet be- 
tween the walls of the buildings and the stockade. All 
the buildings were covered with earth, as a protection 
against fire by incendiary Indians. There was only one 
entrance to the stockade — a long double-leaved gate, 
about twelve feet from post to post, with a small gate 
three and one-half by five feet, in one of the leaves of 
the main gate, which was the one mostly used, the 
large gate being opened only occasionally when there 
were no Indians in the vicinity of the fort. The 
houses, warehouses and stores were all built about the 
same height as the stockade. The above description, 
except the area enclosed by the stockade, will describe 
nearly all the forts built by traders on the Missouri 
river from St. Louis to the headwaters. They are 
easily built, convenient, and good for defence. 

The fort was built to trade with the Assiniboines, 
who were a large tribe of Indians, ranging from White 
Earth river on the north side of the Missouri to the 
mouth of Milk river, and north into the British pos- 
sessions. They were a peaceable, inoffensive people, 
armed with bow and arrows, living in lodges made of 
buffaloi skins, and roving from place to place according 
to the season of the year, occupying certain portions of 
their country in the summer, and during the winter 
remaining where they could be protected from the cold 
with plenty of wood. For fear of trouble with them 
the traders did not sell them guns ; but when an In- 
dian proved to be a good hunter and a good friend to 
the traders by his actions and talk, he could occasionally 
borrow a gun and a few loads of ammunition to make 
a hunt. 

The principal articles of trade were alcohol, 
blankets, blue and scarlet cloth, sheeting (domestic), 
ticking, tobacco, knives, fire-steels, arrow points, files, 
brass wire, beads, brass tacks, leather belts (from four 
to ten inches wide), silver ornaments for hair, shells, 
axes, hatchets, etc. — alcohol being the principal article 
of trade until after the passing of an act of congress 




FATHER UE SMET 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



43 



(June 30, 1834). prohibiting- it under severe penalty. 
Prior to that time there were no restrictions on the 
traffic. But notwithstanding the traders were often 
made to suffer the penalty of the law, they continued 
to smuggle large quantities of spirits into the Indian 
country until within the last few years (i. e. 1873). 

St. Louis was the point from w'hich the traders 
brought their goods. They would start from there 
with mackinaw boats, fifty feet long, ten feet wide on 
the bottom, and twelve feet on the top, and four feet 
high, loaded with fourteen tons of merchandise to the 
boat, and a crew of about twelve men, as soon as the 
ice went out of the river, usually about the first of 
March, and would be' about six months in getting to 
Fort Unicn, the boats having to be towed the greater 
part of the way by putting a line ashore, and the men 
walking along the bank pulling the boat. Every spring, 
as soon as the ice went out of the river, boats would 
start from the fort for St. Louis, each boat loaded 
with three thousand robes, or its equivalent in other 
peltries, with a crew of five men to each boat, arriving 
at St. Louis in about thirty days. 

All the employes in the Indian country lived en- 
tirely on meat — the outfit of provisions for from fifty 
to seventy-five men being two barrels flour, one sack 
coffee, one barrel sugar, one barrel salt, and a little 
soda and pepper. After the fort was established and 
proved to be a permanent trading point, large quanti- 
ties of potatoes, beets, onions, turnips, squashes, corn, 
etc., were raised, sufficient for each year's consumption. 
The wages for common laborers were 220 dollars for 
the round trip from St. Louis to Fort Union and back 
again to St. Louis, taking from fifteen to sixteen 
months' time to make it. Carpenters and blacksmiths 
were paid 3C0 dollars per annum. The traders (being 
their own interpreters) were paid 500 dollars per an- 

The store and warehouse, or two stores, were built 
en each side of the gate, and on the side next to the 
interior of the fort the two buildings were connected 
by a gate similar to the main gate tlie space between 
the building and the stockade filled in with pickets, 
making a large strong room without any roof or cov- 
ering overhead. In each store, or stores, about five 
feet from the ground, was a hole eighteen inches 
square, with a strong shutter-fastening inside of the 
store, opening into the space or room between the 
gates. When the Indians wanted to trade, the inner 
gate was closed ; a man would stand at the outer gate 
until all the Indians that wanted to trade, or as many 
as the space between the gate would contain, had passed 
in ; then he would lock the outer gate and go through 
the trading hole into the store. The Indians would 
then pass whatever articles each one had to trade 
through the hole to the trader, and he would throw out 
of the hole whatever the Indians wanted to the value 
in trade of the article received. When the party were 
done trading they were turned out and another party 



admitted. In that way of trading the Indians were 
entirely at the mercy of the traders, for they were 
penned up in a room and could all be killed throug'h 
loop-holes in the store without any danger to the 
traders. The articles brought by the Indians for trade 
were buffalo robes, elk, deer, antelope, bear, wolf, 
beaver, otter, fox, mink, martin, wild cat, skunk and 
badger skins. 

The country was literally covered with buffalo, 
and the Indians killed them by making "surrcundings." 
The Indians moved and camped with from one to four 
hundred lodges together — averaging about seven souls 
to the lodge; and when they needed meat the chief 
gave orders to make a "surround," when the whole 
camp, men, women and the largest of the children, on 
foot and on horseback, would go under direction of the 
soldiers and form a circle around as many buffalo as 
they wanted to kill — from three hundred to one thou- 
sand buffalo. They would then all start slowly for a 
common point, and as soon as the circle began to grow 
smaller, the slaughter would begin, and in a short time 
all inside of the circle would be Wiled. The buffalo 
do not, as a general rule, undertake to break through 
unless the circle is very small, but run round and 
round the circumference next to the Indians until they 
are all killed. 

Fort Union burned down in 1831 and was rebuilt 
by McKenzie in the same year. The new fort was two 
hundred .and fifty feet square, with stone foundation, 
with similar buildings, but put up in a more workman- 
like manner, inside of the stockade. The fort stood 
until 1868, when it was pulled 'down by order of the 
commanding ofiicer at Fort Buford (five miles below 
Union.) 

In 1832 the first steamboat, named the "Yellow- 
stone," arrived at Fort Union. From that time, every 
spring, the goods were brought by steamboats, but the 
robes, peltries, etc., were shipped from the fort every 
spring by mackinaws to St. Louis. 

As has been noted in preceding pages of 
this chapter the country of the Blackfeet had 
never been successfully invaded. The Mis- 
souri Fur company had made two attempts to 
open trade relations with these people, and 
each time had failed and been driven from the 
country. Ashley and Henry made two at- 
tempts and met the same fate as did the Mis- 
souri Fur company. This being practically a 
virgin territory, McKenzie's desire was to in- 
form the Blackfeet of the friendly relationship 
that would be extended them if intercourse 
could be opened. The former expeditions into 
this country had utterly failed in this particu- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



lar. And on the other hand the Hudson's Bay 
company traders, who penetrated the country 
of the Blackfeet, used their influence to create 
feehngs of hostihty between the Indians and 
the American traders. 

In the summer of 1830 McKenzie was 
down the river. Upon his return to Fort Union 
in the fall he found there an old trapper by the 
name of Berger, who had for many years been 
employed by the Hudson's Bay company at 
their fort just north of the Blackfoot country. , 
Berger was well acquainted with the language 
and customs of these people and knew many of 
them personally. How he came to leave the 
Hudson's Bay company and come to Fort Un- 
ion no one knows ; but he was there and he was 
the very man that Mc-Kenzie desired for nego- 
tiation with the Blackfeet. McKenzie ac- 
cordingly proposed to him to go on this peril- 
ous trip, and he consented. Chittenden's 
"American Fur Trade of the West" describes 
the advance into the Blackfoot country and 
the return to the fort : 

Berger started out from Fort Union in the fall and 
traveled some four weeks before he saw any Indians. 
The party carried a flag unfurled so that the Indians 
might know at a distance that they were white men. 
They finally found a large village on the Marias river, 
some distance above the mouth. At the sight of it the 
little party was so terror stricken that they wanted to 
turn back, but Berger persisted in the purpose of his 
mission, and the men followed his lead, scarcely ex- 
pecting to be alive for another hour. When they were 
discovered a number of mounted Indians started for 
them at full speed. Berger halted 'his party and him- 
self advanced with the flag. The Indians paused, and 
Berger called out his name. They recognized it ; there 
was a rush to shake hands; and then the little party 
was welcomed to the village, where, to their great joy. 
they were received in the most hospitable manner. 

How long they remained is not known, but Berger 
finally succeeded in inducing a party of about forty, 
including several chiefs, to accompany him to Fort 
Union. The route was a long one, and on the way 
they began to complain of the distance. Berger was put 
to his wifs ends to prevent them turning back. Finally 
wlien within a day's march from the fort, tradition 
says, the Indians concluded to stop. Berger besought 
them to go on one day more and told them if they did 
not reach the fort in that time he would give them his 
scalp and all his horses. This guaranty of good faith 



induced them to keep on, and, sure enough, about three 
p. m. the next day they passed over a river bluff and 
beheld in the valley below the fort, just as Berger had 
told (hem. It was a great feat that Berger had ac- 
complished, and McKenzie was highly gratified at its 
successful outcome. 

The party reached Fort Union before the end of 
the year 1831. McKenzie had a conference with the 
chiefs, and it goes without saying that that astute 
leader left no stone unturned to create a favorable im- 
pression. The Indians professed great satisfaction at 
the prospect of having a trading post near their village, 
and as an earnest of his purpose to establish one there 
the following summer. McKenzie sent a trader and a 
few men to trade with them during the winter. He 
completed this stroke of good fortune during the fol- 
lowing summer by bringing about a treaty of peace and 
friendship between the Blackfeet and Assiniboines, 
which promised protection to the trade throughout this 
region. The treaty was consummated on the 29th day 
of November, 1831. 



In accordance with the agreement entered 
into with the Blackfeet, McKenzie dispatched 
an expedition up the river in the fall of 1831, 
which arrived at the confluence of the Marias 
and Missouri sometime in October. James 
Kipp had charge of the expedition. He selected 
the site for the fort between the two rivers, 
near the mouth of the Alarias, where it was 
constructed with as much speed as possible. 
It was called Fort Piegan. During the first 
ten days after the post was opened for trading 
purposes the Indians bartered off two thousand 
four hundred beaver skins. 

During the winter the fort was attacked 
by the Blood Indians and besieged for several 
days. The attack was without any apparent 
provocation, and it has been said that the Brit- 
ish traders, alarmed at the Americans' success, 
were instrumental in inducing the Bloods to 
make an attack. Rather than injuring the post, 
the attack proved a boon, for after their with- 
drawal Kipp treated the Indians to alcohol, and 
so elated were they over this bountiful treat- 
ment that they brought all their furs to the 
American post. 

Before the opening of spring a fine lot of 
furs had been collected, and Kipp, upon the 
opening of navigation, made preparations to 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



take his furs to Fort Union. The Indians de- 
sired that the post should be kept open during 
the summer months, but his men refused to 
stay, and the post was abandoned. Soon after 
the abandoning of the fort it was burned by 
the Indians. 

During the summer after Kipp's arrival at 
Fort Union, David S. Mitchell was sent to 
take charge of Fort Piegan ; but on arrival at 
the Marias, finding that the fort had been 
burned, he moved up the Marias six miles, and 
on the north bank selected a site in what is now 
known as Brule bottom. In honor of Mc- 
Kenzie this post was named Fort McKenzie, 
and its construction assured the American Fur 
company a permanent foothold in the Black- 
foot country. It was occupied for a great 
many years and proved to be one of the most 
profitable posts the company had in the upper 
country. 

In 1842 F. A. Cheardon, who was at the 
time in charge of Fort ^McKenzie, killed thirty 
Indians within the walls of the fort, the massa- 
cre being brought about in the following man- 
ner : A party of Piegans, demanding admit- 
tance to the fort, were refused admission, and 
in malice killed a pig belonging to the whites 
and rode away. A small party was sent in pur- 
suit, and was fired upon by the Indians, a negro 
member of the party being killed. Return to 
the fort was then made, and Cheardon deter- 
mined upon revenge. He invited a large num- 
ber of the Indians to visit the post, throwing 
open the gates as if intending the utmost hos- 
pitality. While the Indians were crowding 
into the fort, the whites fired upon them with 
a howitzer loaded to the muzzle with trade 
balls. Men, women and children were slaugh- 
tered. Cheardon then loaded the boats, burned 
the fort buildings, and descended the river to 

the mouth of Judith river, where he built Fort 

Cheardon. 

The conditions of the company at this 

point were in bad shape as a result, when 

Alexander Culberson, who had been in charge 



of the fort at a former time, then again took 
charge, and through his efforts peace was made 
with the Indians. Six miles above the present 
site of Fort Benton he established Fort Lewis. 
This was simply a temporary structure, de- 
signed only to serve the immediate purpose. 
In 1846 a permanent fort was erected where 
the town of Fort Benton now stands. In honor 
of Thomas H. Benton, then United States sen- 
ator from Missouri, and one of the influential 
men of the American Fur company, this new 
post was named Fort Benton. This fort was 
well constructed, and it is the only remaining 
post of the American Fur company in the up- 
per Missouri country. This was made the head 
quarters for all the upper country for 20 years, 
or until the company retired from business. 
In 1848 Fort Campbell was built a short 
distance above Fort Benton by the rival trad- 
ers, Galpin, Labarge & Co., of St. Louis, which 
was not long occupied. Later the independent 
traders erected a number of fortified stations 
on the Missouri and Yellowstone, who alter- 
nately courted and fought the warlike tribes 
of Montana, but left little historical data of 
their occupancy. 

It must not be understood that the Ameri- 
can Fur company confined its operations to the 
Blackfoot country. No sooner was Fort Un- 
ion thoroughly established than trading parties 
were sent up the Yellowstone to traffic with the 
Crows. Traders and trappers were kept among 
these people at all times, but not until 1832 
was a fort estaLhshed. That year McKenzie 
sent Tullock to build a post on the south side 
of the Yellowstone, three miles below the Big 
Horn, to trade with the mountain Crows. 
These Indians were treacherous and insolent, 
but their trade was desired by the American 
company. Tullock erected a large fort 
which he called Fort Van Buren. The 
Indians complained so much of the lo- 
cation of this post that a little later, in 
1836. Tullock built Fort Cass on the Yellow- 
stone below Fort Van Buren. Fort .Alexander, 



45 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



still further down, was built by Lawender in 
1848, and Fort Spary was erected by Culber- 
son at the mouth of the Rosebud in 1850. This 
was the last trading post built on the Yellow- 
stone and was abandoned in 1853. In 1834, 
Mr. Astor, the founder of the American Fur 
company, retired from further connection with 
its affairs. 

Almost every year that the American Fur 
company was engaged in business in the upper 
Missouri country new fur companies were or- 
ganized to compete for the business which was 
proving so profitable. The older company had 
its own tactics for defeating the progress of the 
new concerns. Invariably the new companies 
would erect forts close to those of the older 
company in order that they might secure a por- 
tion of the trade with the Indians. The Ameri- 
can Fur company was the wealthiest concern 
operating in the upper Missouri country, and 
when the weaker rival stepped in for a portion 
of the traffic the older concern would pay more 
than the customary prices for skins — often 
more than could be secured for them in St. 
Louis. By so doing it drove the competitors 
from the field. 

While success always crowned the efforts 
of the American at the established trading 
posts, out in the mountains its traders were not 
so successful. Parties were sent out to ascer- 
tain the methods pursued by, the Rocky Moun- 
tain Fur company and others who were operat- 
ing, that the competition might be intercepted. 
But they were never so successful, proportion- 
ately to numbers and power, as were some of 
the smaller concerns. True they secured many 
valuable furs in this way, but competition 
was so sharp that they were not able to cope 
with their many adversaries and at the same 
time reap great harvests from the field. Away 
from the posts the same tactics could not be 
employed, and in the field men were placed 
on a nearer equality. 

The Hudson's Bay company, that powerful 
corporation wdiich controlled the fur trade of 



the Columbia river district, only occasionally 
sent trappers into the country east of the Bitter- 
roots. In 183 1 an expedition was planned at 
Vancouver to go to the Missouri river country 
for the purpose of trapping beaver and killing 
buffalo. The command of the expedition was 
given to John Work, a faithful and intelligent 
employe of the great English company. 

On the 1 8th of August the party left Van- 
couver in four boats, carrying a large supply 
of goods for trade with the Shoshones. On the 
30th of the month Fort Walla Walla was 
reached. Here horses were supplied the men 
and on the nth of September the start to the 
eastward was made, the course being along the 
bank of Snake river. On the i6th the party 
turned southward and crossed Snake river at 
the Salmon branch. They journeyed up this 
stream ten days, then crossed through a woody 
country to a camas prairie. Continuing, they 
struck the Bitter Root river on October i8th, 
down which they traveled as far as Hell Gate, 
where they engaged in trapping. In that vicin- 
ity they found "marks of Americans." A con- 
siderable number of beaver were taken and 
there were some buffalo, but the American 
trappers had been over the country thoroughly, 
and this fact, together with the hostility of the 
Blackfeet, made the expedition a partial failure. 
The Blackfeet made life miserable for the 
English hunters, stealing the traps and attack- 
ing the trappers whenever opportunity offered. 
On October 30 two of the party were killed by 
the Indians, and three of Work's men, half 
breeds, deserted. 

About the middle of November the party 
moved southward to the Jefferson branch of the 
Missouri and camped on a plain, in the very 
road of the Blackfeet, above Beaverhead, near 
where now stands the town of Virginia City. 
Here buffalo were found in great numbers and 
the trappers spent some time in their slaughter. 
On the 24th the camp was attacked by the 
Blackfeet and one of the men dangerously 
wounded. Two days later camp was broken 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



47 



and the party proceeded in a southwesterly 
direction for several days, arriving at Sahnon 
river on the i6th of December. Again work- 
ing eastward, the 5th of January, 1832, found 
the party on a small branch of the Missouri. 
On the loth there was a skirmish with the 
Blackfeet, which resulted in the killing of two 
of the Indians. The Blackfeet continued 
troublesome, stealing the horses and firing 
upon the trappers from ambush. Early on 
the morning of the 30th the camp was attacked 
by 300 savages, who were not checked until 
one of the whites had been killed and one 
wounded. The Indians were repulsed with 
considerable loss. 

By the middle of February the horses of 
the trappers became so thin from the scarcity 
of grass that they were unable to follow the 
buffalo, and several of them died from cold 
and starvation. April and May were passed by 
the party hunting beaver and fighting Indians, 
Work gradually working his way westward. 
Crossing the mountains, the hunting was con- 



tinued until July, on the 19th of which month 
Fort Walla Walla was reached. Two of the 
party and a boat containing a valuable cargo 
were lost while descending Salmon river. All 
embarked on the morning of July 25th for 
Vancouver, where the party arrived on the 
afternoon of the 27th. Out of 329 horses 
which the party took from Walla Walla and 
subsequently purchased, only 215 were brought 
back, 114 having been captured, lost or starved. 
Three hundred and nine buffalo were killed 
during the trip and a large quantity of beaver 
taken. 

In 1847 the Hudson's Bay company estab- 
lished a trading post on Crow creek, in the 
northern part of what was afterward set off 
as a Flathead reservation. Angus McDonald, 
who came to the mountains as early as 1838 or 
1839, was the first officer in charge of 
the post. Very little has been learned of the 
operations of the English company in this part 
of the country. 



CHAPTER V 



FROM BEAVER PELT TO BALLOT-BOX 



For many years the fur traders and trap- 
pers were the only white people to enter the 
confines of the present state of Montana. They 
could in no sense be termed settlers. They came 
to trap and hunt and not to build homes. But 
this condition was not always to be, and we find 
overlapping the fur trade epoch of Montana's 
history that of its early settlement. And, as 
has been the history of nearly all our western 
county, the missionaries were the first to es- 
tablish homes in this far away and savage 
country. 

That portion of what is now the state of 



Montana which lies between the main range of 
the Rocky mountains and the Bitter Root 
mountains was the first section of the state to 
be inhabited by white men. When the Lewis 
and Clark party (undoubtedly the first white 
men to set foot on the soil of that country) 
entered that section of the country in 1805, it 
was inhabited by three tribes of Indians — the 
Flatheads, the Kalispelumns (now known as 
the Pend d"Oreilles) and the Kootenais. 
From about 1820 up to 1841 this country was 
visited by white trappers, employes of the 
Hudson's Bay company, who trapped and 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



hunted over it, and then came the first mis- 
sionary, with the desire to teach the savages 
the ways of civiHzation. 

In the spring of 1840 Father P. J. De Smet, 
missionary of the Society of Jesus, left St. 
Louis with the intention of proceeding to the 
Bitter Root valley and there establishing a 
mission. He traveled with a party of the Amer- 
ican Fur company to that company's rendez- 
vous on the Green river, where he was met by a 
party of Flatheads, who conducted him to the 
Bitter Root valley. From reliable sources we 
learn that Father De Smet remained, teaching 
and baptizing the Indians, from July 17th to 
the 29th of August, when he set out on his 
return, accompanied as before with a party of 
Flathead warriors. Going by way of the Yel- 
lowstone and Big Horn rivers, he proceeded 
to the fort of the American Fur company in 
the country of the Crows. From this point De 
Smet proceeded down the Yellowstone to Fort 
Union. John de Velder, a native of Belgium, 
was his only companion on this perilous trip, 
and several narrow escapes from running into 
parties of Indians are reported. From Fort 
Union they had the company of three men 
going to the Mandan village. From this place 
De Smet proceeded by way of Fort Pierre and 
Vermillion to Independence and thence to 
St. Louis. 

Next spring he set out again, accompanied 
by two priests Nicholas Point and Gregory 
Mengarini, and three lay brethren. Accord- 
ing to De Smet's journal, they fell in with a 
party of hunters going into the mountainous 
country and another party bound for the 
"Oregon county" and California. The three 
parties traveled together as far as Fort Hall, 
where the missionaries were met by the Flat- 
heads and escorted to their country. 

Immediately after their arrival the mis- 
sionaries set about building a mission, which 
was named St. Mary's, and which was used as 
a house of worship until 1850. Unfortunately 
a description of the mission as it was first con- 



structed is not available, but we learn that in 
1846 it consisted of 12 houses, built of logs, 
a church, a saw mill, a grist mill and buildings 
for farm use. Farming was carried on, and 
large crops of wheat, potatoes and other vege- 
tables of various kinds were produced ; several 
head of cattle had been raised, and the estab- 
lishment had all the horses necessary for its use. 
This was the first farming done in the state of 
Montana. The burrs for the mill were brought 
from Belgium to the Oregon settlements and 
from there to St. Mary's. 

In 1843 the Jusuit college sent out two 
priests to assist Fathers Point and Mengarini, 
while De Smet was dispatched on a mission 
to Europe. These priests were Peter De Voss 
and Adrian Hoeken, and they arrived at St. 
Mary's in September with three lay brethren. 

Bancroft thus gives a brief history of this 
mission and its effects upon the Indians : 

When the Flatheads took up the cross and the 
plowshare they fell victims to the diseases of the white 
race. When they no longer made war on their enemies, 
the Blackfeet nation, these implacable foes gave them 
no peace. They stole the horses of the Flatheads un- 
til they had none left with which to hunt buffalo, and 
in pure malice shot their beef cattle to prevent their 
feeding themselves at home, not refraining froin shoot- 
ing the owners whenever an opportunity offered. By 
this system of persecution they finally broke up the 
establishment of St. Mary's in 1850, the priests finding 
it impossible to keep Che Indians settled in their village 
under the circumstances. They resuijied their migra- 
tory habits, and the fathers having no protection in 
their isolation, the mission buildings were sold to John 
Owen, who with his brother, Francis, converted them 
into a trading post and fort, and put the establishment 
in a state of defence against the Blackfoot marauders. 

John Owen had come as far as the head- 
waters of the Snake as sutler for United States 
troops who were on their way to Oregon. This 
was in the fall of 1849. Winter overtook the 
troops, camp was established a few miles above 
Fort Hall and the winter passed there. In 
the fall of 1850 Owen crossed over the Bitter 
Root valley and, as has been stated, purchased 
St. Mary's Mission. Here he engaged in trad- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



49 



ing with parties crossing to the Oregon coun- 
try, and to some extent in farming and stock 
raising. 

Owen thought he was permanently estab- 
lished in this country, but the predatory Black- 
feet continually harassed him, and in 1853 he 
abandoned his post and set out with his herds 
for Oregon. He had not proceeded far when 
he met a detachment of soldiers under Col. 
Isaac I. Stevens, governor of the newly created 
territory of Washington, who was coming to 
establish a depot of supplies in the Bitter Root 
valley for the use of the government exploring 
parties which were to winter there. Owen 
and his party returned to the post he had aban- 
doned, feeling secure under the protection of 
the soldiers. 

While Father De Smet had been forced to 
abandon his mission at St. Mary's, others soon 
took up the work of looking after the spiritual 
welfare of the Indians in the Bitter Root Val- 
ley, and in 1854 St. Ignatius mission was es- 
tablished. Hubert Howe Bancroft, in his 
"History of Washington, Idaho and Mon- 
tana," says of this mission : 

In 1853-54 the only missions in operation were 
those of the Sacred Heart at Coeur d'Alene. St. Ignat- 
ius at Kalispel lake, and St. Paul at Colville, though 
certain visiting stations were kept up, where baptisms 
were performed periodically. In 1854, after the Ste- 
vens exploring expedition had made the country more 
habitable by treaty talks with the Blackfeet and other 
tribes, Hoeken, who seems nearly as indefatigable as 
De Smet, selected a site for a new mission, "not far 
from Flathead lake and about fifty miles from the old. 
mission of St. Mary's." Here he erected during the 
summer several frame buildings, a chapel, shops and 
dwellings, and gathered about him a camp of Koote- 
nais, Flatbows, Fend d'Oreilles, Flatheads and Kalis- 
pels. Rails and fencing were cut to the number of 18000 
a large field put under cultivation and the mission of 
St. Ignatius in the Flathead country became the successor 
of St. Mary's. In the new "reduction" the fathers 
w^re assisted by the officers of the exploring expedition, 
and especially by Lieutenant Mullan, who wintered in 
the Bitter Root valley in 1854-55. In return the fa- 
thers assisted Gov. Stevens at the treaty grounds and 
endeavored to control the Coeur d'Alenes and Spo- 
kanes in the troubles that immediately followed the 



treaties of 1855. Subsequently the mission in the Bit- 
ter Root valley was revived, and the Flatheads were 
taught there until the removal to the reservation at 
Flathead lake, which reserve included St. Ignatius 
mission, when a school was first opened in 1863 by 
Father Urbanus Grassi. In 1858 the missionaries at 
the Flathead mission had 300 more barrels of flour . 
than they could consume, which they sold to the posts 
of the -American Fur company on the Missouri, and the 
Indians cultivated fifty farms, averaging five acres 
each. In their neighborhood were two sawmills. 

The treaty referred to in the above was 
held in July, 1855, ^t a point about eight miles 
below the present city of Missoula. The ef- 
fect of this treaty was far reaching. 

During the late fifties that part of Montana 
lying west of the Rocky mountains received a 
few more settlers. This part of the history of 
our state is very ably told by one who was o 
resident of the country at that time. Judge 
Frank H. Woody : 

In the fall of 1856 several parties who had been 
spending the summer trading on the "road" relin- 
quished that business and came to the Bitter Root val- 
ley and took up their residence, among whom were T. 
W. Harris, Joseph Lompre and William Rodgers. 

During the winter of 1856-57 the population of the 
Bitter Root valley was larger than it again was until 
the fall of i860. 

Up to this time no settlement had been made in 
the Hell Gate Rounde. Soon after the arrival of Mr. 
Pattee he contracted with Major Owen and commenced 
the erection of a grist and sawmill at Fort Owen. In 
the latter part of December, 1856, McArthur, having 
determined upon the erection of a trading post in the 
Hell Gate Ronde, dispatched Jackson, Holt. Madison, 
"Pork" and the writer to Council Grove to get out 
necessary timbers to erect the buildings the next sum- 
mer. Our quarters consisted of an Indian lodge, and 
we fared sumptuously on bread and beef, with coffee 
without sugar about once a week. The snow fell deep 
during the winter and the weather was quite cold, but 
we lost but little time, and by spring had gotten out a 
large quantity of square timber. In the spring Mc- 
.'\rthur paid us off for our winter's work, each man 
receiving a cayuse horse in full for all demands. With 
the coming of spring there was a general breaking up 
of all winter quarters and not many men were left in 
the country. James Holt and the writer remained in 
the employ of McArthur, broke about eight acres of 
land and sowed it to wheat and also planted a garden. 
This was the first attempt to farming in the Hell Gate 
Ronde. The potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips and onions 



50 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



grew well, but the wheat, while in milk, was completely 
killed by a heavy frost on the night of August 14, 1857. 
McArthur was absent during the entire summer and 
fall, having gone to Colville and thence to the Suswap 
mines in British Columbia. In those days we did not 
have our daily paper and telegraphic dispatches from 
all parts of the world, but thought ourselves fortunate 
if we got one or two Oregon papers in six months ; 
eastern papers we never saw. The following will show 
our isolated condition : The presidential election was 
held in November, 1856, but we knew nothing of the 
results until about the middle of April. 1857, when 
Abraham Finley arrived from Olympia with a govern- 
ment express for the Indian department, bringing two 
or three Oregon papers, from which we learned that 
Buchanan had been elected and inaugurated president. 

Few events of historic interest occurred from the 
fall of 1857 to the fall of i8S9- During the spring and 
summer of 1858 an Indian war in the Spokane and 
lower Nez Perce country cut off all communication 
with the west and placed the settlers of this country 
in a dangerous situation. Congress having made a 
large appropriation to build a military 'wagon road 
from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton placed Lieuten- 
ant John Mullan in charge of the work. He organized 
his expedition at The Dalles, Oregon, in the spring of 
1858, but was forced to abandon it on account of the 
Indian hostilities. He again organized in the^ spring 
of 1859 and constructed the road over the Coeur d'Alene 
mountains as far as Cantonment Jordan on the St. 
Regis Borgia, where he went into winter quarters, send- 
ing his stock to the Bitter Root valley. During the 
-linter the greater portion of the heavy grades between 
Frenchtown and the mouth of Cedar creek was con- 
structed. In the spring of i860 he resumed his march 
and took his expedition through to Fort Benton, doing 
but little work, however, between Hell's Gate and Fort 
Benton. 

In June, i860, Frank L. Worden and C. P. Hig- 
gins, under the firm name of Worden & Company, 
started for Walla Walla with a stock of general mer- 
chandise for the purpose of trading at the Indian 
agency, but. upon their arrival at Hell's Gate, they de- 
termined to locate at that point, and accordingly built 
a small log house and opened business. This was the 
first building erected at that place, and fonned the 
nucleus of a small village that was known far and wide 
as Hell's Gate, and w^hich in later years had the repu- 
tation of being one of the roughest places in Montana. 
During this year four hundred United States troops un- 
der the command of Major Blake passed over the 
Mullan road from Fort Benton to Walla Walla and 
Colville. 

During the fall of this year a number of settlers 
came into the country and new farms were taken up 
at Frenchtown, Hell's Gate and the Bitter Root val- 
ley, and during the winter of 1860-61 a considerable 
number of men wintered in the different settlements. 



In the spring of 1861 Lieutenant Mullan organized 
another party and started for Fort Benton to finish up 
the road he had nearly opened the year before. His 
expedition was accompanied by an escort of one hun- 
dred men under the command of Lieutenant Marsh. 
The expedition came as far as the crossing of the Big 
Blackfoot river, where they erected winter quarters 
and named them Cantonment Wright, in honor of Colo- 
nel, afterwards General, Wright, who quelled the In- 
dian war of 1858 so efifectively. During the winter the 
heavy grades in the Hell's Gate canyon were con- 
structed. 

The first marriage in this part of the coun- 
try, according to Judge Woody, was solem- 
nized at Hell's Gate on the fifth of March, 1862, 
and the first law suit held within the present 
bounds of Montana was tried at Hell's Gate in 
March of the same year. At that time the 
territory was included in Missoula county, one 
of the political divisions of Washington terri- 
tory. 

The first permanent settlement in Montana 
to reach the distinction of being called a town 
was established on the upper Missouri, where 
the town of Fort Benton now stands. The set- 
tlement was named in honor of United States 
Senator Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri., who 
was also the attorney for the American Fur 
company, the concern which erected the fort 
there and gave the, settlement the name. The 
fort was built in 1846 and was used by the fur 
company for a trading post for twenty years. 
While still occupied by the American Fur com- 
pany other traders entered into the merchandise 
business at this point. Located as it is at the 
head of navigation of the Missouri, it served 
its first purpose as a trading post, and after- 
wards as a distributing point for all the new 
northwest. From the time of erecting the fort 
up until the early seventies Fort Benton was 
essentially a fur trading town, enjoying in ad- 
dition the advantages of an occasional visit 
from a steamboat. 

Many miners came by this route, and the 
town during the early mining days was a 
"lively" one in the full western significance of 
the word. Hundreds of people passing back 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



and forth would pass through and ahnost in- 
variably sojourn a few days. Often there 
would be no boats on which to take passage, 
and the sojourner would be obliged to remain 
for several days, yes, even weeks, until a boat 
would arrive. Often the last boat of the sea- 
son had left, and then they would construct 
mackinaws and descend in them, often a fleet 
going together for protection against the In- 
dians. 

Fort Benton was the freight distributing 
point for all the mining country of the upper 
courses of the Missouri, except when an occa- 
sional freight train would come overland from 
the neighborhood of Salt Lake or some other 
southern point, which traffic was small in coin- 
parison with that which passed through Fort 
Benton. 

From its earliest days until 1880 the town 
enjoyed a reign of prosperity. Fort Benton 
was known throughout the entire northwest as 
the town of its day. The completion of the 
Northern Pacific railroad, the Utah & North- 
ern and the Canadian Pacific cut off immense 
tributary territory ; and when the Great North- 
ern was completed and thriving towns sprung 
up along it, Fort Benton fell off greatly in pop- 
ulation and importance. 

West of the Rocky mountains, as has been 
stated, several settlers had taken up land and 
were engaged in farming on a small scale and 
in stock raising. Captain LaBarge, a steam- 
boat owner and trader, had built a fort near 
Fort Benton on the Missouri and was actively 
engaged in for trading and selling supplies to 
those who chanced to pass through this point 
to the country further beyond. In 1862, while 
west of the mountains, he visited the Deer 
Lodge river, and so fascinated was he with the 
valley that he laid out a townsite where the 
Cottonwood creek empties into the Deer Lodge 
river, which is a few miles above the Little 
Blackfoot, and called the town LaBarge. At 
an earlier date than this settlers had been mov- 
ing into the valley, and by the time LaBarge 



platted the town, there were some 75 settlers. 
In 1856 John F. Grant built a home at the con- 
fluence of the Little Blackfoot with the Deer 
Lodge river, the first building erected in that 
part of the country. Two years later, in i860, 
the first houses were built where the present 
town of Deer Lodge stands. Among the early 
settlers of this town were the Stuarts. The 
plat as laid out by Captain LaBarge was 
ignored, and buildings were erected without 
any regard for streets. James Stuart and oth- 
ers employed William DeLacy to survey the 
town, and from then on it was called Deer 
Lodge City. 

About the first of August, 1S62, John 
White and party discovered placers on Grass- 
hopper creek. These placers yielded from five 
to twenty dollars per day per man. This news 
soon spread to the settlements west of the 
mountains, to the few scattered miners in the 
gulches at the headwaters of the Missouri, and 
to the settlement at Fort Benton. No sooner 
had the intelligence reached these points than 
an onrush of gold seekers pushed forward to 
the new discovery. Before the winter set in 
scattered sojourners and settlers from miles in 
every direction had reached the new discovery 
and the camp was called Bannack City, after 
the aboriginal tribe which inhabited that region. 
At about the same time a strike had been made 
in the Boise basin and the camp called Ban- 
nack City. That the two settlements might 
be distinguished, the settlement in the Boise 
basin was named West Bannack; the other 
East Bannack. Later, however, East Bannack 
was most commonly known as Bannack City. 

By the first of January, 1863, the town of 
Bannack had been laid out, and between 400 
and 500 people had gathered there, most of 
them awaiting the opening of spring, when 
prospecting could be carried on. The news of 
new strike brought into Bannack that element 
not most desirable — reckless adventurers, out- 
laws and murderers — as well as the honest 
miner and fortune hunter. In a later chapter 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



we shall deal more fully with the former class 
— which was effectively taken care of by the 
Vigilantes. Up to this time the stage road 
L^d not been opened from Fort Benton, and the 
;. inter's provisions were brought from Salt 
Lake City. Bannack was at this time in Da- 
kota territory ; later by federal enactment it be- 
jame a town of Idaho territory, and in 1864 
of Montana territory. From the organization 
of Montana territory in 1864 until February 7, 
1865, Bannack was the capital city of Montana. 

On the 9th of April, 1863, James Stuart, 
with a party of prospectors set out from Ban- 
nack, headed for the Yellowstone and Big 
Horn rivers. They were not only prospecting 
for mines, but also looking for favorable loca- 
tions for establishing towns. At about the same 
time another party left Bannack, the two par- 
ties having planned to join each other at the 
mouth of the Stinkingwater river. The Stu- 
art party consisted of James Stuart, Cyrus D. 
Watkins, John Vanderbilt, James N. York, 
Richard McCafferty, James Hauxhurst, D. 
Underwood, S. T. Hauser, H. A. Bell, Wil- 
liam Roach. A. S. Blake, George H. Smith, H. 
T. Gerry, E. Bostwick and George Ives. The 
second party was composed of Louis Simmons, 
William Fairweather, George Orr, Thomas 
Cover, Barney Hughes and Henry Edgar. 

When the second company reached the ap- 
pointed place of meeting it was learned that 
Stuart and party had advanced toward Yellow- 
stone. Consecjuently they followed the trail of 
Stuart's party, but before overtaking it were 
met by a band of Crow Indians, who, after hav- 
ing robbed them of nearly all their belongings, 
ordered them to return from whence they came. 

On their return to Bannack they halted on 
Alder creek to cook lunch. Here they discov- 
ered the famous Alder Gulch placer, a detailed 
story of which discovery will be found in the 
chapter devoted to mining history. 

The people of Bannack believed that the 
party had made a strike and when he set out 
upon his return he was followed by 200 men. 



Upon the arrival of the two hundred men, a 
mining district was formed, and in honor of 
the discoverer was named Fairweather. Dr. 
Steel was made president and James Fergus 
recorder. This was on the 6th of June. Vari- 
ous placers were discovered; excitement ran 
high and a stampede followed ; the gulches 
swarmed with miners ; and in a few months, 
it has been estimated, thousands of people had 
flocked to this district. 

A town was laid out in Alder gulch and 
named Virginia City. In less than a year the 
town had a population of ten thousand people. 
Large business houses were erected ; immense 
stocks of goods were brought in; all Imes of 
business flourished. Virginia City was incor- 
porated on December 30, 1864, and the follow- 
ing were selected its first officers : ]\Iayor, P. 
S. Pfouts; aldermen, Dr. L. Daems. Jacob 
Feldberg, Major James R. Boyce, J. M. Cast- 
ner, John Le Beau, James McShane, H. A. 
Pease and William Shoot. The city was 
divided into four wards, two aldermen being 
selected from each. In the years 1864-65 
Virginia City reached the zenith of its pros- 
perity and had a populatiion of 10,000 souls. 
At the first election after the formation of the 
territory, Madison county cast 5.286 votes, 
Virginia City having 2,310, and Nevada, sit- 
uated a little over a mile below that city — a 
town which had sprung up about the same 
time — 1,806 of the total number of votes cast. 

The district court convened in the young 
city for the first time on the first Monday of 
December, 1864, The territorial capital was 
moved from Bannack on February 7th follow- 
ing. The first newspaper published in the ter- 
ritory, the Montana Post, was established here 
August 27, 1864. November 2, 1866. a tele- 
graph line was completed between Salt Lake 
City and Virginia City. 

In 1865 a freight line was established from 
Virginia City to Helena, thence to Fort Ben- 
ton. The first overland stage to California 
was in operation in the spring of the same year. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



53 



The route was by way of Salt Lake City. A 
mail service was established in 1864 between 
California, Salt Lake City and Virg-inia City. 
In the fifth volume of the Montana Historical 
Selections is given an interesting account of 
the competition which then existed between 
the rival companies operating between Virginia 
City and Fort Benton. We quote from that 
document : 

To show the quality of metal of which some of our 
people were made, and further to illustrate some of our 
financial conditions, conditions contemperaneous with 
the appointment of Gov. Smith to the territorial mag- 
istracy, it is well to recall the establishment of the 
overland stage line from Virginia to Helena in June, 
1866. At that particular time Virginia and Helena 
were booming minings camps, and excitement was at 
fever heat. There were then competitive stage lines 
running daily between those points, and there were to 
be seen three six-horse stages, all well equipped, start- 
ing seven mornings in the week from each end of said 
places for the other. The rivalry was intense, times 
were red hot and every fellow was determined to "bear 
the market." All sides were gritty, and rates were cut 
until fares were reduced to $2.50, and expressage ac- 
cordingly. It so chanced that the "Overland" had as 
its superintendent a man of rare enterprise and intel- 
ligence, with genuine western nerve, and though the 
distance was one hundred and twenty-five miles and the 
roads were new, the time table was reduced, first from 
sixteen hours to fourteen, then from fourteen to twelve, 
and again from twelve to ten hours daily, including 
all stops, making an average of twelve and one half 
miles an hour the entire distance of one hundred and 
twenty-five miles. The struggle was long and bitter, 
the finality was the other stages "pulled off," and the 
campaign ended by leaving the track to the Overland. 
The competition being over, the cut rates ceased, and 
the old rate of $25.00 in "gold dust" or $35-5oin "green- 
backs," or as they were often contemptuously called, 
"Lincoln skins," was restored. 

During the early days in Virginia City 
fabulous pricess were paid for provisions. 
Miners were paid from ten to fifteen dollars 
a day for their labor. Several hundred claims 
were located and gold was taken out at a 
furious rate. Besides the Virginia City district 
fi\e other districts were organized on Alder 
creek — Nevada and Junction below Virginia 
City, and Highland, Pine Grove and Summit 
up the stream. 



We will now return to the James Stuart 
party. As has been stated, this party was 
headed for the Yellowstone, prospecting for 
locations for townsites as well as for gold. 
Had these men stopped to prospect the country 
instead of hurrying to the Yellowstone they 
might have been the discoverers of the Alder 
gulch placers. They crossed the Madison, then 
the Gallatin and over the divide to the Yellow- 
stone, reaching that river on the 25th of April. 
They pursued their course down the river, and 
on the 5th of May arrived at the Big Horn 
river. Here they laid out a town on the east 
side of the Big Horn — a town which has not 
to this day been peopled. After having platted 
the townsite the party proceeded up the Big 
Hom. On the night of the 12th the) were 
surprised by a band of Indians and three of the 
men were killed. On the 22nd of June the 
party arrived at Bannack City, having traveled 
several hundred miles, having located a town- 
site, but having found no precious metal. 

The next town founded in the territory was 
Helena. 

John Cowan erected a cabin in the fall of 
1864, which was the first building in what is 
now Helena, the capital city of the great state 
of Montana. Hundreds of miners swarmed to 
the new camp, which proved to be one of the 
richest placers ever discovered. ^Miners' cabins 
sprung up, stores were established, and in a 
short time Last Chance, as the camp was first 
called, was a rival of Virginia City. 

The day of christening had come, and the 
emiDryo city of Helena received its name. John 
Somerville, of Minnesota, acted as god-father. 
He gave it the name of St. Helena, in com- 
memoration of the resemblance of the location 
to the home of Naprleon. On after considera- 
tion it was decided to drop the "Saint." The 
christening took place at the cabin of Geo. J. 
Wood on October 30. 1864. 

During the winter of 1864-65 a hundred 
or more cabins were built. In the fall of 1864 
a committee was appointed to lay out streets 



54 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



and fix the size of town lots. No sooner liad 
this been done than a mad rush was made for 
lots, and fabulous prices were paid for choice 
locations. The first hotel was built by Judge 
Wood on the corner of Main and Bridge 
streets. On the 26th of March, 1865, Rev. 
McLaughlin preached the first sermon, and on 
the 1 6th of April inaugurated the first Sunday 
school. In the spring of 1865 Sandus & Rock- 
nell established a saw mill. John Potter was 
the first postmaster. The postoflice was in the 
Taylor & Thompson building on lower Main 
street. Prof. A. B. Patch opened the first day 
school in April, 1865, and the first public school 
house was erected and opened for instructions 
in January, 1868. Telegraphic communica- 
tion with the outside world was opened in Sep- 
tember, 1867. 

The first settlers in Butte were G. O. Hum- 
phries and William Allison. They left Vir- 
ginia City on a prospecting tour in May, 1864. 
After prospecting on Babboon gulch, above 
where Butte now stands, for some time they 
returned to Virginia City for provisions, and 
then, early in June, they returned to Butte, 
where they made their permanent residences. 
They .discovered the Virginia, Moscow and 
Missoula leads, and were the formers of the 
Missoula company. The Black Chief lead, an 
enormous ledge, was discovered in the latter 
part of May, 1864, by Charles Murphy and 
William Graham. Copper was found in great 
quantities. The news of the new discoveries 
spread to other camps, and in a few weeks a 
hundred people were on the ground, and Butte 
City was laid out. During the fall placers were 
discovered by Felix Burgoyne on Silver Bow 
creek, and people gathered from all directions. 
A mining district was formed in the lower part 
of the gulch, which received the name of Sum- 
mit Mountain district. Silver Bow soon be- 
came a town and during the winter of 1864-65 
was a lively mining camp, and many lodes 
were struck. During the winter of 1864 Ford 
& Dresser established a store in Butte. At 



about the same time a store was being estab- 
lished in Silver Bow. In 1866 a furnace for 
smelting copper was erected by Joseph Rams- 
dall, William Parks and Porter brothers. 

Not until 1875 did Butte assume the aspect 
of a city. About that time the quartz proper- 
ties were being de\-elope<l. This required the 
labor of many men, and the cabins of the 
miners — no modern dwellings having been 
erected previous to this date — gave place to 
more substantial buildings, and in a few years 
more Butte was a substantial city with five 
thousand inhabitants. 

In 1865 Hector Horton disco\-ered the 
mines where the city of Philipsburg is now lo- 
cated. ]\Iany silver-bearing veins in this 
vicinity made sure the permanence of a town, 
and in 1866 a townsite was laid out. 

So early as 1855 Lieutenant John ^Mullan 
and party discovered gold where the present 
town of Pioneer is located. Its mines were 
worked in 1862 and 1863, then abandoned, 
and again opened in 1865. Both placer and 
quartz were found in paying quantities, and in 
a few years Pioneer was a thriving town. 

In 1864 J. M. Bozeman was dispatched by 
the government to look for a wagon road from 
the three forks of the Missouri to the red buttes 
on the North Platte. He was successful in 
his undertaking and the road was known as 
"Bozeman cut-off." During the month of July 
of the same year in which Mr. Bozeman laid 
out the road he founded the city which bears 
his name. The town was laid out at the foot 
of the Belt range, and tributary to it is a fine 
farming section of country. In the early days, 
before there was railroad communications, a 
stage line connected it with Virginia City and 
another with Helena. Bozeman, the founder 
of the town, met the ill fate of many of the 
pioneers, being killed near the mouth of the 
Shield's river April 20, 1867. 

During the early days of the mining ex- 
citement some 30,000 or 40,000 people rushed 
into Montana ; cities were founded and 



HISTORY OF .MONTANA. 



55 



quickly populated ; men engaged in all kinds 
of business and prospered. All this despite 
the fact that Montana was hundreds of miles 
from the usual transportation facilities. The 
matter of travel to and from this far away 
country, the bringing in of the mining machin- 
ery and the immense stocks of goods that 
must necessarily have been carried to care for 
the trade was an important one to the early 
settlers of Montana, and the subject is one full 
of interest, even of romance. For the follow- 
ing history of the early day transportation we 
are indebted to H. H. Bancroft's Histon,' of 
Montana. 

Taking up the recital at 1864, there was at 
this time no settled plan of travel or fixed chan- 
nels of trade. There had been placed upon the 
Missouri a line of steamers intended to facili- 
tate immigration to Idaho, which was called 
the Idaho Steam Packet company. The water be- 
ing usually low. or rather not unusually high, 
only two of the boats reached Fort Benton — 
the Benton and Cutter. The Yellozvstone 
landed at Cow Island and the Effie Deans at 
the mouth of Milk river. The Benton, which 
was adapted to upper river navigation, brought 
a part of the freight left at the other places 
down the river by other boats to Fort Benton ; 
but the passengers had already been set afoot 
in the wilderness to make the best of their way 
to the mines; and a large portion of the freight 
had to be forwarded in small boats. At the 
same time there was an arrival at Virginia City 
of 200 or 300 immigrants daily by the over- 
land wagon route, as w^ell as large trains of 
freight from Omaha. 

In 1865 there were eight arrivals of steam- 
boats, four of which reached Benton, the other 
four stopping at the mouth of Marias river. In 
this year the merchants of Portland, desirous 
of controlling the trade of Montana, issued a 
circular to the Montana merchants proposing 
to make it for their interest to purchase goods 
in Portland and ship by way of the Columbia 
river and the Mullan road, with improve- 



ments in that route of steamboat navigation on 
Lake Pend d'Oreille, and S. G. Reed of the Or- 
egon Steam Navigation company went east to 
confer with the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany. In 1866 some progress was made in 
opening this route, which in the autumn of that 
year stood as follows : From Portland to White 
Bluffs on the Columbia by the O. S. N. Co's 
boats; from White Bluffs by stage road to a 
point on Clark's fork, where Moody & Co. were 
building a steamboat, no feet long by 26 feet 
beam, called the Mary Moody, to carry passen- 
gers and freight across the lake and up Clark's 
fork to Cabinet landing, where was a short 
portage, and transfer to another steamboat 
which would carry to the mouth of Jocko river, 
after which land travel would again be resorted 
to. The time to Jocko would be seven or eight 
days, and thence to the rich Blackfoot mines 
was a matter of fifty or sixty miles. It was 
proposed to carry freight to Jocko in 17 days 
from Portland at a cost of 13 cents per pound. 
From Jocko to Helena was about 120 miles, 
and from Helena to Virginia about 90. 
By this route freight could arrive during half 
the year, while by the Missouri river it could 
only come to Benton during a period of from 
four to six weeks, dependent upon the stage of 
water. The lowest charges by Missouri 
steamer in 1866 were 15 cents to Benton for a 
large contract, ranging upwards to 18 and 21 
cents a pound, or $360 to $420 per ton to the 
landing only, after which there was the addi- 
tional charge for transporting on wagons, at 
the rate from five to eight cents, according 
to whether it reached Benton or not, or whether 
it was destined to Helena or more distant 
points. San Francisco merchants offered for 
the trade of Montana, averring that freight 
could be laid down there at from 15 to 20 cents 
a pound overland. Chicago merchants com- 
peted as well, taking the overland route from 
the Missouri. Meanwhile Montana could not 
pause in its course and took whatever came. 
In 1866 there was a large influx of popula- 



^6 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



tion and a correspondingly large amount of 
freight coming in, and a considerable flood of 
travel pouring out in the autumn. The season 
was favorable to navigation and there were 
thirty-one arrivals of steamboats, seven boats 
being at Fort Benton at one time in June. One, 
the Alarion, was wrecked on the return trip. 
These boats were built expressly for the trade 
of St. Louis. They brought up 2,000 passen- 
gers or more and 6,000 tons of freight, valued 
at $6,000,000. The freight charges by boat 
alone amounted to $2,000,000. Some mer- 
chants paid $100,000 freight bills; 2,500 men, 
3,000 teams, 20,000 oxen and mules were em- 
ployed conveying the goods to different min- 
ing centers. 

Large trains were arriving overland from 
the east, conducted by James Fisk, the man 
who conducted the Minnesota trains of 1862 
and 1863 by order of the government, for the 
protection of immigrants. The plan of the 
organization seems to have been to make the 
immigrants travel like a military force, obeying 
orders like soldiers and standing guard regu- 
larly. From Fort Ripley Fisk took a 12 pound 
howitzer with ammunition. Scouts, flankers and 
train guards were kept on duty. These pre- 
cautions were made necessary by the recent 
Sioux outbreak in Minnesota. The officers 
under Fisk were Charles Dart, first assistant; 
S. H. Johnston, second assistant and journal- 
ist ; William D. Dibb, physician ; George 
Northrup, wagon-master; Antoine Frenier, 
Sioux interpreter; R. D. Campbell, Chippewa 
interpreter. The guard numbered 50, and the 
wagons were marked "U. S." Colonels Jones 
and Majors, majors Hesse and Hanney, of the 
Oregon boundary survey, joined the expedition. 
Wagon-master, Northrup, and two half breeds 
deserted on the road, taking with them horses, 
arms and accoutrements belonging to the gov- 
ernment. The route was along the north side 
of the Missouri to Fort Benton, where the 
expedition disbanded, having had no trouble of 
any kind on the road, except the loss of 



Majors, who was, however, found on the 
second day, nearly dead from exhaustion, and 
the death of an invalid, William H. Holyoke, 
after reaching Prickly Pear river. 

In 1864 about one thousand wagons 
arrived at Virginia by the central, or 
Platte, route. In 1865 the immigration 
by this route was large. The round 
about way of reaching the mines from the east 
had incited J. M. Bozeman to survey a more 
direct route to the North Platte, by which 
travel could avoid the journey through the 
south pass and back through either of the 
passes used in going from Bannack to Salt 
Lake. This road was opened and considerably 
traveled in 1866, but was closed by the Indian 
war in the following year and kept closed by 
order of the war department for a number of 
years. In July, 1866, a train of 45 wagons and 
200 persons passed over the Bozeman route, 
commanded by Orville Royce, and piloted by 
Zeigler, who had been to the states to bring out 
his family. Peter Shroke also traveled the 
Bozeman route. Several deaths occurred by 
drowning at the crossings of the rivers, among 
them Storer, Whitson and Van Shimel. One 
train was composed of Illinois, Iowa and Wis- 
consin people. In the rear of the immigration 
were freight wagons and detached parties to 
the number of 300. A party of young Ken- 
tuckyians who left home with Governor Smith's 
party became detached and wandered about for 
one hundred days, thirty-five of which they 
were force to depend upon the game they could 
kill. They arrived at Virginia City destitute 
of clothing on the 13th, 14th and 15th of De- 
cember. Tlieir names were Henry Cummings 
and Benjamin Cochran, of Covington; Austin 
S. Stewart, Frank R. Davis, A. Lewis, N. W. 
Turner, of Lexington ; Henry Yerkes, Danville ; 
P. Sidney Jones, Louisville ; Thos. McGrath, 
Versailles; J. W. Throckmorton and William 
Kelly, Paris. 

The Indians on the Bozeman route endeav- 
ored to cut off immigration. Hugh Kiken- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



57 



dall's freight train of forty-six mule teams was 
almost captured by them, "passing through a 
shower of arrows." It came from Leaven- 
worth, arriving in September. Joseph Rich- 
ards conducted 52 wagons loaded with quartz 
machinery from Nebraska City to Summit 
district for Frank Chistnut and had but one 
mule stolen. J. H. Gildersleeve, bringing out 
three wagon loads of goods for himself, lost 
nine horses by the Indians near Fort Reno. 
J. Dilmorth brought out eight loaded wagons 
from Leavenworth; J. H. Marden five from 
Atchison, for Brendlinger. Dowdy and Kiskad- 
den; J. P. Wheeler brought out six wagons 
loaded at the same place for the same firm; F. 
R. Merk brought thirteen wagons from Law- 
rence, Kansas; Alfred Myers seven wagons 
from Guerney & Co. ; D. and J. McCain 
brought eleven wagons from Nebraska City, 
loaded 'with flour, via Salt Lake; E. R. Horner 
brought out eight wagons loaded at Nebraska 
City for himself, the Indians killing two men 
and capturing five mules belonging to the train ; 
William EUinger of Omaha brought out four 
wagons; A. F. Weston of St. Joseph, Missouri, 
brought out eight wagons loaded with boots 
and shoes for D. H.Weston, of Guerney & Co. ; 
Thomas Dillon left Plattsmouth, Nebraska, for 
Virginia City on May 26 with 2^ wagons for 
Tootle, Leach & Co. ; Dillon was killed by the 
Indians on Cedar Fork, near Fort Reno. A 
train of 19 wagons belonging to C. Beers and 
Vail & Robinson had 90 mules captured on the 
Big Horn river. The wagons remained there 
until teams could be sent to bring them in. 
Phillips & Freeland, of Leavenworth, arrived 
with 14 loaded wagons in September; and five 
wagons for Hanauer & Eastman. R. W. 
Trimble brought out 17 wagons for Hanauer, 
Solomon & Co. Nathan Floyd of Leaven- 
worth, bringing five wagons loaded with goods 
for himself, was killed by the Indians near Fort 
Reno, and his head was severed from his body. 
A train- of 26 wagons, which left Nebraska 
City in May with goods for G. B. Morse, had 



two men killed near Fort Reno, on Dry fork 
of Cheyenne river. Pfouts & Russell, -of Vir- 
ginia City, received forty tons of goods in 17 
wagon loads this season. At the same time 
pack train from Walla Walla came into Helena 
over the Mullan road, which had been so closed 
by fallen timber, decayed or lost bridges and 
general unworthiness as to be unfit for wagon 
travel, bringing clothing manufactured in San 
Francisco and articles of domestic production. 
Heavy wagon trains from Salt Lake with flour 
salt, bacon, etc., arrived frequently. So much 
life, energy, effort and stir could but be stimu- 
lating as the mountain air in which all this 
movement went on. The freighter in those 
days was regarded with for more respect than 
railroad men of a later day. It required capital 
and nerve to conduct the business. Sometimes, 
but rarely, they lost a whole" train by Indians, 
or by accident, as when Matthews, in the spring 
of 1866, lost a train by the giving away of an 
ice jam in the Missouri, which flooded the bot- 
tom where he was encamped and carried off 
all his stock. 

Many of those who came in the spring, or 
who had been a year or more in the country, 
returned in the autumn. The latter availed 
themselves of the steamers, which took back 
large numbers at the reasonable charge of $60 
and $75. The boats did not tarry at Benton, 
but dropped down the river to deeper water, 
and waited as long as it would be safe for pas- 
sengers. A small boat called the Miner, be- 
longing to the Northwest Fur company, was 
employed to carry them from Benton to the 
lower landings. The Luella was the boat selec- 
ted to carry the two and one-half millions from 
Confederate gulch. She left Benton on the 
1 6th of August and was seven days getting 
down to Dophan rapids, 250 miles below, 
where it was found neccessary to take out the 
bulk-head, take off the cabin doors, and land 
the passengers and stores to lighten her suf- 
ficiently to pass her over the rapids. She es- 
caped any further serious detention, passing 



58 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



Leavenworth October 8th and St. Joseph Oc- 
tober loth, as announced in the telegraphic dis- 
patches in Virginia and Helena Post October 
i6th. The expedient was resorted to of build- 
ing fleets of mackinaw boats, such as were used 
by the fur companies, and either selling them 
outright to parties, or sending them down the 
river with passengers. Riker & Bevins of 
Helena advertised such boats to leave Septem- 
ber loth in the Republican of the ist. J. J. 
Kennedy & Co., advertised "large-roofed mack- 
inaws" to Omaha, "with comfortable accom- 
modations and reasonable charges;'' also boats 
for sale, earring ten to thirty men. Jones, 
Sprague & Nottingham was another mackinaw 
company; and W. H. Parkeson advertised 
"bullet-proof" mackinaws. That was a recom- 
mendation as bullets were sometimes showered 
upon these defenseless crafts from the banks 
above. Three men, crew of the first mackinaw 
that set out, were killed by the Indians. 
Another party of 22 were fired upon one morn- 
ing as they were about to embark, and two 
mortally wounded— Kendall of Wisconsin and 
Tupsey of New York — who were left at Fort 
Sully to die. In this and subsequent years 
many home-returning voyagers were inter- 
cepted and heard of no more. The business in 
the autumn of 1866 was lively. Huntley of 
Helena established a stage line to a point on 
the Missouri 15 miles from that place, whence 
a line of mackinaw boats, owned by Kennedy, 
carried passengers to the falls in 25 hours. 
.Here a portage was made in light wagons. On 
the third day they reached Benton, where a 
final embarkment took place. One boat carried 
22 passengers and $50,600 in treasure. A 
party of 45, which went down on the steamer 
Montana, carried $100,000. A party of Maine 
men carried away $60,000, and Munger of St. 
Louis $25,000. Professor Patch of Helena, 
with a fleet of seven large boats and several 
hundred passengers, carried away $1,000,000. 
They were attacked above Fort Rice by 300 
Indians, whom they drove away. These home- 



returning miners averaged $3,000 each, which 
were the savings of a single short season. 

A new route was opened to the ^Missouri in 
1866, by mackinaws down the Yellowstone. 
A fleet of 16 "boats belonging to C. A. Head 
carried 250 miners from Virginia City. It 
left the Yellowctone canyon September 27th 
and traveled to St. Joseph, 2,700 miles, in 28 
days. The pilot-boat of this fleet was sunk at 
Clark's ford of the Yellowstone, entailing .t 
loss of $2,500. The expedition had in all 
$500,000 in gold dust. 

It was proposed to open a new wagon route 
from Helena to the mouth of the Musselshell 
river, 300 miles below Benton. Tlie distance 
by land in a direct line was 190 miles. The 
Missouri and Rocky Mountain Wagon-road 
and Telegraph company employed twenty men 
under Moses Courtwright to lay it out, in the 
autumn, to Kerchival City, a place which is not 
now to be found on the map. The object was 
to save the most difficult navigation and open 
up the country. The Indians interrupted and 
prevented the survey of this road. An appro- 
priation was made by congress in 1865 for the 
opening of a road from the mouth of the Nio- 
brara river, Nebraska, to Virginia City, and 
Col. J. A. Sawyer was appointed superinten- 
dent. This would have connected with the 
Bozeman route. Its construction through the 
Indian country was opposed by General Cook. 

Such were the conditions of trade and 
travel in Montana in 1866. There were local 
stage lines in all directions, and better mail 
facilities than the countries west of the Rocky 
mountains had enjoyed in their early days. The 
stage lines east of Salt Lake had more or less 
trouble with the Indians for ten or fifteen 
years. In 1867 travel was cut ofif and the 
telegraph destroyed. The Missouri, treacher- 
ous and difficult as it was, proved the only 
means of getting goods from the east as early 
as May or June. The l]\n'crly arrived May 
25th with 150 tons of freight and many pas- 
sengers. She was followed by 38 other steam- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



59 



boats, with freight and passengers; and in the 
autumn there was the same rush of returning 
miners, carrying miUions with them out of the 
treasure deposits of the Rocky mountains. The 
Imperial, one of the St. Louis fleet, had the 
following experience : She started from Cow 
island, where 400 passengers who had come 
down from Benton in mackinaws took passage 
September i8th with 15 days' provisions. She 
reached Milk river October 4th, out of supplies 
in the commissary department. The river was 
falling rapidly, and this, \vith the necessity for 
hunting, caused the boat to make but twenty 
miles in one entire week. The Sioux killed 
John Arnold, a miner from Blackfoot and a 
Georgian, while out hunting. The passengers 
were compelled to pull at ropes and spars to 
help the boat along. Every atom of food was 
consumed, and for a week the 400 subsisted on 
wild meat ; then for three days they had noth- 
ing. At Fort Union they obtained some grain. 
Still making little progress, they arrived at Fort 
Sully November 14th, the weather being cold 
and ice running. At this point 14 of the pas- 
sengers took possession of an abandoned mack- 
inaw boat, which they rigged with a sail and 
started with it to finish their voyage. They 
reached Yankton, Dakota. November 22. 
where they took wagons to Sioux City and a 
railroad thence. The Imperial w^as at last 
frozen in the river and her passengers forced 
to take any and all means to get away from her 
to civilization. A train of immigrants came 
over the northern route this year, Captain P. 
A. Davy, commanding; Major William Cahill, 
adjutant; Captain J. D. Rogers, ordnance and 
inspecting officer; Captain Charles Wagner, 
A. D. C. ; Captains George Swartz, Rosseau 
and Nibler. The train was composed of 60 
wagons, 130 men and the same number of 
women and children. Captain Davy had loaded 
his wagons so heavily that the men, who had 
paid their passage, were forced to walk. They 
had a guard of 100 soldiers from Fort Aber- 
crombe. This train arrived safelv. The fleet 



down the Yellowstone this year met opposition 
from the Indians just below Big Horn river, 
and one man, Emerson Randall, killed. There 
were 67 men and two women in the party, 
who reached Omaha without further loss. 

A movement was made in 1873 to open a 
road from Bozeman to the head of navigation 
on the Yellowstone, and to build a steamer to 
run thence to the' Missouri ; also to get aid 
from the government in improving the river. 
The first steamboat to ascend the river any dis- 
tance was the Key West, which went to Wolf 
rapids in 1873, the Josephine reaching to with- 
in seven miles of Clark's fork in 1874. Lamme 
built the YcUoivstone at Jeffersonville, Indiana, 
in 1876. She was sunk below Fort Keogh in 
1879. In 1877 fourteen different boats ascen- 
ded above the Big Horn, and. goods were taken 
from there to Bozeman by wagon. It was ex- 
pected to get within 150 miles of Bozeman the 
following year. 

In 1868 thirty-five steamers arrived at Ben- 
ton with 5.000 tons of freight. One steamer, 
the Amelia Foe, was sunk thirty miles below 
Milk river, and her cargo lost. The passengers 
were brought to Benton by the Bertlia. This 
year the Indians were very hostile killing 
woodcutters employed by the steamboat com- 
pany, and murdering hunters and others. 
There was also a sudden dropping in prices, 
caused by the Northwest Transportation com- 
pany of Chicago, w'hich dispatched its boats 
from Sioux City, competing 'for the :\Iontana 
trade, and putting freight down to eight cents 
a pound to Benton, in gold, or 12 cents in cur- 
rency. This caused the St. Louis merchants 
to put the freights down to six cents. The 
president of the Chicago company was Joab 
Lawrence, an experienced steamboat man. with 
Samuel DeBow agent. This reduction eft'ect- 
ually cut ofT opposition from the west side of 
the Rocky mountains, and rendered the Mary 
Moodv and the Mullan road of little value to 
the trade of Montana. This accounts, in fact, 
for the apathy concerning that route. For a 



6o 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



short period there was a prospect of the Pend 
d'Oreille lake route being a popular one, but 
it perished in 1868. In 1874 Delegate Magin- 
nis introduced a bill in congress for the im- 
provement of the Mullan road, which failed, 
as all the memorials and representations of the 
Washington legislature had failed. 

There was a new era begtui in 1869, when 
the Central and Union Pacific railroads were 
joined. There were 28 steamers loaded for 
Montana, four of which were burned with 
their cargoes before leaving the levee at St. 
Louis. This fleet was loaded before the com- 
pletion of the road. Had the Bozeman route 
been kept open there would have been com- 
munication with the railroad much earlier ; but 
since the government had chosen to close it, 
and to keep a large body of hostile Indians be- 
tween the Montana settlements and the ad- 
vancing railroad, it was of no use before it 
reached Ogden and Corinne. The advent of 
the railroad, even as near as Corinne, caused 
another reduction from former rates to eight 
cents per pound currency from St. Louis and 
Chicago by rail, to which four cents from 
Corinne to Helena was added. The boats un- 
derbid, and 24 steamers brought cargoes to 
Fort Benton, eight of which belonged to the 
Northwest company; but in 1870 only eight 
were thus employed; in 1871 only six; in 1872 
twelve; and in 1873 ^''"^' ^^74 seven and six 



Conspicuous among the freighting companies 
which made connections with the railroad 
points was the Diamond railroad, George B. 
Parker, manager, which in 1880 absorbed the 
Rocky Mountain Despatch company, shippers 
from Ogden, and made its initial point Cor- 
inne. When the Northern Pacific railroad 
reached the Missouri at Bismarck, the Diamond 
railroad made connection with it by wagon 
train, thus compelling the Union Pacific rail- 
road to make special rates to Ogden for Mon- 
tana, the charge being $1.25 per hundred with- 
out regard to classification, when Utah merch- 
ants were being charged $2.50 for the same ser- 
vice. Montanians chose to sustain the northern 
route. In 1879 there were 1,000 teams on the 
road between Bismark and the Black Hills, and 
Montana merchants were unable to get their 
goods brought through in consequence of this 
diversion of wagon road to the east by way 
of tlie Yellowstone, which failed. These diffi- 
culties soon disappeared as the Northern Pa- 
cific railroad advanced. Steamboat travel had a 
rival after the falling off above mentioned. In 
the year 1877 twenty-five steamers arrived at 
Benton with 5,283 tons of freight. Small com- 
panies engaged in steamboating later. The com- 
pletion of the Northern Pacific railroad placed 
transportation on a basis of certainty, and 
greatlv modified its character. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 



It is an interesting study, the. tracing of 
the many divisions of the territory now em- 
braced within the boundary lines of the state 
of Montana. Little known, valued or cared for 
prior to the fortuitous circumstance which led 
to the discovery of gold and the consequent 



influx of population, the territory which we 
know as Montana had been carved, sliced, di- 
vided and redivided as suited the whims of am- 
bitious state makers. Then, when it was 
found that the mountainous country was an 
immense treasure bed and people poured into 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



the country by the thousands, other divisions 
were made, and finally, on the 26th day of 
May, 1864, the act creating the territory of 
Montana was approved, with boundaries prac- 
tically the same as those of the state at the pres- 
ent time. 

To gain a thorough understanding of the 
many divisions which followed, it will be neces- 
sary to remember that all that part of the state 
of Montana which lies to the east of the main 
range of the Rocky mountains was a part of the 
territory of the United States acquired from 
France by treaty, known as the Louisiana pur- 
chase; while that part of the state which lies 
to the west of the mountains was a part of the 
"Oregon country," which was acquired by the 
United States by reason of discovery and ex- 
ploration. As the western half of our coun- 
try was a truly terra incognito at the time of 
the Louisiana purchase the boundary lines of 
Louisiana were very indefinite. As a result 
some authorities maintain that the Oregon 
country should be classed as a part of the 
Louisiana purchase. It is a matter of fact, 
however, that in our controversy with Great 
Britain for the possession of Oregon, the pur- 
chase of Louisiana from France had very little 
weight in giving the Oregon country to the 
United States, and the Rocky mountains are 
now generally named as the western boundary 
of the Louisiana country. 

It is of the Louisiana country that we shall 
first tell. In 1682 the renowned explorer, La 
Salle, took possession of all that part of the 
North American continent extending from the 
Mississippi river westward in the name of the 
king of France, Louis XIV, in whose honor 
La Salle named the country Louisiana. France 
retained possession of this uninhabitated wild- 
erness until 1762, when it was ceded to Spain. 
By the treaty of St. Ildefonso, which was held 
in 1800, France regained possession, the trans- 
fer not taking place until three years later. It 
was on November 30, 1803, that France raised 
its tri-colored flag and formally assumed pos- 



session. But in the meantime negotiations had 
been perfected (April 30, 1803) whereby the 
United States purchased the territory from 
France, and on the 20th day of December of 
the same year the stars and stripes were raised 
and the United States formally came into pos- 
session of the heart of the North American 
continent, at a cost of the nominal sum of fif- 
teen million dollars. Owing to the small time 
intervening between the several transfers, 
under the laws of nations, the inhabitants of 
Louisiana owed their allegiance to Spain No- 
vember 29, 1803; to France on the succeeding 
day; and to the United States on December 
20th following. England asserted sometimes 
during this period a claim under the discover- 
ies of the intrepid Cabots to the territory be- 
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific, but the 
claims were never vindicated. The interests 
of France and Spain were founded upon the 
actual occupation of the villages and fortified 
trading posts in the vicinity of the Mississippi 
river south of St. Louis. \\'hile the territory 
which is now Montana was nominally under 
the government of both France and Spain in 
the eighteenth and early days of the nineteenth 
centuries, no European power ever displayed 
its authority within the boundaries of the 
state. 

No sooner had the United States gained 
Ix>ssession of Louisiana than the process of di- 
visiou, which has been going on ever since, be- 
gan. In 1804, by act of congress approved 
March 26, that portion of the newly acquired 
territory lying north of the 33rd degree of 
north latitude was organized as the district 
of Louisiana, while that part to the south was 
organized as the territory of Orleans, the bill 
providing for the division on the first day of 
October of the same year. The district of 
Louisiana was not allowed a separate govern- 
ment at this time, it being placed under the 
authority of the officers of Indiana territory. 
Its afifairs were managed by the officers of the 
last named territory until July 4, 1805, when 



62 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



a territorial government was given to Louisi- 
ana. As such it was known and governed un- 
til 1812. 

In 1812 Orleans territory was admitted to 
the union as the state of Louisiana, and the 
former Louisiana^ territory was named Mis- 
souri territory. On July 4, 1814, that part of 
Missouri territory comprising the present state 
of Arkansas and the country to the westward 
was organized into Arkansas territory. The 
next important event in the history of this 
country was the admission of Missouri into 
the union as a state, only a part of the Missouri 
territory being included in the boundaries ot 
the state of Missouri. By congressional action, 
approved June 28, 1834, the territory west of 
the Mississippi river and north of Missouri 
was made a part of the territory of Michigan; 
but two years later (July 4, 1836,) Wisconsin 
territory was created, including the present 
states of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, and 
the part of the Missouri country which was in- 
cluded within these boundaries became a part 
of Wisconsin. A congressional act of June 30, 
1834, decreed that all the country west of the 
Mississippi, not included within the recognized 
boundaries of Louisiana, Missouri and Arkan- 
sas, should be considered Indian territory, un- 
der the jurisdiction of the United States dis- 
trict court of Missouri. Although that part of 
our country which is now the state of Montana 
was always nominally a part of some territory, 
the country was literally without a government 
for several decades after the admission of Mis- 
souri as a state. There were only a few roam- 
ing trappers within the district, and the terri- 
tory to which the mountain country of Mon- 
tana happened to belong paid no more atten- 
tion to it than did the Sultan of Turkey. 

On May 30, 1854, Nebraska territory was 
created from part of Missouri and included the 
present states of Nebraska, that part of Mon- 
tana east of the Rocky mountains, Wyoming, 
North Dakota, South Dakota and the north- 
ern portion of Colorado, the southern boundary 



being the 40th parallel. The next division 
which afifected the future state of Montana 
was the creation of Dakota territory in 1861, 
which included all that part of Nebraska ter- 
ritory lying north of latitude 43 degrees and 
that part of Minnesota territory which was to 
the west of the Red River of the North. By 
act of congress March 3, 1863, Idaho territory 
was formed, including within its boundaries 
that portion of Washington territory extend- 
ing from the 117th meridian of longitude to 
the summit of the Rocky mountains and that 
portion of Dakota territor}- which was to the 
west of longitude 104 degrees. It will be seen 
that this mammoth territory extended from 
the 104th to the 117th meridians of longitude 
and from the 42nd to the 49th parallels of lati- 
tude. It was described as containing 326,373 
square miles, which was an area greater than 
that possessed by any other territory or state 
in the union, and included the present states of 
Idaho, Montana and a large slice of Wyom- 
ing. The following year. 1864, this vast ter- 
ritory was cut down by giving back to Dakota 
territory that portion between parallels 43 and 
45, and meridians 104 and 11 1 and an addi- 
tional section between parallels 41 and 43, and 
meridians 104 and 1 10, which tract was, in 
1868, formed into W'yoming territory. 

Before proceeding with the story of the or- 
ganization of Montana territory we shall now 
tell how that portion of Montana west of the 
Rocky mountains came into the possession of 
the L'nited States and of the several political 
divisions of the Oregon country that were 
made before the northeastern corner of it Ije- 
came a part of Montana. 

The Oregon controversy is too long a story 
to more than briefly outline here. The United 
States' title rested upon three foundation stones 
— its own discoveries and explorations, the dis- 
coveries and explorations of the Spaniards and 
the purchase of Louisiana. While it was not 
contended that any one of these conveyed exclu- 
sive right, the position of our country was that 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



63 



each supplemented the otlier ; that, though, 
while vested in different nations, they were 
antagonistic, when held by the same nation, 
they, taken together, amounted to a complete 
title. By treaty in 1819 Spain ceded Flor- 
ida to the United States and latitude 42 de- 
grees was fixed as the northern limit of Span- 
ish possessions. In 1824 and 1825 treaties 
between Russia on one side and the United 
States and England on the other fixed the Rus- 
sian southern boundary at 54 degrees and 40 
minutes. The country between these two lim- 
its — 42 degrees and 54 degrees, 40 minutes — 
was the Oregon country and was claiined by 
both Great Britain and the United States. 
From the early days of the nineteenth century 
until 1846 the rivalry between the two coun- 
tries for possession of Oregon was spirited and 
war was narrowly averted. On the last named 
date a treaty was entered into by which the 
United States became possessed of the terri- 
tory north to the 49th parallel. 

All the territory between the 42nd and 49th 
parallels and from the Pacific ocean to the 
Rocky mountains thus came into the undis- 
puted possession of the United States and in 
August, 1848, it was organized into the terri- 
tory of Oregon. On March 2, 1853, that por- 
tion of the territory lying north of the Colum- 
bia river and the 46th parallel of latitude was 
organized into Washington territory, and that 
portion of what is now the state of Montana 
lying between Bitter Root and Rocky moun- 
tain became subject to the laws of Washington. 

As we have told of the erection of Idaho 
territory from the eastern part of Washington 
and the western part of Dakota, we are now- 
brought up to the creation of ]\Iontana terri- 
tory, which was brought about on the 26th of 
May, 1864. It was created wholly from terri- 
tory embraced within the recently created ter- 
ritory of Idaho, and its boimdaries were de- 
scribed as follows : Commencing at a point 
where the 104th degree of longitude intersects 
the 45th degree of latitude; thence due west 



to the I nth degree of longitude; thence to 
latitude 44 degrees, 30 minutes; thence west 
along that line to the summit of the Rocky 
mountains and along their crest to its intersec- 
tion with the Bitter Root mountains; thence 
along the summit of the Bitter Root mountains 
to its intersection with the ii6th degree of 
longitude; thence north to the 49th parallel; 
thence west to the 104th degree of longitude; 
thence south to the point of starting. 

The forming of the new territorj- was 
brought about because of the rapid settlement 
of the country as a result of the rich placer dis- 
coveries and because of the remoteness of 
these new settlements from the capital of 
Idaho, Lewiston. Late in the year 1863 the 
citizens of Virginia City and Bannack met 
and decided to ask congress to divide the ter- 
ritory of Idaho and grant a new government to 
the citizens of the country which is now Mon- 
tana. Sidney Edgerton, then a judge of the 
Idaho courts, and residing at Bannack, was 
selected to go to W'ashington and urge the 
formation of the new territory. Owing to the 
hanging of the road agents about this time. 
Judge Edgerton's journey was postponed un- 
til about the middle of January, 1864. It was 
a winter of great severity, and while he and 
those with him knew that they were not likely 
to be attacked by road agents, owing to the re- 
cent activities of the vigilance committee, the 
intense cold was an enemy not to be overlooked 
on the long road from Bannack to Salt Lake 
City. Most of the members of the party took 
with them large quantities of gold. Ingots 
were quilted into the lining of Judge Edger- 
ton's overcoat and he carried in his valise im- 
mense nuggets wherewith to dazzle the eyes 
of congressmen and to impress upon their 
minds, by means of an object lesson, some ade- 
quate idea of the great mineral wealth of this 
section of the countn,'. Arriving safely in 
Washington, the gold was exhibited, congress- 
men interviewed, and at length the desired end 
was accomplished. There was some discussion 



64 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



over the proposed western boundary line, but 
the combined efforts of Gov. Wahace of 
Idaho, and Judge Edgerton saved to Montana 
all of her rich territory lying west of the sum- 
mit of the Rocky mountains. The territory of 
Montana as described in the boundaries con- 
tained 143,776 square miles or 92,016,640 
acres. 

An effort was made by the legislature of 
Idaho in 1865 and 1866 to take from Mon- 
tana that part of her territorj' lying west of 
the Rockies and to form a new territory to be 
called Columbia, embracing in addition tO' that 
country the panhandle of Idaho and the eastern 
part of Washington. A memorial was pre- 
sented to congress praying that the portion of 
Idaho lying south of the Salmon river moun- 
tains might dissolve connection with the pan- 
handle and receive instead as much of Utah 
as lay north of 41 degrees 30 minutes. The 
residents of the Walla Walla valley in Wash- 
ington being strongly in favor of a readjust- 
ment of boundaries aided the agitation, which 
in 1867 was at its height, meetings being held 
and memorials adopted in Lewiston and Walla 
Walla. Montana wanted to retain the rich 
Bitter Root valley, however, and the people 
of Southern Idaho were slow to see the wis- 
dom of parting with a large part of its popula- 
tion, and nothing came of the agitation. 

Having traced the many divisions of the 
territory which is now included within the 
boundaries of the state of Montana, we shall 
now turn our attention to the county divisions 
which have been made in the same territory 
from the earliest periods of territorial lav/ 
making to the present time. We have shown 
that that part of the state which lies west of 
the Rocky mountains was acquired from a dif- 
ferent source than that of the portion of the 
state lying to the east of the mountains, and 
up to the time of the organization of Idaho 
territory in 1863 there was nothing in common 
between the two countries, and the county 
formations must therefore be considered sep- 



arately. \\'e shall first treat of that portion 
west of the mountains. 

Prior to 1853 all of Montana west of the 
Rockies w-as a part of Oregon territory. This 
country was doubtless included, in an indefi- 
nite sort of way, in some county of Oregon ter- 
ritory, but having no settlers, it mattered not 
whether it was or not. But when Washington 
territory was formed, one of the acts of the 
first legislature (that of 1854) was to create a 
county in which this part of Montana was in- 
cluded. This county was named Clarke, in 
honor of Captain Clark of the Lewis and 
Clark expedition, and extended from a point 
on the Columbia river below Fort Vancouver 
to the summit of the Rocky mountains, a dis- 
tance of some six hundred miles. The same 
session of the legislature divided Clarke county 
and the eastern part became known as Ska- 
mania, and for a short time part of Montana 
was officially included in that county. The 
early legislatures never seemed to be satisfied 
with their work, and before the legislature ad- 
journed Skamania county was divided and 
Walla Walla county was created with bound- 
aries as follows : All that territory east of a 
line drawn from the mouth of the Des Chutes 
river hi Oregon to the 49th parallel — to the 
Rocky mountains. The county seat of Walla 
Walla county was named as "the land claim 
of Lloyd Brooks" — the site of the present city 
of Walla Walla, Washington. The commis- 
sioners named in the act were George C. Bum- 
ford, John Owen and Dominique Pambrun — 
Owen being a resident of that part of the 
county which afterwards became a part of 
Montana. The fact that a county was 
created by the early legislatures of Washington 
territory did not necessarily mean that an or- 
ganization was perfected, and Walla Walla 
county was not organized until 1859, so it was 
not until the latter date that the people of that 
part of Montana west of the Rockies came 
under the jurisdiction of any county govern- 
ment. Before this time, howe\'er, Walla Walla 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



65 



county had been divided, and other counties 
were created — but not organized. On Jan- 
uary 29, 1858, the legislature set off from 
Walla Walla county the county of Shoshone, 
comprising all the country lying north of 
Snake river, east of the Columbia and west 
of the Rocky mountains. The county seat was 
"on the land claim of Angus McDonald," who 
was the Hudson's Bay company's agent at Fort 
Colville. Again was John Owen named as one 
of the commissioners, the other two being 
Robert Douglas and William McCreany. The 
county was not organized, and on January 17, 
i860, the legislature repealed the act, and with- 
out altering the boundaries gave this territory 
the name of Spokane county and made new 
appointments of county officers. The county 
seat was located on the land claim of J. R. 
Bates, which was about three miles from the 
site of the present town of Colville, Washing- 
ton. The commissioners named were Jacques 
Demers, James Hoyt and J. Seaman. On May 
18, i860, the commissioners met and organ- 
ized a county government. 

The first steps toward the formation of a 
county of exclusive Montana territory were 
made in the winter of 1859, when a petition 
was addressed to the Washington legislature 
by the settlers of the Bitter Root valley and the 
residents at the Flathead agency, asking that 
body to set off a county to be called Bitter 
Root county. Seventy-seven names were at- 
tached to the petition, being mostly those of 
men connected with the building of the Mullan 
road. These could hardly be called settlers, 
although a few names of actual pioneers ap- 
pear among them. The petition was either not 
presented to the legislature of 1859, or law 
makers at Olympia did not consider the time 
ripe for the formation of a new county at this 
time, as we find that no action was taken until 
the session of 1860-61. On the 14th day of 
December, i860, the bill was approved creat- 
ing the county of Missoula, which was the 
name substituted for that of Bitter Root. At 
5 



the same time the county of Shoshone was pro- 
vided for from the remaining portion of Wash- 
ington territory east of the present eastern 
boundary line of the state of Washington. Mis- 
soula county extended from the 115th degree 
of longitude to the summit of the Rocky moun- 
tains and from the 46th to the 49th degrees of 
latitude. The bill creating the county named 
the following ol^cers : C. P. Higgins, F. L. 
Worden and T. W. Harris, commissioners; M. 
W. Tipton, sheriff; Henry M. Chase, justice 
of the peace. Higgins and Harris were the 
only officers who qualified, and the only busi- 
ness they did was to advertise an election in 
1861 and canvass the votes. The enabling act 
named the county seat as "at or near the trad- 
ing post of Worden & Co., Hellgate Rond." 
Missoula county kept up a sort of organization 
during the next few years while it remained a 
part of Washington territory, the greater part 
of the work of the county officials being to can- 
vass the votes of their successors in office. 

With the organization of Idaho territory 
in 1863 came a complete readjustment of coun- 
ty boundaries. Previous to that time all that 
portion of Montana' west of the mountains was 
a part of Washington, with the capital at 
Olympia, hundreds of miles away. All east 
of the mountains belonged to Dakota territory, 
the capital of which was Yankton, which by the 
nearest available route of travel was two thou- 
sand miles distant. The existence of Bannack, 
the principal town of the mountain country at 
the time, was not even known at the capital at 
that time, to say -nothing of the impossibility 
of executing any territorial laws there. When 
Idaho was formed with the capital at Lewiston, 
it was considered time to divide the territory 
into numerous counties. It was on the motion 
of L. C. Miller, who represented Bannack in 
the Lewiston legislature, that that portion of 
Idaho wdiich within a few months became 
Montana territory was divided into numerous 
counties. On January 26, 1864, the governor 
of Idaho afifixed his signature to the bill which 



66 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



provided for the organization of the following 
counties : Missoula, Deer Lodge, Beaver Head, 
Madison, Jefferson, Choteau, Dawson, Big 
Horn, Ogalala and Yellowstone, with their 
county seats located respectively at Worden- 
ville, Deer Lodge, Bannack, Virginia City, 
Gallatin and Fort Benton for those first named. 
Big Hole and Yellowstone counties did not 
have county seats named, that minor item be- 
ing left to the judgment of the county commis- 
sioners. Fort Laramie was named as the 
county seat of Ogalala county. Very few of 
these counties organized under the Idaho act. 

^Yhen the first Bannack legislature con- 
vened in 1864 the legislators at once turned 
their attention to dividing the territory into 
counties. We find that the first ^Montana legis- 
lature provided for nearly the same counties 
as that of the Idaho legislature and with nearly 
the same boundaries. Ogalala and Yellow- 
stone counties were left out and Edgerton 
county was added to those named at Lewiston. 

It is an utter impossibility to trace the 
boundaries of all these first counties on a map 
because of the fact that the early law makers 
did not have a clear knowledge of the location 
of degrees of latitude and longitude as com- 
pared with the natural boundary lines, such as 
rivers and mountain ranges. It is very diffi- 
cult to trace the boundary lines of a county 
which are described as commencing at a point 
where a certain degree of longitude intersects 
a certain river when the two do not intersect 
by a hundred miles or so. This indefiniteness 
of the county boundary lines did not cause 
much trouble at first because af the fact that 
the bulk of the population was in the principal 
mining camps. If the inhabitants of these 
camps did not know for sure what county they 
were in they guessed at it, and the result was 
the same as though they knew. But when the 
population became greater and new towns 
sprung up, it became convenient for people to 
know under what county government they 
were living that they might know to which 



county to pay their taxes and for what set of 
county officials to vote. The state of affairs is 
well illustrated in the report of Surveyor Gen- 
eral S. Meridith dated October 5, 1867, which 
reads as follows : 

Here I beg leave to make some suggestions as to 
the boundaries of the different counties. Many of their 
limits are marked only by imaginary lines — latitude and 
longitude — and no knowledge seems to have been had 
where these exact places would be. It has been with 
great difficulty that the law and the map could be made 
to conform. Such were the mistakes made in their 
location that a strict adherence to the law would place 
Virginia City in Beaver Head county and Silver City 
in Deer Lodge, while Helena would be situated in 
Jefferson. 

Permit me to suggest natural boundaries for the 
limits of counties as a subject to lay before the gen- 
eral assembly. By such divisions every one can tell 
where the lines will run, and in my opinion will in 
more ways than one increase the interests of Montana. 

While the exact location of the lines were 
unknown to the people at the time many of the 
boundary lines can be easily traced on a pres- 
ent day map. M'issoula county embraced 
practically all of the present counties of Flat- 
head, Missoula, Sanders and Ravalli and about 
one-third of Granite. Deer Lodge county con- 
tained nearly all of the present counties of 
Teton, Lewis and Clark, Deer Lodge, Granite 
and Jefferson, all of Powell and Silver Bow 
and a small portion of Madison. The bound 
aries of Beaver Head were not quite so definite 
as those of the two counties named. Included 
in it was the present Beaver Head county and 
the eastern half of the present Madison county, 
the eastern boundary of the county running to 
within a very short distance of Virginia City, 
but not to the east of it as Sur^'eyor General 
Meridith believed. A small corner of the pres- 
ent Deer Lodge coimty would also, probably, 
come within the original Beaver Head county 
under a literal interpretation of the boundary 
lines. Owing to the apparent belief that the 
ii2th meridian of longitude was far to the 
westward of its actual location, the counties 
of Madison, Jefferson and Edgerton are hard 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



67 



to trace. Aladison county can probably be said 
to have included about half of the county of 
that name at the present date and a portion of 
the present Gallatin county. Jefferson iri- 
cluded all of the present Broadwater county 
and other portions of Jefferson, Gallatin, 
Meagher, Lewis and Clark and Cascade. 
Edgerton, later changed to Lewis and Clark, 
county lacked only a fraction of a mile of being 
in two separate divisions, according to a literal 
interpretation of the act and was made up of 
portions of the present counties of Lewis and 
Clark and Cascade. The western lx)undary of 
Gallatin county was indefinite, but the county 
contained all the present counties of Park and 
Sweetgrass and portions of Carbon, Yellow- 
stone, Fergus, Meagher, Cascade, and possibly 
Gallatin. Choteau is more easily defined. It 
included all the present county of that name, 
nearly all of Cascade, about half of Fergus 
and a portion of Teton. Big Horn, the county 
that was described as embracing all that por- 
tion of ^Montana territory not included in the 
other counties, covered about one-fourth of the 
territory and there were included within its 
boundaries all of the present counties of Val- 
ley, Dawson, Custer, Rosebud, the greater part 
of Yellowstone, about one-fourth of Fergus 
and nearly one-half of Carbon. 

At the second session of the legislature the 
county of Meagher, named in honor of Secre- 
tary and Acting Governor Thomas F. 
Meagher, was created. As all the acts of the 
second session of the legislature were declared 
illegal, we cannot allow Meagher county an 
official existence until November 16, 1867, 
when the fourth legislature approved the act 
of March 26, 1866, and gave Meagher county 
an official standing. Meagher was created 
from the northern part of Gallatin county by 
an imaginary line running east and west across 
the county from the Missouri river. As de- 
scribed in the act, "the line between the conn- 
ties shall commence in the middle of the main 
channel of the Missouri river opposite the 



mouth of Deep creek and run due east to the 
eastern boundary of Gallatin county as here- 
before defined." Diamond City, in the pres- 
ent Broadwater county, was named as the 
county seat. 

Acting on the advice of the surveyer gen- 
eral, the legislature of 1867 defined the bound- 
aries of the dift'erent counties again and gave 
them natural boundaries. This brought about 
a change in all the counties. 

Big Horn county, containing all the terri- 
tory not included in the counties named, is not 
mentioned in the acts of the legislature of 
1867, and therefore remained with its former 
large dimensions. Dawson county was created 
by an act of the legislature approved January 
15, 1869. It was carved from Big Horn 
county and included the 'territory of the present 
Valley county and nearly all of that in the pres- 
ent Dawson county. The new county was at- 
tached to Choteau county for council and rep- 
resentative purposes, and the county seat was 
designated as Fort Peck. The county was of- 
ficially described as follows : "Commencing 
at the intersecting point of parallel of latitude 
47 degrees with meridian of longitude 108 de- 
grees, and thence along said parallel 47 de- 
grees to meridian of longitude 104 degrees, 
and from thence along said meridian north to 
49th parallel of latitude, and from thence 
along said parallel 49 degrees to meridian of 
longitude 108 degrees, and from thence south 
along said meridian to place of beginning." 

The only other attention the legislature of 
1869 gave to county boundaries was to slightly 
change the northern and northwestern bound 
ary line of Madison county. 

Prior to the legislative session of 1871-72 
the lx)undaries of Meagher and Gallatin coun- 
ties were rather indefinite. At that session 
those two counties were definitely bounded. 

At the next session (bills approved Febru- 
ary 13, 1874) these two counties had their 
boundaries still more definitely defined. 

Slight changes were also made in the 



68 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



boundaries of Aladison and Beaver Head coun- 
ties in 1874, brought about a readjustment of 
the western boundary of Dakota territory. The 
act passed February 7, 1874. 

No new counties were created by the legis- 
lature of 1876, but the boundaries of three 
counties were altered to suit the wishes of the 
residents. The counties affected were Deer 
Lodge, Choteau and Meagher. 

During the next few years there were very 
few changes made in county boundary Hues. 
On February 16, 1877, an act was passed 
changing the name of Big Horn county to 
Custer county, and on February 14, 1881, pro- 
vision was made for including within the 
boundary lines of Gallatin county a part of the 
Crow reservation which was then the subject 
of a treaty before the congress of the United 
States. 

Silver Bow county was created February 
16, 1881, from a portion of Deer Lodge 
county. 

By a legislative act approved ]March 7, 
1883, the boundaries of the new Silver Bow 
county were changed, the change slightly af- 
fecting the county of Jefferson. 

Yellowstone county was erected from Cus- 
ter and Gallatin counties in 1883, the boundar- 
ies being described as follows : 

Beginning at a point at the confluence of the Yel- 
lowstone and Big Horn rivers ; thence following the 
center of the channel of said Yellowstone river to a 
point opposite the first divide east of White Beaver 
creek, in Gallatin county ; thence following said divide 
to the summit of the dividing ridge between the Mus- 
selshell and Yellowstone rivers ; thence on a straight 
line north to the southern boundary of Meagher coun- 
ty; thence east along said boundary to the 109th meri- 
dian of longitude ; thence following said meridian to 
the Musselshell river ; thence down the center of the 
channel of said river to what is known as the Big 
Bend to a point where the old Stanley road crosses the 
Musselshell river; thence on a direct line to the place 
of beginning. Act approved Feb. 26, 1883. Billings, 
county seat. 

The only other alteration of county bound- 
aries by the legislature of 1883 was an act ex- 



tending the southern boundary of Dawso:i 
county a few miles, the territory thus added 
being taken from Custer county.. A synopsis 
of the act, which was approved March Sth, is 
as follows : 

The southern boundary of Dawson county shall be : 
Commencing ten miles south of the intersecting point 
of the 27th degree of longitude west from Washington 
(104th west from Greenwich) with the 47th degree of 
north latitude; thence due west and parallel with said 
parallel of 47 degrees to the Musselshell river; thence 
following the line of said river to the northern bound- 
ary line of Meagher county; thence west along said 
line to the io8th meridian of longitude. And the north- 
ern boundary line of Custer county shall be made to 
conform with the southern boundary line of Dawson 
county, so far as said Dawson county extends. 

Fergus county was created from Meagher 
county by an act approved March 12, 1885, 
with slightly smaller boundaries than the 
county has at present. Lewiston was named as 
the county seat. 

Provision was also made by the 1883 legis- 
lature that all that portion of the Crow Indian 
reservation lying between the Wyoming line 
and the Yellowstone river and west of the 
Big Horn river, in Montana territory, that 
might thereafter be segregated and thrown 
open for settlement, should form , a part of 
Yellowstone county. 

Two new counties — Park and Cascade — 
were created by the legislature of 1887. Park 
was erected from Gallatin and included all of 
the present Park and the greater portion of 
the present Sweetgrass counties. Cascade was 
taken from Choteau and Meagher and was 
created with nearly the same boundaries it 
now has. Following is the boundary of Park 
county, as officially described in the act : 

Park : Beginning at the northwest corner of Yel- 
lowstone National Park and running thence one mile 
west ; thence north to the northwest corner of town- 
ship 7, south of range 6, east of the principal meridian ; 
thence northeasterly along the watershed or summit 
of the Belt range of mountains to the southwest corner 
of township 2, south of range 8, east of the principal 
meridian ; thence due north to the south boundary line 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



69 



of Meag-her comity : themce east along the south 
boundary line of Meagher county to the west bound- 
ary line of Yellowstone county; thence south along 
the west boundary line of Yellowstone county to 
the Yellowstone river ; thence westerly along the Yel- 
lowstone river to the mouth of Big Boulder river ; 
thence southerly and easterly along the west and south 
boundaries of the Crow Indian reservation to the north- 
ern boundary of Wyoming territory and the Yellow- 
stone National Park to the place of beginning. Act 
approved February 23. 1887. Livingston, county scat. 

The county of Deer Lodge, when first cre- 
ated, one of the largest of Montana's pohtical 
divisions, had a shce of its territory taken from 
it by nearly every legislature that had con- 
vened. In 1 89 1 the boundaries were again 
changed, the change affecting Jefferson coun- 
ty, as well. 

The legislature of 1893 changed the map of 
Montana considerably by the creation of five 
new counties. These were Flathead, Valley, 
Teton, Ravalli and Granite. Flathead was taken 
from Missoula county as created at this time, 
but a few years later a portion of Deer Lodge 
county was added to it, giving the boundaries 
as they are at the present day. The boundaries 
of Valley county, taken from Dawson, remain 
the same as created in 1893. Teton was taken 
from the western part of Choteau county, the 
northwestern corner of the new county being 
previously a part of Missoula county. The 
boundaries of Teton county have not since been 
changed. Ravalli was severed from the mother 
county, ]\Iissoula. As originally created the 
county included that part of the present Mis- 
soula county south of Lou Lou fork, but before 
the legislature adjourned the boundaries were 
defined as they exist at present. Granite county 
was formed from portions of Deer Lodge and 
Missoula counties with boundaries as we now 
know them. 

In 1895 Carbon and Sweet Grass were 
added to the list of Montana counties. Carbon 
was taken from the counties of Park and Yel- 
lowstone, while the counties of Yellowstone, 
Park and Meagher yielded each a portion of 
territorv for the formation of Sweet Grass. The 



last named county was created with the same 
boundaries which it now has. Following are 
the boundaries of the two new counties as de- 
scribed in the acts : 

Carbon : Beginning at a point in the midchannel 
of the Yellowstone river opposite to the mouth of the 
Stillwater river; following thence down the midchannel 
of said Yellowstone river to the intersection of said 
channel of said Yellowstone river with township line run- 
ning between ranges 24 east and 25 east ; thence follow- 
ing said township line due south to its intersection with 
the west boundary of the Crow Indian reservation; fol- 
lowing thence in a southwesterly direction the west 
line of said Crow Indian reservation to the terminus 
of the said southwest direction of said line ; thence 
running due east to the intersection of the midchannel 
of the Big Horn river; thence following the said 
channel of the said Big Horn river up in a southwest- 
erly direction to its intersection with the north line 
of the state of Wyoming, all of said boundary from 
the said northwest corner of the Crow Indian reserva- 
tion to the Wyoming line being a part of the boundary 
line of the Crow Indian reservation as established by 
law ; proceeding thence from the intersection of the 
midchannel of the Big Horn river with the south 
boundary line of the state of Montana due west to- the 
intersection of the south line of the state of Montana 
with the township line separating range 15 east from 
range 16 east ; thence following along the line between 
said ranges 15 and 16 to a point in the midchannel of 
Stillwater river; thence following midchannel of the 
said Stillwater river to place of beginning. Act ap- 
proved March 4. 1895. Red Lodge, tem-porary county 
seat. 

Sweet Grass : Beginning at a point which when sur- 
veyed will be the southwest corner of section 35. town- 
ship 7, south, range 12 east; and running thence north 
along the west bormdaries of sections 35, 26, 23. 14, 11 
and 2. of said township 7. south, range 12 east, con- 
tmuing north along the west boundaries of sections 35, 
2(. 23, 14, II and 2 of township 6, south, range 12 east, 
to the first standard parallel south; thence east along 
said first standard parallel to a point which when sur- 
veyed will be the southwest corner section 35, township 
5 south, range 12 east; thence north along the west 
boundaries of sections 35, 26, 23, 14, II and 2 in each 
of townships 5, 4, 3, 2 and i respectively, all in south 
range 12 east, to the intersection of base line at the 
northwest corner of section 2 of said township I ; thence 
west along said base line to the point of intersection 
of range line between ranges II and 12 east to a point 
of intersection with the line between townships 6 and 
.7. north of range 12 east ; thence east along said town- 
ship line to the point of intersection with division lines 
lietween 18 and 19 east; thente south along the line 
between ranges 18 and 19 east to the point of inter- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



•cction with the township line between townships 2 
and 3 north ; then'ce east along said township line to 
the point of intersection with the line between ranges 
19 and 20 east ; thence south along the line between 
ranges 19 and 20 east to the midchannel of the Yellow- 
stone river ; thence down the midchannel of the Yellow- 
stone river to a point opposite the mouth of the Still- 
water river or creek; thence up the midchannel of the 
Stillwater river to a point of intersection with the line 
between ranges 15 and 16 east ; thence south along the 
line between ranges 15 and 16 east to the point of inter- 
section with the first standard parallel south ; thence 
west along said parallel to the northeast corner of 
township 6, south of range 15 east ; thence south along 
the line between ranges 15 and 16 east to the south- 
east corner of township 7 south of range 15 east; thence 
west along the line between townships 7 and 8 south 
to the place of beginning. Act approved March 5, 
1895. Big Timber^ temporary county seat. 

Tlie forming- of Sv;eet Grass county Ic't a 
small section of Meagher county territory on 
its southeast corner attached only by a narrow 
strip of land, and by an act approved March 5, 
1895, the l^nd in question was given to Yellow- 
stone county. 

The county of Broadwater was created in 
1897. Jefferson and Meagher being ihe coun- 
ties that furnished the territory for the new 
political division. As originally created the 
county contained in addition to the territory 
now embraced within its boundaries a small 
portion of the southeastern corner of the pre- 
sent Lewis and Clark county, but later in the 
session of the same legislature the boundaries 
of Lewis and Clark county were so changed 
as to give Broadwater county the boundaries 
it now has. 

The boundaries of other counties were also 
altered by the legislature of 1897. The boun- 
daries of Cascade were defined anew, which 
left the county with practically the same boun- 
daries it has at the present time, except that it 
then included a small corner of the present 
Lewis and Clark county which lies to the east 
of the Missouri river. The changes made in 
the boundaries of Cascade county affected the 
county of Meagher. A portion of the Crow 
reservation which had heretofore belonged to 



Custer county was made a part of Yellowstone. 
The boundaries of Lewis and Clark were de- 
fined anew, the change affecting the counties 
of Meagher, Broadwater and Cascade. 

Yellowstone; All that portion of the Crow Indian 
reservation in the state of Montana lying between the 
south boundary line of said reservation and the Yellow- 
stone river and west of the midchannel of the Big 
Horn river is hereby bestowed upon and made a -part 
of Ycllow^stone county. .Act apprcved March 5, 1897. 

The last legislation concerning the boun- 
daries of Lewis and Clark county was ap- 
proved on February 28, 1899, and the boun- 
daries then fixed have remained unchanged up 
to the present writing. The change made at 
that time' was the addition of quite a tract of 
mountainous country west of the main range 
of the Rocky mountains which formerly had 
been a part of Deer Lodge county. Other acts 
of 1899 gave two small tracts to Cascade 
county from Meagher, and enlarged Flathead 
county by the addition of a small tract from 
the northern end of Deer Lodge county. 

Two new counties came into existence in 
1 90 1. Powell was created from the northern 
part of Deer Lodge county and a large portion 
of Custer county was given up for the forma- 
tion of the county of Rosebud. The same leg- 
islature which brought into existence these two 
counties, before the session adjourned, sought 
to change the name of the newly created 
Powell county and also that of Deer Lodge 
county. Bills were passed and approved on 
March 8th to change the name of Powell coun- 
ty to Deer Lodge county and to change the 
name of the old Deed Lodge county to Daly 
county. These acts were held to be unconsti- 
tutional by the courts and the counties are now 
known by the original names. Following are 
the boundary lines of Rosebud county as cre- 
ated in 1901 : 

Rosebud : Beginning at a point w-here the town- 
ship line running between ranges 44 and 45 east in the 
county of Custer, state of Montana, when surveyed and 
extended will intersect the north boundarv line of the 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



state of Wyoming; thence north along said township 
line, observing the jogs and offsets in said line, to its 
intersection, when surveyed and extended north, with 
the county line running east and west along between 
Custer county and the county of Dawson., in said state 
of Montana ; thence west along said county line to the 
middle of the main channel of the Musselshell river and 
the east boundary line of Fergus county ; thence up the 
middle of said main channel of said river and along the 
meanderings thereof in a southerly direction to a point 
where the same is interseicted by the county line run- 
ning between the counties of Yellowstone and Custer ; 
thence in a southeasterly direction along said county 



line to the junction of the Yellowstone and Big Horn 
rivers; thence up the middle of the main channel of 
said Big Horn river and along the meanderings thereof 
in a southeasterly direction to the intersection with the 
aforesaid north boundary of the state of W)'oming; 
thence east along the boundary Hne to the point of be- 
ginning. Act' approved February ii, 1901. Forsyth, 
county seat. 

The legislative assembly of IQ05 created 
the county of Sanders, named in honor of the 
late Wilbur F. Sanders, from Missoula county. 



CHAPTER VI! 



HISTORY OF MONTANA'S MINES. 



Gold and grasses have been the primary 
elements of Montana's greatness. So rough 
and barren was the country when the first pio- 
neers came that the idea suggested itself that 
the deposits of gold had been placed in the heart 
of this mountainous country by an inscrutable 
power as the only kind of a l)ribe that would 
induce people to make a home in the Rocky 
mountain country. But in later years, when 
the people had become better acquainted with 
the conditions that prevailed in this supposed 
barren country, it was found that other indus- 
tries besides that of digging the precious metal 
from the ground could be profitably carried on. 
Stock raising was the second industry to claim 
the attention of the inhabitants ; after that came 
agricultural pursuits. Today Montana — the 
country which required a bribe to induce peo- 
ple to settle there — is one of the grandest states 
in the union. 

It is our purpose to deal in this chapter with 
the mining history of Montana. From the time 
of the discovery of gold within the biiundaries 
of the present state of Montana until many 
years later the mining history is practically the 



entire history of the state. With the exception 
of the fur traders every inhabitant of the ter- 
ritory was engaged in mining or carrying on 
pursuits which depended directly upon the 
mines, and therefore much of the early history 
of the state will be found in this chapter. 

As it is our intention to treat of the history 
of mining in [Montana rather than to give a 
"write-up" of mines, which would require a 
volume in itself, we shall pass over with a very 
brief description the telling of the general char- 
acter of the mines and the deposits of precious 
metals and stones. IMontana is today the great- 
est mining state in the Union. Of the many 
marvels of its mineral wealth, perhaps the 
greatest is the wonderful extent of the de- 
posits. After this comes the diversity of metals, 
which covers a large portion of the known cat- 
alogue, and lastly comes the fabulously rich- 
ness of the deposits of quartz and placer dig- 
gings. The ores of Montana are easily worked. 
The rocks in which auriferous and argentifer- 
ous veins occur is limestone or granite — often 
granite capped with slate. The presence of 
lead and copper simplifies the reduction of 



72 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



silver. In general the character of Montana 
galena ores does not greatly differ from those 
of Utah, Colorado, Nevada and Idaho. There 
are lead mines in Montana, but they have not 
been extensively worked. The lead obtained 
from the silver ores, however, is considerable. 
Copper lodes are abundant and large, and are 
found near Butte, at White Sulphur Springs, 
and in the Musselshell country. Iron is found 
in a great number of places. Marble, building 
stone, fire clay, zinc, and all of the materials 
of which men build the; substantial monuments 
of civilizatioff are grouped together in Mon- 
tana in a remarkable manner. 

One of the latest developed resources bf the 
state is coal. The presence of this product was 
known from the early days, but before the 
country had been pierced by railroads it could 
not be profitaljly mined and consequently 
there was no development of the coal fields. 
Now coal mining is one of the permanent in- 
dustries of the state. Along the eastern bases 
of the Rocky mountains coal is found in almost 
inexhaustible quantities. Park, Cascade, Cho- 
teau, Beaver Head and Gallatin counties all 
have mines within their boundaries. 

In addition to the precious metals and other 
products mentioned above, there have been 
found in Montana from time to time a great 
many precious stones and gems. Sapphires 
were discovered in a number of localities by 
the early placer miners. They were collected 
in great numbers in the sluice boxes with the 
gold and black sand. They were found on the 
bars of the Missouri in Lewis and Clark coun- 
ty, at Montana City and Jefferson City on the 
Prickly Pear, and in other localities. These 
gems were sent east and found their way into 
many cabinets. A few were cut and worn by 
Montana miners. After many years they at- 
tracted the attention of English experts and 
capitalists, and a company was formed to work 
these oUl placers for the sapphires they con- 
tained. Some of these gems are of the largest 
size and purest water, and the colors are 



very brilliant. The variety most common are 
the oriental emerald, the oriental topaz, the 
oriental amethyst and the oriental ruby. No 
gem except the diamond excels them in hard- 
ness and brilliancy. Nearly all varieties of 
garnets are also found in the placers and the 
rocks of the mountains ; many ver>' fine varie- 
ties have been taken from the placers in vari- 
ous parts of the state. The precious garnet, 
the topazolite, the melanite, pyrenite and others 
of yellow, brown, green and red have all been 
found in the placers and rocks. Small emer- 
alds of medium quality have been discovered 
in the gravel and rocks of the mountains. 
Tourmalines have also appeared in the sluice 
boxes of the placer mines, as well as in the 
metamorphic rocks of the Rockies. 

That precious metals existed in the moun- 
tains now within the confines of the present 
state of Montana was believed by the first 
white men that ever set foot in the state. \\'ay 
back in the first half of the eighteenth century 
when Verandyer pushed his way westward to 
the "Shining Mountains," he believed the 
country to be rich with mineral, and he so re- 
ported to the French government. Whether 
this was simply his belief because of the ap- 
pearance of the country, or whether he actu- 
ally discovered precious metals, is not known. 
Then came a period of half a century before 
the country was again visited by white men. 
Lewis and Clark made no mention of having 
discovered the precious metal, and the oper- 
ations of the fur traders, who penetrated near- 
ly every portion of Montana during the first 
half of the nineteenth century, did not bring to 
light the fact that the country was rich in 
minerals. 

It is said that the existence of gold in Mon- 
tana was not unknown to the Jesuit fathers, 
who came to the country in the early forties, 
but they had other motives for making their 
homes in this wild country than the acquiring 
of riches, and glittering gold did not tempt 
them from their ministrations to the Indians. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



7Z 



The credit for being the discoverer of 
gold in Montana is given to a Scotch half breed 
whose name was Francois Finlay, but who was 
known among his associates as "Benetsee." 
Berietsee came originally from the Red River 
of the North and previous to his advent into 
the Rocky mountain country he had been min- 
ing in California, having gone to that land of 
gold shortly after Marshall's disco\'ery. In 
1852 he was engaged in trapping for furs and 
trading with the Indians in that part of the 
Rocky mountain country which is now Powell 
county, Montana. While traveling along the 
border of what is now known as Gold creek, 
near the present day town of Pioneer, Benetsee 
was induced by certain indications to search 
for gold. His prospecting was necessarily of a 
very superficial character, but he found some 
light float gold, but not of sufScient quanity to 
pay for mining. The creek from which the 
half breed took the gold was for a short time 
known as Benetsee creek. 

The next year, 1853, members of the rail- 
road exploring party, being ignorant of Fin- 
lay's discovery took out specimens of gold from 
this same stream. From this circumstance 
the stream was christened Gold creek, which 
name it has ever since retained. These men 
were in the employ of the government, and not 
professional prospectors, otherwise the rich- 
ness of Montana's mountains would doubt- 
less have been heralded to the world a decade 
earlier than was the case. The fact that gold 
was found in this l)ranch of the Hell Gate river 
was passed o\-er with brief comment. 

That gold had been discovered on this little 
creek soon became known to the few moun- 
taineers still in the country and in the spring 
of 1856 a party paid a visit to the spot which 
had been prospected by Benetsee. In the party 
were Robert Hereford. John Saunders, known 
among his intimates as "Long John;" Bill 
Madison and one or two others. They were 
on their way from the Bitter Root valley to Salt 
Lake, after a winter spent trading with the In- 



dians and doing a little prospecting. This party 
found a little more gold than had the half 
breed, and it is said that one piece was found 
which weighed about ten cents. This was 
given to old Captain Grant, who used to show 
it, up to the time of his death in 1862, as the 
first piece of gold found in the country. Con- 
cerning this story Granville Stuart, who was 
one of the party to prospect Gold creek ir. 
1858 has written : 

My own experiertce oi some years mining in that 
vicinity leads me to doubt that party's finding that ten 
cent piece of gold on Benetsee creek, for in all our pros- 
pecting in that vicinity we did not find a piece of that 
size until we went to work sluicing, and although we 
carefully searched that vicinity and the country round- 
ahoiit, yet wi- never found where anyone had dug a 
hole iji- iIk' slightest evidente of any prospecting or 
mining work having been done. Where we found ten 
cents to a pan of gravel in 1858, we dug a hole about 
five feet deep and the ten cents was made up of 
some fifteen or twenty small particles of gold. 

It was also in 1856 that a stranger ap- 
peared at the trading post at Fort Benton with 
over $1,500 worth of the precious metal which 
it was believed had been taken from the moun- 
tains of Montana, which he exchanged for 
goods. The story of this man, who was after- 
wards learned to be John Silverthorne, and his 
mysterious mine, was given to the world by 
Lieutenant James H. Bradley, a gentlemen 
who contributed much data to the early history 
of Montana. We reproduce the tale as told bv 
Mr. Bradley. 

It is probably generally known that the American 
Fur company, founded by Mr. Astor and subsequently 
controlled by Pierre Choteau. Jr., & Co., had a trading 
post af or near the site of the present town of Fort 
Benton in 1832. Major Alexander Culbertson was for 
a number of years in charge of that post, and was at 
the time of which I have to speak, namely, the year 
1856. In the month of October a stranger appeared at 
the fort, coming by the trail from the southwest, now 
the Benton and Helena stage road ; he was evidently an 
old mountaineer, and his object was to purchase supplies 
Producing a sack, he displayed a quantity of yellow 
dust which he claimed was gold, and for which he de- 
manded $i.ooo, offering to take it all in goods. Noth- 
ing was known at the fort of the existence of gold in 



74 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



the adjoining countr>-, and Major Culbertson was loth 
to accept the proffered dust, having doubts of its gen- 
uineness. Besides, even if gold, he was uncertain of its 
value in this crude state, and he was, therefore, about 
to decline it, when an employe of the fort, a young man 
named Ray, came to the aid of the mountaineer, and 
by his assurances as to the genuineness of the gold 
and the value of the quantity offered, induced Major 
Gulbertson to accept it. Still doubtful, however, he 
made it a private transaction, charging the goods to 
his own account. The mountaineer was very reticent 
as to the locality where he obtained his gold, but in 
answer to numerous questions, he stated that he had 
been engaged in prospecting for a considerable period 
in the mountains to the southwest, that his wanderings 
were made alone, and that he had found plenty of gold. 
Receiving in exchange for his dust a supply of horses, 
ammunition, blankets, tobacco, provisions and other sup- 
plies, he quietly left the fort for his return to the moun- 
tains. Major Culbertson never saw or heard from him 
afterward, and was ignorant even of his name. The fol- 
lowing year, 1857, he sent the gold dust through the 
hands of Mr. Choteau to the mint, in due time receiving 
as the yield thereof $1,525, the dust having proved to 
be remarkably pure gold. Thus, as early as 1857, three 
years before Gold Tom hewed out his rude sluice 
boxes on Gold creek, Montana gold had found its way 
to the mint and contributed a small fortune of shining 
pieces to the circulating medium of the country. This 
much I obtained from the lips of Major Culbertson, 
just enough to pique curiosity; and the mysterious 
miner who had been the first to work the rich gulches 
of Montana, made the earliest 'contribution to the world 
of its mineral treasure, and whose subsequent fate 
and very name were unknown, often returned to my 
thoughts to vex me in my apparent powerlessness to 
lift any part of the veil of mystery that shrouded him 
But one day I mentioned the circumstances to Mr. 
Mercure, an old and respected resident of Fort Benton, 
who came to the territory in the interest of the Ameri- 
can Fur company in 1855, To my great satisfaction he 
remembered the old mountaineer, the event of his 
golden visit to the fort having created quite an endur- 
ing impression. When Montana's great mining rush 
began, Mr. Mercure quitted the service of the fur 'com- 
pany and sought the mines. There he met the moun- 
taineer again and immediately recognized him. His 
name was Silverthorne, and his habits were still of the 
solitary character that had distinguished him in former 
days. For several years he remained in the territory, 
occasionally appearing at the settlements with gold in 
abundance; but after supplying his necessities by trade, 
he would again disappear on his lonely rambles. He 
could not be induced to divulge the secret of his dig- 
gings, but always declared that his mine was not a rich 
one. yielding him only four or five dollars a day. Mr. 
Mercure believes, however, from the quantity of gold 
always in the possession of Silverthorne, that he greatly 



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 froin 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 Benton 
had been found in the Kootenai mine north of 
the boundary line. There is no means .0: 
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 
info the Hell Gate valley and prospected a little on 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



75 



Benctsee's or Gold creek. We got gold everywhere, in 
some instances as high as ten cents to the pan, but hav- 
ii'g 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 
i860. 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 tlie 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 i860), 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 loth 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 Mc.^do & 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 29th 
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 pro,s,pecting 
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 Wilson's .creek, 
continued prospecting along Gold creek. 

Walter B. Dance and Colonel Hunkins arrived on 
the loth 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 Mcn-U niiall. with several 
companions, arrived at Gold cr>.ck froiu 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 tlie rich gold fields 
of Montana was brought about, or at any rate 
hastened, by the discovery of the rich Salmon 
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 
througli with wagons, that several almost im- 
passible mountain ranges intervened. Still 
toiling on with a grim determination to reach 



76 



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 wdiere 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 ui 
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 
shortlv afterward built the citv of Bannack, 



were discovered about the first of August, 
1862, and the credit for the discovery is given 
to John 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 \\ hite and John ]McGa\'in 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 what 
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 parr 
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 \\-est to escape from Colorado, which we 
all then thought a sort of Siberia, in which m 
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 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



joint company resol\-ecl to proceed across the 
countr_v to the Sweetwater, and thnnigh the 
south pass. On arri\ing at Plant's station, on 
the Sweetwater, it was found in fiames, the In- 
dians having just made a raid on the stations 
along the whole Hue of the road between the 
Platte bridge and Green ri\-er. 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 ]\IcLean 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 turned 



back and his conversation induced twenty-twj 
of tlie 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 tiine 
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 
tliey 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. Click, David 
Gray, George Gray, George Perkins, \\'illiam 
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, 
diggings, 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. 



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 \vork 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, 



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 Hves, 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 fr>nge 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 tlia* 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 



8o 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



were secretly informed of tlie strike secretly 
informed a few of their friends, and tlie 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. 

The great stampede with its numerous pack 
animals penetrated the dense alder thicket 
which filled the gulch a distance of eight miles. 



.\ fire accidentally started, swept away the al- 
ders for the entire distance in a single night. 
Within a week from the arrival of the first 
miners hundreds of tents, bush wakiups and 
rude log cabins, extemporized for immediate 
occupancy, were scattered at random over the 
gulch, now for the first time trodden by white 
men. For a distance of twelve miles, from the 
mouth of the gulch to its source in Bald moun- 
tain, claims were staked and occupied by the 
men fortunate enough to assert an ownership. 
At once the community became busy in up- 
heaving, sluicing, drifting and cradling the 
seemingly inexhaustible bed of auriferous 
gravel. The extent of the pay streak being un- 
known, the object of every person was to se- 
cure mining ground in the neighborhood of 
that which had been prospected by the discov- 
erers. It was generally believed that the bars 
were the golden safes of nature, and many 
parties neglected and walked over as worth- 
less the richest deposits in the creek in their 
eager search for what they considered the val- 
uable claims. Before the bed rock of the creek 
had been disturbed by the pick the camp was 
deserted by a number of old time miners, who 
informed their friends with confidence that 
there were no paying diggings in the gulch. 
But within thirty days tests were applied by 
hundreds of industrious hands to every place 
that was accessible, and there was revealed the 
auriferous bed of an ancient river which sur- 
passed in magnitude and uniform distribution 
of its golden treasures any placer which has 
been recoreded upon this planet. The placer 
mines there were so extensiive, so easy of de- 
velopment and so prolific that many of the 
miners who commenced work in the gulch in 
the early days of the discovery, fortunate in 
their acquisitions and disgusted with the asso- 
ciations, were ready to return to the states in 
the fall, only a few months after the discovery. 
The hegira at first small, increased in numbers, 
so that bv the first of November hundreds were 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



on their way to their old homes in the east, 
most of whom carried with them a small for- 
tune. 

It was only a matter of a few days for a 
town to spring up at this point — -a town which 
grew so rapidly that within ninety days a city 
of ten thousand people occupied the spot where 
in the spring the foot of white man had not 
trod. The town which first sprung up was 
calle Varina, in honor of the wife of President 
Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States of 
America, the southern sympathizers being very 
numerous in the new camp. Very interestiing 
and typical was the incident which brought 
about the change in the name of the town to 
Virginia City. Dr. Bissel, one of the mining 
judges of the gulch, was an ardent unionist. 
Being called upon to draAv up some legal papers 
before the new name had been generally adop- 
ted, and being requested to date them Varina 
City, he with a very emphatic expletive de- 
clared he would not do it, and wrote instead 
the name Virginia City, by which name the 
town has ever since been known. Nathaniel 
P. Langford has written as follows concerning 
the conditions in Alder gulch as they were dur- 
ing the early period of the camp's historj' : 

Almost simultaneously with the settlement of Vir- 
ginia City, other settlements lower down and farther 
up the gulch were commenced. Those below were 
known by the respective names of Junction, Nevada 
and Central ; those above, Pine Grove, Highland and 
Summit. As Vhe entire gulch for a distance of twelve 
miles was appropriated, the intervals of two or three 
miles between the several nuclei were occupied by the 
cabins of miners, who owned and were developing the 
claims opposite to them, so that in less than three 
months after the discovery, the gulch was really one 
entire settlement. One long stream of active life filled 
the little creek on its auriferous course from Bald moun- 
tain, through a canyon of wild and picturesque char- 
acter, until it emerged into tlie large and fertile valley 
of the Pas-sam-a-ri. Pas-sam-a-ri is a Shoshone word 
for stinking water, and the latter is the name commonly 
given in Montana to the beautiful mountain stream 
which was called by Lewis and Clark in their journal 
"Philantrophy river." Lateral streams of great beauty 
pour down the sides of the mountain chain bounding 
the valley, across which they run to their union with 
6 



the Pas-sam-a-ri. whicli. twenty miles beyond, unites 
with the Beaver Head, one of the forming streams O'f 
the Jefferson. Gold placers were found upon these 
■tre;;nis, and occupied soon after by the settlement at 
Virginia City, though limited in extent was sufficiently 
productive to afford profitable employment to a little 
community of twenty or more miners. * * * 

Of the settlements in Alder gulch, Virginia City 
w^as the principal one, though Nevada, two miles be- 
low, at one time was of nearly equal size and popula- 
tion. A stranger from the eastern states entering the 
gulch for the first time, two or three months after its 
uisc- very, w.julj be inspired by the scene and its asso- 
ciatiLius with reflections of the most strange and novel 
character. This human hive, numbering at least ten 
thousand people, was the product of ninety days. Into 
it were crowded all the elements of a rough and active 
civilization. Thousands of cabins and tents and brush 
wakiups, thrown together in the rougliest .form, and 
scattered at random along the banks, and in the nooks 
of the hills, were seen on every hand. Every foot of 
the gulch, under the active manipulations' of the miners, 
was undergoing displacement, and it was already dis- 
figured by huge heaps of gravel, which had been passed 
through the sluices and rifled of their glittering con- 
tents. In the gulch itself all was activity. Some were 
removing the superincumbent earth to reach the pay 
dirt; others who had accomplished that were gather- 
ing up the clay and gravel upon the surface of the 
bed rock, while by others still it was thrown into the 
sluice boxes. This exhibition of mining activity was 
twelve miles long. 

While there were a thousand claims lo- 
cated in Alder gulch, that was not the only rich 
mining locality. A spur of the mountains 
which runs down between the Stinkingwater 
and the ]\Iadison rivers contained highly pro- 
ductive mines. Wisconsin gulch, so named be- 
cause a Wisconsin company first worked it; 
Biven's gulch, named after its discoverer, cel- 
abrated for coarse gold nuggets weighing over 
three hundred dollars, Harris and California 
gulches, all paid largely. 

The next important placer discovery after 
Alder gulch was Last Chance gulch, where 
now stands the capital city of [Montana — 
Helena. The discovery was made on or about 
the 15th day of July, 1864. The discovery was 
made by four prospectors from Alder gulch, 
who had been unable to secure claims there. 
They were John Cowan, a tall, dark eyed, gray 
haired man from Ackworth, Georgia ; R. Stan- 



82 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



ley, who claimed as his residence the city of 
Attleborough, Nuneaton, England ; J. D. Mil- 
ler, an early California miner; and John Crab, 
who shortly after the discovery returned east. 
From this discovery place $16,000,000 was 
taken, and Last Chance became one of the best 
known mining camps of the countiy. 

The following interesting story of the dis- 
covery of Last Chance was written by R. Stan- 
ley, one of the discoverers, in 1882 : 

It was in the spring of 1864 that the Kootenai 
stampede from Alder gulch took place. During the 
winter extraordinary reports of the "big thing at 
Kootenai" reached the camps, and each particular miner 
not the happy possessor of ground in Alder gulch, was 
in a fever of excitement to reach the new Eldorado, 
the land of rushing torrents and large nuggets. Among 
these, allured by the northern will-o'-the-wisp, were 
four miners — Cowan, Crab, Miller and Stanley — after- 
ward known as the discoverers of Last Chance dig- 
gings, and at the time our story commences they were 
encamped in one of the valleys of the Hell Gate river 
on the Kootenai trail. Encamped beside them was a 
certain Jim Coleman and party, whom they had that 
evening run against, bearing the unwelcome news that 
"Kootenai was piayed out," and that they were on their 
way back to Alder gulch. Still the idea of returning 
to Alder gulch with three months' flour and bacon in 
their pan-fleshes could not be entertained, and the ad- 
vice of one of the party, who had crossed the range 
with Captain Fiske's party the previous summer, to 
try on the Little Blackfoot (where they had found 
gold in small quantities), and failing there, to cross the 
range and prospect the gulches on the eastern slope 
r- nr.-.r.g toward the Missouri river, was readily accepted. 
Next morning, bidding Coleman's party farewell, they 
took t^eir course eastward up the Hell Gate River. 
They were accompanied on the start by an individual 
named Moore, who left the party to join some friends 
prospecting on Silver creek before the discovery of 
Last Chance was made. They tried the Little Black- 
foot well, but could find nothing better than a good 
color. Following up the stream through an amphithea- 
tre of circling mountains, they turned southward up the 
stream, and as they began to rise rapidly into the 
mountains, each vista that opened before them was a 
scene of loveliness, the river for some distance being 
a succession of magnificent cascades. Nearing the sum- 
mit of the gulch the trail which they had found so 
useful became more and more indistinct, and eventu- 
ally faded out altogether. The second day not bringing 
relief found the party rather demoralized, but still 
■ pegging away : but a few yards before them was all 
they could see, and the advisability of returning on 



their trail before they became further involved was 
more than once mooted. Fortunately toward evening 
the weather cleared up, and above the tops of the 
small pines by which they were enveloped, a rocky 
point was seen to tower, and toward this, when the 
camp was made, one of the travelers proceeded to 
climb. The view that met his gaze from the rocky 
summit was one long to be remembered and well re- 
paid the exertions he had used t& obtain it. It was 
like a pass into fairy land. Across the intervening 
mountain tops lay stretched a lovely valley through 
which several streams were seen to wind, and away 
in the distance the blue mountains of another range 
were plainly visible, while between the course of an 
important river could be traced, which he rightly con- 
cluded was none other than the mighty Missouri itself. 
The good news greatly revived the spirits of the party 
and banished the inclination to take the back trail 
through the detestable pine thickets ; though some skep- 
ticism as to the whereabouts of the Missouri was still 
expressed, which the offer to bet a pony he could reach 
it in a day's journey from where they stood, soon put a 
stop to. 

Next morning the descent began ; at first rather 
steep, but they soon found a game trail in a small 
gulch, which made traveling easy. The difficulties of 
crossing the range were over, and as fresh scenes of 
enchantment opened before them, they fully experienced 
the joy of those who tread the unknown and unex- 
plored. Though the range had been icrossed for years 
at other points not far distant, as far as white men 
were concerned, they claimed to have been the first to 
cross it from the Little Blackfoot gulch. Game abounded 
on every hand and was so unreasonably tame as 
scarcely to offer decent sport in killing when required 
for food. Proceeding down the gulch, a stately elk 
bounded out, and stood at short range surveying the 
strange party who had thus been the first to invade 
his domain, necessitating a camp, in what the writer 
believes was called Seven-Mile gulch ; at any rate it 
was the first gulch north of what was afterward 
known as the Last Chance gulch. Here they 
remained prospecting for some time, but, like on 
the Little Blackfoot, they could find nothing more 
than a good color. Following down the gulch they 
descended into the valley of the Prickly Pear, and 
turning to the right they camped for dinner on the 
banks of Last Chance creek. The valley seemed lit- 
erally a hunter's paradise ; immense droves of antelope 
were feeding on the plain, and along the margin of the 
stream the white-tail deer were seen to be plentiful. 
On their first appearance in the valley, between Seven- 
Mile and Last Chance, they were reconnoitered by a 
small band of the former animals, w'hich careered 
around them until their curiosity was cruelly satisfied 
by the crack of a rifle, which laid one of their number 
low. . Dinner over, the travelers reclined under the 
shade of some small trees and dis'cussed the situation. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



83 



with the result that they would take their course north- 
ward along the range and prospect the gulch, at the 
mouth of which they were encamped on their return, 
if nothing better turned up in the mountains. How- 
ever, before saddling up, two of the party strolled to 
the creek side, just to try a superficial pan of dirt. 
Scratching a hole to the rimrock of a small bar, to 
their surprise a first rate color was obtained, which 
induced them to make further and more systematic 
trials, but all ended in the same result — colors contin- 
ually — until they began to think the whole country was 
nothing but colors, and, almost in vexation at their tan- 
talizing luck, they decided to pack up and go. No dis- 
covery had yet been made in Last Chance gulch. 

Northward they went digging holes innumerable 
— here, there and everywhere — but finding nothing to 
stick to. Up the Dearborn to the headwaters of the 
Teton and Marias rivers, where they found an excel- 
lent prospect of grizzlies, but none of gold. The further 
north they went the more unlikely it looked— flat 
table-topped mountains, showing the action of water 
more than fire, took the place of the volcanic range they 
had lately crossed. Their stock of provisions was fast 
diminishing. With the exception of grizzlies game 
was very scarce, and the former they were not in search 
of. * * * Turning southward as they took their course 
for Alder gulch, their daily remark was, "That little 
gulch on the Prickly Pear is our last chance ; if we don't 
find pay there we streak it straight for camp." And so it 
became known as Last Chance gulch before the discov- 
ery was made. They reached the spot again one after- 
noon on or about the 15th of July and made their camp 
a short distance up the gulch, near to where the First 
National bank was built in 1866. That evening they put 
two good holes down to bed-rock, one on each side of 
the creek. When the rock 'was reached the hole oh 
the north side was found to prospect well. Several 
flat pieces of gold that would weigh quite half a dollar 
were taken out : there was no mistake about it — the 
little nuggets fell into the ringing pan with a musfc 
particularly their own, a sound grateful to the ears of 
our four wanderers. The gravel prospected to the 
top of the ground, and they were experienced enough 
to know that at last Dame Fortune had kindly smiled 
upon them. Long into the night they sat around the 
fire, too pleased to turn in. Within each bosom had 
bloomed the hope of making the home-stake and seeing 
friends and kindred once again ; and when they slept 
it was to dream of civilization and of enjoying a good 
square meal. 

Hundreds of miners swarmed into Last 
Chance g-ulch as soon as the news of the dis- 
covery was made known, and only a few days 
after the discovery mining was commenced. A 
miners' meeting was held on Last Chance 
creek on ]u\v 20, when the following laws and 



regulations were adopted for the government 
of the camp : 

That the gulch be named Last Chance gulch, and 
the district in which the discovery is made be named 
Rattlesnake district, to extend down three miles, and 
up to the m.outh of the canyon, and across from sum- 
mit to summit. That mining claims in this district ex- 
tend for two hundred feet up and down the gulch, and 
■from summit to summit. That no person be allowed 
to hold more than one claim by preemption, and one 
by purchase, except as regards the discovery claims. 
That each member of the discovery party be entitled 
to hold, in addition to 200 feet by preemption, 100 feet 
for a discovery claim. That the discovery party shall 
have the prior right to the use of the gulch water. 
That claims when pre-empted shall be staked and re- 
corded. 

A supplementary regulation was adopted 
on August 3rd, as follows : 

That any person, besides his own claim, be allowed 
to record one for his actual partner, and one only, 
and that he can represent both ; but if a partner be so 
recorded for, it must be specified, and the name given 
in full. That all claims must be recorded within three 
days of location. 

It was not long before preparations were 
made for the laying out of a town in the new 
camp, and on the 30th day of October a meet- 
ing was held to select a name and provide for 
a town government. The meeting was held 
in the cabin of George J. Wood, and there 
were present, among others, Geo. J. Wood, 
Orison Miles, Abraham Mast, A. Peck, John 
Cowan, Robert Stanley, T. E. Cooper, C. L. 
Cutler, John Clore, Dr. Sales, John Somer- 
ville, H. Bruce, Folsom, Wilder, O. D. Keep, 
Murray, Marshall, Burke, Henry Sellick, P. 
B. Anthony, John Scannell and others. The 
naming of the town was the all important sub- 
ject, and the name Helena was selected only 
after many ballots had been taken and the sttb- 
ject had been discussed at some length. Some 
desired the place to be named after John Cow- 
an, one of the discoverers, Robert Stanley, an- 
other of the discoverers, or G. J. Wood, a man 
who took a very active interest in the camp's 
affairs. These propositions were all voted 



84 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



down. The light hearted disposition of the 
meeting is evidenced by the fact that among 
the other names proposed were Pumpkinville, 
Squashtown, Tomahawk, Tomah and other ti- 
tles of like nature. Finally the name St. Hel- 
ena was proposed by John Somerville, a jovial 
frontiersman from Minnesota. The name was 
finally shortened to Helena, and as such was 
adopted by one or two votes over Tomah. 
which was the only other name that was seri- 
ously considered. Mr. Somerville was very 
emphatic in his efiforts to have the town named 
Helena, and among other arguments put forth 
was that Helena meant "a place far in the in- 
terior of the country." In a letter to J. H. 
Mills written in 1885, Mr. Thos. E. Cooper 
told of the selection of the name as 'follows : 
"The question of naming the town came up, 
and there being a great diversity of opinion as 
to the name the town should bear, and not be- 
ing able to agree, the chairman, Somerville, 
got up and stated as follows : 'That he be- 
longed to the best country in the world, and 
lived in the best state (Minnesota) in that 
country, and in the best county (Scott) of that 
state, and in the best town (Helena) in that 
county, and by the eternal this town shall bear 
that name.' " 

During the winter and spring succeeding 
the discovery of Last Chance other rich plac- 
ers were found in the vicinity. The town of 
Helena w^as located upon what was called Dry 
gulch, which could not be worked until water 
ditches were constructed. Oro Fino and 
Grizzly gulches united half a mile above the 
town, forming the celebrated Last Chance 
gulch. Nelson's gulch headed in the moun- 
tains and ran into Ten-Mile creek. South 
from these were a number of rich gulches run- 
ning into Prickly Pear river. Confederate 
gulch, east of the Missouri river and southeast 
from Helena; Ophir gulch, west of the range 
and thirty miles from Helena; McClellan 
gulch, in the same neighborhood as the Ophir, 
and others all proved to be rich finds. John L. 



^NlcClellan was the discoverer of IVIcClellan 
gulch, and the Ophir was found by Bratton, 
Pemberton and others. For 150 miles north 
and south of Helena and 100 east of and west 
of the same point, mines of exceeding richness 
were discovered in 1865 and 1866. First 
Chance gulch, a tributary of Bear gulch, in 
Deer Lodge county, yielded nearly $1,000 a 
day with one sluice and one set of hands. New 
York gulch and ^Montana bar, in ^ileagher 
county, were fabulously productive. 

In the fall of 1864 rich placer discoveries 
were made in the vicinity of Butte, and the 
first mining district there was formed with 
William Allison as president and G. O. Hum- 
phreys as recorder. The old town of Butte 
came into existence in the fall of that year. 
It \vas located on what was known as Town 
gulch, adjoining the present townsite of Butte. 
Among the discoveries of 1864 was the Silver 
Bow^ or Summit Mountain district, at the head- 
waters of Deer Lodge river, on Silver Bow 
creek. The discovery was made in July by 
Bud Baker, Frank Ruff, Joseph Ester, James 
Ester, Peter Slater and others. The initial 
discovery was below the point where Silver 
Bow City now stands. The name of Silver 
Bow was given by these discoverers because of 
the shining and beautiful appearance of the 
creek, which here sweeps in a crescent among 
the hills. As was always the case when a new 
strike was made people began to pour in. A 
new district was formed at the lower end of 
the gulch, and named Summit ^Mountain Min- 
ing district, of w-hich \\'. R. Coggswell was 
recorder. The district was twelve miles in 
length, and besides the discovery gulch, there 
were twenty-one discovei'ed and worked in 
the following five years and about as many 
more were worked after the introduction of 
water ditches in 1869. During the winter of 
1864-65 there were probably 150 men in Silver 
Bow and vicinity, and many claims were re- 
corded. In the spring of 1865 Summit Moun- 
tain district was divided, claims No. 75 to 310, 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



85 



above discovery on Silver Bow creek, were 
organized into Independence district. From 
1864 to 1869 there were taken from these 
gulches $1,894,300 in gold dust. In the fall 
of 1864 German gulch was discovered by Ed 
Alfield and others. In the spring of 1865 a 
big stampede took place for the new discovery, 
and on the first of April there were nearly 
1,000 men in German gulch. 

While the discovery of the most noted 
placer gulches had been made in 1863 and 
1864, the year 1865 witnessed the discovery of 
more mines of great richness and immigration 
to ^Montana continued at a rapid rate. During 
that year Elk creek, Bear, Lincoln and High- 
land gulches, in Deer Lodge county, and New 
York gulch and Montana bar, in Meagher 
county (already referred to) began their con- 
tributions to the mint. In 1869 another rich 
placer discovery was made on Cedar creek, in 
]\Iissoula county. 

While these rich discoveries were being 
made in different parts of the territory and 
many were making their fortunes by a few 
months' work, there were always many in each 
camp who were unable to secure claims, but 
who were always on the lookout for new 
strikes, ready at a moment's notice to pack up 
and set out for new diggings. One of the most 
noted stampedes of the early days which re- 
sulted in disaster was made for the Sun river 
country in 1866. One, McClellan, left Helena 
between two days looking wise and intimating 
that he had as good a thing as he wanted. Sev- 
eral hundred set out with all speed through 
deepest snow and coldest weather, scarcely tak- 
ing time to cook a meal or to rest at night, 
fearing some other party would get in ahead. 
No gold was found at the end of the trip, and 
many deaths resulted from exposure. 

The first arrival of hydraulic machinery in 
Montana was in November, 1865, when the 
Nelson Hydraulic Mining Co. imported four 
engines of ten horse power, throwing water 
eighty feet high, with iron piping and India 



rubber hose extensions. Another powerful hy- 
draulic machine was imported by N. G. Mc- 
Comb in September, 1866, and put up on Zol- 
ler's bar,. near Bannack. The construction of bed 
rock flumes and extensive ditches was only just 
begun. There were five hundred or more 
gulches in Montana which produced well and 
about twenty that were remarkal>ly rich. Some 
were soon exhausted, but a good number paid 
well for the introduction of improved means of 
mining. As early as 1867 there were over 
32 miles of ditching at French bar, near Can- 
yon ferry, east of Helena, and 96 flumes, the 
cost of which was $75,000, and was at that 
period the largest improvement of that kind in 
Montana. The Boulder ditch, owned by ]Mc- 
Gregor, Metcalf & Speigle, of California, 
which supplied the mines around Diamond 
City, was five miles long and cost $60,000. The 
excessive cost of work was occasioned by hav- 
ing to use 1,716 feet of pipe in crossing Con- 
federate gulch. The Eldorado bar ditch, north 
of French bar, was four and one-half miles 
long and cost $50,000; and many smaller 
ditches had been constructed east of the Mis- 
souri, whose aggregate cost was about a quar- 
ter of a million. The ten mile ditch at Helena 
was completed in June, 1867. It was built by 
Henry B. Truett, who came to Montana in 
1866. Deer Lodge county had in 1869 nearly 
three hundred miles of ditches, costing $498,- 
000, and carrying an aggregate of 20,350 
inches of water. A nine mile ditch, carr\-ing 
2,500 inches of water, was completed to Nor- 
wegian gulch, in Madison county, in 1876. A 
flume was completed to Confederate gulch in 
1879. There had been one built in 1876. 
which a flood destroyed. It was rebuilt liy the 
owner, James King. It was but one mile in 
length, but it was estimated that it would re- 
quire twenty-five years of constant work to 
exhaust the ground controlled by it. 

It has been estimated that during the first 
twenty years of Montana's placer mining his- 
tory fully $150,000,000 was taken from the 



86 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



ground, and the stories of the handhng of 
some of the large finds are highly interesting. 
Old residents of Helena still love to relate that 
on the morning of the i8th of August, 1866. 
two wagons loaded with a half ton each of 
gold, guarded by an escort of 15 men, depos- 
ited their freight at Hershfield & Co.'s bank 
on Bridge street, this treasure having been 
taken from Montana bar and Confederate 
gulch in less than four months by two men 
and their assistants. And Helena bankers are 
still pleased to mention that in the autumn of 

1866 a four-mule team drew two and one-half 
tons of gold from Helena to Fort Benton, for 
transportation down the Missouri ri\er, most 
of which came from those celebrated mines in 
one season, and the value of which freight was 
$1,500,000. The treasure belonged to John 
Shineman, A. Campbell, C. J. Friedrichs and 
T. Judson. 

During the early days the "dust," as it was 
called, was the only money in circulation, and 
it was passed currently at eighteen dollars an 
ounce without regard to quality. Every busi- 
ness house, hotel, saloon and ofifice was pro- 
vided with scales for weighing it. In 1879 
the United States assay office was opened in 
Helena, where gold and silver bullion was re- 
ceived on deposit. This proved a relief to the 
miners, who had before been forced to send 
their bullion east at exorbitant charges. 

]\Iany are the stories told of the richness 
of some of the claims staked by fortunate min- 
ers, and nearly every claim had its famous nug- 
get. In Brown gulch, five miles from Vir- 
ginia City, the gold was coarse and nuggets 
of ten ounces or more were not uncommon. In 

1867 a miner named Yager found in Fair- 
weather gulch, on J. McEvily's claim, a piece 
of gold oblong in shape, with a shoulder at 
one end and worn smooth, weighing fifteen 
pounds, two ounces. One nugget was found 
in a tributary of Snowshoe gulch in 1865 
which weighed 178 ounces troy, and was worth 
$3,200. In July, 1865, a nugget was found in 



the claim of Maxwell, Rollins & Co., in Nel- 
son's gulch, which was worth $2,073. I" the 
same gulch, from J. H. Roger's claim, one 
worth $1,650 was found. From Deitrick & 
Brother's claim in Rocker gulch, in 1867, a 
piece of gold worth $1,800 was found. Three 
valuable nuggets were taken from the claim of 
Captain Tandy on Scratch Gravel in 1875 ^""^ 
1876, weighing $375, $475 and $550. From 
McClellan's gulch on the Blackfoot river, $30,- 
000 was taken from one claim in eleven days 
by five men. From a claim, No. 8, below Dis- 
covery claim, on the same gulch, $12,584 was 
taken out in five days. The dirt back of Black- 
foot City paid from twenty cents to one hun- 
dred forty dollars to the pan. 

So far we have spoken only of the placer 
mines, although the discovery of quartz ledges 
and the mining of quartz was contemporan- 
eous with that of the Bannack placers of 1862. 
Because of the richness of the placer mines 
very little was done in the direction of quartz 
mining in the early days, and almost without 
exception dismal failures resulted from at- 
tempts in that direction prior to 1870. People 
were not content to await slower returns that 
come from quartz mining, when the gold could 
be picked from the ground with comparative 
little expense. An authority on" the mines of 
Montana has stated that a few thousand dol- 
lars would have been sufficient to buy all the 
great bonanzas of Butte even as late as 1870. 
In August, 1864, however, there were fourteen 
gold mills in operation in the territory, of 
which ten were steam mills. The number of 
stamps employed at that time was 195, with 
several arrastras, all valued at a half million 
dollars. Some idea of the condition of quartz 
mining in the early days may be gleaned from 
the report of A. K. Eaton, made in 1867, as 
follows : 

.\ large number of mills for the working of gold 
ores have been erected in the territory, and few of 
them with more than partial success. The reason is 
obvious and in their partial failure, mining history only 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



87 



repeats itself. Some of them are to that untried char- 
acter of which it may be said that whilst they show in 
construction some new features and some good ones, 
unfortunately the new things are not good and the 
good points are not new. Novel inventions, even if 
capable of success, are inevitably destined to failure 
in a new country. The principal difficulty, however, 
has been in the irmperfect management of these dilTer- 
ent enterprises, arising sometimes from the incapacity 
of agents, but more frequently from the impossibility 
of anticipating in a country new and undeveloped, the 
exact requirements of the case. One great error has 
been made by almost all. It has arisen from the over- 
sanguine belief that quartz could be mined in quantity 
without preliminary expense in development. The mills 
are erected, tlie money and patience of the proprietors 
exhausted, and with untold wealth the machinery is 
left to rust and rot for want of ore. Today nearly 
every mill in the territory could be worked most profit- 
ably by the expenditure of a few thousand dollars in 
the thorough opening of the mines belonging to them. 

So early as 1861 there was published in 
the San Francisco Bulletin (August 28th) the 
testimony of an old California miner who had 
prospected in the Rocky mountain region to 
the effect that he had counted seven quartz 
lodes in one mountain. 

The first lode worked was the Dakota, 
bearing gold quartz, which was discovered 
near Bannack and located November 12, 1862. 
The Dakota was a large, irregular shaped 
vein, carrying free gold, varying from three 
to eight feet in thickness. The decomposed 
quartz from the surface of the vein was packed 
down from the bald hill on wdiich it was sit- 
uated to the creek, where the gold was panned 
out. A mill to crush the quartz was begun by 
William Arnold in the winter of 1862 and was 
finished by J. F. Allen the following spring, 
the motive power for the mill being water. The 
mill was erected out of such material as was 
at hand. The stamp stems, four in number, 
were made of wood ; the shoes and dies of old 
wagon tires welded together. Nearly all the 
material that w-ent into the mill was furnished 
by the wagons abandoned at this point by the 
Salmon river emigrants. Out of the wagon 
tires, in a common blacksmith shop, were fash- 
ioned the stamps, weighing four hundred 



pounds each. Out of this simple and econom- 
ical contrivance more gold was extracted than 
from some mills that were erected later that 
cost ten times as much. This primative affair 
was followed in 1863 by the erection of other 
mills which had been transported from Color- 
ado and the east and from that time on the gold 
quartz near Bannack gave employment to sev- 
eral mills. The first steam quartz mill was put 
up in Bannack by Hunkins. Walter C. Hopkins 
placed a steam mill on No. 6 Dakota in August, 
1866. The Bullion Mining company owned a 
mill in 1866, having three Bullock crushers. 
This mill was placed on New York ledge. The 
East Bannack Gold and Silver Mining com- 
pany owned a mill in 1866, which was oper- 
ated on the Shober ledge, and of which David 
Worden was manager. The Butterfield mill 
and the Kirby and Clark mill were also in oper- 
ation near Bannack in 1866. During the same 
year N. E. Wood placed a Bullock patent 
crusher on Dakota No. 12 for the New Jersey 
company. 

After the Bannack discoveries the next 
quartz locations were made in the vicinity of 
Helena, where on September 27, 1864, James 
W. Whitlatch discovered the famous Union 
lode. Concerning this discovery and the early 
working of quartz mines in the Helena neigh- 
borhood we quote from the history of Montana 
by H. H. Bancroft : 

In September, 1864. James W. Whitlatch, not much 
cultured in book learning, but with great shrewdness 
and an indomitable will, who had become acquainted 
with mining and milling ores in Nevada and Colorado, 
was looking for a quartz location, having prospected 
in several districts before he came to Prickly Pear, 
where he tried working some silver bearing galena 
ores which proved intractable from the presence of 
copper and antimony. The expenditure in the country 
nf hi.eh prices reduced his exchequer to naught, and he 
sought Last Chance gulch, there to encamp for the 
winter with eight companions. The placers were 
paying enormously, and believing that quartz is the 
mother of placer gold, he began searching for the veins. 
In this search he was assisted by his eight messmates, 
who, having less faith, and desiring to test their for- 
tunes in the placer diggings, bound him to an agree- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



ment to give up the pursuit if at the close of a cer- 
tain day of the month he had not found his bonanza. 
The day was drawing to a close and his cornipanions 
had returned to camp when Whitlatch caught sight 
of a fragment of quartz, which on being broken open 
by his pick showed free gold. It was with a quickened 
pulse that he struck it in to the earth and uncovered 
the long sought lode. 

This was the famous Whitlatch mine. In order to 
work it a company was formed of succeeding claimants, 
called the Whitlatch Union Mining Company. In 1864- 
6s there was taken out a good quantity of ore worth 
on an average of $40 per ton, and in September, 1866, 
the mill of the National Mining and Exploring Com- 
pany commenced crushing it, followed by several others 
which were erected in this and the follcnving year. 
These were the Tuniley, Hendie, Sensenfelder & Whit- 
latch and Ricker & Price mills, the first two erected 
in 1866. Over 32,000 tons were worked before the close 
of 1867, yielding $1,001,500. The cost of mining and 
milling ores in Montana at this period was enormous, 
being $7 per ton to get out the ore and from $15 to $18 
for crusihing it, in gold, when gold was worth a pre- 
mium of 100 per cent. The profit was, therefore, small, 
but such as it was, Whitlatch, with the true enterprise 
of a pioneer, devoted himself to the further development 
of his own and neighboring mines. IXL, owned by 
J. C. Ricker and M. A. Price, was claim No. i west 
from Whitlatch discovery claim. Whitlatch & Sen- 
senfelder was claim No. 3 east and claim No. 3 west 
on the lode, from discovery, a half interest in which 
was sold to Sensenfelder in June, 1869, and a thirty 
stamp mil! erected thereon. The property was resold 
to a Philadelphia company under the name of the 
Columbia Mining Company of Montana, managed by 
B. H. Tatem. Claim No. 4 east was owned equally by 
this company and E. Mansfield & Co. Claim No. 2 
east was owned by Mansfield and E. Hodson. The 
westward extension on the Union lode was called the 
Parkinson and was owned by J. W. Whitlatch, J. Park- 
inson and C. McClure. On the extension the Essex 
Mining company, composed of Thomas Parkinson, W. 
Parkinson, Thomas Argj-le and C. McClure, owned 
1800 feet. They received a patent for the ground from 
the United States, the first granted in Montana under 
a law of Congress concerning quartz claims. The mill 
site included ten acres on Grizzly gulch, one-quarter 
mile from the mine. More fortunate than many other 
men of his class, he secured a fortune for his own uses. 
The discovery of the Whitlatch lode led to a quartz 
excitement, not only about Helena, but in every other 
part of Montana. The Cliff was a promising lode at 
Helena, discovered by Worden & Hall, on which eigh- 
teen claims were located, nine of 'which were consoli- 
dated in one company known as the Croesus' Mining 
company. The crevice of the Cliff was from 20 to 200 
feet wide, and it rose in many places 30 feet above the 
surface. It formed a dividing line between the slate 



and granite formations. It crossed the gulches in the 
vicinity of Helena, all of which paid well below it, and 
none paid above it, from which it would appear that it 
must have been the source of their riches. The Owyhee 
Park mines also were famous in 1866. Prof. Hodge 
was agent of the National Mining and Exploring com- 
pany of New York, which owned them. Turnley's 
mill commenced running on the ores in the latter part 
of August, 1866. The Bullion Mining company, of 
Nilson's gulch, commenced crushing their ores in No- 
vember, 1866. The Sultana, at the head of Grizzly 
gulch, had a ten stamp mill erected by J. Gormley & Co. 
at work in November also. It w'as erected by Richard 
Fisher. His partner, Clifford^ was superintendent for 
a New York company which owned five mills in 
Georgia before the rebellion. The property being con- 
fiscated, Clifford migrated to Colorado and mined there 
five years before coming to Montana. Among other 
mines partially opened in 1865 near Helena was the 
Uncle Sam, owned by a miner from Scotland named 
Brown, who had formerly worked on the Gould and 
Curry lode of Nevada. This mine was said at the pe- 
riod of its discovery to be the richest in the known 
world, being a well defined ledge five feet wide, three- 
fourths of which was pure gold, and the remainder 
principally bismuth. The quartz containing the vein, 
it was stated, would assay from $500 to $2,000. Making 
every allowance for over-enthusiasm, the Uncle Sam 
was undoubtedly a mine of very unusual richness, with 
one of those bonanzas at the top which have not been 
altogether unknown in other mines. 

While the niills were pounding out the gold 
in the Bannack and Helena districts, quartz 
mining was being also carried on in the vicin- 
ity of Virginia City. In Summit district, five 
miles south of Virginia City, four mills were 
soon at work running on ores taken from mines 
near the capital city. Also in Hot Springs dis- 
trict, thirty miles north of Virginia City, there 
was considerable activity and three mills were 
kept busy. The first mill erected in Madison 
county was the Idaho, which began pounding 
ore with twelve stamps in December, 1865. 
It was not successful and was replaced by 
another about a j-ear later. The following 
year Seneca Falls mill, in a large frame struc- 
ture, with excellent machinery ; Scranton mill, 
with a Dodge crusher, in a stone building; and 
Excelsior mill, with twenty stamps, in a fine 
large building, were added to the Idaho mill. 
In a gulch just below Summit was the Forest 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



mill with twenty-four stamps, which crushed 
the ore from the Mesler lode. A fifty stamp 
mill arrived the same year for the Mill creek 
mines, the owners of which were J. A. Dowdall, 
Manlius Branham and C. C. Branham. The 
first run was made on the Lady Suffolk lode. 
Two mills arrived in Summit in October for 
Frank Chistnot from Nebraska City. The 
best known lodes of Summit district were the 
Yankee Blade, Lucas, Caverone, Oro Cache 
and Keystone. There was a mill belonging to 
Raglan, Cope & Naptoon, a custom mill, and 
one to the Clark & Upson Mining Co., of which 
company Prof. Eaton was the agent. The 
mines in the Hot Springs district which were 
worked at this period were the Cotopaxi, Gold 
Hill, Esop, Oro Fino, Sebastapol, Buena Vista, 
Poco Tiempo, Alpha, Cleopatra, Mark Antony, 
May Reid, Megatherium, Brooklyn and Pony, 
the last named being the leading mine. There 
were several other mills running in this vicin- 
ity in 1867, owned by H. A. Ward, McAn- 
drews, Warre & Co., Isaac and L. W. Borton. 
At Pipestone, a few miles north of Hot 
Springs, a mill was erected in 1866. At Fish 
creek, a short distance south of Pipestone, the 
Red Mountain district was opened too late 
that season for the introduction of mills. 

Other important quartz mining districts in 
the sixties were Trout Creek, Crow Creek, 
Silver Bow, Blackfoot and McCIellan. Again 
we quote from Bancroft concerning the mines 
in these districts : 

Northeast of and within about fifteen miles of 
Helena, on the east side of the Missouri, was the Trout 
Creek district, in which both mills and arrastras were 
busily at work grinding and pounding out gold from 
rock of great richness, at a place 'called New York, 
on a creek flowing into the Missouri, with a Brooklyn 
on the opposite side, the two towns having a population 
of about 400. Jo'hn A. Gaston, one of the first comers, 
and an Englishman, was associated with Sim'pson in a 
thirty stamip quartz mill. Each stamp weighed 600 
pounds and dropped thirty-five times a minute, pound- 
ing 22 tons in 24 hours. It started up August 28, 1866. 
A water power mill, with an eleven foot overshot -wheel, 
■was located west of the steam mill and carried six 



joo-pound stamps, crushing a ton a day eaich. This 
was the pioneer mill of the Trout Creek district and 
belonged to Wessel & Wilkes, and started August 25. 
It was an arastra attached. Another water mill was 
erected by Cullen, and a twenty stamp steam mill by 
Hendrie & Cass, during the summer. An arastra be- 
longing to Rumlay & Watrous consisted of a circular 
basin twelve feet in diameter, with five mullers, weigh- 
ing in the aggregate 3,000 pounds. It reduced l.ooo 
pounds of ore in six hours, and was run by water 
power for an overall, it wheel, eight feet in diameter. 

The Star of the W'e-t wa- tlie first ledge developed 
in this district. Seven terns yielded $387.50 in Wessel 
& Wilkes' arrastra, at a total expense of $97.50. The 
Nonpareil, Grizzly, Alta, Excelsior No. 2, Little Giant, 
Zebra, Chief of Montana, Hidbard, Trout, Keystone, 
Humbolt, Sampson and Old Dad were more or less 
worked in 1866. The mines, both placer and quartz, 
were discovered in January by four hunters returning 
from an exploring expedition to Sun river. These men 
were ^loore, Price, Ritter and Spivey, The valley of 
Trout creek was two and one-half by one and one- 
fourth miles in extent. The stream furnished the 
famous New York gulches and numerous bars. 

In June, 1866, quartz and placer mines were dis- 
covered on Crow creek, on the west side of the Mis- 
souri, nearly due west of the south end of the Belt 
range of mountains, which has furnished so great a 
number of good mines on the east side. At this place 
the town of Radersburg was laid out in October, one 
mile from the road leading from Helena to 
Gallatin. The first lode found was the Blipp, by J. A. 
Cooper and George Beard. The Johnny Keating and 
Blacher, Ironclad, Leviathan, Twilight, Nighthawk, 
Ohio, Ultramarine. Robert E. Lee and twenty others 
were located during the summer. The district was a 
rich one and Radersburg had in 1868 six hundred in- 
habitants. 

In the Silver Bow and Blackfoot regions quartz 
was being daily discovered. In December, 1865, there 
had been discovered the Lioness, Rocker, Shamrock, 
Original, Alhambra, Wild Pat, Mountaineer, Polar 
Star, Lepley, Dewey, Arctic, Fairmont and a host of 
others. Quartz was discovered near McCIellan gulch 
by Henry Prosser and Charles Melvin, i.ooo feet of 
which sold for $10,000. This was the Glencofe mine. 
But there appears to have been no mills introduced 
west of the Rocky mountains until later. 

We have next to consider the silver mining 
histoiy of Montana. In minin,g countries the 
usual succession is first placer mining, then 
quartz gold mining, and lastly silver quartz 
mining. But in Montana the discovery of gold 
and silver quartz was made at almost the same 
time. The first experiment with silver quartz 



90 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



was made in the Blue Wing and Rattlesnake 
districts, a few miles east and northeast of 
Bannack. The first lodes of the Blue Wing 
district where the Huron, Wide West, Blue 
Wing, Arizona and Silver Rose; of the Rattle- 
snake district. Legal Tender, White Cloud, 
New World, Watson and Dictator. The ores 
carried enough galena to make them reducible 
by the smelting process, furnaces being set 
up in 1866 by several companies. James A. 
jMcKnight, an authority on the mines of Mon- 
tana, has written concerning the first silver 
mill erected within the state : "The first silver 
mill was unquestionably the old Pioneer. The 
pans for this mill were shipped by wagon all 
the way from San Francisco, and in crossing 
the Rio Virgin, in southern Utah, the team 
sunk in the quicksand and the pans were buried 
there for several weeks till they could be dug 
out and raised from the river by derricks." 

The first smelter was erected at Marj'sville 
by the New York & Montana Mining, Pros- 
pecting and Discovering company. Their sci- 
entist was W. K. Eaton, and their general 
manager, E. Loring Pratt. In 1868 the St. 
Louis Smelting company erected furnaces at 
Argenta. The Rocky Mountain Gold and Sil- 
ver Mining company put up a cupelling fur- 
nace at Marysville, just east of Bannack. The 
ore smelted was from the Wide West in Blue 
Wing district. A blasting furnace was erected 
by Prof. Eaton; a furnace and a twenty-four 
stamp mill by Duran & Co. ; a cupel furnace in 
the Rattlesnake district by Professor Augustus 
Steitz, on Legal Tender lode. The ore yielded 
80 percent lead. The mine was owned by Es- 
ler and others. The Stapleton and Henry Clay 
ores were also worked in this furnace. The 
Huron Silver ^^lining company' also erected 
furnaces. 

This beginning created a sort of epidemic 
of silver mining. The fact that placer mines 
were not being discovered as rapidly as had 
been the case during the first few years of the 
rush to Montana led more people to turn their 



attention to quartz mining. In the rich and 
fertile valleys, where no one dreamed of look- 
ing for mineral, cropped up legions of silver 
lodes, notably in the country about the three 
forks of the ]\Iissouri. Silver Bow creek, 
which had received its name because of the 
shiny crescent of water which the creek 
formed, now meant that the crescent was 
backed by a wall of silver leads. Among the 
other early silver discoveries were in Jefferson 
county, notably the Gregory, owned by Axers 
& Mimmaw. 

The activity in mining circles, which had 
prevailed during the early days, began to wane 
about 1869, and during the few years follow- 
ing Montana was in comparative poverty. 
Large streams of gold were continually pour- 
ing out of the country, and the population was 
diminishing, owing to the migration of miners 
to new discoveries in other parts of the coun- 
try and the natural desire of many to return 
to their homes in the east as soon as they had 
made a "stake." Besides the precious metals 
and a few hides and furs there were no exports 
from the territory, always a bad condition for 
any country. An extravagant system of gov- 
ernment added to the burdens of the people. 
This condition of stagnation lasted until about 
1873. But this period, however, discouraging, 
was not lost upon the permanent population, 
which was paving the way for more prosper- 
ous times. Those who owned quartz mines 
and mills, and who had not found them re- 
munerative by reason of defects in machinery 
or ignorance of methods, took time to right 
themselves, or found others willing to take 
the property off their hands at a discount and 
make improvements. Those who owned placer 
claims were driven to construct ditches and 
flumes whereby the dry gulches and creek beds 
could be mined. 

Strong reaction toward an increased produc- 
tion of the precious metals did not begin until 
in 1878. Then the silver yield was in excess 
of the gold. The most famous silver districts. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



91 



which were beings developed at that time were 
at Butte, Philhpsburg, Glendale and Jefferson. 
Having purposely neglected to make very 
little mention of the mining history' of the dis- 
trict about Butte, heretofore in this chapter, 
we shall now confine our attention to that won- 
derful district, than which there is no greater 
mining district on the continent, or perhaps in 
the world, no spot which presents such a pic- 
ture of human life and endeavor. The country 
round is entirely barren and desolate. Trees 
and vegetation of all kinds are an impossibility 
on account of the presence of the fumes from 
the smelters and reduction works in the valley, 
and even- particle of timber has been cut down 
to be user:! as fuel. Concerning the Butte for- 
mation James A. McKnight has written : 

The vein systems of Butte have been so often de- 
scribed in scientific terms and so little understood that 
it may not be amiss to give an idea of them in plain 
language. The formation is granite, with occasional 
porphry. The trend of the veins is due east and west; 
their dip is generally south and the pitch of the ore 
sihoots almost invariably west. These parallel veins 
occur at irregular intervals from the Utah & Northern 
depot to a point a mile north of Walkerville, and can 
be traced laterally for five miles in length. * * * They are 
true fissures, like most of the great mines of the world, 
and each seems to retain its uniformity as to width, 
depth and general characteristics. The larger veins 
vary in width from ten to one hundred feet, and seem 
to extend through the granite like vast channels filled 
with argentiferous or cupriferous ores, and showing 
vast spaces where they are merged. The ore, as before 
stated, occurs in shoots, usually varying in length from 
100 to 1,000 feet. These shoots are the bonanza de- 
posits, and they differ from pockets or kidneys in that 
they are more lasting. A pocket is very seldom per- 
manent, and a miner sinking a shaft to strike a pocket 
is always likely to strike above or below it. Not so 
with the ore such as occurs at BuUe. It often fills the 
vein from wall to wall. Its dip is uniform. It goes to 
the deep. No bottom has yet been found to the great 
ore shoots of the Butte mines. Permanence is their dis- 
tinguishing feature and the mighty three-compartment 
shafts which are sunk 400 feet without cross-cutting to 
the vein afford the best evidence of the confidence of 
capital in the downward continuity of the veins. Tliere 
is enough ore in sight in the Butte mines today (1892) 
to last fifty years, and still not one claim in 20 is being 
opened. It is not a question of ore, but one of mills 
and smelters that sometimes agitates the people of 



Butte. As far as ore is concerned there never was a 
camp like Butte and may never be again. The whole 
district is laced by mineral veins. 

In May, 1864, G. O. Humphreys and Wil- 
liam Allison came to this now renowned spot 
and camped above where Butte now stands 
on what is known now as Baboon gulch, and 
prospected for a month in the vicinity. At 
that time there were no stakes struck nor any 
signs of work having been done in the camp, 
except upon what is now known as the Origi- 
nal lode, where there was an old hole sunk four 
or five feet. Near the hole were some elk 
horns, which had evidently been used for gads 
and handspikes. From all appearances the 
work had been done years before. By whom 
this work was done there is no telling, nor will 
it probably ever be known. Humphreys and 
Allison returned to Virginia City for .provi- 
sions, and early in June came back to their old 
prospecting grounds. Near here during the 
month of May Charles Murphy, Major Wil- 
liam Graham and Frank Madison prospected 
and staked the first claim in the vicinity — 
named by them the Deer Lodge lode, but 
later known as the Black Chief. This was an 
enormous ledge, extending for miles. 

Humphreys and 'Allison discovered and 
staked the Missoula, Virginia and Moscow 
leads. During the months of June and July 
they ran a tunnel upon the first named, and 
organized what w-as known as the Missoula 
company, consisting of Frank and Ed Madi- 
son, Dent, G. Tutt, Col. R. W. Donnell, 
Swaope, Hawley, Allison and Humphreys. 
Soon after the discovery of the Missoula lode 
Dennis Leary and H. H. Porter, w^ho w-ere 
fishing on the Big Hole river, followed the 
wagon tracks of Humphreys and Allison into 
camp and were favorably impressed by the ap- 
pearance of the ore from the Missoula lode. 

Copper was soon found in the foothills in 
the same vicinity and soon a camp of seventy- 
five or a hundred men was in existence on 
Silver Bow creek — the foundation of the city 



92 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



of Butte. Although mineral was found in 
plenty the miners had neither mills nor smelt- 
ers, and had it not been for the finding of good 
placer diggings by Felix Burgoyne, the camp 
would probably have been abandoned. As it 
was the miners stayed in the vicinity, and in 
1866 a furnace for smelting copper was erected 
by Joseph Ramsdall, William Parks and Por- 
ter Bros. 

But the times were not prosperous in the 
camp and the original locaters of the claims 
did not have confidence enough in them to do 
the assessment work. In 1875 the time ex- 
pired when the discoverers could hold their 
claims without doing the assessment work 
fixed by a law of congress, and the discover- 
ers not appearing to make these improvements, 
W. L. Farlin relocated thirteen of the quartz 
claims located southwest of Butte, erected a 
quartz mill and infused new life into the camp. 
Five years later a substantial city, with five 
thousand inhabitants, occupied the place of 
the fonner shabby array of miners' cabins. 
Twenty mills, arrastras, roasters and smelters 
were in existence and $1,500,000 was being an- 
nually turned out. 

For the early history of the other import- 
ant mining districts we quote again from the 
history of H. H. Bancroft : 

Cable district. Cable district, twenty-five miles 
northwest of Butte, took its name trom the Atlantic 
Cable gold mine, which yielded $20,000 from 100 tons 
of quartz, picked specimens from which weighing 200 
pounds contained $7,000 in gold. 

Algonquin district : Northwest of the Cable dis- 
trict was the silver district of Algonquin, on Flint 
creek, where the town of Phillipsburg was placed. 
Here were the famous Algonquin and Speckled Trout 
mines, with reduction works erected by the North-west 
Company. In 1881 a body of ore was found in the 
Algonquin which averaged 500 ounces to the ton of 
silver, with enough in sight to yield $2,000,000. The 
Hope. Comanche and other mines in this district were 
worked by a St. Louis company, and produced bullion 
to the amount of from $300,000 to $500,000 annually 
since 1877. The Granite furnished rock worth $75 a 
ton. 

Phillipsburg district: Phillipsburg was laid out 
in 1867, its future being predicated upon the silver 



bearing veins in its vicinity. The first mill, erected at 
a great expense by the St. Louis & Montana Mining 
Company, failed to extract the silver, which for years 
patient mine ownerrs had been reducing by crude arras- 
tras and hand machinery to prove the value of their 
mines, and the prospects of Phillipsburg were clouded. 
A home association, called the Imperial Silver Mining 
Company, was formed in 1871, which erected a five 
stamp mill and roaster, and after many costly experi- 
ments, found the right method of extracting silver 
from the ores of the district. The stamps of their mill 
being of wood, soon wore out, and the company made 
contracts with the St. Louis Company's mill to crush 
the ore from the Speckled Trout mine, the machinery 
having to be changed from wet to dry crushing, and 
two new roasting furnaces erected, the expense being 
borne by the Imperial company. The process which 
was adopted in this district was known as the Reese 
river chloridizing process. The cost of milling and 
roasting the ore was $40 per ton, and the yield $125. 
Eight tons per day of 24 hours was the capacity of the 
works. In 1876 the St. Louis company took $20,000 
worth of silver bullion from 157 tons of the Hope ore, 
and the average yield of medium ore rated at $65 per 
ton. As a result of the profitable working of the mmes 
of this district, the population, which in 1872 was little 
over 200, by 1886 had doubled * * * 

Lewis and Clark county: In Lewis and Clark 
coimty the quartz gold mines held their own. The 
Whitlatch-Union, after producing $3,500,000, suspended 
that its owners might settle some points of difference 
between them, and not from any want orf productive- 
ness. About 25 miles northwest of Helena was the Sil- 
ver Creek or Stemple district, the most famous of 
whose mines of gold is the Penobscot, discovered by 
Nathan Vestal, who took out $100,000, and then sold 
the mine for $400,000. The mines in this district pro- 
duced by milling about $10 per ton on the average. 
The Belmont produced with a twenty stamp mill $200,- 
000 annually, at a profit of nearly half that amount. 
The Bluebird, Hickory, Gloster and Drum Lemond 
w-ere averaging $10 to $12 per ton. 

Jefferson county: Silver mines were worked at 
Clancy, eighteen miles south of Helena. At A. VVickes, 
25 miles south, were the most extensive smelting works 
in Montana, erected by the .-Mta-Montana company, 
which had a capital stock of $5,000,000, and calculated 
to treat all classes of ores in which silver and lead 
combined. 

Qark's Fork: Silver was discovered on Clark's 
Fork of the Yellowstone in 1874, and F. D. Pease went 
to Pennsylvania in the spring of 1875 to arrange for 
erecting smelter works; but Indian troubles prevented 
mining in that region until 1877. when the Eastern 
Montana Mining and Smelting Company erected fur- 
naces. In 1873 the famous Trapper silver lode was dis- 
covered, follo\ved immediately by others in the vi- 
cinity. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



93 



The product of gold and silver from Mon- 
tana mines during the first nineteen years after 
the discovery of gold, according to figures con- 
tained in Strahorn's "^Montana," was as 
follows : 

1862 $ 600,000 

1863 8,000,000 

1864 16,000,000 

1865 18,000,000 

1866 17,000,000 

1867 16,000,000 

1868 15,000,000 

1869 1 1,000,000 

1870 9,000,000 

1 87 1 8,000,000 

1872 7.000,000 

1873 5,200,000 

1874 4,000,000 

1875 4,100,000 

1876 4,500,000 



1877 $3,750,000 

1878 4,867,000 

1879 5,000,000 

1880 6,500,000 

Total $164,517,000 

According to the same authority these 
sums were divided among the several counties 
as they existed at the time as follows : 

Madison $79,500,000 

Lewis and Clark . . 29,000,000 

Deer Lodge 26,367,000 

Meagher 135000,000 

Beaver Head .... 19,500,000 

Jefferson 5,500,000 

Missoula 1,000,000 

Gallatin 650,000 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 



The history of Montana would be woefully 
incomplete without the narration of the law- 
lessness in the different mining camps in the 
early sixties and its suppression by a bold band 
of the best citizens from the several camps, 
who styling itself a vigilance committee, 
hung the worst of the offenders, banished 
others, and in a short time restored compara- 
tive order where before murder, robbery and 
social vice had brazenly presented an organized 
front and offered open contest for supremacy. 

The history of civilization has demonstra- 
ted that society cannot exist without laws ; that 
whenever even a few have gathered in one lo- 
cality, some one must take the reins of govern- 
ment and administer justice; that without or- 



ganized principles civilization cannot prosper. 
Man in his most savage state lived without any 
form of government. However, during times 
of scarcity of food he would organize war 
parties, some one being chosen chief, that he 
might capture other human beings for food. 
From this beginning of organized government 
there has been a steady advance toward a 
higher organization, which has resulted in 
modern policies of government, where every 
subject is assured the protection of life, the 
security of property and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. 

There have been times in the newly settled 
portions of our country when the government 
was not adequate to cope with the lawless ele- 



94 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



ment, when the Hves of subjects were im- 
periled, and when property was subject to no 
protection. During such times the law abiding- 
have found it necessary to put into execution 
such measures as would provide protection, and 
such organizations in our western country 
were known as vigilance committees. 

In no other portion of the civilized world 
were the lawless in such complete control of 
affairs as they were in the mining comps of 
Montana before the vigilantes organized. 
When gold was discovered here the most des- 
perate characters swarmed in. Most of these 
first came from the mines of Idaho, where they 
had bad records. Having committed desperate 
deeds in other places and finding public senti- 
ment against them, they had come to the new 
"diggings," well aware that if they vi'ere taken 
prisoner and removed to the places where their 
criminal acts had been committed, the law 
would have no mercy upon them. Others 
flocked into the new country whose past re- 
cords were not s.tained by nefarious deeds, but 
whose temperaments were such that when 
brought face to face with the opportunity of 
acquiring a fortune without labor and with little 
liability of punishment, and when coming in 
contact with men of a lawless nature, they 
needed but little encouragment to induce them 
to become members of the outlaw class. Such 
men as these are known to all new mining 
countries. 

We of today can hardly realize to what ex- 
tent these desperadoes gained control of the 
early mining camps of Montana. Never be- 
fore, since man became civilized, had the law- 
less gained the upper hand in a civilized com- 
munity to such an extent as they did here. The 
work of this class is generally done by stealth, 
in darkness, and as far away from society as 
it is possible to get. Here it was in the open. 
Men openly boasted of their crimes and feared 
not punishment. Think of a community of 
several thousand people in which the criminal 
element is greater than the peaceful element 



and you may be able to realize something of 
the condition here. When the Montana vigi- 
lantes entered upon their work they did not 
kno\\' how soon they might have to encounter a 
force numerically greater than their own — and 
the committee was composed of nearly all law 
abiding citizens of the territor\-. For a long 
time no organized effort was made to bring 
about a change of condition for the reason that 
the friends of law and order believed the power 
of evil to be in the ascendant and that it would 
be impossible to check the lawlessness. Thus 
encouraged, the ruffian power increased in 
audacity and threatened all that portion of the 
community which did not belong to its or- 
ganization. "An issue involving the destruc- 
tion of the good or bad element actually ex- 
isted at the time that the people entered upon 
the work of punishment," says Mr. Nathaniel 
P. Langford in "Vigilante Days and Ways." 
As Bannack was the first [Montana camp, 
here the desperadoes came first. Early in the 
winter of 1862 from the mines west of the 
Rocky mountains came Henry Plummer, soon 
afterward elected sheriff, Charlie Reeves, 
Cyrus Skinner and Augustus Moore. These 
were the van guard of the desperate characters 
to come to Montana. They no sooner got the 
lay of the country than they began operations. 
These ruffians served as a nucleus for the or- 
ganization of an outlaw band, composed of all 
the disloyal, desperate and dishonest of the 
camp. The condition of affairs in Bannack at 
that time is ven,^ entertainingly told by Mr. 
Langford as follows : 

The very composition of the society of Bannack 
at the time was such as to excite suspicion in all minds. 
Outside of their immediate acquaintances, men knew 
not whom to trust. They were in the midst of a peo- 
ple who had come from all parts of the country and 
from many of the nations of the old world. Laws 
which could not be executed were no better than none. 
A people, however, disposed to the preservation of 
order and punishment of crimes, was powerless for 
either so long as every man distrusted his neighbor. 
The robbers, united by a bond of sympathetic atrocity, 
assumed the right to control the affairs of the camp by 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



95 



the bloody code. No one was safe. The miner for- 
tunate enough to accumulate a few thousands, the 
merchant whose business gave evidence of success, the 
saloonkeeper whose patronage was supposed to be pro- 
ductive, were all marked as victims by these lawless 
adventurers. If one of them needed clothing, ammuni- 
tion or food, he obtained it on a credit which no one 
dared refuse, and settled it by threatening to shoot the 
person bold enough to ask for payment. Such a con- 
dition of society as all foresaw, must sooner or later 
terminate in disaster to the lovers of law and order or 
to the villains who depredated upon them. Which were 
the stronger? The roughs knew their power, but their 
antagonists, separately hedged about by suspicion as 
indiscriminate as it was inflexible, knew not how to 
establish confidence in each other upon which to base 
an effective opposition. Meantime the carnival of 
crime was progressing. Scarcely a day passed unsignal- 
ized by outrage or murder. The numerous tenants 
of the little graveyard had all died by violence. Peo- 
ple walked the streets in fear. 

The roughs kept the law abiding citizens 
in a constant state of terror; wanton and un- 
provoked murders were the order of the day. 
But there was method in their lawlessness. The 
more daring of the rough element organized 
as a band of road agents. After other camps 
were established and communication was es- 
tablished, these robbers systemised a plan of 
highway robbery. Members of the band were 
in both Bannack and Virginia City and cor- 
respondence was constantly kept up. The 
roads throughout the territory were under the 
surveillance of members of the gang and to 
such a system was their work reduced that 
horses, men and coaches were marked in some 
understood manner, to designate them as fit 
objects for robbery. When a coach or "train" 
was about to leave a town some member of 
the road agents was always on hand to get 
the particulars of its destination and amount of 
gold carried, and with the system of markings 
those who were lying in wait received all the 
information necessary. 

Thomas J. Dimsdale, in "The Vigilantes 
of Montana," tells of the usual method oi 
operating: "The usual arms of a road agent 
were a pair of revolvers, a double-barreled shot 
gun, of large bore, with the barrels cut down 



short, and to this they invariably added a knife 
or dagger. Thus armed and mounted on fleet, 
well-trained horses, and being disguised with 
blankets and masks, the robbers awaited their 
prey in aniljush. When near enough they 
sprang out on a keen run, with leveled shot 
guns, and usually gave the word, 'Halt ! Throw 

up your hands, you !' If 

this latter command were not instantly obeyed, 
that was the last of the offender; but, in case 
he complied, as was usual, one or two sat on 
their horses, covering the party with their 
guns, which were loaded with buck-shot, and 
one dismounting, disarmed the victims and 
made them throw their purses on the grass. 
This being done, and a search for concealed 
property being effected, away rode the robbers, 
reported the capture and divided the spoils." 
From the confession of Erastus Yaeger, 
commonly known as "Red," at the time of his 
execution by the vigilantes, the members of the 
band became known for the first time. Henry 
Plummer was chief of the band; Bill Bunton, 
stool pigeon and second in command; George 
Brown, secretary; Sam Bunton, roadster; 
Cyrus Skinner, fence, spy and roadster; 
George Shears, horse thief and roadster ; Frank 
Parish, horse thief and roadster ; Hayes Lyons, 
telegraph man and roadster; Bill Hunter, tel- 
egraph man and roadster; Ned Ray, council- 
room keeper at Bannack City; George Ives, 
Stephen Marshland, Dutch John (Wagner), 
Alex Carter, Whiskey Bill (Graves), Johnny 
Cooper, Buck Stinson, Mexican Frank, Bob 
Zachary, Boone Helm, Clubfoot George 
(Lane), Billy Terwilliger, Gad Moore were 
roadsters. "Red" was also a member of the 
band. According to this statement these men 
were bound by oath to be true to each other, 
and were required to perform such services as 
came within the defined meaning of their sep- 
arate positions in the band. The penalty of 
disobedience was death. If any of them, un- 
der any circumstances, divulged any of the 
secrets or guilty purposes of the band, he was 



96 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



to be followed and shot down at sight. The 
same doom was prescribed for any outsiders 
who attempted an exposure of their criminal 
designs, or arrested any of them for the com- 
mission of crime. Their great object w^as de- 
clared to be plunder, in all cases without taking 
life if possible; but if murder was necessary, 
it was to be committed. Their pass-word was 
"Innocent." Their neckties were fastened with 
a sailor's knot, and they wore mustaches and 
chin whiskers. 

Henry Plummer, the leader of the gang, 
was no ordinary criminal. When he first came 
to Bannack he held the esteem of all citizens. 
So popular was he that he was elected sheriff, 
which office he held for a long time. Con- 
cerning this man, who finally met death at the 
hands of the vigilantes, Mr. Langford, who 
was intimately acquainted with him, has said : 
"He possessed great executive ability — a 
power over men that was remarkable, a fine 
person, polished address, and prescient knowl- 
edge of his fellows — all of which were mel- 
lowed by the advantages of a good early edu- 
cation. Withal the concerns of a mining 
camp experience had made him familiar, and 
for some weeks after his arrival in Bannack 
he was of tener applied to for counsel and advice 
than any other resident. Cool and dispassionate, 
he evinced on these occasions a power of analy- 
sis that seldom failed of conviction. He speed- 
ily became a generad favorite. We can better 
imagine than describe the mixed nature of 
those feelings, which, fired with ambitious de- 
signs and virtuous purposes, beheld the way to 
their fulfilment darkened by a retrospect of un- 
paralleled atrocity. So true it is that the worst 
men are the last to admit to themselves the 
magnitude of their offences, that even Plum- 
mer, stained with the guilt of repeated mur- 
ders and seductions, a very monster of iniquity, 
believed that his restoration to the pursuits 
and honors of virtuous association could be 
established but for the possible exposure by 
some of his guilty partners. He knew their 



watchful eyes were upon him; but they were 
ready to follow him as a leader or crush him 
as a traitor." Professor Dunsdale has written 
of the chief of road agents : "Plummer was a 
man of most insinuating address and gentle- 
manly manners under ordinary circumstances, 
and had the art of ingratiating himself with 
men and even with ladies and women of all 
conditions. Wherever he dwelt, victims and 
mistresses of this wily seducer w'ere to be 
found. It was only when excited by passion 
that his savage instincts got the better of him 
and that he appeared in his true colors — a very 
demon." 

Space prohibits our telling of the many 
crimes committed by the lawless element of 
Bannack in 1862, all of which were unre- 
strained. Not even a protest of any kind had 
been made against this state of affairs — the 
law abiding believing the lawless to be the 
numerically stronger, and that any attempt to 
bring any of the outlaws to justice would re- 
sult in disaster to all who took part in the pro- 
ceedings. 

The first attempt to mete out punishment 
was early in the year 1863, and was brought 
about by one of the most atrocious and un- 
provoked crimes that had yet been committed. 
Charley Reeves, a member of the gang, had 
bought a squaw from the Sheep Eater tribe of 
Bannacks. She refused to live with Reeves, 
claiming that she was ill treated, and returned 
to live with her friends. The tepee in which she 
was stopping was located on an elevation south 
of that portion of the town known as Yankee 
Flat, a few rods to the rear of the street. 
Reeves proceeded to the tepee to compel the 
squaw to return with him. She refused and 
he then used force. An old chief interfering, a 
scuffle ensued and in the melee the chief re- 
ceived a blow from Reeves' pistol, one barrel 
of which was harmlessly discharged. 

The next evening while intoxicated. Reeves 
and Moore entered Goodrich's saloon and de- 
posited upon the bar two double barreled shot 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



97 



guns and four revolvers, declaring that if the 
people of Yankee Flat were afraid of the In- 
dians, they were not and that they would soon 
set the ball rolling. They carried their implied 
threats into execution, and going to the rear of 
the houses, opposite the Indian camp, they 
emptied their weapons into the tepee. The 
result was highly unsatisfactory to the desper- 
adoes, only one Indian being wounded. They 
then returned to the saloon, where they boasted 
of what they had done, and took several more 
drinks. Then, accompanied by William 
Mitchell, they went back to the vicinity of the 
Indian camp determined to complete their mur- 
derous work. All three fired a volley into the 
tepee with the result that there were killed the 
old chief, a lame Indian, a pappoose and a 
Frenchman by the name of Gazette, who had 
come to the tepee to learn the cause of the 
firing. Several other persons who were there 
for the same reason were wounded. When the 
murderers were afterward told that they had 
killed white men, Moore with a profusion of 
profane appellations said "they had no business 
there." 

For the first time in the history of Bannack 
indignation was aroused to such an extent 
that the matter of punishing the perpetrators 
was discussed. A mass meeting of citizens was 
held the next morning and guards were ap- 
pointed to prevent the escape of the murderers. 
Moore and Reeves, hearing of the contem- 
plated action, fled on foot in the direction of 
Rattlesnake. Henry Plummer preceded them 
on horseback, evidently to provide means for 
their protection, but as he afterwards asserted 
through fear that in the momentary excitement 
the people might hang him for the shooting of 
Jack Cleveland, which crime had been com- 
mitted only a short time previous. When it 
was found that Moore and Reeves had gone 
volunteers were called for to pursue and ar- 
rest them. Messrs. Lear, Higgins, Rockwell 
and Davenport offered their services and came 
up with the fugitives about twelve miles from 
7 



town, where they were hidden in a thicket of 
brush near the creek. They at first refused to 
surrender, but aiming their pistols at the ap- 
proaching party ordered them to approach no 
farther if they \'alued their lives. The pur- 
suers were entirely at the mercy of the murder- 
ers, who could easily have shot down every 
one of the attacking party. A parley ensued 
in which the position of both parties was fully 
discussed. The attackers admitted that it 
would be impossible for them to effect a cap- 
ture, but they argued that ultimate escape was 
entirely out of the question, as their failure to 
return with the prisoners would result in the 
sending out of such a party that the capture 
of the criminals would surely result. An agree- 
ment was reached by the surrender of the fugi- 
tives upon the express condition that they 
should be granted a jury trial. All then re- 
turned to Bannack. 

Plummer was put upon trial immediately 
and was acquitted, the verdict apparently meet- 
ing a popular approval, the claim being made 
at the trial that the shooting was done in self 
defence. Early the next morning the whole 
population of Bannack assembled for the trial 
of Reeves, Moore and Mitchell. Business in 
the camp was suspended. The miners quit 
their work, the stores and hotels were aban- 
doned, and the whole population, numbering at 
least four hundred people, assembled at the 
large log building which had been designated 
as the place for conducting the trial. 

The account of this trial, the most remark- 
able one that has ever come to our notice, we 
shall present in the words of Mr. N. P. Lang- 
ford, who was one of the jurymen — the only 
one Avho had the courage to render a verdict 
in accordance with his conviction : 

Every man was armed, some with rifles and shot 
guns, others with pistols and knives. The friends of 
the prisoners gave free utterance to threats, which they 
accompanied with much profane assumption of supe- 
rior power and many defiant demonstrations. Pistols 
were flourished and discharged, oaths and epithets 
freely bestowed upon the citizens, and whatever ve- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



hemence of gesture and expression could do to intimid- 
ate the people, avas adopted. Amid all this bluster it 
was apparent from the first that the current of popular 
opinion set strongly against the prisoners. There was 
an air of quiet determination manifested in every 
movement preparatory for the trial. The citizens were 
ready for an outbreak, and the least indication in that 
direction would have been the signal for a bloody and 
decisive battle. It is not improbable that an attempt 
at rescue was prevented by the presence of the over- 
powering force of armed and indignant citizens. 

The efforts of the roughs to suppress the trial 
only increased the indignation of the people, and after 
electing a temporary chairman, a motion was made 
that the accused be tried by a miners' court. * * * 
When the motion was made to substitute the miners' 
court it fell into their midst like a thunderbolt. They 
regarded a trial by the mass as certain of conviction 
as a trial 'by jury would be acquittal, not because the 
later would be any less likely than the former too per- 
ceive their guilt, but because fear of personal conse- 
quences would prevent them from declairing it. Men 
whose identity was lost in a crowd would do that which 
if they were known, would mark them as victims for 
future assassination. The friends of the prisoners 
showed the estimation in which they regarded this 
consideration when they openly threatened with death 
every individual who participated in the trial. They 
anticipated that, as none would dare in defiance of this 
threat to act upon a jury, all proceedings would be 
suppressed, thus renewing the license for their con- 
tinued depredations. 

The statement of the motion by the chairman was 
the signal for a violent commotion among the roughs. 
One long howl of profanity, mingled with the most dia- 
bolical threats and repeated discharge of pistols, filled 
the room. Many shots were turned from their deadly 
aim by timely hands and discharged into the ceiling. 
Knives were drawn and flourished in the faces of prom- 
inent citizens, accompanied with threats of death in 
case the motion prevailed. The scene was fearful in 
the extreme. The miners in different parts of the 
crowd could be seen getting their guns and pistols 
ready for a collision which at one stage of the tumult 
it seemed impossible to avoid. At length the repeated 
cries of the chairman for order, and the earnest voices 
of several persons who were desirous of discussing the 
proposition, allayed the noise and confusion, so that 
they could be heard. The guilt of the prisoners was 
so palpable that the people deemed any sort of a trial 
which would not speedily terminate in their condem- 
nation a farce. A very large majority were in favor 
of a miner's court, because they foresaw that any other 
form of trial afforded opportunity for escape. Three 
hours were spent in determining the question. Many 
short, emphatic arguments were made. In the mean- 
time the disturbance made by the roughs waxed and 
waned to suit the different stages of the discussion. 



Shots at one moment and shouts at another betrayed 
their approval of the sentiments of the speaker. I had 
from the first made myself offensive to my own immed- 
iate friends and intimates by pertinaciously claiming 
for the prisoneers a trial by jury, and mounting a 
bench I embraced an early opportunity to give, in a few 
pointed words addressed to the assembled miners, my 
views. I reminded them of the constitutional pro- 
vision which secured to everyone accused of crime a 
trial by jury. It was the law of the land, as appli- 
cable on this as on any other occasion. The men were 
probably guilty; if so, the fact should be proved; if not, 
they had the right by law. on proving it, to an acquittal. 
Moreover they had surrendered at a time when they 
could not have been captured, upon the express con- 
dition that they should be tried by jury. I asked, 
"Shall we ignore the agreement made with them by our 
officers?" I concluded by offering a motion that they 
be tried by jury. It was negatived by three to one. 
Immediately a cry rose in the crowd, "Hang them at 
once ;" this was followed by other cries of "String 
'em up," "To the scaffold with 'em." Pistols were 
drawn and flourished more freely than before, and 
many personal collisions, resulting in bloody noses, 
black eyes and raw heads took place in all parts of the 
room. Another hour was spent in discussion, and 
finally by a bare majority it was agreed to give the 
prisoners the benefit of a trial by jury. 

It is impossible to portray with accuracy of de- 
tail the fearful effects of passion which were exhibited 
by the assembly while this question was being deter- 
mined. On a limited scale it could not have been unlike 
some of the riotous gatherings in Paris in the days of 
th^ first revolution. It wanted numbers, it wanted the 
magnificent surroundings of those scenes, but as an 
exhibition of the passions of depraved men, when in- 
flamed with anger, drink and vengeance, it could not 
have been greatly surpassed by them. 

Order at length being restored, a portion of the 
room was enclosed with scantling for the accommoda- 
tion of the court and jury. J. F. Hoyt was elected 
judge. Hank Crawford sheriff and George Copley 
prosecutor. The jury was next chosen by a vote of the 
people. My own appointment on the jury was urged 
by the roughs as a compliment for my efforts to ob- 
tain for them a jury trial. I was regarded by them as 
a friend, and they hoped confidently for acquittal 
through my influence. 

At first it was determined that the examination of 
tlie witnesses for both prosecution and defence should 
be conducted by George Copley, the prosecutor, but 
upon an appeal for justice in behalf of the prisoners 
it was at length decided by a small majority that the 
accused should be allowed the assistance of counsel, 
with the understanding that all the questions of their 
counsel were first to be submitted to the prosecutor. 
Hon. William C. Rheem was chosen to defend the pris- 
oners, and there were many threats of violence toward 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



99 



him for consenting to conduct the defence. It was 
agreed that the arguments to be made on either side 
should be brief, and that the trials should be urged to 
their conclusion with all possible expedition. Mr. 
Rheem's ability as a lawj'er was unquestioned^ — which 
fact furnished to those who objected to a jurj- trial 
their principal reason for opposing his employment as 
counsel for the prisoners. As the extent of Mitchell's 
criminality was uncertain, he was allowed a separate 
trial. His case was first brought under examination. 
It appeared in evidence that he accompanied Moore and 
Reeves on their second murderous visit to the tepee, 
but he was able to show that he did not once fire his 
gun, and consequently could not be guilty of murder. 
His trial was soon teniiinated. The jury recommended 
that he should be immediately banished from the gulch. 

The guilt of Moore and Reeves was fully estab- 
lished. This result was foreseen by their friends : and 
while the trial was in progress they sought by threats 
and ferocious gesticulations to intimidate the jury. 
Gathering around the side of the enclosure occupied 
by the iury, they kept up a continued conversation, the 
purport of which was that no member of that court 
or jury would live a month if they dared to find tlie 
prisoners guilty. Occasionally their anger waxing 
hot. they would draw their pistols and knives, and 
brandishing them in the faces of the jurymen, utter a 
number of filthy epithets, and bid them beware, of their 
verdict. Crawford was an object of their especial hate. 
Their abusive assaults upon him and threats were so 
frequent and violent that at one time he tendered his 
resignation and refused to serve, but upon the promise 
of his friends to stand by and protect him he retained 
his position. The case was given to the jury at about 
seven o'clock in the evening. A friend of the prisoners 
in the court room nominated me as foreman, but upon 
my refusal to serve under that nomination I afterwards 
received the appointment by a vote of my fellow-jury- 
men. 

The jury were occupied in their deliberations until 
after midnight. No doubt was entertained, from the 
first, of the guilt of the prisoners, but the exciting 
question was whether they icould afford to declare, it. 
They all felt that to do so would be to announce their 
own death sentence. They knew that the friends of 
the prisoners fully intended to have life for life. They 
had sworn it. One of the jurymen said that the pris- 
oners ought never to have been tried by a jury, but in 
a miners' court, that he should not be governed in his 
decision by the merits of the case, but that, as he had a 
family in the states to whom his obligations were 
greater than to that community, he should have to 
vote for acquittal. After much conversation of this 
sort, which only served to intensify the fears of the 
jurymen, a vote was taken which resulted as follows-: 
not guilty, 1 1 ; guilty. I ; myself, the supposed friend 
of the roughs, being the only one in favor of the death 
penalty. It was apparent that further deliberation would 



1 not change this decision, and the jury compromised by 
agreeing to a sentence of banishment, and a confiscation 
of the property of the prisoners for the benefit of those 
they had wounded. 

The court met the ensuing morning, when the ver- 
dict, under seal, was handed to the judge. He opened 
and returned it to the foreman, with the request that 
he read it aloud. An expression of blank astonishment 
sat upon the face of every person in the room, which 
was followed by open demonstrations of general dis- 
satisfaction, by all but the roughs, who, accustomed to 
outrages and long immunity, hailed it as a fresh con- 
cession to their bloody and lawless authority. 

That this, the first test of strength be- 
tween the roughs and the law abiding citizens, 
was a complete victory for the tough element 
was demonstrated by the events of the next 
few days. ]\Iitchell remained away only a few 
days — if he ever left the town — and was not 
molested upon his return. Shortly afterwards 
a miners' court was called, and the verdict of 
banishment against Moore and Reeves was re- 
scinded. This action was taken in view of the 
fact that the sentence against Mitchell was not 
enforced. The roughs now considered them- 
selves in complete control of the town. They 
believed, and rightfully, that the people were 
afraid of them. All who had taken an active 
part in the trial lived in constant fear because 
of treats against their lives. Especially bitter 
were the roughs against the judge, J. F. 
Hoyt ; the sheriff, Hank Crawford ; and N. P. 
Langford, the juryman who voted for the 
death sentence. Now the lovers of law and 
order and the criminal element were brought 
into open, public antagonism — and the crimi- 
nals had the upper hand. 

Shortly after the trial the gang of toughs 
held a meeting, at which it was agreed to kill 
every active participant in the trial of Moore 
and Reeves. The victims were all named, as 
were the men who were to dispose of them, and 
the work was deliberately planned. This 
wholesale vengeance was to be accomplished 
secretly, or by provoking into a quarrel those 
who were marked for slaughter and then dis- 
patching them under the guise of self defense. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



So thorough were tliey in this work that within 
five months after the trial, not more than seven 
of the twenty-seven who participated in the 
trial as judge, prosecutor, sheriff, witnesses 
and jurors, were left alive in the territory. 
Eight or nine were known to have been killed 
by members of the band, and others had fled 
to escape a fate which they knew had been de- 
termined upon. 

Crime became rampant and no man's life 
was safe. Murderers walked the streets of 
Bannack and feared not punishment. It would 
be hard to imagine a more deplorable state of 
society. Mr. Langford has written of this 
period of the camp's history: "Had it been 
possible at any time during the period I have 
passed under review, for the peaceable citizens 
of Bannack to return to their old homes in 
safety, such was the terror that environed 
them, I doubt not that nearly all would joy- 
fully have gone. The opportunity for speedy 
accumulation of fortune from a prolific gold 
placer offered small compensation for the daily 
risk of life in obtaining it, and the possibility 
of ultimate destruction to the entire settlement. 
The people were spellbound, and knew not 
what to do. They assented almost passively to 
the belief that the ruffian population, when dis- 
posed, was strong enough to crush them; and 
when a murder was committed, or a robbery 
made, expressed no stronger feeling than that 
of thankfulness for their own escape." 

Up to June, 1863, Bannack was the only 
camp in the territory. Then came the discov- 
ery of rich placers in Alder gulch, and Virginia 
City came into existence, destined to become 
the most important camp in the territory. With 
the stampede that followed came nearly all the 
rough element from Bannack, as well as hun- 
dreds of others from different parts of the 
country, and almost immediately the road 
agent gang had control of the camp. Henry 
Plummer, the leader of the gang, who was 
sheriff of Bannack, by means of threats suc- 
ceeded in getting himself elected sheriff of Vir- 



ginia City. He was now sheriff of both camps, 
and three of his deputies, Jack Gallagher, 
Buck Stinson and Ned Ray, were members of 
the road agent gang. Another of his deputies, 
however, was a man named Dillingham, who 
was of an entire differeiit character. By 
means of his office he learned the names of 
the road agent band and many of their plans, 
although he was entirely innocent of crime 
himself. This fact, of course, brought him a 
speedy death. 

Dillingham was murdered in cold blood by 
Hayes Lyons, Buck Stinson and Charley 
Forbes. Again was the people's ire aroused 
as it had been at the time of the shooting 
into the Indian tepee, and vengeance was de- 
manded. A people's court was organized and 
the three murderers were tried by the people 
cii masse. Stinson and Lyons w^ere tried first 
and by an almost unanimous verdict were de- 
clared to be guilty. The death sentence was 
imposed. Forbes was cleared, although he 
was equally guilty wuth the others. Prepara- 
tions were at once made to carry out the sen- 
tence imposed upon Lyons and Stinson ; a gal- 
lows was erected and graves dug; the men 
were taken to the place of execution. Then 
so strong were the pleas for mercy by the con- 
demned themselves and several ladies who had 
assembled to witness the hanging that a vote 
was ordered taken to determine whether or not 
the execution should proceed. After several 
votes had been taken, in which the friends of 
the condemned men successfully increased the 
vote by unfair means, it was decided to liber- 
ate the men, and horses w-ere furnished them 
to leave the camp. Thus terminated another 
miscarriage of justice, and no crime had yet 
been punished in the future territory of 
Montana. 

This failure of justice naturally caused a 
deterioration in the condition of society, bad as 
it had been before. No man felt that he could 
call his life his own in Virginia City or the 
neighboring camps in Alder gulch. Wounded 



HISTORY OF :\IOXTAXA. 



men lay almost unnoticed about the city. A 
writer of these times has said that "a night or 
a day without shooting, knifing or fighting 
would have been recognized as a small and 
welcome installment of the millenium." To 
give an idea of the conditions in Virginia City 
at a time just prior to the organization of the 
vigilance committee, we reproduce the follow- 
ing from ]\Ir. Langford's "Vigilante Days and 
\\'ays :" 

Gold was abundant, and every possible device was 
employed by the gam'blers. the traders, the vile men and 
women that had come with the miners to the locality to 
obtain it. Nearly every third cabin was a saloon where 
vile whiskey was peddled out for fifty cents a drink in 
gold dust. Many of these places were filled with 
gambling tables and gamblers, and the miner who was 
bold enough to enter one of them with his day's earn- 
ings in his pocket seldom left until thoroughly fleeced. 
Hurdy-gurdy dance houses were numerous, and there 
were plenty of canup beauties to patronize them. There 
too, the successful miner, lured by siren smiles, after 
an evening spent in dancing and icarousing at his ex- 
pense, steeped with liquor, would empty his purse into 
the lap of his charmer, for an hour of license in her 
arms. Not a day or night passed which did tiot yield 
its full fruition of fights, quarrels, wounds or murders. 
The crack of the revolver was often heard above the 
merry notes of the violin. Street fights were frequent, 
and as no one knew when or where they would occur, 
every one was on his guard against a random shot. 

Sunday was always a gala day. The miners then 
left their work and gathered about the public places in 
the towns. The stores were all open, the auctioneers 
specially eloquent on every .corner in praise of their 
wares. Thousands of people crowded the thorough- 
fares, ready to rush in any direction of promised ex- 
citement. Horse-racing was among the most favored 
amusements. Prize rings were formed, and brawny men 
engaged at fisticuffs until their sight was lost and their 
bodies pommelled to a jelly, while hundreds of on-look- 
ers cheered the victor. Hacks rattled to and fro between 
the several towns, freighted with drunken and rowdy hu- 
manity of both sexes. Citizens of acknowledged re- 
spectability often walked, more often perhaps rode 
side by side on horseback, with noted courtesans in 
open day through the crowded streets, and seemingly 
suffered no harm in reputation. Pistols flashed, bowie- 
knives flourished, and braggart oaths filled the air, as 
often as men's passions triumphed over their reason. 
This was indeed the reign of unbridled license, and men 
who at first regarded it with disgust and terror, by 
constant exposure soon learned to become part of it, 
and forgot that they had ever been aught else. All 



classes of society were represented at this general ex- 
hibition. Judges, lawyers, doctors, even clergymen, 
could not claim exemption. Culture and religion af- 
forded feeble protection where allurement and indul- 
gence- ruled the hour. 

Underneath this exterior of recklessness there was 
in the minds and hearts of the miners and business 
men of this society a strong and abiding sense of 
justice — and that saved the territory. 

An instance of the overbearing and high 
handed rule of the desperadoes is shown by 
the custom of George Ives, who was the first 
one of the band to be executed. When in need 
of money he would mount his horse, and with 
his ever ready pistol in hand, ride into a saloon 
or store, and throw his empty buckskin purse 
upon the counter with the request that it be 
filled with gold dust as a loan. The proprietor 
or clerk of whom the demand was made knew 
better than to refuse. Often while the gold 
was being weighed Ives would amuse himself 
by firing his revolver at the lamps or other 
articles of furniture that would make a crash 
when hit. This outrage occurred so many 
times it attracted very little attention, and peo- 
ple submitted to it, believing that there was 
no redress — and there was not until later. 

While conditions in the camps were as we 
have described them, life there was compara- 
tively safe when we consider the dangers that 
beset tlvDse who undertook a journey when any 
great amount of money was carried. The only 
stage route in the country was between Virgin- 
ia City and Bannack. a region admirably ad- 
apted to the operations of the road agents. 
From the former place to Salt Lake City, the 
objective point for all who were leaving the 
country, lay a route nearly five hundred miles 
long through a wild 'and unsettled country. 
Luckv. indeed, was the miner who was success- 
ful in making this trip on his way out of the 
countrv if he had any considerable amount of 
gold dust. It is impossible to even estimate the 
number of persons who fell victims to the road 
agents on this long and perilous journey. The 
inquiries of relatives and friends for hundreds 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



of them for months and years after their depar- 
ture from the mining camps of jMontana leaves 
no doubt that the robbers did a thriving busi- 
ness and that many a bloody deed was commit- 
ted on that trail. 

It was not until the last day of 1863 that 
the people became aroused to such an extent 
that summary vengeance was demanded and 
that the first member of the road agent gang 
met death at the hands of an outraged people. 
The beginning of this reign of terror to the law- 
less was brought about by the murder of a 
young German by the name of Nicholas Tbalt, 
■who was foully murdered by George Ives for 
a small sum of money. 

Tbalt. who was in the employ of Burtchy 
& Clark, had sold that tirni a span of mules and 
had received the money for them. The ani- 
mals were in charge of herders at Dempsey's 
ranch, and the young German left, taking the 
gold with him, to bring the mules. Several 
days elapsed without the return of the young 
man, and his employers believed that he had 
left the country, taking the money and mules 
with him. As a matter of fact he had secured the 
mules and was returning with them, when he 
met George Ives, who murdered him, robbed 
him of the money and took the mules. Nine 
da3-s later the body was found, almost miracul- 
ously, by William Palmer, who was hunting 
grouse in the neighborhood of the cabin of 
John Franck — better known as Long John. 
Palmer had shot a grouse, and upon going to 
the spot where he saw it fall, the dead bird 
was found lying upon the dead body of the mur- 
dered man, the location being in a clump of 
heavy sage brush, completely concealed and at a 
distance from the road — a spot which would 
never have been visited except by chance. The 
hunter went at once to the wakiup occupied 
by Long John and George Hilderman, a dis- 
tance of a quarter of a mile, informed them of 
the finding of the body, and asked their assis- 
tance in placing the corpse in his wagon that 
he might bring it to town. 



"We'll have nothing to do with it." said 
Long John. "Dead bodies are common 
enough in this country. They kill people every 
day in Virginia City, and nobody speaks of 
it, nobody cares. Why should we trouble our- 
selves who this man is after he's dead?" 

\\'ithout assistance Palmer contrived to 
place the corpse into the wagon and brought it 
to Nevada. Here it was identified, and for 
half a day lay exposed in the wagon, being 
visited by hundreds of people from the differ- 
ent camps in the gulch. A bullet wound over 
the left eye showed the cause of death. The 
body bore the marks of a lariat about the 
throat, which had evidently been used to drag 
him, while still alive to the hiding place. The 
hands were filled with small pieces of sage 
brush, showing that the unfortunate man still 
lived while being dragged to this out of the 
way place by his murderer. 

The sight of the dead body, bearing evi- 
dence of cruel death, aroused- the indignation 
of the people to an extent never before equalled 
in the community. Then and there they re- 
solved to avenge the death. The reaction 
against the criminal element had commenced. 
A campaign against crime was inaugurated, 
which ceased not until the country was entirely 
freed of the bloodthirsty brigands. 

At ten o'clock in the evening of the same 
day that the corpse was brought to Nevada 
twenty-five citizens of that camp left in search 
of the murderer. All subscribed to an obli- 
gation of mutual support and protection, and 
a more determined band of men never set forth 
on an errand of justice. Before daylight the 
next morning the party arrived at the wakiup 
of Long John, where were found asleep Long 
John, "Old Tex," Alex Carter, Bob Zachary, 
Whisky Bill, Johnny Cooper and a couple of 
innocent strangers who had fallen in with the 
roughs the evening before. Long John was 
arrested for the murder, who, after a severe 
examination, declared Ives was the guilty 
party. Ives and "Old Tex" were also taken 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



103 



into custody and the march back to the camp 
was commenced, George Hilderman being 
taken on the way back. A daring attempt to 
escape was made by Ives on the return march, 
but was defeated, and the cavalcade arrived 
in Nevada soon after sunset, on the i8th of 
December, 1863. 

Then began the usual controversy as to the 
mode of trial. The roughs became alarmed 
and sent a messenger to Plummer at Bannack 
to inform him of the high handed outrage that 
was being perpetrated in defiance to law and 
with no regard whatever to the constitutional 
authorities. They asked that he come at once 
and demand the prisoners for trial by the "civil 
authorities," in which case he, as sheriff, would 
have the selecting of the jurors. Plummer. 
however, did not put in an appearance, and the 
trial proceeded without any interference from 
the "civil authorities." 

Before ten o'clock on the morning of the 
19th fifteen hundred or two thousand people 
had gathered in the town of Nevada to partici- 
pate in the trial, and the camp took on holiday 
appearance. After considerable discussion it 
was determined that the trial should be held in 
the presence of the entire asssemblage, the 
miners reserving the right of final decision on 
all questions. An advisory commission or 
jury of twelve men from each of the two dis- 
tricts were also provided for. Col. W. F. San- 
ders, a resident of Bannack, but at the time so- 
journing at Virginia City, was sent for to con- 
duct the prosecution and he was assisted by 
Chas. S. Bagg. Messrs. Smith, Ritchie, 
Thurmond. Colonel Wood and Davis appeared 
for the prisoners. It was decided to try Ives 
first, and that gentleman, secured by chains, 
was brought before the miners' court. 

Late in the afternoon of the 19th the trial 
began and it continued until after dark of the 
2 1 St. A strong defense was made and the ar- 
guments of the attorneys at times were long 
and eloquent. On the evidence of George 
Brown and "Honest Whiskey Joe," Ives en- 



deavored to establish two alibis, but because 
of the poor reputations of the witnesses the 
attempts failed. Long John testified under the 
rule admitting the reception of state's evidence 
and told a straightforward story, although he 
was not an eye witness to the killing. He 
swore that Ives had boasted to his companions 
after this fashion : "When I told the Dutch- 
man I was going to kill him, he asked me for 
time to pray. I told him to kneel down then. 
He did so and I shot him through the head just 
as he commenced his prayer." The testimony 
was not restricted to the crime in question, but 
evidence was admitted showing many past 
crimes which he and his friends had committed, 
and this evidently had considerable weight in 
determining a verdict. As a result of this evi- 
dence, also, several of the desperadoes whose 
names were brought into conspicuousness 
hastily departed the territory. Prof. Dimsdale 
thus graphically describes the scene at the trial : 

The crowd which gathered around that fire in 
front of the court is vividly before our eyes. We see 
the wagon containing the judge and an advocate plead- 
ing with all his earnestness and eloquence for the 
dauntless robber, on whose unmoved features no shade 
of despondency can be traced by the fitful glare of the 
blazing wood, n-hich lights up at the same time the 
stern and impassive features of the guard, who, in 
every kind of habiliments, stand in various attitudes, in 
the circle surrounding the scene of justice. The atten- 
tive faces and compressed lips of the jurors show their 
sense of the vast responsibility . that rests upon them, 
and of their firm resolve to do their duty. Ever and 
anon a brighter flash than ordinary reveals the expect- 
ant crowd of miners, thoughtfully and steadily gazing 
on the scene, and listening intently to the trial. Beyond 
this close phalanx, fretting and shifting around its 
outer edge, sways with quick and uncertain motion the 
wavering line of desperadoes and sympathizers with 
the criminal; their haggard, wild and alarmed count- 
enances showing too plainly that they tremble at the 
issue which is, when decided, to drive them in exile 
from IMontana. or to proclaim them as associate crimi- 
nals, whose fate could neither be delayed nor dubious. 
A sight like this will ne'er be seen again in Montana. 
It was the crisis of the fate of the territory. Nor was 
the position of prosecutor, guard, juror or judge one 
that any but a brave and law-abiding citizen would 
choose or even accept. Marked for slaughter by des- 
peradoes, these men staked their lives for the welfare 



I04 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



of society. A mortal strife between Col. Sanders and 
one of the opposing attorneys was only prevented by the 
prompt action of wise men, who corralled the com- 
batants on their way to fight. The hero of that hour 
of trial was avowedly W. F. Sanders. Not a despera- 
do present but would have felt honored by becoming 
his murderer, and yet, fearless as a lion, he stood there 
confronting and defying the malice of his armed ad- 
versaries. The citizens of Montana, many of them his 
bitter political opponents, recognized his actions with 
gratitude and kindly feeling. Charles S. Bagg is also 
remembered as having been at his post when the storm 
blew loudest. 

It was dark when the evidence was all in and 
the arguments had closed. The advisory jury 
retired and within a half hour returned with a 
verdict of guilty, only one of the twenty-four 
jurymen voting for acquittal. "Thank God for 
that!" "A righteous verdict!" and other like 
expressions broke from the lips of the as- 
sembled crowd of miners, while from the outer 
edge of the crowd, where were collected the 
friends of the criminal were heard curses, exe- 
crations and howls of indignation, the quick 
click of guns and revolvers. One of the ruf- 
fians exclaimed, "The murderous, strangling 
villains dare not hang him, at any rate." The 
motion prevailed, with some opposition from 
Ives' attorneys, that the assembly adopt the 
verdict of the jury. 

Then came the crucial test. Prompt ac- 
tion was necessary; in the previous murder 
trials justice had been defeated because of 
lack of it. Col. Sanders moved that "George 
Ives be forthwith hanged by the neck until he 
be dead," and the motion was carried almost 
unanimously. Then came pleas for delay until 
morning for the execution. The appeals for 
mercy and delay were piteous, but they lost 
much of their weight when some one in the 
crowd said, "Ask him how long a time he gave 
the Dutchman." 



Preparations for the execution were made 
at at once, A. B. Davis and Robert Hereford 
preparing the scaffold. The butt of a small 
pine, forty feet in length, was placed on the 
inside of a half enclosed building standing 
near, under its rear wall, the top projecting 
over a cross-beam in front. Near the upper end 
was fastened the fatal cord ; a large dry goods 
box, about five feet high, was placed beneath 
for the trap. Accompanied by the whole 
crowd, Ives was taken to the place, and after 
only a short delay came the command, "Men, 
do your duty!" The click of a hundred gun 
locks was heard as the guards brought their 
weapons to the shoulder and leveled them upon 
the crowd to check any possible attempt at 
rescue. The box flew out from under the feet 
of the murderer, and the first member of the 
road agent gang was launched into eternity. 

George Hilderman was put upon trial at 
once, found guilty, and banished from the ter- 
ritory. Long John, having given state's evi- 
dence, was allowed his freedom. Nothing ap- 
pearing against "Old Tex" at the time, he was 
released. 

Ives' execution had a terrifying effect upon 
the desperadoes, though a few of them put on 
a bold face and were as loud in their threats 
as before. Intense popular excitement pre- 
vailed throughout the territory immediately 
following the hanging of Ives. Those who 
participated in the trial were threatened with 
death, as had been those who took part in the 
trial of Moore and Reeves. The prominent 
ones were singled out for death, and the ven- 
geance of the ruffian horde would doubtless 
have Been as great as in the former case, had 
not events so shaped themselves that the road 
agents and murderers had other business to at- 
tend to than seeking vengeance. 



CHAPTER IX 



THE VIGILANTES. 



In the preceding chapter we have told of 
the state of society in the mining camps of 
Montana prior to the beginning of the year 
1864. The ruffians had complete control, and 
the law abiding were apparently powerless to 
bring about any kind of order. Now we shall 
tell of a complete reversal of conditions, 
brought about by the vigilantes of Montana. 
Going a little ahead of our story, we shall 
here tell of the results of the organization of 
the vigilantes. Within one short month the 
gang of murderous road agents was entirely 
broken up, and all but one or two of the mem- 
bers were hung. This was accomplished by 
an organization comprising nearly every good 
man in the territory — an organization which 
promised to, and did. render impartial justice 
to friend and foe, without regard to clime, 
creed, race or politics. It became known that 
the voice of justice, so long stilled, had spoken 
in tones that must not be disregarded. The 
face of society was changed as if by magic. 
In the words of Professor Dimsdale: "The 
vigilantes, holding in one hand the invisible yet 
effecttial shield of protection, and in the other 
the swift descending and inevitaljle sword of 
retribution, struck from his ner\-eless grasp the 
weapon of the assassin, commanded tlie 
brawler to cease from strife, warned the thief 
to steal no more, bade the good citizen take 
courage, aiid compelled the ruffians and ma- 
rauders who had so long maintained the 'reign 
of terror' in Montana to fly the territory, or 
meet the just rewards of their crimes." 

Between the first of the new year and the 
third of February the following meml>ers of 
the gang which had so long terrorized the 
people met untimely deaths at the hands of 
the vigilantes on the dates and at the places 



mentioned: Erastus Yager (commonly called 
Red) and G. W. Brown, Stinkingwater valley, 
January 4, 1864; Henry Plummer, Ned Ray 
and Buck Stinson, Bannack City, January 10, 
1864; John Wagner (commonly called Dutch 
John) and Joe Pizanthia, Bannack City, Janu- 
ary II, 1864; George Lane (commonly called 
Club-foot George), Frank Parish, Hayes Ly- 
ons, Jack Gallagher and Boone Helm, Virgin- 
ia City, January 14, 1864; Steven Marsh- 
land, Big Hole Ranch,, January 16, 1864; 
William Bunton, Deer Lodge valley, January 
19, 1864; George Shears, Frenchtown, Jan- 
uary 24, 1864; Cyrus Skinner, Alexander Car- 
ter and John Cooper, Hell Gate, January 25, 
1864; Robert Zachery, Hell Gate, January 25, 
1864; William Graves (commonly called 
Whisky Bill), Fort Owe;is, January 26, 1864; 
William Hunter, Gallatin valley, February 3, 
1864. By discoveries of the bodies of the vic- 
times, the confession of the murderers before 
execution, and other reliable information se- 
cured by the vigilantes, it was determined that 
the men had taken the lives of 102 people 
in different places. That is the record 
deduced from reliable information. However, 
it is not believed that that number any where 
near covered their actual murders. Scores of 
unfortunates had undoubtedly been murdered 
and their bodies buried, whose fate were never 
definitely ascertained. All that is known is 
that parties had started, with greater or less 
sums of money for various places and were 
never heard of again. 

The following were banished from the ter- 
ritory : Judge H. P. A. Smith and J. Thur- 
mond, the road agents' counsel ; H. G. Sessions 
and H. D. Moyer, manufacturing and circulat 



io6 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



ing bogus gold dust ; a man named Kustar for 
reckless shooting. 

On December 22, 1863, the day after the 
execution of George Ives, was taken the tirst 
step toward the organization of the vigilance 
committee. The state of the public mind was 
excited, brought about by the disclosures made 
at the Ives trial. Alec Carter's name had been 
frequently mentioned in connection with the 
Tbalt murder, and the miners determined that 
he should be brought to justice. Stinson and 
Lyons, the murderers of Dillingham, had es- 
caped punishment, and their death was also 
decided on. 

The scheme of organizing to bring the mur- 
derers to justice was originated by five men in 
Virginia City and one man in Nevada City. 
On the 22nd these gentlemen met and talked' 
over plans, and before the close of the next day 
a league had been foi-med to carry out the plans 
of dealing justice to the cummunity and bring- 
ing to a close tlie reign of terror. 

The birthplace of the Montana vigilantes 
was a back room of a store owned by John 
Kinna and J. A. Nye on Jackson street, op- 
posite the gambling house and saloon known in 
those days as "No. 10." In the "Story of 
Montana," McClure's magazine, August, 1906, 
Mr. C. P. Connolly has described this initial 
meeting. He states that Mr. Paris S. Pfouts 
was elected president. Colonel W. F. Sanders 
official prosecutor, and Captain James Wil- 
liams executive officer. After this election the 
candles were extinguished, and standing about 
the room in a circle, with hands uplifted, the 
assembled company took this oath : 

"We, the undersigned, uniting ourselves 
together for the laudable purpose of arresting 
thieves and murderers and recovering stolen 
property, do pledge ourselves on our sacred 
honor, each to all others, and solemnly swear 
that we will reveal no secrets, violate no laws 
of right, and never desert each other or our 
standard of justice, so help us God." 



One of the by-laws adopted by the vigilan- 
tes read as follows : 

"The only punishment that shall be inflicted 
by this committee is death." 

A few days more and such strength was 
secured as promised the best of success. Be- 
fore the organization had been completed a 
new incentive was given the people for desir- 
ing the punishment of the roughs. This was 
the cold blooded murder of Lloyd Magruder on 
his way home to Lewiston from Virginia City. 

Prof. Thos. J. Dimsdale has written : "The 
reasons why the organization was so generally 
approved and so numerously and powerfully 
supported were such as appealed to the sympa- 
thies of all men who had anything to lose, or 
who thought their lives safer under the domin- 
ion of a body which, upon the whole, it ihust 
be admitted has from the first acted with a 
wisdom, a justice and vigor never surpassed on 
this continent, and rarely, if ever, equalled. 
Merchants, miners, mechanics and professional 
men alike joined in the movement, until, with- 
in an incredibly short space of time, the road 
agents and their friends were in a state of con- 
stant and well-grounded fear, least any re- 
marks they might make confidentially to an 
acquaintance might be addressed to one of the 
much-dreaded committee." 

The committee mustered in a party of 
twenty-four men, which set out on the 23rd 
to capture Alec Carter and such others as were 
belie\-ed to be implicated in murder. The mem- 
bers of the party were armed with revolvers, 
rifles, shot guns and rope. Liquor was for- 
bidden and only light rations were carried. 
Carter was known to have left Alder gulch im- 
mediately after the trial of Ives, in company 
with Bill Bunton, Whisky Bill Graves and sev- 
eral others, fearing arrest because of the dis- 
closures made at the trial, and was supposed to 
have crossed to the west side of the range. The 
pursuers followed on his trail and as rapidly 
as possible into the Deer Lodge valley. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



107 



On Deer Lodge creek the party came upon 
Red (Yager), who had just warned Carter 
and his associates that the vigilantes were after 
them. None of the party were acquainted with 
Red and his mission was not I'Cnown at that 
tiniQ. He informed the party that Carter, Bun- 
ton, Graves and others were lying at Cotton- 
wood (now Deer Lodge City) drunk. The 
next day the vigilantes proceeded to Cotton- 
wood, where they expected to surprise and 
capture the ruffians without great difficulty. 
What was their great surprise to find that Car- 
ter and his companions had fled. It afterwards 
was learned that the intelligence of the pur- 
suit by the vigilantes was sent them from Vir- 
ginia City. Red was the messenger and 
George Brown the writer of the letter that 
gave the warning. The scouts, thoroughly 
disheartened, now returned to Beaver Head 
rock, determined to arrest both Brown and 
Red, if possible, for their interference. 

They stayed at Beaver Head two days, 
suffering much from cold and hunger. Being 
informed that Red was at Rattlesnake, volun- 
teers were called for and dispatched to accom- 
plish his arrest, while the rest of the party, on 
the homeward march, stopped at Dempsey's 
to await the return of the volunteers who had 
gone after Red. The small party captured 
Red without any trouble and brought him to 
the rendezvous. Brown, who was acting as 
bar keeper at Dempsey's, was also taken into 
custody. The men were accused of being 
members of the gang, which they both emphat 
ically denied. The scouts gave them a trial 
and decided that there was no doubt as to their 
guilt. A vote being taken it was unanimousl} 
decided that the two men should hang. 

The culprits were taken to Lorrain's ranch, 
on the road to \^irginia City. Here at ten 
o'clock that night preparations were made for 
the execution of the two men. Red made a full 
confession of all his crimes and told of the 
secret workings of the gang, of which he ad- 
mitted he was a member. He gave to the vigi- 



lantes the names of all the members and the 
history of their crimes. The substance of this 
confession has been given in the preceding 
chapter. 

Less than a quarter of a mile from the 
Lorrain ranch, on a beautiful curve of the Pas- 
sam-a-ri (or Stinkingwater) , stood several 
large and majestic cottonwood trees, and from 
two of these trees was executed the sentence 
of the two criminals. The lower branches 
were clipped from the trees, ropes were suspen- 
ded, and two stools placed one upon the other 
served the purpose of a drop. Brown met his 
doom first. With the petition on his lips, "God 
Almighty, save my soul," the stools were 
jerked from under him, and he died without 
a struggle. Red was unmoved by the death 
of his comrade. When it came his turn, he 
shook hands with all his executioners and said, 
"Let me beg of you to follow and punish the 
rest of this infernal gang." Then, just before 
the drop, he cried, "Goodbye, boys; you're on 
a good undertaking. God bless you." The 
stools fell, and another of the Plummer gang 
had gone to meet his reward. On the back of 
Red was pinned this label, "Red! Road Agent 
and Messenger." The other corpse was given 
the inscription, "Brozm! Corresponding Secret 
tary." The bodies were left suspended, and 
were not buried for several days afterwards. 

The little band now returned to Nevada. 
Here they found the vigilantes more thorough- 
ly organized than before their departure, and 
that their execution of Red and Brown was 
highly approved. The crisis was past, and the 
law abiding were no longer in fear of their 
lives for telling what they knew of crimes that 
had been committed. A meeting of the com- 
mittee was at once called to learn of the dis- 
closures made by Yager, and to act upon the 
information received. It was decided to pur- 
sue the criminals and not cease operations until 
every one of the gang was hanged or had fled 
the country. 

There was consternation among the rob- 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



bers when it became known that two of theii 
number had met death at the hands of vigi- 
lantes, and it would have been much greater 
had they known of the revelations made bv 
their messenger. Many, both at Bannack and 
Virginia City, fled at once; others, not antici- 
pating treachery from their comrades, believed 
themselves safe. So strong was the Plummer 
gang in the belief that evidence could not be 
brought against them that very few memberu 
of that order left the county, and so, almost 
without exception, all those who had been listed 
because of Red's disclosures were captured and 
summarily executed. 

The news of the hanging of two of the 
gang and the fact that the vigilantes were de- 
termined to rid the country of the lawless char- 
acters of course reached Bannack as soon as 
horsemen could carry it. There Plummer and 
his road agent friends learned which way the 
wind was blowing and thought best to leave 
the countr)^ although as yet they had no direct 
information that they were marked for slaugh- 
ter. On the ninth of January an effort was 
made to organize a vigilance committee in 
Bannack. A public meeting was called to dis- 
cuss the question and many looked upon the 
formation of a committee with favor. Among 
others present were Buck Stinson and Ned 
Ray. One energetic citizen present, knowing 
these men in their true light, threw cold water 
on the proposition, deeming it best to carry out 
the plans more secretly, and the meeting ad- 
journed without anything definite being done. 

At midnight that same night four vigi- 
lantes from the Virginia City organization ar- 
rived in Bannack, bearing the information of 
the organization and work of the order at that 
place, and asking the co-operation of the miners 
of Bannack in 'carrying out the work of rid- 
ding the country of the rough element. A few 
trusted ones met with these men, and before 
daylight of the loth a branch organization 
was organized in the older mining camp. The 
four vigilantes from Virginia City bore an 



order for the execution of Plummer, Stinson 
and Ray as leader and members of the road 
agent band. The newly organized branch con- 
curred in the decision of the older organiza- 
tion that these men must die. It was resolved 
that the next day, which was Sunday, shi)uld 
be spent in increasing the membership of the 
order; no great progress was made in this, 
however. 

Sunday night three horses were brought 
into town and were recognized as belonging 
to the three men slated for execution. It was 
good enough evidence that the murderers were 
about to leave the country, and their immediate 
arrest and execution was decided upon, the de- 
cision being reached at a speedily called meet- 
ing. Squads were detailed to arrest the three 
men, which was accomplished without much 
difficulty. Under a formidable guard the men 
were marched to the gallows, a structure which 
had been erected the year before by Plummer. 
and from which had been hung one John 
Horan. The pleadings of the chief of the 
road agents were piteous. He begged to be 
chained down in the meanest cabin; offered to 
leave the country forever; wanted a jury trial; 
implored time to settle his affairs; asked to 
see his sister-in-law ; declared that he was too 
wicked to die. "Do with me anything else you 
please," he said. "Cut off my ears, and cut 
out my tongue, and strip me naked this freez- 
ing night, and let me go. I beg you to spare my 
life. I want to live for my wife — my poor ab- 
sent wife." Again: "I am too wicked to die. 
I cannot go bloodstained and unforgiven into 
the presence of the Eternal. Only spare me, 
and I will leave the country forever." ]\Iean- 
time his companions in crime and misery dis- 
charged volley after volley of oaths and vile 
epithets at the vigilantes, employing all the of- 
fensive language of their copious vocabulary. 
Pleadings and curses alike failed to move the 
men who had set out to do the work. 

The first rope being thrown over the cross 
beam, the command was given, "Bring up Ned 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



[09 



Ray." Struggling wildly and cursing fear- 
fully, he was strung up. Being loosely pin- 
ioned, he got his fingers between the rope and 
his neck and so prolonged his misery. It was 
necessary to grasp his hands, and by a violent 
effort to draw his fingers from between the 
noose and his throat. Stinson was soon dang- 
ling besides the first. 

Then came the order, "Bring up Plum- 
mer." The fatal noose being adjusted several 
of the vigilantes lifted the frame of the un- 
happy criminal as high as they could reach, 
when they suddenly let it fall, and Henry 
Plummer, the chief of the road agents fell to 
the death which he was so justly entitled tu 
die. The guards remained at the scaffold un- 
til satisfied that death was certain ; then they 
quietly withdrew. A large number of people 
gathered at the hanging, but there were no at- 
tempts at rescue, the friends of the criminals 
not being so vociferous as on former occasions. 

The execution of these men produced ii 
marked tone for the better in public sentiment. 
Men breathed freer, for the sheriff and his 
deputies were feared by nearly everyone in 
camp. Plummer was known as a wily, red 
handed, and politely merciless chief. Ray was 
a brutal murderer and robber. Stinson was 
especially dreaded. Professor Dimsdale has 
described him as belonging to that type of 
brutal desperado whose formula of introduc- 
tion to a western bar room was: "Whoop! 
I'm from Pike county, Missouri; I'm ten feet 
high ; my abode is where lewd women and 
licentious men mingle ; my parlor is the Rocky 
mountains; I smell Hke a wolf; I drink water 
out of a brook like a horse. Look out, you 
, I'm going to turn loose." Public sen- 
timent sustained the vigilantes, and the order 
was rapidly increased in numbers. 

The next day, January 1 1, the vigilantes of 
Bannack executed two more men. The first 
one of these w-as Jo Pizanthia, a Mexican, who 
lived in a little cabin on a side hill overlooking 
the town. "The Greaser," as he was called. 



was not a member of Plummer's band, but he 
had borne a shady reputation since coming to 
Bannack. It was decided to arrest him and in- 
vestigate his career since coming to the terri- 
tory. The party started for his cabin, and 
upon reaching it, demanded that the inmate 
come out. There was no answer, and Smith 
Ball and George Copley entered, contrary to 
the advice of the rest of the party. They had 
no sooner entered than they recei\-ed the tire 
of the concealed Mexican. Copley was shot 
through the breast and died within a few 
minutes. Ball was not so seriously wounded. 
The shooting of Copley raised the public 
excitement nearly to madness, and Pizanthia's 
death was immediately decided on. A moun- 
tain howitzer, which had been left by a wagon 
train, was procured and brought within range 
of the cabin. Three shots were sent through 
the cabin and then a storming party was 
formed. The Mexican was found badly 
wounded. Unceremoniously he was taken from 
the building and stretched up. A clothes line 
was fastened about the neck of Pizanthia. The 
leader of the vigilantes, holding the other end 
of the rope, then climbed a pole, and, while 
his comrades held up the body, he wound the 
rope around the top of the stick, making a 
jam hitch. Before the leader had a chance to 
come down, the crowd blazed away with their re- 
volvers and rifles at the form of the murderer 
swinging beneath his feet. Over a hundred 
shots were put into the swinging corpse. Then 
the Mexican's cabin was razed to the ground, 
and a huge bon-fire kindled. A proposition to 
burn the body was received with cheers, and 
with a shout of exultation the maddened peo- 
ple tore down the body and hurled it upon the 
flames. When the fire had done its work there 
was not even a bone left of what a short time 
before had been Jo Pizanthia. The ne.xt 
morning a number of notorious women 
the town prospected the refuse, panning 
out the ashes of the ill-fated desperado 
in search of gold, which he might have had 
in his pockets at the time of his death. 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



On the evening of the same day that the 
]\Iexican was hung, another of the road agent 
gang met his fate. This was John Wagner, 
commonly called Dutch John, one of the brav- 
est and most daring of Plummer's men. Wag- 
ner had been captured without assistance some 
days before by Neil Howie, while the brigand 
was on his way out of the country, fearful less 
summary vengeance should overtake him. He 
and Steve ]\Iarsland only a short time before 
had robbed a train, and the fact that he was 
one of the party was known. \\"ith the as- 
sistance of John Fetherstun. Howie had safely 
conducted Dutch John to Bannack, where they 
were guarding him at the time his execution 
was ordered by the vigilantes. He had con- 
fessed his many crimes and had corroborated 
the story of the gang as told by Red. 

The committee met to determine the fate of 
Dutch John, and alter some preliminary dis- 
cussion, his execution was unanimously ad- 
judged the only penalty that would fit his many 
crimes, he having been a murderer and robber 
for years. His execution was set for one hour 
later, and one of the party went to inform the 
prisoner of his doom. Like Plummer had 
done the day before he begged hard for his 
life. He said: "Do with me as you please. 
Disable me in any way ; cut off my hands and 
feet; but let me live. You can certainly de- 
stroy my power for harm without taking my 
life." 

Of course his pleadings were in vain, and 
he was taken at the appointed time to the 
scaffold upon which his leader had been hung 
the day before. Here he mounted the barrel ; 
the noose was placed about his neck; the man 
laid hold of the rope that encircled the barrel, 
and when all was ready, the barrel was jerked 
from beneath him. and the stalwart form of 
the robber was soon cold in death. 

While the executions just mentioned had 
been taking place in Bannack, the vigilantes 
at Virginia City were not inactive. Six mem- 



bers of the band were known to be in the city, 
and it was decided to attend to their cases at 
once. On the thirteenth orders were sent 
out for the vigilantes to assemble in force to 
make the arrests and conduct the trials. That 
evening the city was encircled by more than 
five hundred men, who formed a cordon to 
prevent the escape of the men wanted while 
the executive council was in session deliberat- 
ing upon the evidences of guilt of the six men. 
So quietly was the guard placed about the city 
that not until the next morning did the people 
of Virginia City learn about it. One of the 
doomed men, however — Bill Hunter — suspect- 
ing danger, had crawled away along a drain 
ditch and made his escape. 

"While the committee was deliberating in 
secret," writes Prof. Dimsdale, "a small party 
of men who were at that moment receiving 
sentence of death were gathered in an upper 
room at a gambling house, and engaged in 
betting at faro. Jack Gallagher suddenly re- 
marked, "while we are here betting, those vig- 
ilante are passing sen- 
tence upon us.' This is considered to be the 
most remarkable and most truthful saying of 
his whole life; but he might be excused telling 
the truth once, as it was entirely accidental." 
When the morning of the fourteenth broke 
the citizens were very much astonished to see 
the pickets of the vigilantes surrounding the 
town. The city was like an entrenched camp. 
Hundreds of men with guns on their should- 
ers were marching through the snow on all 
the surrounding hillsides, with military regu- 
larity and precision. People knew what was 
coming and talked with abated breath of the 
doom which certainly awaited those of the 
gang who were still in the city. ^Messengers 
were sent to the other towns in the gulch to 
come and assist in the trials. Other members 
of the vigilantes were detailed to arrest and 
bring before the committee the following men : 
Jack Gallagher, George Lane (Club-foot 
George), Boone Helm, Frank Parish, Hayes 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



Lyons and Bill Hunter. The members of the 
branch organizations from Nevada, Junction, 
Summit, Pine Grove and Highland came to 
town in detachments and formed in a body on 
Main street. The town was soon full of 
people. 

So thorough were the preparations that 
all the men wanted except Hunter, who had 
made his escape, were captured with little dif- 
ficulty, and brought before the executive board. 
Here each was given a hearing, and nothing 
being adduced to change the minds of the vig- 
ilantes, it was decided to proceed with the exe- 
cution at once. 

Before being taken to the place of execu- 
tion, the prisoners were thus addressed by the 
president of the vigilantes : "You are now to 
be conducted to the scaffold. An i)])p(irtuiiity 
is given you to make your last ro(|iK-sts ami 
communications. You will do well tu impru\e 
it by making- a confession of your own crimes 
and putting the committee in possession of in- 
formation as to the crimes of others." All re- 
fused to confess or to make a statement of any 
kind. The prisoners were then pinioned, and 
the chief called upon men that could be de- 
pended upon to take charge of the condemned 
criminals. The plan adopted was to march 
the criminals, each between two vigilantes, 
who grasped an arm of the prisoner wath one 
hand, and held in the other a navy revolver 
ready for instant use. Some six or eight 
thousand people were present at the execution, 
and the vigilantes were exceptionally careful 
to prevent an attempt at rescue. The doomed 
men were marched into a hollow square which 
was flanked by four ranks of vigilantes. A 
column in front and rear, armed with shot 
guns and rifles carried at half present, ready 
to fire at a moment's warning, completed the 
precautions to prevent the escape of the pris- 
oners and possible aid from their friends in 
the crowd. Pistol men were distributed 
throughout the crowd to attend to the general 
deportment of outsiders. 



The central cross-beam of an unfinished 
log building at the corner of Wallace and Van 
Buren streets was selected for a scaffold. The 
building was roofless, and its spacious open 
front exposed the interior to the full view of 
the crowd. Five ropes were drawn across the 
beam to a proper length and fastened firmly 
to the logs in the rear basement. Under each 
noose was placed a large empty dry goods box, 
with cord attached for the drops. The pris- 
oners were marched in and each one stepped 
upon one of the boxes. It was decided to ex- 
ecute the men one at a time, and at the nov/ 
familiar words, "Men, do your duty," the box 
upon which one of the criminals was standing 
would be jerked away, and a dangerous out- 
law would be launched into eternity. Thus 
one by one five more of Plummer's gang was 
made away with. 

These executions were a fatal blow to the 
road agents, who now saw that the vigilantes 
were in earnest in their intentions to bring to 
justice every one of the road agents. They no 
longer hesitated, but every one endeavored to 
get out of the territory. People no longer 
feared to express opinions on the side of right. 
All the ruffians had now fled from Virginia 
City and Bannack, having taken their way 
over the range to Deer Lodge and Bitter Root, 
intending to return to their old haunts in the 
mining camps of Idaho. " The vigilantes had 
decreed, however, that all members of the 
gang must suffer death for their crimes, and 
plans were laid to hunt down and execute all 
who were on the list. 

A company of twenty-one men started out 
from Nevada on the 15th, the day after the ex- 
ecution of the five bandits at Virginia City. 
They proceeded to Big Hole and from there 
sent out a small detachment to Clarke's ranch 
in pursuit of Steve Marshland, wdio with 
Dutch John had attacked Forbes' train and 
been wounded. The party found Marshland in 
bed with his feet badly frozen. On being in- 
formed of the purpose of the visit Marshland 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



denied everything, but later confessed his 
crimes, and begged for mercy. A pole was 
stuck into the ground and leaned over the cor- 
ral ; a box was placed for him to stand on, and 
from this improvised scaffold he was hung. 
This was on the i6th. The detachment re- 
turned to the main body of vigilantes and re- 
ported the hanging. 

The party now pushed on to Deer Lodge, 
where they found that nearly all the men 
wanted had taken flight and left the town. 
However, they found two whom they wanted 
— Bill Bunton and "Tex." These were cap- 
tured and tried. Bunton was unanimously sen- 
tenced to death, while "Tex" was cleared. 
Bunton was executed on the 19th from an im- 
provised scaffold formed by a corral gate. 
Without waiting for the "All ready, boys," he 
leaped from the plank and died without a 
struggle. 

The next few days witnessed the execu- 
tion of several more members of the gang. 
Learning that several of the men wanted were 
at Hell Gate, a little settlement about ninety 
miles down the river, the vigilantes at once set 
out for that place. After many hardships they 
reached the place and entered the town on a 
dead run. They found Cyrus Skinner, one of 
the men wanted, in the doorway of his saloon, 
and that road agent was taken without much 
trouble. Alec Carter, another member of the 
gang and one who had a part in the murder of 
Tbalt, was found in the building next to Skin- 
ner's saloon, and taken into custody. The two 
men were taken to Higgins' store and their ex- 
amination was immediately commenced. Be- 
fore the examination of these men was com- 
pleted Johnny Cooper, another of the road 
agent gang, was arrested. All were found 
guilty, and Carter confessed to complicity in 
the nlurder of Tbalt. 

While these trials were in progress a de- 
tachment of eight men left Hell Gate in search 
of Bob Zachary, whom they found at the cabin 
of Barney O'Keefe. Zachary was taken and 



the party started back toward 1 icll (Jatc. It was 
learned that a stranger, who answered the de- 
scription of George Shears, another of the 
band, was stopping at Van Dorn's cabin, in 
the Bitter Root Valley. Three vigilantes left 
to investigate and captured Shears without an 
effort. He was immediately conducted to the 
barn, where, a rope being cast over a beam, he 
met his doom. To save the trouble of prepar- 
ing a drop, the prisoner was requested to climb 
a ladder and jump off as soon as the noose was 
prepared. This he did without any apparent 
reluctance. This hanging occurred on the 24th. 

Skinner and Carter were executed early in 
the morning of the 25th. Scaffolds were 
hastily erected by placing poles over the fence 
of Higgins' corral, dry goods boxes being used 
for the drop. Each man, as he was being 
launched into eternity, exclaimed, "I am inno- 
cent," the password of the band. Later the 
same day Johnny Cooper was hanged from 
the same scaffold. He was quite badly woun- 
ded at the time and had to be drawn to the 
place of execution in a sleigh. The party which 
had captured Zachary brought him to Hell 
Gate the same day. He was tried and found 
guilty. On the scaffold he prayed that God 
would forgive the vigilantes for what they 
were doing, as it was the only way to clear the 
country of road agents. He died without ap- 
parent fear or suffering. 

The execution of William Graves (Whis- 
key Bill) took place on the 26th at Fort 
Owen. Intelligence had been received at Hell 
Gate that Whisky Bill was at Fort Owen, and 
three men were sent immediately to arrest and 
execute him. He had repeatedly sworn that 
he would kill any vigilante that came his way, 
and when found he was armed and on the look- 
out. His captors swooped down on him so 
suddenly, however, that he did not have time 
to make resistance, and was easily captured. 
He refused to make a confession. Mr. Lang- 
ford tells of his execution as follows : "A rope 
was tied to the convenient limb of a tree, and 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



the drop extemporized by placing the culprit 
astride of a strong horse, behind a vigilante. 
When all was ready the rider, exclaiming 
'goodbye, Bill,' plunged the rowels into the 
sides of the horse, the fatal noose swept the 
robber from the seat, breaking his neck by the 
shock, and killing him instantly." 

This had been one of the most successful 
raids of the vigilantes since starting out, and 
the work was fully appreciated by the people 
living in the Hell Gate neighborhood. There 
had been a reign of terror in the neighborhood 
since the desperadoes had been driven out of 
Bannack and Virginia City. Their work having 
been completed, the vigilantes set out on the 
return to Nevada. 

It will be remembered that wlien Boone 
Helm and his comrades were hung at Virginia 
City, the death penalty had also been pro- 
nounced upon Bill Hunter, who, however, 
managed to escape through the pickets. Soon 
after it was learned that this man was living 
in the Gallatin valley. On February 3rd he 
was captured and executed — the last of the 
Plummer gang of road agents. A number of 
vigilantes, under the pretence of joining the 
Barney Hughes stampede to a new placer dis- 
covery, set out to effect his capture. As soon 
as his whereabouts were definitely known four 
resolute men volunteered to capture and ex- 
ecute him. On the evening of the 2nd these 
men arrived, after a long and perilous journey, 
at a log cabin in the neighborhood of the rocky 
jungle where their game had taken cover. He 
was taken captive, and a return journey in the 
direction of Virginia City was commenced. 
Alx)ut two miles from the cabin the party 
halted under a solitary tree. Here breakfast 
was had, and then ensued a brief consultation as 
to what disposition should be made of the 
prisoner, it being decided after some discussion 
that his execution should take place at once. 
A noose was prepared and the rope passed 
over the limb of the tree. When everything 
was in readiness the men took hold of the rope 



and at a given signal, by a rapid pull, the pris- 
oner was run up so suddenly that he died with- 
out apparent suffering. So strong is the rul- 
ing passion in death that as he was suspended 
in the air and, certainly, unconscious, he 
reached as if for his revolver and pantomimi- 
cally cocked and discharged it six times. Leav- 
ing the corpse suspended from the tree, the 
vigilantes now hurried homeward at a rapid 
pace. 

Thus perished the last one of Henry Plum- 
mer" s road agent band. The bloody reign of 
terror was at an end. The punishment of the 
wrong doers had been severe, but severe meas- 
ures were necessary. We quote at some length 
from two authorities on the vigilante question 
of Montana, showing the opinions of the people 
on the methods adopted to bring a condition 
of law and order out of one that had before 
been one of lawlessness. Mr. N. P. Langford 
has written : 

The retribution, almost Draconic in severity, ad- 
ministered to these daring freebooters had in no re- 
spect exceeded the demands of absolute justice. If the 
many acts I have narrated of their villainies were not 
sufficient to justify the extreme course pursued in their 
extermination, surely the unrevealed history, greater 
in enormity, and stained with blood of a hundred or 
more additional victims, must remove all prejudices 
from the public mind against the voluntary tribunal of 
the vigilantes. There was no other remedy. Practic- 
ally, they had no law, but, if law had existed, it could 
not have afforded adequate redress. This was proven 
by the feeling of security consequent upon the destruc- 
tion of the band. When the robbers were dead the 
people felt safe, not for themselves alone, but for their 
pursuits and their property. They could travel with- 
out fear. They had a reasonable assurance of safety 
in transmission of money to the states, and in the ar- 
rival of property over the unguarded route from Salt 
Lake. The crack of pistol* had ceased, and they could 
walk the streets without constant exposure to danger. 
There was an omnipresent spirit of protection, akin to 
that omnipresent spirit of law which pervaded over 
civilized communities. Men of criminal instincts were 
cowed before the majesty of an outraged people's 
wrath, and the very thought of crime became a terror 
to them. Young men who had learned to believe that 
the roughs were destined to rule, and who, under the 
influence of that guilty faith, were fast drifting into 
crime, shrunk appalled at the thorough work of the 



114 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



vigilantes. Fear, more potent than consK:ience. forced 
even the worst of men to observe the requirements of 
:iviHzed society, and a feeling of comparative security 
among all classes was the result. 

Prof. Thos. Dimsdate has written : 

On looking back at the dreadful state of society 
which necessitated the organization of the vigilantes, 
and on reading these pages, many will learn for the 
first time the deep debt of gratitude which they owe to 
that just and equitable body of self-denying and gallant 
men. It was a dreadful and disgusting duty that de- 
volved upon them ; but it was a duty, and they did it. 
Far less worthy aictions have been rewarded by (he 
thanks of congress, and medals glitter on many a 
bosom, whose owner won them lying flat behind a 
hillock, out of range of the enemy's fife. The vigilantes, 
for the sake of their country, encountered popular dis- 
like, the envenomed hatred of the bad, and the cold 
toleration of some of the unwise good. Their lives 
they held in their hands. "All's well that ends well." 
Montana is saved, and they saved it, earning the bless- 
ings of future generations, whether they receive them 
or not. 

After the vigilantes had e.xecnted the last 
of the road agent band, they considered that 
tlieir work was nearly completed. They had 
freed the country from highwaymen and mur- 
derers — at any rate there was no organized 
band in the territory. There being no regular 
civil authority, the people decided to establish 
what was known as a people's court, where all 
offenders should be tried by judge and jury 
and where all civil matters should be disposed 
of. This was the nearest approach to civil 
order that the circumstances permitted, and, 
while not strictly legal, the people determined 
that its decrees should be enforced. The vig- 
ilantes did not at once disband, however, and 
for some time afterward the fact that the or- 
ganization was still in existence caused a re- 
straint on acts of the lawless. Several more 
executions were made by this band before 
their place was taken by civil authorities. A 
few reckless spirits remained who, after the 
excitement was over, forgot the lessons that 
had been taught. 

The vigilantes were censured quite severely 



for some of these latter acts, it being consid- 
ered that they were carrying their self-consti- 
tuted power too far. The first execution after the 
work detailed in this chapter was that of J. A. 
Slade of Virginia City, a man who had many 
friends among the best people of the commun- 
ity but who was terrorizing rough when drink- 
ing and made life miserable for the people of 
Virginia City. We shall not go into detail 
in telling of these latter doings of the vigi- 
lantes, but simply give an outline of their work. 

Early in the summer of 1864 James Brady 
was hung near Nevada for the attempted mur- 
der of one Murphy, a saloon keeper. In Sep- 
tember of the same year Jem Kelly was hung 
by the Virginia vigilantes for the robberj' of 
a coach going from Virginia City to Salt Lake. 
The hanging took place near Portneuf. On 
September 17, 1864, John Dolan was hung at 
Nevada for the robbery of James Brady and 
for suspicion of having been connected with 
stage robbery. He escaped to Salt Lake City, 
but was brought back. In the fall of the same 
year R. C. Rawley was hung at Bannack, upon 
the same gallows that Plummer had met his 
doom. Rawley was hung principally for his 
threats against the vigilantes and the fact that 
he was suspected of having been a spy for the 
Plummer gang. He had left the country when 
the vigilantes first made their appearance, but 
had come back that summer. 

Soon after the discovery of the precious 
metal in Prickly Pear valley and the springing 
up of the town of Helena John Keene was ex- 
ecuted there for the murder of Harry Slater. 
Many roughs caine to the new diggings and 
to protect themselves the citizens of the new 
town organized a branch of the vigilantes, 
many of the members of the older organiza- 
tion becoming members. Shortlly after this 
organization Jake Silvia was arrested at Dia- 
rnond City, about forty miles east of Helena, 
on the charge of robber}', obtaining goods under 
false pretenses and various other crimes of a 
similar nature. He was brought to Helena 



HISTORY OF MONTANA. 



and at his trial admitted that he had been a 
robber for twelve years and that during that 
time he had taken part in twelve murders. He 
was hanged. 

The last execution by the Virginia vigil- 
antes were two horse thieves named John Mor- 
gan and John Jackson. These were executed 
for horse stealing, but before death admitted 
that they were road agents. 

The committee at Helena and a newly or- 
ganized one at Diamond Gulch were occasion- 
ally called upon to make examples of outlaws 
who had come to those camps, and several ex- 
ecutions were necessary before order was re- 
stored. The most remarkable case here was 
that of James Daniels for the murder of a man 
named Gartley at Helena. Daniels was tried 
by the civil authorities and found guilty of 
manslaughter. He was sentenced to serve a 
term of three vears in the territorial peniten- 



tiary. He was reprieved by the executive and 
promptly returned to Helena, where he was 
hanged by the vigilantes. 

So much confidence did the people of Mon- 
tana have in the vigilantes that when the ter- 
ritory was organized many people scouted the 
idea of having any better law for their protec- 
tion. When the new officers arrived they were 
told by some that the courts might be called 
upon to settle the civil cases, but that the peo- 
ple wanted no other laws than those laid down 
and executed by the vigilantes. When, how- 
ever, they found the courts adequate to their 
necessities, vigilante rule gradually gave way 
to the civil authorities. In some extreme cases 
the court's slow action was anticipated and the 
old organization was again called into vogue, 
but this occurred only when the oft'ence was of 
a verv aggravated character. 



PART II 

PARK COUNTY 



CHAPTER I 



EXPLORATION AND EARLY SETTLEMENT— iSo6 TO i88. 



It was on Tuesday, the 15th day of July, 
1806, that the first white man set foot on soil 
that is now within the boundaries of Park 
county. On that date a party consisting of 
twenty men, one squaw, one papoose and 50 
horses, under the command of Captain William 
Clark, crossed the belt range of mountains at 
the point which in later years became known as 
the Bozeman pass and descended the east side. 
Details of this journey are in another chapter 
of this work. 

The operations of the various fur traders 
and trappers are given in the chapter entitled 
"The Fur Traders." 

Jim Bridger, he of Rocky mountain fame, 
spent the winter of 1844-45 ""^ that part of 
the county now known as Emigrant gulch 
with a band of Crow Indians. This statement 
has been vouched for by C. R. Glidden, who 
has stated that the fact was verified by certain 
marks and signs used by all mountaineers and 
which has been accurately described to the 
first settlers in Emigrant gulch. 

^Ir. D. B. Weaver, who began mining in 
Emigrant gulch in 1864, has this to say of 
evidences of Mr. Bridger having been there 
at an early day. According to this account. 



the time of Mr. Bridger's residence here would 
appear to have been earlier than the date given 
by Mr. Glidden : 

"In Curry's district (in 1864), about a 
mile from the valley, stood a lonely pine tree, 
some twenty inches in diameter, around whicl-: 
was placed eighteen or twenty large elk horns 
with the concave side next to the tree. In the 
course of a number of years the growth of 
this tree caused the tree to expand and caused 
the horns to be tightly fastened around the 
tree so they could not be removed. It was a 
problem no one could solve who had placed 
the horns around the tree or how long ago it 
had been done. This was a question that none 
could answer. During the fall of 1864 Cap- 
tain Fridley built a log house in Bozeman 
which was used by the traveling public as a 
place to stop in over night, by spreading their 
blankets on the ground floor. Here one night 
in the fall of 1864 a number of travelers were 
resting, among the number Jim Bridger, Rich- 
ard Owens and others. One of the men was 
telling- about these elk horns around the tree 
over in Emigrant gulch. Old Jim Bridger 
spoke up, saying, T helped to put them elk 
horns there twenty-five years ago.' Now, tak- 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



ing Bridger at his word, we arrived at the con- 
clusion that Bridger was the first white man to 
reside in this gulch and this part of the Yellow- 
stone valley. Likely his party were trapping 
for beaver along the river and this gulch af- 
forded them a safe place to encamp from hos- 
tile Indians." 

By the terms of the treaty signed Septem- 
ber 17, 1 85 1, a part of the Yellowstone valley 
was set aside as a resefvation for .the Crow In- 
dians. The boundary line of this reservation 
commenced at the mouth of the Powder river 
and followed that river to its source, thence 
along the main range of the Black Hill and 
Wind River mountains to the headwaters of 
the Yellowstone river then down the Yel- 
lowstone river to the mouth of Twenty- 
five Yard creek, or Shields river, and across 
to the headwaters of the Musselshell, thence 
down the Musselshell to its mouth, thence to 
the headwaters of Dry creek and down that 
creek to its mouth. In this reserve was all 
that part of the present Park county east of 
the Yellowstone river, and Shields river. As 
there were no settlers in this part of the coun- 
try it made no difference whether Park county 
was included in an Indian reservation or not 
at this time, but before the boundaries were 
finally moved to the eastward, by the treaty of 
1880, there had been many prospectors over 
the countn,^ to the east of the Yellowstone, who 
had found rich prospects. 

Fifty-three years after the expedition under 
Clark had crossed Park county on its way to 
the east another government expedition 
crossed the county. It was in the spring of 
1859 that Lieutenant Maynadier, of the expedi- 
tion under Capt. W. F. Raynolds, of the corps 
of topographical engineers. U. S. A., passed 
through the southern part of the county, going 
from east to west. He kept close to the flank 
of the mountains until he reached the valley of 
the Yellowstone; then he hastened to join his 
commanding officer at the three forks of the 
Missouri, the appointed rendezvous, which 



place he reached on the third day of July. One 
of the objects of this expedition was the ex- 
ploration of the upper Yellowstone, but its 
primary object was to observe an eclipse of 
the sun at some point further west and north. 
Owing to the fact that there was only a little 
time to reach the appointed place of observa- 
tion, the further exploration of the Yellow- 
stone was abandoned. 

Prior to the year i860 Montana was prac- 
tically unknown except to the fur traders and 
a few Catholic missionaries, who had taken up 
their place of abode west of the mountains. 
During the next year or two rumors of gold 
in the Rocky mountain country brought a few 
prospectors into the country. It was not until 
the discovery of the Bannack mines in 1862, 
however, that there was any attempt made at 
permanent settlement. Then came the discov- 
ery of the rich placers at Alder gulch the fol- 
lowing year, and the rush to the land of gold 
was on. No part of the mountain country was 
overlooked by the prospectors, who swarmed 
over the hills and gulches looking for the pre- 
cious metal. It was the work of these gold 
seekers that led to the settlement of Park 
county. 

We find that in 1863 several such parties 
penetrated the country which is now within the 
limits of Park county. In April of that year 
a party of prospectors and prospective town 
builders, who had elected James Stuart as their 
captain, set out for Bannack with the inten- 
tion of prospecting in the Yellowstone valley 
and of laying out a townsite at some point in 
that unknown country. The members of the 
party were James Stuart. Cyrus D. Watkins, 
John Vanderbilt, James N. York. Richard Mc- 
Cafferty, Jas. Hauxhurst, D. Underwood, S. 
T. Hauser, H. A. Bell, Wm. Roach. A. S. 
Blake, Geo. H. Smith, H. T. Gerry, E. Bost- 
wick and Geo. Ives. The party left Bannack 
on April 9th and proceeded to the Gallatin 
river. Thence they crossed to Shields river, 
down that stream to the Yellowstone, and then 




EMIGRANT PEAK 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



on their search to the east. Concerning the 
trip through Park ^county, Mr. Stuart in his 
journal said : "From Bannack City to a point 
between the Madison and Gallatin rivers we 
traveled to suit ourselves, in regard to course, 
etc. ; then we were suckers enough to try to 
travel by Lewis and Clark's notes and maps, 
and the consequences were that from there to 
the mouth of Shields river we traveled 75 miles 
without getting any nearer our destination. 
After that we laid Lewis and Clark aside and 
traveled to suit the lay of the country." 

In the preceding chapter of this work we 
have told of the many hardships encountered 
by this party during the subsequent part of the 
journey. 

That year another prospecting party, num- 
bering thirty or forty men, traversed the county 
■from north to south, ascending the Yellowstone 
river into what is now the National Park. 
There all their horses were stolen by Indians. 
The party then divided into two parts and both 
prospected the country in the vicinity of Clark's 
fork for several days. They finally returned 
and descended the Yellowstone, and found 
good prospects near the southern boundary of 
the present Park county, but did not follow up 
their discoveries. 

Gold was found in Emigrant gulch in 1863 
by Thos. Curry, who remained in the vicinity 
for some time, living with the Indians and put- 
ting in his time hunting and prospecting. 
Curry was an Irishman and by trade, a tailor. 
He left Emigrant gulch for the diggings 
further east, and early in the summer of 1864 
we find him starting out with two companions 
from Virginia City to return to his prospects. 
Soon after they commenced work in the gulch 
the Crows came upon them and robbed them of 
all their provisions and nearly all the rest of 
their equipment. Notliing daunted by this 
treatment, the men returned to Virginia City, 
where they laid in a new supply of pro^'isions 
and such other articles as was necessary to 
carry on their work, and returned to the gulch. 



Now, during the summer of 1864 there 
was a great rush to the gold fields of iMon- 
tana at Bannack, V'irginia City and other 
points where the precious metal had been 
found. Much of this travel was by boat up 
the Missouri to Fort Benton, but John Boze- . 
man successfully opened up a new overland 
route, and on July 30 reached the present site 
of the city of Livingston with a large emigrant 
train. From here the train proceeded west- 
ward, via the Bozeman pass, and the present 
site of the city of Bozeman, to the mining 
camps further west. Another large train was 
brought over the Bozeman route that summer 
as far as the mouth of Shields river, piloted by 
Jim Bridger, the famous trapper and hunter. 
I'rom that point Bridger took his train up 
Shields river and thence to the western mining 
camps. Other parties not connected with either 
of these trains and traveling in smaller compan- 
ies, came over the Bozeman route, all tound 
for the renowned gold fields of the Rockies. 

Curry and his companions having found 
gold in Emigrant gulch some 25 miles above 
the point where the Bozeman trail left the Yel- 
lowstone, and desiring to share their good for- 
tune with the emigrants from the east, met 
some of the first parties at that point and in- 
duced some few of the gold seekers to abandon 
the trip to Virginia City and to try the new 
diggings up the Yellowstone. These found 
good prospects and at once went to work. A 
meeting was called and Curry mining district, 
in honor of the discoverer of the mines, was 
formed about the middle of August, of which 
Dr. Hull, of Iowa, was the recorder. It was 
not long before there were two or three hun- 
dred people digging up the ground in Emi- 
grant gulch. Each party that passed over the 
Bozeman route would lose a few members, 
who would decide to tiy their luck in the newly 
discovered mines up the Yellowstone. 

David R. Shorthill, D. B. Weaver and 
Alexander Norris arrived at Emigrant gulch 
August 27. Weaver has written as follows of 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



the cimp as it appeared to him that day in 
August, 1864: 

"Here for the first time I saw men washing 
dirt or ground for gold. The bank or bar of 
this gulch had stakes set in the ground every 
200 feet with the owner's name written on it. 
I estimate that there must have been two miles 
of ground staked ofif. The owners of these 
claims had formed a company, sawed out lum- 
ber and made a long string of sluice boxes, into 
which they were shovelling the gravel and dirt. 
They were trying to get to bed rock in the ex- 
pectation of finding 'pay dirt.' " 

Although the prospectors were busily en- 
gaged in turning over the ground in great 
quantities at this point the yields were not rich. 
Air. Shorthill, who was an experienced Colo- 
rado miner, concluded that the source of the 
gold was higher up the gulch and at once be- 
gan prospecting. On Tuesday, August 30, he 
struck coarse gold in paying quantities, and 
the camp became quite famous in a small way. 

By-laws in Emigrant Gulch. Shorthill's District. 

Resolved, By the miners of said district that the 
limits of said district shall be from the second falls of 
the main stream up said gulch to the forks of said 
stream and extending in width from summit to sum- 
mit along said gulch. 

Resolved, That no mining claim in said district 
shall exceed in length along said gulch one hundred 
feet, but all claims shall extend in width from summit 
to summit across said gulch. 

Resolved, That no person shall hold more than one 
claim as above specified by pre-emption, and but one 
by purchase except discovery claim. 

Resolved. That any preempted claim upon which 
the owner thereof shall not have performed; or cause 
to be performed, actual mining labor within ten days, 
next after his preemption thereof, shall be liable to be 
preempted by any person entitled to preempt the same 
and that after labor shall have been performed upon 
claim if an interval of five days shall elapse without 
additional labor being performed thereon said claim 
shall be liable to be preempted by any other person en- 
titled to preempt the same, provided that if any com- 
pany or copartnership for the purpose of mining who 
shall owm claims in said district shall labor upon any 
one claim owned by said company or copartnership said 
labor shall be deemed to be performed upon the several 
claims owned by them. ^ 



Resolved, That there shall be one recorder elected 
from the mines of said district, whose duty it shall be 
to record the claims of said district and for which he 
shall receive for each claim fifty cents. 

Resolved, That all disputes arising concerning 
claims in this district shall be settled by the miners 
of said district. 

Resolved, That the time for quitting labor in this 
district during the coming winter shall be th-e first day 
of October, and further that the time of resuming labor 
the ensuing summer shall be the first day of June, 
1865 — provided that claim holders may resume work 
upon their own claims if by them deemed expedient. 

Resolved, That the recorder shall call a meeting 
of the miners upon request of three miners of said 
district. 

September 12, '64. 

The original copy of these laws is in the 
possession of Mr. Hackney, the secretary, who 
lives at the national soldiers' home at Los An- 
geles, California. The laws were not signed by 
the secretary at the time of their adoption, but 
the following addition to the records will show 
that they are now in the proper legal fonn : 

National Soldiers' Home, 

Los Angeles. Cal., 9-12-1906. 
This is to certify that at a miners' meeting held 
in the Shorthill district in Emigrant Gulch, Montana, 
Sept. 12, 1864, I was elected secretary of said meeting 
and wrote the above by-laws ; but as there was some 
unfinished business 'when the meeting adjourned I did 
not sign them, but do now, 42 years later. 

W. H. HACKNEY. 

Preparations for founding a town were be- 
gun before mining ceased, in the fall of 1864. 
A site was surveyed at the mouth of Emigrant 
gulch and named Yellowstone City. The first 
building erected was a house put up by Thos. 
McGronagle. At the time, the house was con- 
sidered a commodious one, put up with a view 
to architectual beauty, but in this latter day 
civilization it would in all probability be prop- 
erly termed a "shack." The town was built 
up rapidly, and practically the whole popula- 
tion of Emigrant gulch passed the winter "in 
town." The cabins up the gulch were deserted 
and everything was "packed" down to Yellow- 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



stone City. In a letter to a friend in the east, 
dated Yellowstone City, March 15, 1865, Mr. 
D. B. Weaver said : "Yellowstone City is sit- 
uated at the mouth of Emigrant gulch. It has 
about 75 log houses and a couple hundred 
inhabitants, 15 being women. It was com- 
menced last fall. It is the only settlement in 
this valley and the most eastern town in this 
territory, except Fort Laramie. This promises 
to be quite a place the coming summer." 

Yellowstone City consisted not alone of 
miners' cabins. In the fall there arrived in 
Emigrant gulch four or five freight wagons, 
loaded with merchandise and articles for trade 
with the Indians. These goods were the prop- 
erty of Aguste Archambeau and Frank Cin 
Cin, two French explorers and trappers, both 
described as estimable gentlemen. They 
erected a large log building for their store, and 
carried on the largest establishment in the 
town. The camp was a comparatively orderly 
one, composed of the best class of miners. Al- 
though outside the jurisdiction of peace of- 
ficers and courts, the people banded to- 
gether and formed laws of their own. 
A meeting was held in the fall when a 
justice of the peace was elected and penalties 
prescribed for different offenses. Hanging 
was to be the penalty for murder, thieving or 
for insulting women. In the fall of 1864 a 
baby boy was born to the wife of Mr. Miller, 
and was named ^Montana. This was probably 
the first white child born in what is now Park 
county, or for that matter in the Yellowstone 
valley. Another child born at a very early 
date was the son of Mr. and -Mrs. John J. Tom- 
linson, the sawmill man. This child was 
named Philo. 

The winter of 1864-65 will never be for- 
gotten by any who passed that season in Yel- 
lowstone City. They were the vanguard of 
civilization. For hundreds of miles to the east 
there was nothing but the wild animals and 
wilder savages; to the north and south it was 
no better ; to the west the nearest mining camp 



was Virginia City, 120 miles distant. Con- 
cerning the state of society here that winter, 
Mr. C. R. Glidden has written : 

"Notwithstanding their perilous position 
the residents enjoyed life to the utmost. Balls 
and parties were frequent and well attended, 
the most cordial good fellowship prevailing. 
The gentlemen were soon dressed in true 
frontier style — that is in buckskin suits with 
long fringes attached to the seams of their gar- 
ments, a la Buffalo Bill. The ladies were com- 
pelled to replenish their wardrobes with gar- 
ments made from empty flour sacks, and, as it 
was impossible to erase the original brands, 
their clothes lines presented an amusing specta- 
cle, seldom seen except in the far west." 

When the emigrants came to the gulch in 
the summer they were generally well supplied 
with groceries of all kinds, but in most cases 
these ran out long before the winter was over. 
The deep snows on the ranges to the west pre- 
vented an easy replenishment of their stock, 
and many were reduced to the necessity of liv- 
ing on "meat straight" during the latter part 
of the winter. Some also had been unable to 
secure profitable claims, and their diet of "meat 
straight" was due. in some cases, to lack of 
funds, as well as the inability to reach markets. 
But game of all kinds was abundant and none 
was so poor that he could not have plenty. The 
snow in the mountains drove the wild game 
down into the valley and on the foothills. An- 
telope, black tailed deer, common deer. Rocky 
mountain sheep, elk and bear were the most 
common varieties, and often such game wan- 
dered down within plain sight of the town 
Because of the heavy snows on the mountains, 
making it very difficult to bring in stocks of 
goods, and the steady diminishing of the food 
supplies of Yellowstone City, it was but natural 
that prices for such goods went soaring. Con- 
cerning the prices of merchandise during this 
winter, we quote again from the letter already 
referred to, written :\Iarch 15. 1S65, by ^Ir. 
Weaver : 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



I shall now give you the dust, or gold, prices of 
articles (you must double the sum to get it in green- 
backs) : Flour, $20 to $25 per sack or loo pounds; 
bacon, 60 cents per pound ; coffee, 75 cents ; sugar 75 
cents per poimd ; dried apples, 50 cents per pound ; po- 
tatoes, 12 to 16 cents per pound; turnips, S cents per 
pound; onions, 10 cents; butter, $1.00 to $1.25 per 
pound; canned fruit, $1.50 per can; ax and pick handles 
$1.00 a handle; writing paper, s cents per sheet. The 
largest profit last summer was on flour. It could be 
purchased in Omaha for three dollars tper hundred in 
greenbacks and sold here for $20 to $25 in gold. Flour 
is now selling here at $40 per hundred in gold, or $80 
in U. S. currency. Virginia City is our nearest post- 
office. It costs 371/2 cents to send a letter and 75 cents 
to get one here in gold by private conveyance. 

Now, as the mining season lasts but six months, 
to pay the above prices a man is bound to make big 
wages. Last summer my'average wages at mining was 
thirteen dollars a day in gold, and I expect the coming 
summer equally as good. 

But not all the events of the year were 
centered in Emigrant giilch. As stated before, 
the whole of the mountain country of Mon- 
tana was prospected that year, and several of 
these parties found their way into other parts 
of Park county. G. J. Batcheldor and a party 
of prospectors who were coming up the Yel- 
lowstone valley stopped at the mouth of 
Shield's river, and near there washed some 
dirt, which showed what in later years would 
have been called good prospects, but the find- 
ings were not rich enough to satisfy the eager 
gold hunters of that day. John T. Lilly was 
a member of the party and took out a sinall 
nugget that weighed six cents. Some years 
thereafter considerable excitement was aroused 
among the upper Yellowstone miners over re- 
ported gold discoveries in the Shields river val- 
ley, some distance up the stream, but no dis- 
coveries of value were found. As late as the 
spring of 1884 there was another excitement 
of the same nature in the same place, but it 
resulted in nothing but excitement, and there 
has never been any mining in that valley. 

.\nother party of 73 men, commanded by 
Jas. Stuart, prospected and hunted Indians 
across Park county in the summer of 1864. 
One of the objects of the trip was to punish the 



Indians for the outrages committed upon the 
Stuart party of the year before. They came 
from Deer Lodge to the Yellowstone valley 
and thence around the east base of the Absa- 
roka range into the valley of the Shoshone 
river. At the latter place the party was com- 
pelled to separate into groups. One small 
party went as far south as the Sweetwater, and 
recrossed the continental divide at Two Ocean 
pass. They descended the Yellowstone, passed 
the Yellowstone lake and the Grand canyon, 
and crossed Park county on their way home. 

Another event of the year 1864 was the dis- 
covery of Hunter's hot springs by Dr. A. J. 
Hunter. That gentleman, accompanied by his 
wife and three children, the youngest a baby 
in its mother's arms, left their home in Mis- 
souri on the 2nd of April, 1864, and started 
westward by wagon for California. On the 
Platte river below Denver, they met about 500 
wagons, loaded with excited emigrants and 
gold seekers. They had just heard of the new 
"diggings" in Montana, and many decided to 
abandon the California trip and come to Mon- 
tana, Dr. Hunter and his wife among the 
others. 

John Bozeman had started for the new gold 
field with his big party just a day ahead of the 
Hunter party, and the latter followed him all 
the way into the territory. Besides Mrs. Hun- 
ter there was but one woman in the party, 
which included sixteen men, two women and 
three children. This little band of pioneers 
crossed Wind river on the fourth of July by 
swimining and converting the wagon beds into 
boats, and on the twentieth they crossed the 
Yellowstone in the same manner, and reached 
the site of the present city of Livingston on 
July 30. 

But before reaching this point the party 
had encamped one day near the present site of 
Hunter's hot springs, which in those days, and 
probably for hundreds of years, had been 
known to the Indians and recognized for the 
medicinal and curative qualities of the waters. 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



123 



One day while Dr. Hunter was making a hunt- 
ing trip some distance from the wagon train 
he came upon hundreds of Indians camped 
about the hot springs, in which they were bath- 
ing. There were many sick among them who 
were carried into the water by companions, 
and the instincts and training of the white doc- 
tor told him the value of his discovery. He 
believed he had found a gold mine of new char- 
acter, and immediately staked out a claim to 
the springs. Then he proceeded on his way 
•.vith his companions up the Yellowstone, ar- 
riving in Bozeman on the 4th day of August, 
where he caught up with the Bozeman party 
and witnessed the erection of the first house in 
the Gallatin valley, built by Bozeman. Beal and 
Rouse. It was six years later when Dr. Hun- 
ter returned to his property. 

The miners of Emigrant Gulch raised a 
trouble with the Indians during the year 1864. 
but in the spring of the following year an event 
took place which put them on their guard. It 
was in the month of May that a miner named 
Hughes, originally from Keokuk, Iowa, was 
brought into Yellowstone City, badly wounded, 
bringing the .report that he and two compan- 
ions had been attacked by Indians and that 
his companions had been shot down. 

The miners of Emigrant gulch raised a 
purse for him and he was started on his way 
home. As there were not enough rich claims 
for all the miners in the camp when the' spring 
of 1865 came, quite a number left for the 
camps further west. This left the camp much 
smaller than it had been the preceding year, 
and those that remained put in part of their 
time building for better protection up in the 
mouth of the canyon, against a possible attack 
by Indians. 

An important addition to the community 
this year was the erection of a sawmill on the 
Yellowstone, just below the mouth of Mill 
creek, nine miles down the valley from Emi- 
grant gulch. This was operated by John J. 
Tomlinson. who brou.ght the machinery with 



him across the plains. Here he sawed out lum- 
ber for the manufacture of boats for the use 
of those who desired to make the trip down 
the Yellowstone and home in the fall. 

The year 1865 was quite a profitable one 
in Shorthill's district, but it proved the Curry 
district to be of little value. 

So many had left Emigrant gulch in the 
fall of 1865 that by the following spring the 
population was so small that it was a question 
if it were safe to continue operations there, 
because of the threatened hostilities of the In- 
dians. And the fears of the miners were not 
groundless. One party which decided to seek 
fortunes in the camps further west consisted 
of Joseph Davis and family, Charles Hopkins, 
Isaac Dawson, Benj. Strickland, D. B. Weaver 
and the Hackney brothers. These departed 
for Helena and other camps. 

At the time of departure of these men quite 
a large number of others were fitting up boats 
at the mouth of the canyon, prepatory to 
making the trip back to the states by way of 
the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. One boat 
containing five men started out ahead of the 
rest, and at some distance down the river were 
attacked by Indians, who had concealed them- 
selves in the bushes along the river. ■Mr. 
Lawrence, one of the party, was killed. The 
rest then hastily paddled for the opposite shore, 
landed safely, and then hastened back to warn 
the others of the danger. About a dozen men 
had decided to remain in Yellowstone City 
during the 1866 season, but when the news of 
the Indian attack was brought to them, all 
hastily packed such articles as they could take 
with them, loaded them on an ox cart and set 
out with all possible speed for Bozeman, going 
over the Trail creek route. Emigrant gulch 
was entirely deserted, and remained so until 
August, when, the Indian alarm having sub- 
sided, miners began to return. 

Concerning the events of the fall of 1866 
Mr. \\'eaver has written : 

"The Indian alarm having quieted down. 



:24 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



John S. Hackney and I each got a riding 
horse and a pack horse, and, leaving Helena, 
returned to Yellowstone City, and found the 
place without a living soul in it. The houses 
were just as they had been when the last man 
left the place. We went up to our old claims, 
and not a living person was here either. So 
^\•e had the choice of claims, sluice boxes, cab- 
ins and tools. We were not here long before 
men began to come in to these mines to make 
a 'grub stake' for the coming winter, saying 
that if they could get enough gold dust to buy 
their flour and salt, they could kill all the wild 
meat they would need and would live well till 
next spring. Mr. Hackney and I continued 
digging gold until the 13th of October, when a 
heavy fall of snow interrupted our gold min- 
ing and we returned to Helena. * * * 
When I left Yellowstone City on the 13th the 
empty cabins were being reoccupied by men 
who had come here to pass the coming 
winter." 

It was in 1866 that one of the first parties 
to enter what is now the Yellowstone National 
Park made its way from Virginia Citv up the 
Madison ri\'er to the geyser basins. This 
party, which was under Geo. Huston, crossed 
to the Yellowstone at Mud geyser, ascended 
the river to Yellowstone lake, passed com- 
pletely around the latter, discovering Heart 
lake on the way. and then descended the Yel- 
lowstone by the falls and canyon and finally 
came to Emigrant gulch, where by this time 
the miners were again at work. Here they 
were interviewed by a newspaper reporter, L. 
R. Freeman, who chanced to be in the camp, 
and an account of the travels through the park 
was published in the Omaha Herald. The 
members of the party were Geo. Huston, Geo. 
Hubbard, Rube Lilly, Soors, Lewis and a Mex- 
ican. After the year 1866 mining was carried 
on in Emigrant gulch for many years, but 
never to the extent that it was during these 
first three years. 

D. B. Weaver estimated that during these 



three years there was less than $30,000 taken 
out. However, as mining was continuous for 
many years, the total amount recovered from 
the sands of Emigrant gulch may have reached 
cjuite a respectable figure in later years. In 
1889 C. R. Glidden estimated the amount at 
that time at $250,000, and stated that 250,- 
000 cubic yards of gravel had been worked, 
thus making an average yield of one dollar 
per yard. 

While the greater part of the people who 
came to Montana in the early sixties were ac- 
tuated by the sole desire to obtain wealth by 
mining operations, a few turned to the less 
strenuous pursuits, with which they were more 
familiar, and this was true of those who came 
to Park county at that early date. A few years 
after the discovery of gold in Emigrant gulch 
we find that a few scattered settlers bad begun 
tilling the soil. This would have been more 
general but for the fact that the choicest lands 
in the vicinity of the mines lay on the east side 
of the Yellowstone ri\'er, and that was a por- 
tion of the Crow Indian reservation and not 
open to settlement. The first practical attempt 
at farming was made near the present site of 
Fridley. Before long a few scattered settlers 
might be found in that part of the valley now 
called Paradise valley. These raised produce 
for the camp at the gulch besides supplying 
their own wants. Sometimes driven out of the 
country by hostile Indians, they returned and 
resumed their work when the scare was over. 
These few scattered settlers proved the worth 
of the country from an agricultural standpoint. 

In the spring of the year 1867 occurred the 
death, at the hands of Indians, of John Boze- 
man, that intrepid pioneer who had opened the 
route across the plains that crossed Park 
county and who had brought the first train 
over it. The place of his death was just east 
of Mission creek, about seven miles east of the 
present city of Livingston. The spot is near 
the present line of the Northern Pacific rail- 
road, and in the earlv davs stood a cairn, or 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



small stone pile, upon the spot. The story of 
the tragic taking away of this pioneer is told 
in Topping's "Chronicles of the Yellowstone:" 
"In March of this year (1867) John Boze- 
man and Tom Coover started from Bozeman 
to go to Fort C. F. Smith, where they expected 
to get a contract. They stopped the first night 
out at Louis Reshaw's cabin, at the Yellow- 
stone crossing. Indians were prowling about 
the cabin all night and stole one horse. The 
next morning Reshaw advised Bozeman to 
wait till night and then travel far enough to 
get away from the war party, but it was not 
taken and they went on. At noon they camped 
at a little stream below Mission creek. Just 
after they had eaten, Coover saw six Indians 
coming up the bottom afoot, and started for 
the horses. Bozeman stopped him, saying, 
'they are Crows." When the Indians were 
about 200 yards distant, Bozeman said, T do 
not think they are Crows. You get the horses 
and I'll stand them off.' Coover started for 
the horses, which were about 200 yards away 
and on the opposite side of the camp from the 
visitors. 

"The Indians carried their guns in buck- 
skin covers and Bozeman must have still 
thought they were Crows, for he let them come 
up to within fifteen feet of him. Then one 
raised a gun quickly and fired through the 
cover, hitting Bozeman in the breast, and he 
fell. Bozeman was holding Coover's rifle and 
his own, and as the Indians came near, Coover 
ran back and when they shot was about the 
same distance from Bozeman as they were. 
He ran toward Bozeman as he fell, shooting 
his pistol rapidly as he did so, and the Indians 
backed off. When Coover had secured his gun 
and found that Bozeman was dead, he re- 
treated slowly and reached the bush with but a 
slight wound in the shoulder. He came to Re- 
shaw's cabin that night, and the second day 
after a party went down and buried Boze- 
man's remains. In 1870 the body was taken 
up and buried with ceremony in the cemetery 



of the town that bears his name * * * ." 
It was also in 1867 that Montana's militia 
came to that part of the territory which is now 
Park county on the proposed war against the 
Indians. The militia, 600 strong, was sent 
out by acting Governor Meagher to protect the 
settlers who were fast settling up the Gallatin 
valley and other portions of eastern Montana. 
It was doubtless also the intention to engage 
in battle with the Sioux, who were on the war 
path, but this event did not come off, partly 
because of the action of the general govern- 
ment and partly because of the acts of the 
militia, about to be related. 

The state soldiers crossed the divide between 
the Gallatin and Yellowstone valleys and spent 
the winter of 1867-8 at the mouth of Shields 
river. Taken as a whole these soldiers were 
a pretty hard class of citizens, though they 
were all brave, energetic and adventurous, and 
some few of the number later became highly 
respected citizens of the territory and state. 
But they were all men accustomed to think for 
themselves and men who revelled in personal 
freedom ; hence the discipline of army life had 
but little effect on these rough frontiersmen. 
Of the doings in this camp on the Yellowstone 
that winter a writer in the Livingston Enter- 
prise, under date of September 8, 1888, said: 
"Among the number were many outlaws, 
renegades, horse thieves and others who were 
too glad to seek shelter from the law by enroll- 
ing under its protection. As the winter went 
on, however, provisions commenced to get 
scarce. Xone were forthcoming from the go\-- 
ernor and no pay could be obtained. The 
vouchers issued by the territory were worth- 
less. A mutinous spirit grew apace and raids 
on the commissary by hungry men became a 
daily occurrence. All discipline soon come to an 
end and a mutiny was soon in full sway. Whole 
squads of men deserted, taking with them what 
they could. Officers found themselves without 
men and many a member of the organization 
was killed in the numerous quarrels which per- 



126 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



vaded the camp. It is said by some who were 
there that more men were killed among them- 
selves than were ever killed by the Indians 
during the whole organization. A strong 
guard of trusties tried to preserve the scanty 
commissary from maurauders, but it was al- 
most useless. Captain Hart was killed in de- 
fending the stores, and many others whose 
names are long since forgotten. What was left 
of the regiment gradually dwindled away, 
some being discharged, many, however, not 
waiting for that ceremony to be completed, but 
quietly went away and engaged in other busi- 
ness. It is claimed by some that the territory 
owes these men their pay yet and that it could 
be collected up to the present time, but we think 
that most of them were so glad to get out of 
the scrape that they have nut thought twice 
about the matter of pay since they left the 
camping ground." 

Many years after this event, when Living- 
ston had become quite a city, a few graves 
were still discernable just below the town — 
graves that marked the last camping grounds 
of some of Montana's first militiamen. 

By a treaty signed May 7, 1868, the bound- 
aries of the Crow reservation were changed, 
so that now it took in only that country boun- 
ded by the 107th meridian of longitude, the 
Yellowstone river and the southern boundary 
of the territory. This cut ofif all the country 
between the Yellowstone and Musselshell 
rivers which had heretofore been included. 
The only et¥ect of this treaty, so far as Park 
county was concerned, was the opening of the 
northeast corner of the county to settlement — 
that part east of Shields river. At this time 
the white people were interested only in that 
part of the country which was adjacent to the 
Emigrant gulch mines, and the changing of the 
boundary lines had not the slightest effect 
upon these. 

The spring of 1868 marked a few Indian 
depredations upon the white settlers. The home 
of the Whitman family was attacked, all the 



household^ goods burned and their cattle run 
off. The miners organized a company and 
pursued the Indians. After a short skirmish, 
in which no lives were lost, the miners suc- 
ceeded in recapturing the stock. Some of the 
miners then returned with the stock, while the 
rest of the party pursued the raiders to a point 
on the mountains nearly opposite to where Liv- 
ingston is now located. 

In accordance with the provisions of the 
Crow 'treaty of May 7, 1868, before referred 
to, in July, of the same year, Captain LeMott 
disbursed the first annuities ever received from 
the go\'ernment by the Crows. This took 
place on Little Timber creek, in the present 
Sweet Grass county. A short time 
after this event Major Camp, of the United 
States army, was appointed agent and at once 
commenced building an agency on Mission 
creek. A ferry laoat was put in there by Billy 
Lee for the government, and the place later be- 
came known as Benson's Landing. About the 
same time "Buckskin" Williams built a cabin 
for a saloon and trading post on the north side 
of the Yellowstone, opposite the agency. 

It was in 1873 that this post was christened 
Benson's Landing. In the summer of that year 
Amos Benson and Dan Naileigh built a log 
house for a liquor saloon, near the ferry boat 
landing, and the place was named in honor of 
one of the partners. The place became quite 
a noted point and was headquarters and main 
resort of the trappers, miners and frontiersmen 
of the upper river. 

Here the trappers brought their furs and 
here the traders came to buy, and here also for 
poor whiskey was spent a great part of the 
money for which the hunters imperiled their 
lives. 

Benson and Naileigh established and main- 
tained a scantily supplied store for the accom- 
modation of trappers and hunters. In the years 
that followed Benson's advent to this place, 
when staging over the route was a safe mode 
of travel, this point became a stage station and 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY, 



postoffice,and though only a small cluster of log 
cabins marked the site, it became as well known 
as any point on the Yellowstone. Here in 
1873 and 1874 Hugo J. Hoppe, afterwards 
quite prominent in the history of Park county, 
was also eng-aged in business. 

The tales of prospectors and trappers con- 
cerning the wonderful freaks of nature in that 
part of the country which we now term the 
Yellowstone National Park led to several trips 
to that country by parties who went to verify 
these tales and to learn of the wonders which 
were reported as being there. These different 
parties invariably passed through the country 
whose history we are writing, as have thou- 
sands upon thousands- of people done since the 
first one in 1869. The first of these parties 
consisted of only three men, David E. Folsom, 
C. W. Cook and \Vm. Peterson. They started 
out from Diamond City, Montana, on Septem- 
ber 6, 1869. Their route lay up the Missouri 
river to the three forks, thence by way of Boze- 
man and Fort Ellis to the Yellowstone, and 
thence up the Yellowstone into the park. The 
writings of these explorers gave to the world 
the first authentic accounts of some of the won- 
ders to be found in the country of the upper 
Yellowstone. 

Another party explored the park in 1870, 
being composed of General Henry D. Wash- 
burn, commander of the expedition; N. P. 
Langford, Cornelius Heges, Samuel T. Hau- 
ser, Warren C. Gillette, Benj. Stickney, Tru- 
man C. Everts, Walter Trumbull and Jacob 
Smith. There were also two assistants, Mr. 
Reynolds and Elwyn Bean, and two African 
boys for cooks. At Fort Ellis (near the city 
of Bozeman) the party was joined by a detach- 
ment of United States soldiers under command 
of Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane, 2nd U. S. 
cavalry. The soldiers in the escort were Ser- 
geant William Baker and Privates John Wil- 
liamson, Geo. W. McConnell, William Leipler 
and Chas. Moore. The start was made from 
Helena August 17th and on the 22nd the ex- 



pedition, accompanied by the soldiers, set out 
from Fort Ellis. 

On August 26, the ^Vashburn party entered 
the park and visited nearly all of the points of 
interest therein. To the explorations of this 
party was due the first agitation that brought 
about the setting apart of this wonderful coun- 
try into the Yellowstone National Park. 

Dr. A. J. Hunter, who had in 1864 staked 
the hot springs which now bear his name and 
who for several years after that date had spent 
his time in the different mining camps of Mon- 
tana, returned to the springs in the spring of 
1870 and built his home there, at a point op- 
posite the present hotel. He also built a big 
dam between the cold creek and the hot creek, 
and in the big pond white men and Indians 
bathed for years — in fact, at that early date 
was started the sanitarium, which has since be- 
come famous all over the country. In 1873 
Dr. Hunter built more pretentious bath houses. 
These were built from lumber that cost $80 
per thousand feet in Bozeman, with an addi- 
tional charge of $60 per thousand for hauling 
to the springs. The Crows, who inhabited this 
part of the territory, were friendly to Dr. 
Hunter and his family and did not resent the 
encroachment, nor did the doctor attempt to 
deprive the natives of their rights to the use 
of the water for bathing purposes. The only 
thing the Indians protested against was the 
cultivation of the soil, which they wisely said 
would bring rain and spoil their hunting sea- 
son. Nevertheless. Dr. Hunter engaged in 
agricultural pursuits to a limited extent. 

For years after first settling here Dr. Hun- 
ter and his family spent only the winter at the 
springs, being compelled to return to Boze- 
man after the spring crops were put in, for in 
May the Crows went out on their hunting trips, 
and they were immediately followed by the 
murderous and thieving Sioux and Blackfeei. 
A few times the Hunter home was attacked by 
bands of these tribes before they could get out 
of the countrv. Lieutenant Jas. H. Bradley, 



[28 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



who visited the springs in 1876, wrote of con- 
ditions there at that time as follows : 

"Two miles from camp are Dr. Hunter's 
warm springs, which I visited. Found the 
water very hot, but did not learn the tempera- 
ture nor the mineral constituents, though sul- 
phur evidently predominates. Gypsum is 
abundant in this neighborhood. Dr. Hunter's 
family is now at the springs, but full of dread 
of the Sioux. His house is, in the summer 
season, something of a resort for the afflicted, 
but the Sioux frequently appear in the vicinity, 
and once attacked the house — facts which do 
not attract custom. The springs pour out a 
copious stream of steaming water, and the day 
will come when the property will be very 
valuable." 

Even the wild animals recognized the good 
of the waters, and for years after Dr. Hunter 
settled there they would come and drink of 
the warm water. On one occasion, Mrs. Hun- 
ter declared, she saw a band of not less than 
5,000 elk come to the springs for a drink, pass- 
ing the cold waters of the Yellowstone river 
on the way. 

Again in 1871 the present Park county 
was traversed by a party on the way to the 
country of the National Park. There were, in 
fact, two expeditions under the direction 01 
the government — one in command of Dr. 
Hayden and the other under Captains Barlow 
and Heap, of the engineer corps of the army. 
Both traveled under the same military escort, 
although the work of the two expeditions was 
different. The route was the usual one up the 
Yellowstone, leaving the present Park county 
at the mouth of Gardiner river. Mammoth 
hot springs, which had heretofore escaped the 
notice of all the previous expeditions, were 
found by these parties. 

Now let us turn our attention to the dis- 
covery of the mines, and the early history of 
the mining operations, in that part of the 
county which was known as the Clark's Fork 
district — in the extreme southeastern portion 



of the present Park county. As before stated, 
that part of the county east of the Yellowstone 
river was, according to the treaty of 1868, in- 
cluded within the Crow reservation. .Among 
other stipulations of the treaty was the provi- 
sion that this territory 

Shall be, and the same is, set apart for the absolute and 
undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians herein 
named, and for such other friendly tribes or individual 
Indians as from time to time they may be willing, with 
the consent of the United States, to admit amongst 
them ; and the United States now solemnly agrees that 
no persons, except those herein designated and author- 
ized so to do, and except such officers, agents and em- 
ployes of the government as may be authorized to enter 
upon Indian reservations in discharge of duties en- 
joined by law, shall ever be permitted to pass over, 
settle upon, or reside in the territory described in this 
article for the use of said Indians, and henceforth they 
will, and do hereby, relinquish all title, claims, or 
rights in and to any portion of the territory of the 
United States, except such as is embraced within the 
limits aforesaid. 

This article was plain enough but the pros- 
pectors of the early sixties, in their search for 
the precious metal, paid not much attention to 
the boundary lines of Indian reservations. It 
was in 1870 that a small party discovered very 
rich silver ore in three or four places near the 
head of Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone, and 
this, too, cropping out in such large bodies as 
to leave no doubt of the permanent values. 
But, of course, title could not be obtained. The 
mill stone of the Crow reservation hung over 
this country, and white men had no right there. 
Although it was believed to abound in rich 
mineral, the country was of no benefit to any- 
one. Not even the Indians, to whom the coun- 
try belonged, ever visited this part of their 
domain on hunting trips. 

Notwithstanding the fact that they had no 
right there, in 1870, 1871 and 1872 a few 
prospectors found their way into this country, 
and good prospects were found. Some little 
time after this prospecting, in spite of all ob- 
structions from difficult transportation, hostile 
Indians and the impossibilty of obtaining title 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



[29 



to their lioldings. a Bozeman company erected 
a smelting furnace at the place now known as 
Cooke. In 1877 the Eastern Montana Mining 
& Smelting company made a run of silver ore 
in the old stone smelter. The bullion obtained 
from this run was not removed until the 
Northern Pacific railroad was built into the 
country in 1883. -But it was not until the open- 
ing- of the reservation in 1882 that mining to 
any extent was carried on in that part of our 
county. 

The year 1875 witnessed the last act of 
hostility by the Indians in .Park county, with 
the exception of the raid of the Nez Perce two 
years later. It was in July, 1875, that James 
Hughes and a driver named Anderson, each 
having a six or eight mule team, left Boze- 
man for the new agency of the Crows upon 
Rosebud creek. Hughes and his companion 
camped the first night west of the Bozeman 
pass. Next day about midday, while they 
were between the divide and the site of the 
present city of Livingston, they were attacked 
by a marauding band of Sioux. Hughes, who 
was the owner of the two teams, stopped to 
catch a mule he was leading behind his wagons, 
the same having broken the lead rope during 
the first onslaught of the savages. Having 
secured the animal, he turned his attention to 
the enemy, when a rifle ball pierced his heart. 
Anderson jumped from his wagon, sought 
safety in the bush of Billman creek, cached 
himself under this shelter till dark, and then 
made his way to Fort Ellis, near Bozeman, 
and gave the alarm. 

Major Benham, then in command at Fort 
Ellis, sent out Lieutenant Jerome with his 
company of the 2nd cavalry, together with 
seven volunteers from Bozeman, in pursuit of 
the Indians. Nineteen days and nights were 
spent by the pursuing party in an endeavor to 
overtake the murdering savages. Without 
blankets, overcoats or bedding of any kind, 
through cold, bleak, rainy and snowy weather 



they continued their search, which resulted 
only in failure. 

The Nez Perce war of 1877 had but little 
bearing upon the history of Park county, al- 
though many events of considerable historical 
importance were enacted in the Yellowstone 
National Park, just south of this county. One 
or two small detachments of the marauding 
Indians, however, entered the confines of the 
present Park county and committed depreda- 
tions. The main body of the hostiles under Jo- 
seph entered the park on August 23 by 
Targhee pass and camped on Firehole river 
that night. On the 24th the Indians, with 
Chief Joseph at their head, moved to the Yel- 
lowstone river at the site of the ford near Mud 
geyser. Here they remained during the 25th. 
On the following day the bulk of the command 
crossed the river, ascended its right bank to 
the lake, and took the Pelican creek trail to 
the Lamar river valley in the northeast cor- 
ner of the park. A small body of marauders 
separated from the main body at Mud geyser, 
descended the Yellowstone by the Mt. Wash- 
burn trail, attacking a Helena tourist party 
on the way, killing one man, burned and par- 
tially destroyed Baronett bridge near the junc- 
tion of the Yellowstone and Lamar rivers, 
made a raid upon Mammoth hot springs, kill- 
ing one man there, and went down the valley 
as far as Henderson's ranch, where Cinnabar 
now stands. Here they committed numerous 
depredations, stole a number of horses, and 
then returned without having suffered any loss 
whatever. 

The main body of the Indians left the park 
by the way of Miller creek, guided by a white 
man named Shively, whom they had captured 
and made to act as guide. One party visited 
the smelter which had been making the run 
there that year, partially destroyed the smelter 
and machinery, and stole some of the. bullion. 

While some prospecting and a little mining 
had been done in the Clark's Fork district dur- 



:30 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



ing tlie seventies, it was not until 1882 that 
the district was tlirown open and active opera- 
tions begun there. Tlie Indians caring little 
for this part of the reservation, it was a sim- 
ple matter to get their assent to its relinquish- 
ment, but the United States government moved 
with its proverbial slowness, and it was June 
30, 1880, before a treaty was made, and nearly 
two years after that date before the district 
was finally thrown open to white settlement. 
From the earliest discovery of mineral here in 
the late sixties until this date the prospector 
had been impatiently waiting and hoping for 
the chance to get into this country. 

The treaty of 1880 provided for the sale to 
the United States of that part of the reserva- 
tion bounded as follows: "Beginning in the 
mid-channel of the Yellowstone river at a jxDint 
opposite the mouth of Boulder creek ; thence up 
the middle of the channel of said river to the 
point where it crosses the southern boundary 
of Montana territory, being the 45th degree 
of north latitude; thence east along said par- 
allel of latitude to point where said parallel 
crosses Clark's fork, thence north to a point 
six miles south of the first standard par- 
allel, being on the township line between town- 
ships six and seven south ; thence west on said 
township line to the iioth meridian of longi- 
tude: thence north along said meridian to a 
point east or west of the source of the east- 
ern branch of Boulder creek; thence down 
Boulder creek to the place of beginning." 

Under this treaty all of the present Park 
county was taken out of the reservation, al- 
though it left within it a large part of the 
county as it was originally created and re- 
mained until the counties of Sweet Grass and 
Carbon were formed in 1895. Before the new 
territory could be opened for settlement under 
the terms of the treaty, it was necessary to 
survey the lands and make the Indian allot- 
ments. This took nearly two years, and it 
was not until April 11. 1882, that the land was 
actually opened. 



The prospectors and miners were not slow 
in getting into the new country. They came 
from all the mining camps of the country, 
wherever the reports of the richness of the 
Clark's Fork mines had penetrated. Some 
prospectors had waited all winter in the moun- 
tains, ready to make locations as soon as the 
treaty was signed; others were stationed in 
Bozeman and hastened over the mountains as 
soon as the telegraph brought the news of the 
relinquishment of the Indian title. The snow 
was still deep and the last twenty or thirty 
miles had to be made on snow shoes. Swarm- 
ing into the country, the prospectors spread out 
upon each other in ever increasing parts of cir- 
cles, having the original discoveries at the pres- 
ent town of Cooke as a common center. Their 
search was not in vain ; for go where they 
would, they found the precious ore, covering a 
gigantic mineral belt. 

In 1883 some Pittsburg men made a short 
run in the old Eastern ^Montana Alining & 
Smelting company's smelter under the direc- 
tion of A. Wills. Several other runs were made 
in the same smelter in 18S5. Large sums of 
money were spent by the Republic Mining 
company that year in building a smelter and 
development work. The Republic smelter be- 
gan running in 1885 and was in operation one 
year. Of the later historv' of this district we 
shall tell in another chapter. 

Undoubtedly the most important e\-ent in 
the history of Park county was the building 
of the Northern Pacific railroad, which was 
completed through that part of Montana terri- 
tory which later became Park county in De- 
cember, 1882. Prior to this time the county 
was little better than a desert wilderness. True 
there had been considerable activity in differ- 
ent parts of the county at one time or another, 
but there had been no permanent development, 
such as was to follow the building of the rail- 
road. Scattered over the county, in the valleys, 
were a few improved farms, but these were 
more in the nature of an experiment than any- 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



^31 



thing else. Besides these, the only other occu- 
pants of this broad country were a few hunters 
and venturesome prospectors. Before 1882 
there was not a town in the county, if we ex- 
cept the Uttle group of prospectors at Cooke 



City and the station called Benson's Landing, 
near the present site of Livingston. Of the 
wonderful change in conditions between the 
years 1882 and 1907 we shall tell in the next 
chapter. 



CHAPTER !1 



PASSING EVENTS— 1883 TO 1907. 



The year 1883 marked the Ijeginning of a 
aew era in the territory which a few years later 
was set off as Park county. With the building 
of the main line of the Northern Pacific rail- 
road across the county and the completion of 
the Natioanl Park branch to the southern 
boundary of the county came a new order of 
things. Where before there had been only a 
few scattered settlers and prospectors, now 
came large numbers of people of all classes 
and conditions. Prospecting and mining be- 
came more active; farmers and stock raisers 
came and settled upon the miles of heretofore 
unoccupied government and railroad lands; 
railroad laborers were employed by the hun- 
dreds; towns sprang up at several different 
points along the line of the railroads and were 
rapidly populated; all was life and activity; a 
boom was on. 

So great was the influx of population and 
so firm was the belief of the people that the 
growth was bound to be permanent, that agita- 
tion for the formation of a new county was 
early begim. Before we take up the story of 
the several attempts to bring about the forma- 
tion of a new county from the country sur- 
rounding the new town of Livingston, let us 
go back and review the political history of this 
part of the territory of Montana. 

When the first Montana legislature was in 
session at Bannack during the winter months 



of 1864-65, a law was passed, approved Feb- 
ruary 2, 1865, dividing the territory into nine 
county divisions. Among these was one named 
Gallatin. Now the members of this first leg- 
islature were not very well informed concern- 
ing the geography of Montana (in fact, neither 
was anybody else), and the bounding of these 
counties was largely the result of guess work. 
But least capable of being traced than any of 
the political divisions was the county of Galla- 
tin. With a map of the state of Montana and 
a copy of the territorial session laws of 1864- 
65 in front of one at this time, one is at a loss 
to discover just what were the intentions of 
the law makers of that day regarding the 
boundaries of Gallatin county. But with pa- 
tience one may arrive at something like this : 
Gallatin county, as created at that time, prob- 
ably included the greater part of the present 
county of that name, all of the present Park 
and Sweet Grass counties, and greater or less 
portions of the present counties of Carbon, 
Yellowstone, Fergus, Meagher and Cascade. 
Since that time many changes have been made 
in the boundaries of this old county, until to- 
day it contains only a small portion of its origi- 
nal territor}'. We shall mention only a few of 
these changes — those that had direct bearing 
upon the territory embraced within the bound- 
aries of the present county of Park. An act 
passed by the legislature of 1871-72 made the 



'3- 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



Yellowstone river the eastern boundary of 
Gallatin county, the rest of the former county 
being included in the Crow Indian reservation. 
Thus, for some years after this act, that part 
of Park county which is west and north of the 
Yellowstone was included in Gallatin county, 
while the rest was in the reservation. An act 
approved February 14, 1881, provided that 
that portion of the reservation which was to be 
ceded according to the provisions of the treaty 
of 1880 should again become a part of Galla- 
tin county, and when the treaty was finally rat- 
ified on April 11, 1882, all of Park county was 
again in Gallatin county. In 1883 a part of 
east Gallatin county was taken for the forma- 
tion of Yellowstone county, but none of the 
territory so taken came from the present Park 
county, and when, in 1887, Park county was 
finally created, it was taken wholly from Galla- 
tin county. 

It was in the latter part of the year 1882 
that agitation was begam for the creation of a 
new county from that part of Gallatin county 
east of the Belt range mountains. Livingston 
was then but a hamlet of log huts, but with am- 
bition ; the Park branch had not yet been com- 
pleted and none of the towns which are now 
along that route had yet come into existence ; 
Cooke and its surrounding ore deposits had 
just begun to attract attention ; the other min- 
ing districts of the proposed new county, with 
the exception of Emigrant, had not been devel- 
oped ; the fertile farming valleys had a very 
meager population; the stock ranges were al- 
most unpastured — and yet the people of Liv- 
ingston and vicinity asked for a county of their 
own. In the first issue of the first newspaper 
published in Livingston and Park county 
(Livingston Gazette, December 19, 1882,) we 
find this request for the new county of Villard : 

Considerable talk is indulged in concerning the 
division of Gallatin county. As at present constituted, 
it is a bulky empire and a great inconvenience for citi- 
zens of this section and further down the Yellowstone 
to be forced to travel to Bozeman to attend court. We 
are told that Custer, Dawson and Meagher counties 



will demand division during the approaching session 
of the legislature ; and while at it we advise that the 
legislative knife be drawn across Gallatin county and 
deliver this portion from the hands of the Philistines. 
In the future geography it will be known as Villard 
county, with Livingston as the county seat. 

The plan for the division was hastilv con- 
ceived and hastily acted upon. But at the leg- 
islative session which convened January 8, 
1883, the divisionists came near accomplishing 
their desires, the bill being defeated only by 
a small majority. The opposition to the bill 
was solely on the grounds of doubt as to the 
permanency of the settlement of this part of 
the country, then just begun. 

The National Park branch of the Northern 
Pacific railroad was completed on August 30, 
1883, and the first through train made the trip 
over the line on September i. This line, a lit- 
tle less than fifty-two miles in length, extend- 
ing from Livingston southward to Cinnabar, 
was an important factor in the development of 
Park county. New towns sprung up at dif- 
ferent points along the line. Farmers no 
longer hesitated about making homes in the 
upper valley of the Yellowstone, and mining 
men no longer delayed the work of develop- 
ment of mines in the vicinity. The road as- 
sured the travel of tourists to and from the 
Yellowstone National Park for all time to 
come through Park county. In less than five 
months from the time work was begun regular 
trains were running over the road. The last 
rail was laid August 30, and the last spike was 
driven by A. H. Bailey without ceremony. 
Stations were estaglished on the line at Bris- 
ben. Chicory, Dailey, Sphinx and Cinnabar, 
about ten miles apart, and towns vverfe 
at once started at Chicory and Cinnabar. It 
had been the original intention of the railroad 
company to build to the northern boundary 
line of the park at Gardiner, but owing to its 
inability to get control of that townsite, the 
corporation stopped work at Cinnabar, three or 
four miles down the river from Gardiner. It 
was believed at the time that Cinnabar was to 



HISTORY OF PARK COUXTV. 



133 



be only the temporary terminus of the road, 
and that it would be completed, probably, the 
next year. As a matter of fact, it was just 
nineteen years later when the road was com- 
pleted to Gardiner. 

For some time after the building of the 
main line of the Northern Pacific, trains were 
run over the Bozeman pass, but in the winter 
of 1883-84 was completed the Bozeman tun- 
nel, through the Belt range of mountains. 
Work on the approaches to the tunnel had been 
commenced in the autumn of 1881, and upon 
the tunnel proper in the spring of 1882. Day- 
light was let through the tunnel on Saturday, 
December 22, 1883; the first train went 
through Saturday, January 19, 1884; and the 
first regular passenger train two days later. 
The tunnel when completed was 3,610 feet in 
length, 17 feet wide, 21 feet high in the center, 
and the mountain rose to a height of 236 feet 
above the roof. 

Having failed to secure the erection of a 
county by the legislature of 1883, and as the 
next session would not be held until 1885, the 
people of Livingston and the eastern part of 
Gallatin county in the spring of 1884 took the 
matter of a new county direct to the congress 
of the United States. Petitions, almost unani- 
mously signed by the residents east of the Belt 
range, were forwarded to Washington, 
and were filed in the house of repre- 
sentatives by Hon. Martin Maginnis, Mon- 
tana's delegate, on April 14th. The 
petition asked for the formation of a 
county to be called Park. Congress, as was 
expected by all but the most sanguine, refused 
to act in the matter. It had the power, but not 
the inclination, to interfere to such an extent 
in the government of a territory. 

Defeated in the halls of congress, the people 
of eastern Gallatin county now turned their 
attention to the coming session of the legisla- 
ture. Upon the approach of the general elec- 
tion of 1884 preparations were made to capture 
the Gallatin county representation in the legis- 



lature — to secure the election of men favorable 
to division. Both political parties united to 
accomplish their object. The east side sent 
delegates to the democratic county convention 
instructed to demand a majority of the legis- 
lative ticket but to grant to the west side all 
the nominees for county offices. This proposi- 
tion was, in outward expression, assented to by 
the people of Bozeman and the west side, but 
when the convention met another program was 
inaugurated. The west side refused to permit 
any county division sentiment on the legisla- 
tive ticket, and at the same time seized upon 
all the nominations for county offices. At the 
republican county convention other tactics were 
adopted. The demands of the east side deli- 
gates were readily allowed, and legislative 
nominations satisfactory to the east side dele- 
gates were made. 

At the election in November all the demo- 
cratic nominees on the legislative ticket were 
elected — all hostile to the county division move- 
ment. Fourteen hundred votes were cast in 
those precincts which it was proposed to cut off 
into a new county. The people of Livingston 
declared emphatically that they had been be- 
trayed by the people of Bozeman in the elec- 
tion. The organ of the east siders, the Living- 
ston Enterprise, thus stated the facts from an 
east side view point : "The people of Bozeman, 
by means of deceitful and lying telegrams and 
communications with the people of the east 
side, cajoled and cheated the latter into voting 
for a certain county ticket, while they (the 
Bozeman residents) massed themselves into a 
phalanx that elected such candidates for the 
legislative offices as were opposed to county 
division." 

One councilman and three representatives 
was Gallatin county's representation in the leg- 
islature at that time. Those elected were 
Frank K. Armstrong, councilman ; and George 
R. Nichols. John M. Robinson and Mr. Martin, 
representatives. The last named died between 
the time of the election and the convening of 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



the legislature, and a special election was called 
to elect a successor in December. The east 
side residents were determined to have repre- 
sentation in the legislative halls, and, putting 
party affiliations aside for the time being, they 
set to work quietly to elect a man to the va- 
cancy who was favorable to division. They 
found such an one in H. M. Sloan, put him up 
as an independent candidate, canvassed the 
county and secured his election by a remarkable 
plurality — almost a majority over both anti- 
division candidates. As an index to the feel- 
ings of the city of Livingston, in that precinct 
the vote stood: Sloan, 437; Pease, 7; Eaton,2. 

By the time the legislature convened in 
January, 1885, the feeling between the two 
sides of the county was bitter and assumed 
almost the form of a sectional feud. 

Thus relations between the two commun- 
ities was decidedly strained when the legisla- 
ture took up the proposition of forming a new 
county. Conditions were complicated by the 
attempt of Yellowstone county to secure a 
large slice of eastern Gallatin county, and this 
matter was fought out before attention was 
turned to the fight for the new county. 

A few days before the defeat of the above 
mentioned effort Mr. Sloan introduced his bill 
for the creation of Bridger county, that name 
having been substituted for Park in honor of 
that well known trapper and fur trader, James 
Bridger. With the introduction of the bill 
came two petitions, one signed by 833 citizens 
of eastern Gallatin county, asking that the bill 
pass ; the other with 259 signatures of residents 
of the county of Gallatin, protesting against 
the division of the county. The bill and the 
petitions were referred to the committee on 
towns and counties, of which Mr. Norton, of 
Yellowstone, was chairman. 

Both the east and west sides had lobbies 
at work at Helena and the fight for and against 
the bill waxed warm. 

The house proceeded to consider the bill. 



On the motion to adopt the report of the com- 
mittee of the whole (to indefinitely postpone) 
the report was adopted by a vote of 13 to 9. 
The Bridger county bill was killed ! 

The fight had been a bitter one. It was 
said that it cost the people of Bozeman $10,000 
to defeat the bill, and it certainlj^ cost the peo- 
ple of Livingston a large sum to have it beaten. 
The Livingston Enterprise on March 7, 1885, 
said: 

"Thus the Iiill was killed. We need not 
enter into any lamentations over it. We may 
as wxll make a grace of a necessity and bow to 
the enevitable. Perhaps, also, it is useless to 
investigate the cr.uses that led to the defeat; 
perhaps it is impossible to discover thein. We 
have ever tried to show the merit of the Bridger 
county bill and the just grounds for its pas- 
sage. It possessed these qualifications to a 
_ degree superior to any bill ever submitted to 
the consideration of a INIontana legislature. It 
was not defeated for lack of merit nor because 
of opposition among the people of the proposed 
county. The friends of the division of Gallatin 
county, though beaten, may at least lay to their 
souls the flattering unction that they fought a 
good fight — that they did all in their power." 

The people of the future Park county were 
not spending all their time, however, in an en- 
deavor to have the new county formed. Other 
things occasionally occupied their attention. 
The boom days of 1883 had now departed; the 
unnatural stimulus caused by the employment 
of the hundreds of railroad builders was with- 
drawn, and the different communities settled 
into the even tenor of their ways. In Living- 
ston this retreat from the abnormal to the nor- 
mal was felt more than in the county at large 
There a town had sprung up supported in a 
large measure by a floating population, and 
when this was withdrawn Livingston was 
found to have outgrown the surrounding coun- 
try, upon which in the future it must draw its 
trade. The prevailing hard times throughout 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



135 



the country at large during the year 1884 also 
had its effect here. By the winter of 1884-85 
times were positively dull. 

But conditions adjusted themselves in a 
very short time. Livingston retired from its 
position as a rip-roaring railroad camp into a 
sedate and orderly village. New settlers came 
into the country, and in 1886 prosperous times 
were again at hand. The winter of 1886-87 
was the most severe in the history of the 
country. Owing to the deep snow, the cold 
weather and the fact that preparations had not 
been made for the care of stock in such an em- 
ergency, there was a big loss to the stockraisers 
of the county. 

The people of eastern Gallatin county were 
determined that the new county should be 
formed at the session of the legislature which 
would convene January 10, 1887, and they 
went about the accomplishment of their desires 
in a systematic manner. So early as July, 
1886, they laid their plans. They were suc- 
cessful in securing able representation at the 
November election, and then began the cam- 
paign in earnest for the new county. 

A meeting was held at Fowlie's hall, in 
Livingston, on Thursday evening, December 2, 
for the purpose of considering the question and 
taking , initiatory steps. E. Goughnour was 
chosen chairman of the meeting and C. S. Hef- 
ferlin, secretary. The questions involved in 
the division issues were thoroughly discussed 
by a number of gentlemen present, and it was 
the opinion of all the speakers that all efforts 
should be made openly and sciuarely, relying 
solely upon the merits of the proposition to 
bring it to a successful issue. A committee 
consisting of Messrs. G. H. Carver, James 
Thompson, J. H. Elder, C. S. Hefferlin, D. P. 
Van Horn and M. D. Kelly was appointed to 
raise funds to carry on the campaign. This 
committee was empowered to select scmie one 
to procure from the assessor's books at the 
county seat a list of all the taxable property on 
the east side of the range, that portion of Gal- 



latin county tvhich it was proposed to segre- 
gate. j\L D. Kelly was appointed to do this 
work. 

After the citizens had armed themselves 
with figures from the county records, they 
drew up a petition, which was printed and cir- 
culated throughout the eastern part of the 
county for signatures, and which was signed 
by nearly every voter on the east side. This 
was the petition : 

The undersigned, residents of the eastern portion 
of Gallatin county, Montana territory, respectfully pe- 
tition the legislature of Montana, and represent- 
That Gallatin county is one of the largest and 
wealthiest in Montana, and is naturally divided into 
an eastern and western portion by the Belt range of 
mountains. 

The western portion of this county consists prin- 
cipally of the fertile Gallatin valley and a portion of 
the Madison valley, and already has a rich resource in 
the products of the soil, while not more than two-fifths 
of its arable land is at present occupied and cultivated. 
Bozeman, the county seat, is situated in the western 
portion of the county. 

The eastern portion of this county consists mainly 
of the Yellowstone valley and its surroundings grazing 
land and mining country. It is rich in gold, silver and 
coal deposits, and contains cattle ranges of great im- 
portance. It contains the well known mining localities 
of Clark's Fork, Bear Gulch, Crevice Gulch, Emigrant 
and the Boulder district, and is at the gateway of the 
National Park, the travel into which is an important 
resource to the said eastern portion. 

The total assessed valuation of the real and per- 
sonal property in Gallatin county for the year 18S6 was 
$5,575,000; of this amount $2,118,860 was for real and 
personal property in said eastern portion. 

The total number of acres of Northern Pacific rail- 
road land surveyed in Gallatin county is 656,425, and 
of this amount 501,414 acres are in the eastern portion 
of said Gallatin county. Under a law passed by Con- 
gress in 1886 all this railroad land is now subject to 
taxation. 

The total number of taxpayers in said eastern por- 
tion for the year 1886 was 1,224. 

During the year 1886 Gallatin county collected 
$8,769.50 in license which came from, or related to, 
the eastern portion of the county. 

The total amount of taxes for the year 1886, from 
real and personal property, in the eastern portion was 
$31,782.90. This makes a total as received from licenses 
and taxes on real and personal property of $40,551.90. 

Under the existing laws, the fees of the recorder, 
sherifif and other county officers now form part of the 
county's revenues, and the tribute the eastern portion 



t36 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



annually pays to these officers in fees V'ould very ma- 
terially augment the last named total. 

The residents of the eastern portion of said Gallatin 
county are now compelled to cross a mountain range 
in going to and coming from the county seat, which 
entails a great loss of time and money, and is in most 
cases a burden and hardship upon them. The residents 
of the eastern portion, knowing that the western por- 
tion of the 'county has no interests in common with 
them, and feeling they have sufficient taxable property 
to enable them to derive a revenue that would carry 
on a county government without increasing the burden 
of taxation ; and from the foregoing showing respect- 
fully petition the said legislature that the said Gallatin 
county be divided along the said Belt range of moun- 
tains, and out of the eastern portion aforesaid a new 
county be created. 

Councilman Samuel L. Holliday, of Gal- 
latin county, introduced in the council on Fri- 
day, January 21, 1887, the bill for an act tc 
create the county of Park and for the election 
of officers thereof. It was read for the first 
and second times and referred to the commit- 
tee on towns and counties. The next day 
Councilman Edward Card well, chairman of 
that committee, reported the liill, with the re- 
commendation that it pass. The bill found 
smooth sailing and on Wednesday, January 26, 
passed the council by a vote of 1 1 to i . 

The next day the bill appeared in the house 
and was referred to the usual committee. Then 
what little opposition there was to the bill was 
put forth. On the 29th a petition was re- 
ceived from citizens of the west portion of the 
county, containing the names of 261 residents, 
asking that the matter of the formation of the 
new county \x submitted to the qualified voters 
of Gallatin county. The bill remained in com- 
mittee until Monday, February 14. when it 
was reported back with numerous amendments. 
One of these amendments provided that the bill 
should not take effect for two years. These 
amendments were, apparently, not satisfactory, 
and on motion of Representative Frank K. 
Armstrong, of Gallatin county, the bill was re- 
ferred to a special committee consisting of the 
members from Gallatin county. 

A substitute was prepared by this commit- 



tee and reported back on Friday, February 18. 
The substitute was accepted and the bill passed 
the house by a unanimous vote. That same 
day the bill was concurred in by the council, 
and on Saturday, February 19, the speaker 01 
the house and the president of the council 
signed the bill. Concerning the receipt of the 
news in Livingston, the Enterprise, on Feb- 
ruary 19th, said: 

"Yesterday morning about ten o'clock the 
town was thrown into a state of considerable 
excitement by the receipt of a telegram an- 
nouncing that the bill for the creation of Park 
county had passed the house by a unanimous 
vote. But very few anticipated that so sudden 
and truly gratifying action would be accorded 
the measure, and the news was hailed with 
great delight, cheer upon cheer of gladness re- 
sounding frotn every quarter of the town, and 
there was as much noise and commotion on the 
streets for a time as ever emanated from an 
Apache scalp dance. Everybody gave ex- 
pression to unbounded gladness, and there 
was music in the air, so to speak. At last the 
east side is about to get its just deserts by the 
creation of Park county, and a prouder county 
will not be in the territory." 

Governor Preston H. Leslie approved the 
bill February 23. The governor hesitated to 
affix his signature to the bill because of the 
wording of the debt clause, which he thought 
to be slightly imperfect. After he had looked 
up the Montana decision on the subject he be- 
lieved he had found sufficient information to 
warrant him in approving of the clause and 
he signed the bill. 

The boundary lines of the new county of 
Park, as described in the act, are given in a 
former chapter. 

This description of the boundaries of Park 
county would have but little meaning to any- 
one who was not familiar with the boundary, 
lines of neighboring counties and of the Crow 
Indian reservation at the time they were de- 
scribed. For the enlightenment of those we 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY, 



137 



shall eiuleavor to state just what territory Park 
county co\-eretI at that time as described on 
a present day map. \\'ithin its boundaries was 
all of the present day Park county and that 
portion of Sweet Grass county north of the 
Yellowstone river. Also, there was in the 
new county a narrow strip of Sweet Grass 
county south of the Yellowstone. 

The act creating Park county provided that 
its provisions should be put into effect on ^lay 
I, 1887, but that until August i the new county 
should be attached to Gallatin county for ju- 
dicial purposes. The tax levy of 1887 for Gal- 
latin county was to be the tax levy for Park 
county for the same year. The county seat of 
the new county should be at Livingston until 
the general election in Xovember, 1888, when 
the voters should vote for the permanent loca- 
tion of the county seat. The act named the 
county officers, who were to hold office until 
successors, elected at the general election of 
1888, should have qualified. The new county 
was to assume $35,000 of the debt of Gal- 
latin county and issue interest bearing warrants 
therefor in full of all demands by the old 
county against the new. The amount of in- 
debtedness to be assumed by the new county 
was arrived at as follows : The bonded indebt- 
edness of Gallatin county was $105,000, and 
from this was first deducted $35,000, the value 
of building improvements at the county seat. 
Park county's assessed valuation was placed 
at $2,000,000. or about one-third of the total 
assessment of Gallatin county before division. 
After deducting the value of the improvements, 
the remaining bonded indebtedness ($70,000) 
was divided by three, giving $23,000 as the 
proportion to be assumed by Park county. 
To this was added $7,000, delinquent taxes 
due on the east side, and $5,000 for court ex- 
penses until August I, 1887, making the total 
amount to be assumed $35,000. 

Park county was organized on the 2nd day 
of May, 1887, when the first meeting of the 
board of countv commissioners was held in the 



First National Bank building. There were pres- 
ent County Commissioners George H, Carver, 
George M. Hatch and Benjamin F. Myers, 
County Clerk E. B. Martin and County Attor- 
ney John H. Elder. Mr. Carver was elected 
chairman of the board. On the following day 
the board executed a lease for the ground floor 
and basement of the First National Bank build- 
ing for county purposes. The rental was $150 
per month; the owner was J. C. Vilas. On 
June 8 the board met at Bozeman, in joint 
meeting with the commissioners of Gallatin 
county, and affected a settlement with the 
mother county in accordance with the provi- 
sions of the act creating Park county. War- 
rants were issued on the general fund to the 
amount of $35,000 for the payment of all ob- 
ligations to Gallatin county. 

The 1887 assessment roll of Park county 
showed assessable property to the amount of 
$2,205,248. 

The population of the county at this time 
was estimated at 4,500. Among the other 
acts of the commissioners during 1887 was the 
erection of a jail at Livingston at a cost of a 
little over $7,000. 

It will be remembered that the act creating 
the county provided for the temporary loca- 
tion of the county seat at Livingston and that 
the voters should decide where the permanent 
seat of government should l^e at the general 
election in November, 1888. Livingston was 
the logical location, but it was not to retain 
the honor without a slight effort. A short 
time before the election Mr. C. B. ]\Iendenhall, 
proprietor of the Hunter's hot springs, worked 
up a private boom for Springdale as a county 
seat contestant. That place was then, as it has 
always since remained, simply a station on the 
Northern Pacific railroad, but it was only a lit- 
tle ways from the hot springs, and Mr. Men- 
denhall thought it would be a nice thing if he 
could secure the county seat for that place. 
The bulk of the population of the county was 
in the vicinity of and largely west of Livings- 



138 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



ton, and there was at no time serious danger 
of the county seat being removed, although 
Mr. Mendenhall waged a strong fight. W'hile 
Big Timber did not enter the field as a candi- 
date, it received several votes. The total vote 
was: Livingston, 1,382; Springdale, 274, and 
Big Timber, 35. 

Park county, after so many years of en- 
deavor to secure separate county government, 
Avas no sooner firmly established than efforts 
were made to take away some of its territory. 
By the beginning of the year 1889 there was 
quite a settlement in that part of Park county 
in which the town of Red Lodge was situated, 
owing to the development of coal mines there 
and the building of a railroad from Billings 
to Red Lodge. This latter event made the new 
mining town more in touch with Billings than 
it was with its county seat, Livingston, and 
many desired that the "panhandle" of Park 
county be annexed to Yellowstone county. A 
petition, quite generally signed, was presented 
to the legislature asking for such enactment. 
That part of the "panhandle" east of the East 
Rosebud creek was asked for, and while it was 
small in area, its recently developed mines made 
it highly desirable for taxation purposes. 

Park county naturally fought the dismem- 
berment and put forth as argument the fact 
that the Park county assessment levy was only 
fifteen and one-tenth mills, while that of Yel- 
lowstone county was twenty-two and six-tenths 
mills; also in the event of favorable action by 
the leg-islature the annexed portion and Yel- 
lowstone county would not be contiguous, as 
a portion of the Crow reservation intervened. 
The people of the territory in question were not 
of one mind, and a petition of remonstrance 
with 147 signers was sent to Helena to coun- 
teract the favorable petitions which had been 
sent in. Councilman W. Ashby Conrad, repre- 
senting Yellowstone and Dawson counties, in- 
troduced the bill which was defeated. 

The year 1889 was a very prosperous one 
for Park county, and great improvement was 



made in all lines of industry. There was a 
large emigration from the east that year and 
Park county secured its share. The assessa- 
ble property was valued at $3,008,289. 

It was in the spring of that year that the 
matter of building a court house was consid- 
ered. Plans for a building to cost in the neigh- 
borhood of $23,000 were furnished by I. J. 
Galbraith, of Livingston, and accepted by the 
commissioners on May 10. Then bids for 
construction were asked for. At a meeting of 
the board July 9, the bids were all rejected ^ 
and it was decided to discontinue all proceed- 
ings concerning the court house until the mat- 
ter should be left to a decision of the voters. 
A special election was called for February 4, 
1890, to vote on the question of issuing bonds 
to the amount of $35,000 for the erection of a 
court house. Only 623 votes were cast, show- 
ing indift'erence, but a majority of 61 was re- 
corded against the proposition. 

The commissioners then entered into a con- 
tract with C. S. Hefferlin to furnish the 
county with a court room and county offices 
until such time as the county might build at 
an annual rental of $2,200. On August i, 
1890, the county officials took up their quar- 
ters in the Hefferlin block. 

The federal census taken during the 
month of May, 1890, revealed the fact that 
Park county had a population of 6,881. The 
towns in the county were listed as follows : 
Livingston. 2,850; Red Lodge, 624; Cokedale, 
284; Big Timber, 265. 

Another attempt was made in 1891 to se- 
cure a slice of Park county's territory. Dur- 
ing the month of February a lobby from Red 
Lodge appeared in Helena and worked for the 
formation of a new county, of which Red 
Lodge should be the county seat. Little en- 
couragement was accorded this lobby, and the 
division scheme was abandoned, only to be fol- 
lowed by another effort to secure annexation to 
Yellowstone county. A bill to that end was 
introduced, but before it was acted upon an- 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



139 



other event had taken place that changed all 
calculations. 

We refer to the ceding of a large tract of 
the Crow Indian reservation, including all that 
part of the present counties of Sweet Grass and 
Carbon which were not already open to settle- 
ment. This treaty with the Crows had been 
concluded December 8, 1S90, but was not rati- 
fied by congress until JNIarch 3. 1891. 

Then began a struggle between Park and 
Yellowstone counties for the possession of these 
lands. The legislature was in session, but 
would adjourn by limitation on ilarch 5th, 
two days after the ratification of the treaty. 
A bill was introduced in the senate dividing 
the lands between the two counties, giving al- 
most all the lands to Yellowstone county, and 
March 3rd — the same day that congress rati- 
fied the treaty — it was passed by a vote of 10 
to 4. It was taken immediately to the house 
and there referred to the committee on federal 
relations. That committee promptly amended 
the bill by giving a greater portion to Park 
county, making the dividing line run due south 
from the junction of the Yellowstone river 
with the west boundary line of Park county to 
the Wyoming line. The amended bill was re- 
ported on March 4th, and a motion that the 
report be not adopted called forth a lively dis- 
cussion, in which Representative Charles H. 
Eaton, of Park county, took a strong stand in 
favor of Park county. The motion was lost 
and the bill placed on general orders. Later 
in the day the bill was passed. On the same 
day it went back to the senate with the house 
amendment favorable to Park county. The 
senate would not concur and the house was 
asked to recede. The lower house would not 
recede, and the bill was lost. 

The failure of the bill was in the nature 
of a victory for Yellowstone county, for a 
previous legislature had passed an act provid- 
ing for annexation to Yellowstone county of 
all that portion of the Crow reservation lying 
between tlie Wvomine line and the Yellow- 



stone river and west of the Big Horn river that 
might at some later time be segregated and 
thrown open for settlement. The people of 
Park county thought they had been treated 
badly, and the Livingston Enterprise voiced 
this sentiment when it said: "Their [Yellow- 
stone county's] attempt to secure more than 
an equitable division has postponed action un- 
til another session of the legislature, when it 
will be extremely dii^cult, if not impossible, 
to secure as favorable terms as those proposed 
by Park county at the last session." But Park 
county was not destined to secure any of 
these lands. In fact, it was soon to lose part 
of what it had. 

Park county continued to grow in wealth 
and population. The assessed valuation in 
1 89 1 was $4,992,817, and the next year it had 
reached the flattering figure of $5,468,873.50. 
This was over a million dollars more than 
twice as mtich as the first assessment had been, 
five years before. 

Again in 1892 the county officers brought 
before the people the question of issuing bonds 
for the erection of a court house. Bonds to 
the amount of $75,000 were to be issued if 
the people so decided at the general election in 
November, but again the electors turned down 
the court house bonds. The vote was deci- 
sive — 1,201 to 548 — and only three precincts 
in the county returned a majority for the 
bonds. 

In 1893 a very determined eft'ort was made 
to divide Park county and create from the east- 
ern portion thereof the county of Sweet Grass. 
For the proposed new county was to be taken 
a large part of Park and a small part from Yel- 
lowstone — a part of the Crow lands which had 
two years before been ceded and attached to 
Yellowstone county. The Sweet Grass county 
bill also provided for attaching to Yellowstone 
county a small strip of Park county land lying 
east of the township line between townships 
17 and 18 east. Livingston waged a fight-to- 
a-finish campaign against the measure and was 



140 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY, 



successful in defeating it, although the friends 
of the new county had secured the services of 
the Park county members of the legislature. 
As the story of this fight for the creation of 
Sweet Grass county will be told in the history 
of that county, we shall pass it here with this 
brief mention. 

The year 1893 will never be forgotten by 
anyone who was a resident of Park county at 
the time. The panic which gripped the country 
that year was fatal to the interests of Park 
county. Every bank in the county, which was 
limited to three at Livingston, closed its doors. 
This was followed by assignments all over the 
county. Smelters, coke and coal plants closed 
down, throwing hundreds of laboring men out 
of work. Business was paralyzed and the 
"hard times" period set in. It was several 
years before Park county gained its customary 
condition of prosperity. 

We now come to the great American Rail- 
way Union strike of 1894, in which Park 
county pla3'ed an important part, largely be- 
cause Livingston was an important division 
point of the Northern Pacific. The start of 
all the trouble that followed was a strike begun 
by the employes of the Pullman company in 
the spring. The American Railway Union 
took up the fight, and on June 26,1894, a rail- 
road strike became general all over the North- 
west, the strikers refused to handle Pullman 
cars and the railroads declaring their intention 
to haul the same. For many days the Northern 
Pacific was tied up completely, and as a result 
there were hundreds of idle men in Living- 
ston. The sympathies of the people of Living- 
ston were largely with the strikers, although 
there were some who considered the strikers 
to be in the wrong. There was no rioting dur- 
ing this time and only one or two attempts at 
destruction of property. The only blood shed 
in Park county during the strike was by the 
United States troops, who were brought into 
service to break the strike. 

The first train held up in Livingston was 



early in the morning of Wednesday, June 27th, 
and thereafter for thirteen days not a train 
passed through the town. That morning a 
public meeting was held in Miles' hall, attended 
by members of the A. R. U. and sympathisers 
of the strikers. The decision was reached to 
do all in the power of the union to protect the 
property of the railroad company during the 
strike. To this end Daniel Gillis, J. Venham 
and Leonard Uhl were chosen chiefs with 
authority to select such men as might be neces- 
sary from among the members of the union to 
guard the company's property. It was also de- 
cided to notify Division Superintendent Finn 
that he might select whatever men he deemed 
necessary from among the membership of the 
union to send to any point on his division to 
watch bridges and otherwise protect the com- 
pany's property. A strike committee was 
selected, composed of the following men : R. 
B. Kelly, T. H. Warner, Dan Short, F. J. 
Woodward and R. F. Dougherty. 

The Order of Railway Conductors of 
Snowy Range division also held a meeting 
that day and unanimously decided that no cars 
would be hauled by meinbers of that order ex- 
cept mail cars. 

The last train over the division was a 
freight, which pulled into Livingston at five 
o'clock on June 27, in charge of Conductor 
Campbell. It had left Billings at six o'clock in 
the morning, at which time no notification of 
the strike had been received at that place. 

When the strike went into effect a large 
number of passengers found themselves in 
Livingston, caused by the tieup of passenger 
trains at that point. Naturally they were very 
anxious to continue their journey. On the 
28th the A. R. U. decided to make an attempt 
to get the passengers through to Helena, where 
it was thought they might continue their jour- 
ney on the Great Northern, and to confer with 
the passengers and railroad officials with this 
end in view. A public meeting was held at the 
opera house and was attended by the strikers. 



HISTORY OF PARK COUXTY. 



[41 



passengers and citizens of tlie town. The con- 
clusion was reached that the local strikers had 
no authority to permit the running of a train 
that the passengers might get away, without 
instructions from President Debs, of the A. R. 
U., and the following message was sent to that 
official by the passengers : 

Livingston. Montana. June 28, 6:28 p. m. E. V. 
Debs. 413 Ashland Block, Chicago, III— The under- 
signed, representing passengers stranded on the North- 
ern Pacific Railway, request that you use your good 
ollice to enable them to reach their destination. We are 
not parties to the strike, but innocent victims to cir- 
cumstances unforseen by us. Public sympathy may be 
gained and nothing lost to your position by clearing the 
tracks of all who were en route when the strike began. 
Much suffering to helpless women and children, many 
of whom are invalids, will surely follow if this is not 
allowed. Our misery will not aid your cause. Please 
reply.— William T. Baker, Wm. H. Bell. H. J. Spies. 

The plan was, if President Debs should 
give his permission, to run a train to Helena 
with the stranded passengers, where it was 
thought they might be able to make connections 
with the Great Northern. But President Debs 
was firm in his determination that not a wheel 
should turn if he could prevent it, as his reply 
will indicate : 

Chicago, 111., June 29. R. B. Kelly, Livingston — 
Message from passengers' committee received. Say to 
them for me that the entire responsibility for the pres- 
ent condition of affairs rests with the railroad com- 
panies, who pledged themselves to stand by Pullman. 
The strike was ordered by unanimous vote of the con- 
vention and cannot be rescinded. I would gladly do 
anything within my power to relieve the suffering en- 
tailed by the present embargo. — E. V. Debs. 

The railroad company provided for the 
stranded passengers at the Albermarle hotel, 
but later, meals were served to them on the 
dining cars. Those passengers who were trav- 
eling on passes were cared for by the strikers' 
committee, the railroad refusing to be respon- 
sible for their board. 

On Saturday, June 30. Sheriff Conrow was 
served with a formal notice by Superintendent 



Finn that the Northern Pacific would hold 
Park county responsible for any damage re- 
sulting from destruction of its property within 
the county, and the same notice was served 
on the executive officers of all the counties 
along the line of the division. A similar notice 
was served, on the board of county commis- 
sioners, then in special session. The notice was 
rather vagnae, and, as there had been up to that 
time no damage to railroad property in the 
county, the commissioners demanded more 
specific information as to what property of the 
company was liable to damage. 

The mails was of course tied up, and Post- 
master J. E. Swindlehurst at once made efforts 
to secure temporary mail service. He received 
word from Washington on the 30th that there 
was no objection to a temporary service by 
stage, provided the mails were taken by sworn 
carriers and without expense to the govern- 
ment. Mail lines were then established 
throughout the county. Other lines were es- 
tablished in different parts of the state along 
the line of the Northern Pacific. In this way 
mail was secured from Helena and other points. 

It was on the 30th also that the first wheel 
moved on the entire system since the tieup. At 
about 5 o'clock in the afternoon engine No. 
442, which had been fired up in the round 
house, was run through the yards. The engine 
was in charge of engineer M. L. Porter and 
was fired by Pat McCarvel; on board were 
Superintendent Finn and Master Mechanic ■ 
Brown. As it passed slowly westward through 
the yards, it encountered a large force of the 
strikers, who had congregated at the Main 
street crossing. At this point several of the 
strikers climbed on board, when they were in- 
formed by Superintendent Finn that he w-as a 
deputy United States marshal. Later it was 
found that he had been commissioned during 
the afternoon. If the strikers had had any in- 
tention of stopping the engine, they abandoned 
it, and the locomotive pulled out at a lively 
rate for the west. The strikers' committee at 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



once telegraphed the fact of the engine's de- 
parture to Bozeman, Helena and other points. 

Immediately after the engine had left the 
yards a conference of the A. R. U. committee 
and one from the Brotherhood of Locomotive 
Engineers was held in the hall over Scheuber's 
drug store^ at which the new phase of the sit- 
uation was discussed. Subsequently the engi- 
neers held a special meeting, heard the report 
of their committee with reference to the con- 
ference and after a discussion that lasted until 
three o'clock Sunday morning, July ist, they 
decided to refuse to respond to a call to go out 
until the existing troubles were settled. Chief 
Engineer Fanning sent out messages to other 
lodges of the brotherhood, notifying them of 
this action. In accordance with their action, 
on Monday, July 2, the engineers refused to go 
on duty. The same morning Train Dispatch- 
ers Elliott, Flood and Reese, of the general 
office in Livingston, went on strike. 

Monday morning the first through mail 
from the east bound express, which was tied 
up in Livingston, together with all letter mail 
for Butte and Helena from the west bound 
train was started by handcar to Helena, in 
charge of the mail clerk of train No. 2. From 
Helena the through mail for the east was taken 
over the Great Northern. 

To minimize the danger from fire in these 
troublesome times, the city council on the 2nd 
authorized the acceptance of the services of 
fifty men offered by the executive committee of 
the A. R. U., to act in conjunction with the 
Livingston fire department. Fortunately their 
services were not needed. 

On Independence day the engine which had 
gone west on June 30 returned, and the strik- 
ers were not long in learning its mission. The 
engineers having gone on a strike in the mean- 
time, when the engine returned Master Me- 
chanic Brown was at the throttle, while Su- 
perintendent Finn did the firing. These of- 
ficials brought with them a large bunch of 
writs issued out of the L'nited States district 



court of ^Montana, directed to the striking em- 
ployes, serving notice upon them to return to 
their work within a reasonable time or they 
would be discharged from the service of the 
railroad company. These notices were issued 
upon an order of Judge Knowles in response 
to application of the attorneys of the company 
at Helena. They were seiwed upon the em- 
ployes by posting in the several department 
buildings of the company the following day. 
The writs, in addition to the above, provided 
"that all persons and associations of persons 
be forbidden and prohibited from intimidating 
or interfering in any manner with all persons 
who are now or who may hereafter be em- 
ployed by said receivers." One of the notices 
posted in the company's buildings on the 5th 
read as follows : 

All persons are warned against trespassing upon, 
or interfering with, this property, and all other prop- 
erty of the Northern Pacific Railway company^ as it 
is in the possession of the United States courts, and 
any interference with it by persons not in the employ 
of the receivers, will be punished by fine or imprison- 
ment, or both. Hiram Knowles, 
Helena, Mont., July 3. 1S94. U. S. District Judge. 

The same day that these notices were 
posted word was received from the Northern 
Pacific management to suspend from the pay 
rolls of the company all men still in its em- 
ploy until such time as train service might 
lie resumed over the system. This order af- 
fected a number of employes, who were still 
working for the company in various capacities, 
and increased the nimiber of idle men in 
Livingston. 

This move of the railroad company was 
made in the morning. In the afternoon a meet- 
ing of the A. R. U. was held in Populist hall, 
at which a resolution was adopted to withdraw 
the strikers' protection of the company's prop- 
erty, and the watchmen selected from the ranks 
of that organization, who had been on duty 
since the strike, were relieved from further 
duty. 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



143 



The stranded passengers became clamor- 
ous for removal to Helena or some other point 
where they could make connections with other 
roads for their homes. Superintendent Finn 
assured them that if there was no interference 
he would make an effort to get the west bound 
train through to Helena. But there was inter- 
ference. An effort was made to pull the train 
out on the afternoon of the fifth with Master 
Mechanic Brown as engineer and Foreman 
Mallahan as fireman. The engine was pulled 
out, but its passage was blocked at the Main 
street crossing, where a large crowd had con- 
gregated and completely blocked the track. 
The strikers agreed to let the superintendent 
pull out the mail, but nothing else. Mr. Finn 
replied that that was all he wanted, and the 
track was cleared. But when an attempt was 
made to pull out the whole train, the track was 
again blocked. After several efforts to get 
away with the tram had failed, the engine was 
run back into the round house. Thus the first 
attempt of the company to resume the opera- 
tion of train sen-ice resulted in failure. 

Following the withdrawal of the protection 
of the company's property by the strikers, Su- 
perintendent Finn made an effort Friday night, 
July 6, to enlist men to be sworn in as deputies 
to gaiard the property of the company. This 
resulted in failure, for as soon as a man was 
secured the strikers would interview him, and 
he would refuse to act in any capacity for the 
company. 

This failure brought the superintendent 
again in communication with the county gov- 
ernment. On Saturday, July 7, he sent the fol- 
lowing communication to the toard of county 
commissioners : 

the 2nd inst., I wish to inform you that minor depre- 
To the honorable board of county commissioners 
of Park county, Montana. Replying to your favor of 
dations have been committed upon the property of the 
receivers of the Northern Pacific Railroad, such as 
greasing the track and disconnecting our water works 
at Livingston ; breaking into our car house at Elton : 
explosion of dynamite at Muir tunnel ; the intimidations 



offered to those whom we undertook to employ as de- 
puty sheriffs; the intimidation of those whom we un- 
dertook to employ at Livingston for the purpose of 
icing perishable merchandise in transit, are such as 
lead us to believe that other and greater injuries are 
likely to follow, and particularly at the following 
points : Muir tunnel and city of Livingston, and bridge 
across the Yellowstone river. The property of the 
company now situated at the city of Livingston be- 
longing to the Northern Pacific Railroad exceeds in 
value $500,000, and we hereby request that you 
furnish sufficient deputy sheriffs^ as may be necessary 
from time to time, to properly guard and protect the 
Muir tunnel and the property of the said company at 
the city of Livingston and the bridge crossing the Yel- 
lowstone river. 

J. D. Finn, Superintendent. 

As two of the county commissioners were 
absent from Livingston when this communi- 
cation was received, it was not until Monday, 
July 9, that action was taken on the matter. 
Then the board decided that Muir tunnel was 
not within the province of Park county, as it 
was apportioned to Gallatin county for taxa- 
tion. The county attorney also advised the 
board that the railroad property in Livingston 
was subject to city control, and upon his advice 
the board referred the matter to the city coun- 
cil. The sheriff was, however, instructed to 
guard the bridge across the Yellowstone near 
Livingston and also one belonging to the 
county near Big Timber. This he did, arming 
the guards with Winchester rifles. 

Having failed to' secure deputized watch- 
men through their own efforts and having ob- 
tained but little relief from the county com- 
missioners, the local officials enlisted the aid 
of the government troops at Fort Yellowstone, 
in the National Park. On Saturday evening, 
July 7, Captain Anderson, of that post, re- 
ceived orders from General Schofield to take 
a sufficient number of his troops to Muir tun- 
nel and to guard that passage through the Belt 
range mountains. He accordingly started that 
evening at six o'clock with one lieutenant, i 
hospital steward and 33 privates, and reached 
the tunnel early Sunday morning, July 8. 

On Sunday also came word to the strikers 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



tliat two trains, guarded by government troops, 
had started simultaneously from St. Paul and 
Tacoma at six o'clock on the evening of July 
7, and that they were due to arrive in Livings- 
ton on Monday, the 9th. 

No train arrived until Tuesday. On that 
day President Cleveland issued his proclama- 
tion placing the entire Northwest under mar- 
tial law, and at the same time President Debs, 
of the A. R. U., was placed under arrest on a 
charge of interfering with the United States 
mails. But before this information was re- 
ceived in Livingston the train with the troops 
had arrived from St. Paul, and the most excit- 
ing scene of the strike, locally, had been 
enacted. 

The train, running in two sections, and 
manned by "scabs," arrived in Livingston on 
the lOth. It was guarded by two companies 
from Fort Keough and two from Fort Custer, 
the two former under command of Captains 
Lockwood and Crittenden, and the two latter 
under command of Captain Ord and Lieuten- 
ant 0"Neil. Captain Lockwood, as ranking 
captain, was in supreme command. The train 
was made up of mail, baggage, express, pas- 
senger cars and a full complement of the boy- 
cotted Pullman cars. A large crowd of strik- 
ers and spectators assembled on the depot plat- 
form to witness tlie arrival of the first through 
train since June 27. We leave the telling of 
the dramatic incidents which followed to the 
pen of the editor of the Livingston Enterprise : 
" * * * The two sections of the train 
arrived in the lower end of the yards at 4p.m., 
where engines were changed after a delay of 
half an hour, and the train, with its engines 
and cars covered with 'swaddies,' whose bayo- 
nets bristled in every direction, pulled up to 
the passenger depot. * * * As the stop 
was made at the platform the 'brave defenders 
of the nation,' ashen with alarm, climbed down 
in front of a crowd of 600 or 700 persons who 
lined the track on either side. 

"Then came the exhibition of cowardice 



and brutality unequalled in the history of civ- 
ilized warfare. Captain Lockwood climbed 
onto the south platform, taking with him the 
'royal jag" he had accumulated by frequent 
trips to the Ixir of the diner. He had no sooner 
alighted than, in the presence of the men, ladies 
and children who had assembled to see the 
'wheels again revolve,' he ordered his men to 
'Drive back the G — d d — d s — of b — s ! Drive 
them back!' He then crossed to the opposite 
platform, still accompanied by his faithful 
'jag,' and repeated this order, supplementing 
it with a command to the thoroughly affrighted 
and almost stampeded regulars to enforce his 
order with their guns. Here the crowed was 
much more dense and necessarily slower to 
move, although falling back as rapidly as possi- 
ble. Their movements, however, did not sat- 
isfy the drunken and nervous anticipation of 
Lockwood and that officer drew his sword and 
made a savage thrust at the abdomen of one 
of the inofifensive spectators, and afterwards 
slashed Frank Toland over the head. The 
blow was a murderous one, but fortunately 
Toland had on a stiff straw hat which checked 
the force of the blow sufficiently to save his 
life, although the blade cut a gash on the 
left side of his head which necessitated sev- 
eral stitches by Dr. Alton in closing the gap- 
ing wound. Having thus acquitted himself 
in a manner that would not only disgrace the 
army but would add fresh laurels to a Bowery 
tough, the captain formed his company in line 
along the train and sought safety behind the 
muskets by retiring to the dining car to hit 
the 'can' and replenish his stock of courage. 

"This dastardly proceeding was reported to 
Mayor Beley. who sought an interview with 
Captain Lockwood to enter a protest against 
the assault and assure him of the loyalty and 
peaceable disposition of our city. When told 
by the mayor of his official position, Captain 

Lockwood replied, 'You are a d — d 

mayor. This city is under my control today.' 

"In the meantime a warrant charging 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY, 



145 



Lockwood with assault with a deadly weapon 
was sworn out before Justice Lepley and placed 
in the hands of Sheriff Conrow. Before it was 
served, however, it w^as learned that the pres- 
ident had proclaimed the entire west under 
martial law and it was decided as futile to take 
further action iii the matter in that direction, 
and the train soon pulled out with Captain 
Lockwood and his 'jag,' the train crew, sol- 
diers and passengers. 

"* * * As soon as the first section of 
the train pulled out Company D, of the 22nd, 
under command of Lieut. O'Neil, marched from 
the depot down through the yards to the sec- 
ond section of the train. Shortly after, a party 
of 'scabs' came up and began washing ice for 
the cars. They were hooted by the crowd and 
finally one of them drew a revolver, when the 
crowd closed in on them, and they started 
down the track at full speed to seek protection 
of the colored troops. A few minutes later 
Lieutenant O'Neil, at the head of Company D, 
was seen coming up the track at a double quick 
march. His men had their bayonets in place 
and cartridges in their gims. They were 
formed along the east side of Main street, and 
when the lieutenant discovered that his pres- 
ence was not needed to quell any disturbance, 
he ordered bayonets sheathed, guns unloaded, 
and his colored 'swaddies' were marched back 
down the track. 

"At 6:30 the second section of the train, 
which had been held at the lower end of the 
yards, pulled up to the passenger depot. The 
train was guarded by two colored companies 
from Fort Custer under charge of Captain Ord 
and Lieutenant O'Neil, and both officers 
quickly demonstrated that they were entitled 
to respect. Their demeanor, in striking com- 
parison with that of the drunken Lockwood, 
won the admiration of the crowd. When the 
train stopped, Captain Ord ordered his men 
down from the cars, formed a line along the 
train, and in a respectful but firm manner in- 
formed the spectators of his duty in guarding 



the train and warned them not to pass the line 
of soldiers. The only incident that marked 
the stay of this section of the train was the 
ridicule hurled at the 'scab' crew, and after 
waiting the return of the hog 496, to assist it 
over the hill, departed at 8 p. m. for the west." 

The two companies of colored soldiers 
from Fort Custer were left in Livingston when 
the trains pulled out. They were marched 
back to the yards and put in camp just west 
of the shops, where they remained until Sep- 
tember I. Patrols w^ere established along the 
passenger depot platform and in different parts 
of the company's yards. 

The people of Livingston were aroused to 
the highest pitch of indignation by the conduct 
of Captain Lockwood, and immediately after 
the assault upon Frank Toland a number of the 
leading citizens met at the office of Smith 
& Wilson, when the following dispatch was 
formulated and sent to Senator Power at 
Washington. 

Livingston, Mont., July 10, 1894. Hon. Thomas C. 
Power, Washington, D. C. — Today a mail train in 
charge of soldiers commanded by Capt. Lockwood 
stopped here. Many citizens through curiosity were at 
the station. All were quiet and unarmed. The captain 
without cause struck an unoffending citizen on head 
with saber while standing on street, seriously wound- 
ing him. The captain used vile and profane language 
in presence of ladies and publicly insulted our mayor. 
Our community feel greatly outraged. 

Frank Henry 
H. J. Miller 
John T. Smith 
Geo. H. Wright 
L. N. Lepley 
Allan R. Joy 
J. R. King 

J. E. SwiNDLEHURST 

J. S. Thompson 

In the evening a mass meeting was held at 
Hefferlin's, opera house, which was packed to 
overflowing by the citizens of Livingston, to 
further express the indignation of the people 
over the outrageous assault upon Frank To- 
land and the disgraceful conduct of the army 
officer. Enthusiasm was unbounded in endors- 



146 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



ing the indignant protests of the speakers. 
Resokitions were adopted and forwarded to 
Governor Rickards, demanding that an in- 
vestigation be made of the outrageous conduct. 

Under the, protection of the United States 
troops a few trains were sent over the road 
during the few days following the incidents 
above related. The strikers knew that there 
could be but one outcome, but they doggedly 
hung out. There were gradual desertions 
from the ranks of the strikers, and on July 13 
the Northern Pacific issued a bulletin, stating 
that the strike was broken and offering to take 
back all old employes except those who had 
been instrumental in causing disturbances. 
But it was not until July 19 that the strike 
was formally declared ofif b}' the local union. 
That day at a meeting held in Populist hall, 
it was voted to declare the strike ofif so far 
as this division was concerned. The motion 
was carried by a vote of about four to one of 
the sixty members present and voting. Mem- 
bers of the union with few exceptions at once 
made application for their old positions. Some 
were accepted, while others were rejected. 

The great strike was at an end, but the 
troops which had been guarding the company' j; 
property in Park county remained for several 
weeks more. Those at Muir tunnel departed 
August 30. while those in Livingston left on 
September i. 

Governor Rickards, of Montana, had taken 
up the matter of the conduct of Captain Lock- 
wood with the war department, and that 
branch of the national government investigated 
the charges, completely exonorating the of- 
ficer and laying the blame for all that happened 
to the citizens of Livingston. The result of 
the investigation was made known through a 
letter to the governor from Jos. B. Doe, as- 
sistant secretary of war. That official said 
that the commanding general of the depart- 
ment of Dakota detailed a discreet officer to in- 
vestigate the charges, and after a full consid- 
eration by the major general of the army and 



the war department, the conclusion was 
reached that the circumstances that gave rise 
to the accusation against Captain Lockwood 
were no less than an insurrection against the 
United States and open defiance of the national 
authority. Continuing, the letter said : 

"The circumstances justified and required 
whatever forcible measures might be necessary 
on the part of the commanding officer of the 
troops to promptly suppress that insurrection. 
It shows that even idle bystanders, having no 
intention to take part in mob violence, did, 
nevertheless, by their presence with the lawless 
mob. give countenance and encouragement to 
the insurrection. If the citizens sufifered 
some violence at the hands of the troops be- 
cause the latter could not discriminate between 
innocent and guilty, it would seem that the 
citizens are themselves to blame for their mis- 
fortune: and it is the opinion of this depart- 
ment that the action of the commanding of- 
ficer, under the circumstances, was entirely 
justifiable." 

The first and only legal execution to take 
place in Park county occurred on Friday morn- 
ing. July 13, 1894, when Robert A. Anderson, 
commonly known as Bob Fields, was hanged 
at Livingston for the murder of Emanuel 
Fleming on April 20, 1894. 

Park county had been fighting, almost from 
the date of its organization, against the dis- 
memberment of its territor)^ With every ses- 
sion of the legislature would come some plan 
for the organization of a new county which 
desired part of Park county's territory, and at 
nearly all of the sessions an attempt would be 
made to annex a part of Park county to 
Yellowstone county. Each time the people of 
the western part of the county would earnestly 
enter the contest for the preservation of the 
county. But in 1895 the inevitable came to 
pass. Two new counties were formed, each 
taking a portion of the older county, and Park 
county was reduced to its present boundaries. 
By the creation of Sweet Grass county about 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



[47 



$1,100,000 of taxable property was lost, and 
Carbon county took about $400,000 more. 

As the story of the creation of Sweet Grass 
and Carbon counties will be told in another 
part we shall pass it by here. 

Although the loss of territory occasioned 
by the creation of these two counties was re- 
gretted by the people of what was left of Park 
county, it was not a serious blow. The effect 
of the hard times was wearing away, and the 
county was once more becoming prosperous. 
Although the county had lost nearly one-half 
of its territory, the value of the taxable pro- 
perty it had lost was much less. The assessed 
valuation in 1894 had been $4,689,126.50; in 
1895 it was reduced only to $3,492,006. 

Early in the spring of 1895 the county 
commissioners again took up the question of 
the erection of a county court house. Park 
county was badly in need of such a building. 
During the eight years of its existence the 
county had conducted its business in rented 
buildings, which were inadequate and in which 
the public records were imperiled. Besides, at 
this time the county had a large sum of money 
on hand which would not be available to apply 
on the payment of the bonded indebtedness 
for many years, and for which there was no 
immediate use. Accordingly, on Februai-y 
28, 1895, the commissioners let the contract 
for the building of a court house to H. J. Wol- 
cott for $9,680, the building to be completed 
before July 15th of that year. 

But action was taken which prevented the 
building of this structure. On Saturday, 
]March 9th, in district court. Judge Frank 
Henry presiding, a temporary restraining order 
was granted against Mr. Wolcott and the 
county commissioners, restraining them from 
building the court house. This action was 
taken at the request of C. S. Hefferlin, from 
whom the county rented the building used for 
county purposes. This action was brought on 
the grounds that the act was unconstitutional, 
and this section of the constitution was cited: 



"Xo county shall incur any indebtedness or 
liability for any single purpose to an amount 
exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000) 
without the approval of the majority of the 
electors thereof, voting at an election to be pro- 
vided by law." It was shown that the county 
had let the contract for the building for $9,680, 
had paid $3,200 for the building site, had paid 
$700 for plans and specifications for the build- 
ing, and had further agreed to pay $250 to an 
architect to supervise the construction. This 
would have brought the total cost up to $13,- 
830, an amount in excess of that allowed by 
the constitution. 

The restraining order was made permanent 
I\Iarch 20th. An appeal to the supreme court 
was taken at once, and in a decision in the 
latter part of June, the ruling of the lower court 
was sustained. As a retaliatory measure an 
action was then brought against the county and 
Mr. Hefferlin, restraining the former from 
paying to the latter the money on certain war- 
rants, which had been issued to him as payment 
for rent of county buildings. Tlie same sec- 
tion of the constitution was cited that Mr. Hef- 
ferlin had employed. It was shown that, if 
these warrants were paid, the amount that 
would have been paid out in rents for county 
buildings would be in excess of the constitu- 
tional limit of money that could be paid out 
for any single purpose without the approval 
of a majority of the voters. The court did not 
take this view of the matter, however. 

The county was not to be balked in its ef- 
forts to get a court house, however. July 20th 
the commissioners decided to submit to the vote 
of the people the proposition to build a $25,000 
structure, and named Thursday, August 
15th, as the date for holding the election. It 
will be remembered that on two former occa- 
sions the voters had disapproved the erection 
of a county building by overwhelming major- 
ities. Now, however, it was all the other 
way. There was hardly any opposition. 

On October 5, 1895, the contract for the 



148 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



erection of the Ijuilding was let to Day& Horn- 
beck, of Livingston, for $18,095. The build- 
ing was completed and furnished ready for oc- 
cupancy in July, 1896, the total cost of build- 
ing and furnishings being about $23,000. On 
the last day of July the county officials moved 
to the new court house. 

The year 1897 witnessed the complete re- 
covery from the "hard times"' period. That 
year there was an unprecedented demand for 
agricultural and stock raising lands. Xew set- 
tlers came into the county, and during the 
next few years Park county advanced as it 
had not done since the boom days of 1883. 

During the history of Park county there 
have been scores of murders and homicides 
committed, but there never was a crime which 
created the excitement and aroused the indig- 
nation of the people to the extent that did the 
murder of Sheriff Geo. T. Young, of Living- 
ston and the serious wounding of Under 
Sheriff Frank Beller at the dejDot platform at 
Springdale, on Friday evening, November 9, 
1900, while attempting to arrest a man, whose 
name was unknown, but who was wanted for 
shooting a man at Logan two days before. 
Sheriff Young was shot through the heart 
and died instantly. Beller was shot squarely 
in the chest and also received a wound in the 
foot, from which injuries he recovered. 

The murderer escaped, and then began one 
of the most determined man hunts in the his- 
tory of the west, second only to that of Harry 
Tracy a few years later in Oregon and Wash- 
ington. Bloodhounds were secured to track 
the murderer, and posses were formed in 
nearly all the towns of the country. The mur- 
derer started east and was seen two miles west 
of Big Timber. From there he was traced up 
Boulder creek a few miles. Then he made his 
way to Grey Cliff. He was seen near that place 
and also at Reed's Point. From the latter 
point he was traced to Red Lodge country and 
later into the Hole-in-the-Wall country of Wy- 
oming, where all track of him was lost. His 



pursuers would catch sight of him at some 
point and then he would disappear as com- 
pletely as though the earth had swallowed him 
up, only to reappear in a day or two at some 
point thirty or forty miles distant. AVith an 
endurance that seemed almost superhuman the 
murderer braved the excessive cold, clad only 
in summer garments, with nothing to eat ex- 
cept what little he could steal from sheep 
camps. The country over which he traveled 
was a strange one, and he was frequently run- 
ning into places where recognition immediately 
followed. Then he would disappear hours be- 
fore his pursuers could take the trail. For two 
weeks the chase was continued by at least an 
hundred men. Then it was abandoned, and no 
trace of the murderer has ever been found. 

The federal census of 1900 gave Park 
county a population of 7,341, a slight gain over 
the census of ten years before, noth withstanding 
the fact that the county had lost about half its 
area in the meantime. A census today would 
show about twice that number. The years 
1 901 and 1902 were particularly prosperous 
ones, the latter being the most prosperous one, 
up to that time, in the history of the county. 

While there has been only one legal execu- 
tion in the history of the county, a second man 
had received sentence to the supreme penalty. 
This was Martin Zidmair, who was sentenced 
to be hanged September 4, 1903, for the mur- 
der of Geo. Reider. He cheated the gallows 
by hanging himself in his cell the day before 
that set for his execution. 

The year 1905 was a banner one for the min- 
ing industries of Park county. Numerous smelt- 
ers and mills were started in different parts of 
the county. All the coal mines and coke plants 
of the county were in operation, and gold and 
silver mining took a new impetus. This activ- 
ity has continued up to the present time, and 
there was never a time in the whole history 
of the county when times were as good as 
they are at present. The total assessed valuation 
of property for the year 1906 was $4,923,602. 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



[49 



CHAPTER 



LIVIXGSTOX. 



Within the county of Park there is only 
one town that enjoys municipal government. 
This is Livingston, the county seat, a city of 
about 5,000 people, ranking well up among 
the important towns of Alontana. Besides 
this city, however, are many smaller, but im- 
portant, villages, which depend for their ex- 
istence upon the surrounding mining or agri- 
cultural country. Among these are Gardiner, 
Aldridge, Electric, Shields, Cooke, Fridley, 
Jardine, Springdale and Clydepark, ranging 
in population from a few hundred down to a 
few score. Besides these might be named a 
few railway stations and country postoffices, 
which have not yet reached the distinction of 
being called towns. There are twenty-three 
postoffices in the county as follows : Aldridge, 
Bruffeys, Chico, Chimney Rock, Clydepark, 
Cokedale, Contact, Cooke, Electric, Fridley, 
Gardiner, Hunter's Hotsprings, Jardine, Lat, 
Livingston, Meyersburg, [Miner, Aluir, Pine- 
creek, Rockcreek, Shields and Springdale. 
This chapter will deal with the history of the 
city of Livingston ; the one following with the 
histories of the other towns of the county. 

LIVINGSTON. 

At a point on the Yellowstone river where 
that mighty stream, in its long journey from 
the mountains south of the Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park to the Missouri river, makes the 
great bend to the eastward is located the city of 
Livingston, the county seat of, and most im- 
portant town in, Park cormty.. Just below the 
point where the river breaks through its third 
and last canyon the forces of nature have 
formed a broad circular basin, and upon this 



is built the city, at an elevation of 4,491 feet 
above sea level. The location might also be 
described by saying that it is on the main line 
of the Northern Pacific railroad and at the 
junction of that road and the National Park 
branch ; that it is fifty-nine miles north 
of the National Park; that it is 1,007 "lil^s 
west of St. Paul, the eastern terminus of the 
Northern Pacific; and 124 miles to the east- 
ward of Helena, the capital of the state. 

No point in Montana possesses a location 
of more natural beauty, or one that awakens 
so much enthusiasm in picturesque surround- 
ings, as does this place. Nothing that adds to 
the charm of mountain scenery is lacking, 
while supplemental to this is the more peacefiil 
landscape of river, plain and woodland. In 
every direction the view is bounded by lofty 
mountain ranges and towering bluffs. To the 
south lies the Absaroka, or Yellowstone, range 
from which ]\Iount Baldy — an old time land- 
mark — with its almost perpetual snow cap, 
appears to tower above all others. The west- 
ern horizon is formed by the more uniform and 
less lofty Belt range. To the northeast is 
seen a circle of rugged peaks that are covered 
with snow during t^- entire year; these are 
the Crazies. Northwest of the city are the 
Bridger mountains. Just north of the city lim- 
its rise high bluff's, from which an excellent 
view of the city can be obtained. 

But it is not alone the natural scenery that 
charms the visitor to Livingston. Here is a 
model town in many respects. The townsite is 
as level as a billiard table; the streets are wide 
and straight. The business section of the city 
is built up almost entirely of brick, while in the 
residence portion are hundreds of handsome 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



and substantial homes. Concrete walks cover 
the entire city, and most of the streets are 
parked. The people of Livingston take a 
pride in their cit)', and the result is that they 
have one of the finest looking towns in the 
northwest. 

As a business point Livingston ranks well 
with the towns of Montana. It is the division 
headquarters of the Northern Pacific railroad, 
and here are located the immense shops, round- 
houses and supply stores of that company. The 
payroll of the Northern Pacific at this point 
at the present writing is over $80,000 per 
month. In addition to this large payroll are 
many manufacturing establishments, employ- 
ing large forces of men. Livingston is the 
commercial center of a large country devoted 
to mining, farming and stock raising, and all 
roads lead to the county seat. 

The founding of Livingston was a direct 
result of the building of the Northern Pacific 
railroad through this part of the country. 

When the Northern Pacific railroad was 
pushing its way westward through Dakota and 
the Yellowstone valley the construction forces 
were outfitted and maintained in the new and 
comparatively unsettled country by supply 
stores established by the contractors at points 
where there were prospects for the founding of 
permanent settlements or where railroad work 
could be conveniently centralized. Wherever 
these stores were located the floating popula- 
tion that followed the construction force would 
make a stand, and towns or camps would 
spring into existence as if by magic. 

On the 14th day of July, 1882, a represen- 
tative of Bruns & Kurtz arrived at the settle- 
ment with orders to look up a site for the store 
his employers were to establish for the benefit 
of the construction crew, and around which a 
town would naturally spring up. Two days 
later George H. Carver, later one of the lead- 
ing business men of the city and for many 
years a prominent figure in Park county poli- 



tics, arrived on the ground. He and the rep- 
resentative of the construction company pitched 
a tent on the night of the i6th on the present 
site of the city of Livingston — the first habita- 
tion in the town. That same day there arrived 
140.000 pounds of merchandise, loaded in 
wagons and drawn by 140 oxen, the property 
of Burns & Kurtz. The store was opened in 
tents on the first day of August, and the first 
business house of the town of Clark City 
(named in honor of Captain William Clark) 
was established. 

The establishment of the "company store" 
was only the beginning. It was only a short 
time until a flourishing town made its appear- 
ance. Within ten days the entire encampment 
had moved up from Benson's Landing, and a 
town sprung up along one street by the river 
nearly parallel with, and conforming somewhat 
to, the present Clark street. Clark City at first 
was composed almost entirely of tents, but 
gradually cheap frame buildings took their 
place. To show what the growth of Clark 
City had been during the few months of the 
summer and fall of 1882, we will say that at 
the November election the town polled 348 
votes for delegate to congress. When the first 
construction train reached this place on the 
first day of December there were here the fol- 
lowing business houses : Six general mer- 
chandise establishments, two drug stores, two 
hotels, one hardware store, two restaurants, 
two watchmakers, three blacksmiths, two 
wholesale liquor dealers, two meat markets and 
thirty saloons. People who have had any con- 
nection with early railroad building in the west 
will realize that the thirty saloons of Clark 
City were not out of proportion to the other 
business houses when compared with other 
camps of that day. 

When the town of Clark City came into 
existence on the bank of the Yellowstone river 
that place was fully 100 miles from the end 
of the railroad and practically out of communi- 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



151 



cation with the outside world. So it was un- 
known to the citizens of Clark City that the 
officials of the Northern Pacific had marked on 
their maps a town at this place called Livings- 
ton, in honor of Crawford Livingston, of St. 
Paul, a director of the Northern Pacific cor- 
poration. 

It was not until the month of November, 
1882, that the townsite of Livingston was sur- 
veyed for the railroad company by Robert J. 
Perry, and it was on December 21. of the same 
year, that the plat was recorded in the office 
of the clerk and recorder of Gallatin county 
by T. F. Oakes, vice-president of the company. 

The platting of the new townsite was the 
death knell of the town of Clark City. On the 
new site the town was built further to the 
north, in the vicinity of the railroad track. 
Here in the fall and winter of 1882 sprung up 
quite a little town. Now, of course, the sites 
of both cities are included within the city of 
Livingston, but then there was quite an inter- 
A'cning space between the two settlements. 
There was never any question which was to 
be the town, and the business houses of Clark 
City at once began to move to Livingston. 
The removal was not all accomplished in a day, 
and it was late the next summer before the last 
in the old town packed up their belongings and 
became identified with the newer town. Al- 
though the railroad company held the lots at 
a high figure, they sold readily, and it was 
estimated in September, 1883, that up to that 
time the company had realized $200,000 from 
the sale of lots. As the construction crews 
moved to the west, a large part of the rough 
element went with them, and the young town 
settled down upon its prosperous career. It 
was announced that Livingston was to become 
the division point and that expensive shops 
were to be located here, insuring the perma- 
nency of the town. This had a wholesome ef- 
fect, and in the majority of cases good, sub- 
stantial buildings were erected. 

On December 19, 1882, there was estab- 



lished the Livingston Gazette, the city's first 
newspaper. In the first issue was a directory 
of the business and professional men then in 
the city, which was as follows : 

Hotels— Villard House, John P. Nolan; Park Ho- 
tel, Fred Sparling ; Downen's Hotel. 

Restaurants — Young's; The Saddle Rock; Bakery, 
Christopher McGrath. 

General Stores — I. Orchal & Bro., general merchan- 
dise ; Geo. A. Carver & Co., general merchandise ; C. T. 
Wernecke, grocery; F. A. Krieger, furniture; Wilson 
& Dekay, general merchandise. 

Wholesale Liquors — J. Schreiner ; J. Murray & Co. 

Drug Stores— The Pioneer, Wright & Bartlett ; 
Bryan & Hofflin. 

Saloons — Bank Exchange ; Headquarters Saloon, 
Draper & Lilly; H. Dions; Don. McArthur; Stoel's 
Billiard Hall; The Exchange, S. L. Beck: Woolsey's 
Side Board ; Wenstrom Bros. ; McKenzie's Saloon. 

Planing Mill— Randall & Davis. 

Carpenters— Myers & Schultze, A. L. Brown, Frank 
Davis. 

Lumber Yard — Dabney Bros. 

Lawyers— J. A. Savage, William Frye. 

Physicians— W. H. A. Campbell, G. W. Grant. 

Theaters— The Palace Varieties, Boge & Martin; 
Arcade Music Hall, Myers & Ryan. 

Miscellaneous — Hofifman & Co., news depot; M. 
B. O'Dell, jeweler; Edward Martin, water wagon and 
draying; James Carroll, blacksmith shop and livery; 
McGugin & Beaman, Livingston and Bozeman express 
line; Nicholas Imo, barber shop and bath rooms; C. 
A. Carson, A. G. Carson and J. W. Allen, Livingston 
Gazette. 

In this list were included business men in 
both the old and new towns. Some may have 
been omitted from the Gazette's list, but this 
was practically the list of business and profes- 
sional men who wintered in the town. It will 
be noticed that many of the saloons which had 
been here a short time before had departed, 
following the advance of the construction 
crews. 

The year 1883 was a memorable one in the 
history of Livingston. From early in the 
spring until late in the fall all was activity. 
People poured into the new town by the hun- 
dreds and all kinds of new enterprises were 
started. From a hamlet of temporary struc- 



152 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



tures Livingston advanced in one year to a 
well built city, with over an hundred business 
houses and a population of about two thousand 
people. Its growth was phenomenal ; it out- 
stripped all its rivals along the line of the 
Northern Pacific. 

The most important factor in the growth 
of Livingston during the year was the building 
of the Northern Pacific shops. 

The effect of this work was immediate and 
lasting. No sooner had the work begun than 
the town began to assume new airs. What 
was left of the old town of Clark City moved 
over to Livingston. All the business men came 
and with them, in many instances, came the 
buildings in which they had been doing busi- 
ness. No longer were cheap structures put up; 
now that the permanency of the city was es- 
tablished, brick was the principal material used 
for the business houses. The first brick build- 
ing was put up in the spring of 1883 by Henry 
Frank, who had been the leading clothier in 
the old town. Most of the new business 
houses erected that year were put up on Main 
street. 

A bank controlled by Stebbins, Mund & 
Co., and managed by A. L. Love, cashier, was 
established early in the year. This was fol- 
lowed by. the First National Bank, which 
opened in temporary quarters on July 17th. C. 
Livingston was president; M. Fogarty, vice 
president; and the directors were Messrs. Hol- 
liday, Donnelly, Pease and H'alloran. Busi- 
ness houses sprang up by the dozens ; the 
saloons were increased in the summer to 39, 
and all did a thriving business, due largely to 
the large number of transient laborers in the 
city. 

One of the first considerations of the peo- 
ple of the new city was fire protection, and the 
first steps were taken to organize a company 
on July loth, when 25 or 30 citizens met at 
the office of Frye & Le Roy. D. F. Buchanan 
presided over the meeting and Harry Heimerd- 
inger was secretary. On July 17th occurred 



the formal organization of a hook and ladder 
company. 

While all this activity in business matters 
was going on educational and religious mat- 
ters were not neglected. A good school was 
maintained throughout the school year, al- 
though handicapped by want of suitable quar- 
ters, which difficulty was remedied the follow- 
ing year. 

The first church survice was held in the 
office of Judge Seward, in the old town, on 
the first Sunday in February, 1883. Rev. H. 
C. Simmons, of Fargo, Dakota, Superinten- 
dent of the American Home Missionary so- 
ciety of the Congregational church for northern 
Dakota and eastern Montana, preached the 
service and there were about 30 present. In 
the evening another service was held in a bag- 
gage car near the freight depot, which was 
attended by about 20 persons. On September 
2nd, Rev. Simmons organized a Congrega- 
tional church society with nine members and 
the following officers: R. M. Douthitt, deacon; 
Rev. W. E. Archibald, clergyman ; Mrs. F. L. 
Mintie, treasurer; F. L. Mintie, G. T. Cham- 
bers and G. W. Potter, trustees. A church 
edifice was erected the same fall. But before 
this was completed a Methodist Episcopal 
church had been organized and a handsome 
structure built, the first in the town, at a cost 
of about $5,000. The corner stone of this edi- 
fice was laid with appropriate ceremonies July 
25th. Although they did not erect a building 
until several years later, the members of the 
Episcopal church had an organization in 1883, 
and were ministered to monthly by Rev. Frank 
B. Lewis, of Bozeman, the first service being 
held in May. 

Only one secret society was organized dur- 
ing the year. This was Park Lodge No. 7, 
I. O. O. F., which came into existence in May 
with a membership of 12. We shall here break 
into the chronological order of events long 
enough to tell of the formation of all the secret 
societies organized prior to 1890. These with 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY, 



153 



their dates of organization and number of 
charter members Avere as follows : 

Date of Qiarter 

Organization Members 

Park Lodge No. 7, I. O. O. F 1883 12 

Farragut Post No. 7, G. A. R 1884 25 

Livingston Lodge No. 32, A. F. & A. M. . . 1884 10 

Knights of Labor 1884 

Chapter of Masons 1885 15 

Yellowstone Lodge No. 10 K. P 18S6 24 

St. Bernard Commandery 1887 13 

Khurum Lodge No. 4, A. & A. S. R. F. M 1888 11 

Scandinavian Society 1889 

Sometime during the year 1883 the Liv- 
ingston Enterprise published a directory of the 
city, in which were 891 names of permanent 
residents. 

The matter of better school facilities was 
taken up early in the year 1884. An election 
was held on February 23rd to decide whether 
or not bonds to the amount of $7,000 should 
be issued for building a school house. The 
voters decided in the affirmative by a vote of 
67 to 4, and in July the contract was let to 
M. V. Broughton for $9,900. Before the fall 
term opened Livingston was supplied with an 
up-to-date and handsome school building. 

The season of rapid growth and feverish 
prosperity which prevailed during the year 
1883 was not lasting, and was followed by 
a reaction. And on August 24, 1884, the First 
National Bank closed its doors, adding to the 
pinch of adversity. 

Notwithstanding the removal of many peo- 
ple from the town, the permanent residents 
did not show much of a diminution, as is evi- 
denced by the fact that 657 votes were cast 
in the town at the election on November 4, 
1884. 

Misfortune never comes singly. Follow- 
ing the reaction of 1884 came a year of dis- 
asters from fire. All these things coming to- 
gether were enough to break the spirit of most 
any community, but in Livingston they only 
stirred the people to greater activity. 

The first of the series of fires came on 



Saturday, May 2, 1885. This was the small- 
est one and resulted in the loss of only $15,000. 
Covered by $7,200 insurance. 

The next fire came on August 4th, bring- 
ing a loss of $17,850, covered by only $3,450 
insurance. Sixteen buildings were destroyed, 
being those first erected in the town after the 
removal from Clark City. 

The most disastrous of these fires started 
about 2 130 o'clock on the morning of Monday, 
November 30th. An entire block on Main 
street in the business center of the town was 
entirely destroyed, causing an aggregate loss 
of nearly $70,000, covered by about one-third 
of that amount of insurance. The fire was a 
stubborn one, and it looked for a time as 
though the whole town was doomed. The 
old fire company had gone out of business, and 
there was no organization in fighting the 
flames. Great excitement prevailed; large 
stocks of goods were removed from the threat- 
ened stores and handled with such reckless- 
ness that they might better have perished in 
the fire. The fire was undoubtedly the work 
of an incendiary. 

All three of these fires were believed to 
have been of incendiaiy origin, but nothing 
more than suspicion could be traced to the 
guilty parties. Some of the people of Living- 
ston took it upon themselves to see that incen- 
diaryism ceased, and one December morning 
the town was found to be chalked with the well 
known sign of the vigilantes — 3-7-77. An or- 
ganization had been quickly formed, who sent 
out warnings to all the "tough" element of 
the town, ordering them to leave by a certain 
time. Many left without further urging; 
others stayed. A band of masked men, armed 
with rifles, waited upon those who remained, 
and by persuasive argument with a rope suc- 
ceeded in determining all that Livingston was 
no place for them. 

Other measures were adopted to prevent 
disastrous damage from the fiery element. In 
December money was raised by subscription 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



to buy fire fighting apparatus. There were no 
water mains in the city at that time, but the 
people did the best under the circumstances; 
they organized a fire company, and bought 
buckets, ladders, etc., with which to fight the 
lurid leveler. 

Just as the little city was begining to re- 
vive from the setbacks of the previous fires, 
fate sent another fatality, seemingly for the 
purpose of destroying renewed hope and fort- 
itude on the part of the citizens. This fire 
occured Sunday evening, May 23, 18S6, when 
damage to the amount of $37,000 was done 
to buildings and stocks on Main street, w'hile 
insurance -was $20,400. 

These fires, all within a year's time, had the 
effect of marring the beauty of the town and 
for the time being of demoralizing business. 
But they were not lasting disasters. After 
each fire the people set about rebuilding, in 
many instances much more substantial struct- 
ures than those that were destroyed. This de- 
termination to stay with the town was born of 
a knowledge that its resources were ample. 

During 1886 about $100,000 was spent in 
building improvements, including the erection 
of eleven brick business blocks. 

The years 1887 and 1888 were prosperous 
ones for Livingston — particularly the latter. 
There was no boom, but a healthy growth. 
During the summer of 1888 there were over 
100 residences erected. 

The town had now advanced to such pro- 
portions that it was decided to again under- 
take incorporation, and this time it was success- 
fully accomplished. 

Although about 350 were entitled to vote 
at this election, only 86 took advantage of the 
privilege, the result being 46 votes in favor of 
incorporation and 40 against. The small 
number of votes cast was a matter of much sur- 
prise, as the question was one of great import- 
ance and interest to everybody and had been 
thoroughly discussed by all citizens. The En- 



terprise thus explains the paradox : "The 
only way that we can account for the small 
ballot cast is the general feeling of indecision 
on the part of the voters as to whether it 
were better to incorporate or not. Many of 
our most prominent business men acknowl- 
edged that they were on the fence in the mat- 
ter, and it is known that several who were the 
most prominent in the opposition changed their 
minds at the last hour and voted for it, and 
vice versa." 

An order declaring Livingston an incor- 
porated city of the second class was made by 
the county board December 3, and on the 15th 
provision was made for a special election to 
be held Saturday, January 26, 1889, for the 
purpose of electing city officers. * The city was 
divided into three wards, and judges and clerks 
of the election were appointed. 

Party lines were not drawn at this initial 
election. A caucus was held, at which a ticket 
was nominated. No other ticket was put in 
the field, but several independent candidates 
asked the suffrage of the people, and two of 
them were elected. Four hundred and seventy- 
seven votes were cost, divided among three 
precincts as follows: First ward. 153; second 
ward, 109; third ward, 215. Two aldermen 
were elected from each ward. 

The first meeting of the city council was 
held on Thursday, January 31. 1889. 

While 1888 had been a prosperous year 
for Livingston, the next year distanced it com- 
pletely. The Enterprise stated that the growth 
of the town that year for permanency had been 
unparalleled in the history of Montana. Over 
$350,000 was expended in improvements. 
Among the important events of the year was 
the establishment of an electric lighting system. 
The Livingston Electric Light company was 
incorporated in June, with a capital stock of 
$25,000, all held by Livingston men. The 
company began the erection of its power house 
October 15. and on December 2t, the lights 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



t55 



were turned on. Eight arc lights and 150 in- 
candescents was the patronage of the company 
at the beginning. 

At the regular annual election held April 
29, 1889, all the nominees of the citizens' cau- 
cus were elected. The vote of this election is 
not available. 

Among the other improvements of the year 
1890 was the installation of a system of water 
works by the Livingston Waterworks company. 

Notwithstanding the marked financial de- 
pression throughout the country in 1891, the 
growth of Livingston was not retarded. 

The campaign preceding the annual elec- 
tion of April 13, 1891, was enlivened by the en- 
trance of a third party "Citizens." The mem- 
bers of that organization held a convention and 
placed a ticket in the field, most of the nomi- 
nees being those of one or the other of the old 
parties. The "Citizens" movement had but 
little effect upon the result. The Republicans 
elected mayor, marshal, treasurer, clerk and 
attorney and one alderman; the Democrats 
elected two aldermen; an Independent and 
Citizens nominee was elected police magistrate. 
Seven hundred and forty-five votes were cast. 

During the year 1893 a handsome new 
school building was erected in Livingston. 

The year of the panic, 1893, w^as a hard 
one for Livingston, as it was for nearly every 
town in the United States. It was marked by 
numerous business failures and a period of 
extreme hard times. The first disaster was 
the failure of the Livingston National Bank, 
which closed its doors July 7. This caused a 
loss of upwards of $70,000 by the business men 
of Livingston and cast a gloom over the whole 
business life of the city. The Merchants Bank 
failed July 27, and this disaster was followed 
July 31 by the closing of the National Park 
Bank, the last banking institution in the city 
and Park county. It reopened on Septembei 
25. of the same year, but the results of its 
failure at the time being were disastrous. Fol- 
lowing these bank failures several business 



houses went into bankruptcy. The business of 
the city was at a standstill, and complete re- 
covery from the depression did not occur for 
several years. 

The month of June, 1894, was replete with 
interesting events. It marked the beginning of 
the great railroad strike, the story of which 
we have told in the preceding chapter; the 
overflowing of the Yellowstone river upon a 
portion of the town, and the inundating of the 
greater part of the rest of the town as a re- 
sult of a cloudburst. 

On Monday, June 4, the river reached a 
height of eight feet, ten inches, on the gauge 
board on the Main street bridge, the highest 
point ever recorded. The water in many places 
overflowed the banks and inundated the bot- 
tom lands on both sides of the stream. Di- 
rectly opposite the city the water flowed 
out over McLeod's island for a distance of 
several hundred yeards, but did little damage 
except to wash out several small bridges on 
the Island road. About twelve o'clock on the 
day the water was the highest the dyke along 
the north bank of the river, which had been put 
in to protect property in Riverside addition, 
broke at I street and flooded all that portion of 
Riverside addition as far north as Lewis street. 
Houses in that locality to the number of 25 or 
30 were surrounded by water, which rose to a 
height of two to six feet. So suddenly did the 
flood burst upon the residents of that locality 
that it was with difficulty that they and their 
household goods were removed to places of 
safety. Several boats were quickly constructed 
to reach those whose houses were cut off from 
wagon transportation by the deep water, and 
before night all had been rescued from the in- 
nundated district. The greatest damage was 
the destruction of gardens, and that loss was 
almost total, causing a serious hardship to 
several who depended almost entirely upon this 
resource as a means of livelihood. Only by 
strenuous efforts was the Main street bridge 
saved from going out, great cargoes of trees 



iS6 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



and timbers from other bridges which had 
gone out being forced down against it with 
terrible force. The river remained at a high 
point until the 8th, when it began to recede, 
and all danger was past. 

On the 5th the town was visited by a de- 
structive flood, resulting from cloudbursts both 
north and south of the city. Preceded by a 
rain of two hours the cloudbursts came almost 
simultaneously, one in the hills north of the 
city and the other on the plateau across the 
river. Within an almost incredibly short time 
the gulches north of the city were converted 
into raging torrents that poured their contents 
down the hillside. The sweeping waters came 
directly toward the Northern Pacific railroad, 
striking it near Yellowstone street. The 
track temporarily diverted the flood east- 
ward along Front street and the com- 
pany's right of way. The track at Yel- 
lowstone street was about three feet above the 
level of the street, but it offered only moment- 
ary resistance to the flood, which was soon 
sweeping over it and converting Park street 
into a rushing stream. The water found its 
way eastward along that thoroughfare, pre- 
senting the appearance of a wall of moving 
water. Within a few minutes it reached the 
business portion of the city, filling every base- 
ment and cellar as it proceeded on its way to 
find an outlet into the river. At two points 
where the flood washed over the track the 
grade gave way and left the ties and rails with- 
out support for a distance of twenty or thirty 
feet. On the north side of the track another 
stream, several hundred feet in width, found 
its way eastward, carrying with it sidewalks 
and crossings, finally reaching the Northern 
Pacific shops, which were flooded to a depth of 
two feet. The flood lasted half an hour, when 
the water began to recede. It disappeared al- 
most as rapidly as it had accumulated. The 
damage to the railroad company was several 
thousand dollars and that to the business 
houses in the citv fullv as much. The cloud- 



burst south of the city did no damage in Liv- 
ingston, although it wrought havoc on some 
of the nearby ranches. Debris of all kinds was 
left in the streets and alleys. 

For ten years after the series of fires end- 
ing in May, 1886, Livingston was without a 
disastrous conflagration. On January 31, 
1896, the Livingston opera house and some 
other property was destroyed by fire. The loss 
to ]\Ir. C. S. Hefferlin, the owner of the opera 
house, was $30,000, covered by $22,800 in- 
surance. The losses of other parties were small. 

Again in 1896 the question of the building 
of a city hall was a live one. At the election 
April 6 the proposition to bond the city in the 
sum of $10,000 met the approval of the people 
by a vote of 320 to 119. The building was 
completed that year, and has ever since been 
the home of the city officials. 

On September 27, 1897, fire destroyed 
$12,000 worth of property. There were tjiree 
other small fires in the same week, all the 
probable work of an incendiary. 

By 1898 Livingston had entirely recovered 
from the eft'ect of the hard times, and during 
that year the town made its first real advance- 
ment since the panic of 1893. The Northern 
Pacific shops were enlarged, requiring the ser- 
vices of quite a force of workmen. Among 
the other improvements was the building of a 
flouring mill, covering an investment of about 
$14,000. and many residences. Among the 
events of the year were two fires. The first of 
these occurred June 27, when the dry goods 
store of Lee Eisenberg was destroyed, entail- 
ing a loss of alx)ut $23,000. The second fire 
was on July 24, when the plant of the Livings- 
ton Water Power company was destroyed, en- 
tailing a loss of many thousands of dollars. 

The federal census of 1900 gave Living- 
ston a population of 2,778, a loss of 72 since 
the census of 1890. Although the hard times 
period had resulted disastrously for the town 
it was not believed by the people that there 
had been a loss in the ten vears, and that loose 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



157 



methods had been employed in making the 
census. 

Great interest centered in a special election 
held January 25, 1900, to decide the question 
of having the city purchase the plant of the 
Livingston Electric Light and Waterworks 
company for $100,000. The campaign was 
an exciting one and the proposition was de- 
feated by a vote of 128 to 194. Another spe- 
cial election that year was held for the pur- 
pose of obtaining the sentiment of the people 
of Park county regarding the establishment of 
a county high school at Livingston. The vote 
of the county was 479 in favor of the school 
and 335 against. The high school was at once 
established and became one of the permanent 
institutions of Livingston. 

The year 1901 marked the beginning of 
a new era in the history of Livingston. More 
money was spent in permanent improvements 
that year than during any previous year of 
the town's .history, not excepting the boom 
year 1883. This activity was started by the 
announcement of the Northern Pacific com- 
pany that big improvements would be made 
in its shops that year. This announcement by 
the railroad officials caused a contagious build- 
ing fever, and in less than a month after the 
shops were an assured fact business blocks 
were in course of construction in every part 
of the business center of the town. This was 
followed by the erection of residences, and 
building operations were carried on to an ex- 
tent never before witnessed in the city. The 
addition to the shops resulted in the expendi- 
ture of nearly $250,000, and late in the year 
the railroad officials announced that the fol- 
lowing year the company intended putting up 
a new depot that would cost in the neighbor- 
hood of $125,000 more. Among the principal 
business blocks erected in 1901 was the post- 
office block, erected by A. W. Miles at a cost 
of many thousand dollars. 

The extensive building operations of 1901 
were continued the following year. The new 



depot was completed at a total cost of $125,- 
000, and the construction of the new shops 
had the finishing touches put upon them that 
year. With the completion of these began the 
steady employment of about 200 additional 
men. The payroll of the railroad company 
alone for the year 1902 averaged $45,000 
monthly. Li its issue of December 27th the 
Enterprise said concerning the building opera- 
tions of the year : 

"Real estate values in Livingston have 
reached a figure never attained before except 
in the boom days of 1888-89. In Livingston 
there has been a large amount of building. 
Residences and business houses to the value of 
at least $100,000 have been erected during the 
year, and the railroad company has invested 
$250,000 in buildings alone. It is not sur- 
prising in view of this state of things that Liv- 
ingston real estate has considerable backbone 
and that rents are higher and houses scarce." 
Fire again visited Livingston on Novem- 
ber 5, 1903, when the business part of the city 
was damaged to the amount of $25,000. On 
November 29th of the same year the electric 
lighting plant was destroyed, causing a loss of 
$15,000. 

February 13, 1904, a special election was 
held in Park county for the purpose of voting 
on the proposition to bond the county for 
$25,000 to erect and equip a high school build- 
ing at Livingston, the quarters then in use 
being inadequate. The bonding proposition 
carried by a vote of 417 to 159, the vote of 
Livingston carrying the day, the outside pre- 
cincts being almost unanimously against the 
plan. The high school building was completed 
in December at a total cost of about $30,000. 
The most expensive fire in the city's his- 
tory occurred February 29, 1904, when the 
postoffice block was entirely destroyed and the 
various business and professional men who 
occupied rooms and offices in the building lost 
all their possessions therein. The fire started 
from electric light wires. The wind was blow- 



158 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



ing a gale at the time of the fire, and it was 
very fortunate that the greater part of the city 
was not destroyed. It was only by the heroic 
work of the firemen that the flames were con- 
fined to the one block. The total loss was 
nearly $130,000, covered by about one-half 
the amount of insurance. Mr. A. W. Miles, 
the owner of the block, at once commenced re- 
building. The loss and insurance were $129,- 
806 and $62, 1 50 respectively. 

The people of Livingston had never been 
satisfied with the population given them by 
the federal census of 1900, and in July, 1904, 
another census was taken, under the direction 
of the city council. The enumerators listed 
4,474 residents of the city. The result of this 
census could be nothing but gratifying to the 
people of Livingston. Conceding the federal 
census to be correct, the city had gained in 
four years 1,696 inhabitants. 

The year 1904 was a prosperous one, and 
there was considerable building done. Among 
other things was the erection of the handsome 
Carnegie library. 

The election April 4, 1904, for the election 
of aldermen developed into an exciting con- 
test at the last moment. Two Republicans and 
one Democrat were elected. The Socialists 
polled a large vote but as usual were unsuccess- 
ful in electing a candidate. Seven hundred 
and one votes were polled, the largest vote in 
years. 

Livingston was again visited by a cloud- 
burst flood Thursday afternoon, June 8, 1905, 
the worst flood in the city's history, resulting 
in the loss of thousands of dollars worth of 
property. The flood left the beautiful graded 
and cemented streets of Livingston a broad 
expanse of filth and slime, of sand bars and 
boulder piles, of forsaken water channels — a 
dumping ground for debris of every descrip- 
tion that found its final lodging place on va- 
cant lots, in gutters and alleys, and against the 
sides of business blocks. 

It had rained the previous night, but by 



noon of the 8th the air was sultry, and at 4 130 
in the a,fternoon it was stifling. Then came 
the welcome rain, followed by hail of enorm- 
ous size. Probably half an hour after this had 
passed away parties on Park street noticed a 
moving object on the hillside west of the city, 
many mistaking it for a band of sheep, and in 
less time than it takes to describe it a seething, 
surging mass of water and hail five feet high 
swept down the gulch by the old pest house, 
crossed the track at the head of Fifth street 
and rushed with the swiftness of a hurricane 
into the business heart of the city. From 
then until darkness men worked as they 
had never worked before, trying to save 
the property of themselves and others 
from destruction. Each minute seemed 
to increase the volume of water, and had a 
hundred reservoirs been tapped in as many 
different directions their supplies could nop 
have found more difificult avenues of escape. 
With a force that was truly appaljing it swept 
into the heart of the city, while its exit was as 
sudden as though an unseen power had been 
directing its course and timing its duration. 
At five o'clock a wall of water five feet high 
rushed across a flat toward the city; in less 
than an hour a tiny ditch that would hardly 
have answered the purpose of an irrigating 
lateral was all that remained to mark its en- 
trance. 

The municipal election of 1905 was one of 
the most hotly contested in the political history 
of the city. There had been, and still was, a 
fight over the granting of city franchises, and 
the contest was bitter between the two leading 
parties for the control of the city council. All 
three parties had complete tickets in the field. 
The Republicans elected mayor, police magis- 
trate and two aldermen, while the Democrats 
elected treasurer and one alderman. This left 
the city council with four Republicans and two 
Democrats. There were polled 959 votes, 
which was over 200 more than had ever been 
cast in the city before in a municipal election. 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



159 



During the last few years Livingston has 
made great progress along all lines. It has 
grown in population until it is today a city of 
about 5,000 people. It is gradually throwing 
off the ways of the country town and assuming 
metropolitan airs. It has free mail delivery 
and many of the other conveniences that desig- 
nate the city from the town. Its concrete walks 
make it the most thoroughly advertised town 
in Montana in that respect. In May, 1906, 
over nine miles of the walk had been laid and 
the contracts were let at that time for several 
miles more, covering practically the whole 
town. It was alleged that on the above date 
the city had more miles of cement walk than 
all the other cities of Montana put together. 
Another much needed improvement made dur- 
ing the year 1906 was the beginning of a new 
sewerage system. At a special election August 
14th the voters gave their consent to the issu- 
ance of $25,000 bonds for this purpose by a 
vote of 69 to 62. 

Livingston has six church societies as fol- 
lows : IMethodist Episcopal, Congregational, 
Episcopal, Catholic, Baptist and Adventist. 

Its lodges and secret organizations are : 

G. A. R. — Farragut Post, No. 7. 
A. O. U.W.— National Park Lodge, No. 10. 

B. P. O. E. — Livingston Lodge, No. 246. 

B. A. Y. (Brotherhood American Yeomen) 
— Tourist Homestead, No. 474. 

C. O. F. (Catholic Order Foresters)— Yel- 
lowstone Park Court, No. 149 1. 

F. B. (Fraternal Brotherhood) — Livings- 
ton Lodge. 



F. O. E. — Aerie, No. 273. 

I. O. O. F.— Park Lodge, No. 17. 

K. O. T. M. 

K. T. — Livingston Chapter Rose Croix, 
No. 2. Livingston Council Kadosh, No. i. 
Particular Consistory for Eastern Montana. 

K. P. — Yellowstone Lodge, No. 10. 

M. W. A.— Silver Tip Camp, No. 5765. 

O. D. H. S. (Order der Hermann Soehne) 
— IMoltke Lodge, No. 9. 

Royal Highlanders — Castle Mt. Baldy. 

W. O. W.- — Zephyr Camp, No. 151. 

Women of Woodcraft — Cottonwood Cir- 
cle, No. 197. 

Livingston is a strong union town, no less 
than thirteen unions having an existence. 
These are as follows : 

Cigarmakers International L'nion. Local 
Union, No. 312. 

United Brotherhood of Carpenters and 
Joiners of America. Local Union, No. 1085. 

Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and 
Paperhangers of America. Local LTnion, No. 

351- 

Livingston Typographical Union, No. 489. 
Brotherhood Locomotive Engineers. 
Order Railway Conductors. 
Brotherhood Locomotive Firemen. 
Brotherhood Railway Trainmen. 
Switchmen's Union. 

Boilermakers' and Iron Workers' Union. 
International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths. 
International Association of Machinists. 
Brotherhood Railwav Carmen. 



t6o 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



CHAPTER IV 



OTHER TOWNS. 



Ranking second in importance among the 
towns of Park county is Gardiner, a village of 
some 300 or 400 people situated in the extreme 
southern part of the county on the Hne separ- 
ating Park county from the Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park, at an elevation of 5,286 feet above 
sea level. It is the terminus of the Park branch 
of the Northern Pacific railroad, 54 miles 
south of Livingston. Here is located the re- 
cently completed stone arch designating the 
ofificial entrance to the National Park. Through 
this arch and' the town of Gardiner yearly pass 
thousands of tourists on their way to the land 
of wonders. While the little town derives 
some profit from these thousands of tourists, 
its support come principally from the surround- 
ing country, it being the outfitting point for 
the mines of Bear and Crevice gulches. The 
town is substantially built and has a number 
of business houses, among the enterprises be- 
ing a bank and a newspaper. In the line of pub- 
lic improvements are a waterworks and electric 
lighting system, Gardiner being one of the 
smallest towns in the country boasting of these 
modern improvements. 

The town takes its name from Gardiner 
river, which empties into the Yellowstone near 
the town. The identity of the individual for 
whom the river was named was long in doubt, 
and has been definitely settled only within the 
last few years. His name was Johnson Gard- 
ner, and he was one of the so-called free trap- 
pers who hunted over the upper Missouri and 
Yellowstone countries in the first half of the 
nineteenth century. Chittenden says of Gard- 
ner : "There are extant articles of agreement 



between him and Kenneth ^^IcKenzie, the bour- 
geois in charge of the American Fur compa- 
ny's post at Fort Union, relating to equipment 
and furs for the year 1832. There are also 
a statement of Gardner's account at Fort Un- 
ion in the summer of 1832, and a bill of lad- 
ing of furs shipped on the bull boat Antoine 
from the 'Crossing of the Yellowstone' July 18, 
of the same year." The same authority de- 
clares that this is undoubtedly the same indi- 
vidual for whom Gardiner river was named, 
and says that the discrepancy in the spelling 
has no significance. The first certain refer- 
ence to both stream and name, placing the 
identity of each beyond dispute, occurs in a let- 
ter from Father DeSmet, the pioneer mission- 
ary to Montana, dated January 20, 1852. 

Gardiner came into existence in the spring of 
1883. When construction of the Park branch 
of the Northern Pacific began that spring it 
was announced that the line would be built to 
the northern boundary of the park, at a point 
where the Gardiner river enters the Yellow- 
stone. This was enough to set the aggressive 
town builders of the time at work planning for 
a town at this point, and in May a town sprang 
into existence. As there was no sawn timber 
available, the town consisted of tents, with the 
exception of three or four log shacks. By the 
first of June the town boasted of a population 
only a trifle below 200, and the following busi- 
ness houses were already represented : Twenty- 
one saloons, six restaurants, five general mer- 
chandise stores, two hardw-are stores, two fruit 
stands, two barber shops, one news stand, one 
billiard hall, one blacksmith shop and one milk- 
man. About this time A. G. Topliff arrived 
on the scene with a sawmill plant and began 




ENTRANCE ARCH TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



the manufacture of lumber, so that before the 
summer was over the town began to assume a 
more substantial appearance. 

The building- of this flourishing little town 
was, of course, the result of the announcement 
that it was to be the terminus of the I^'ark 
branch. But before the railroad was com- 
pleted complications arose which delayed the 
completion of the road to Gardiner twenty 
years. This was brought about by a dispute 
over the ownership of the townsite. 

When it was first determined to build the 
Park branch Ed. Stone, representing the 
Northern Pacific railway, brought the squat- 
ter's claim to the land upon which the town was 
afterwards built. The claim was "jumped" by a 
man named Cutler, or as he was commonly 
called "Buckskin Jim." The contest for thepos- 
ession of the townsite was taken to the courts, 
but before it could be threshed out there the 
line was fast nearing completion. The road 
was graded into the town, but it was rumored 
that the rail laying would stop about three or 
four miles from this point unless some ar- 
rangement could be made for securing clear 
title to the townsite. The people of the new 
town felt that this would be fatal to their in- 
terests, and that already the unsettled condition 
of the title had been a serious detriment to the 
town's prosperity. They therefore set about 
in a systematic manner to luring the dispute to 
a close. Meetings of the citizens were held in 
July, and every endeavor was put forth to in- 
duce "Buckskin Jim" to release his claim upon 
the land, with the intention of presenting the 
land to the railroad company. 

But all efforts were in vain, and when the 
last rail was laid on the road on the 30tli day 
of August it was at a point which became 
known as Cinnabar, and not at Gardiner. The 
rumors to the effect Ihat the Northern Pacific 
would not build to Gardiner unless the title 
to the townsite was secured were substantiated. 
It was a serious blow to the people who had 
invested their money in Gardiner. Some 



moved to the new town of Cinnabar, while 
others remained in the hopes that the troubles 
would be speedily settled and that Gardiner 
would yet become the terminus. Of course 
there was no advancement in the little town 
after this event, but such was the faith of the 
people in an ultimate success that many re- 
mained and conducted their business at a loss. 
These ruefully cast their eyes over the three 
or four miles of expanse which separated them 
from the railroad, gazed upon the columns of 
smoke arising from the engines, and prayed 
that some day the railroad would build to their 
town. . -) 

In November, 1883, it became known that 
a patent to the townsite, which had been filed 
upon by Mr. Stone as a desert claim, had been 
granted and that "Buckskin Jim" had lost out. 
As Stone was in the employ of the railroad 
company at the time, it was taken for granted 
that the company now became the owner and 
that the railroad would be extended at an early 
date. Despite the fact that Cinnabar had be- 
come the terminus, that town did not grow to 
the proportions expected and Gardiner really 
remained the trading center for the upper 
country. 

In the spring of 1884 it was believed that 
the longed-for extension was about to be luade. 
It was believed that the railroad company now 
had possession of the townsite or that the title 
was ready to be turned over to it. But this 
transaction did not eventuate. Disputes arose 
between the railroad company and Mr. Stone, 
and that gentleman did not make over the deed, 
although it was currently believed in Gardi- 
ner that the railroad was the real owner of the 
property. Isaac D. IMcCutcheon, of Helena, 
became Mr. Stone's agent, and on March 30, 
1886, he platted the townsite, it being recorded 
in the office of the clerk and recorder of Gal- 
latin county on that date. In the fall of the 
same year suit was brought in the United 
States district court at Bozeman by the rail- 
road company against Messrs. Stone and Mc- 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



Cutcheon to obtain a decree declaring the de- 
fendants to be trustees for the plaintiff in the 
matter of the Gardiner townsite and asking 
for an accounting by the defendants of receipts 
on account of the same. 

It was a long time before the title was 
cleared, and the litigation was a great draw- 
back to the advancement of the town. A 
Gardiner correspondent writing in I\Iay, 1888, 
said: "Owing to the squabble and jumpings, 
which have taken place over the present Gardi- 
ner townsite, we are uncertain about the title 
of town lots, and almost worse than that, have 
persumably for the same reason failed to have 
a railroad nearer than three miles." 

So the town struggled on during the 
eighties, having a population of one or two 
hundred people and supporting fifteen or 
twenty business houses. The people found that 
it was not necessary to be a railroad town. 
It was at the entrance of the National Park, 
and tourists were forced to pass through the 
place on their way to and from the park. From 
this source the town drew some revenue. Then, 
during the summer seasons when there was 
work being done in the park, this point became 
the headquarters of the laborers. Neighbor- 
ing mining camps were also outfitting from 
this point. The location was a suitable one for 
a town and the fact that the railroad passed it 
up did not remove the town. 

On Saturday, August 31, 1889, Gardiner 
was as near totally destroyed by fire as any 
town ever was, only eight buildings lieing left 
after the fire had burned itself out. The blaze 
started in the saloon of Crowell & Lewis from 
some unknown cause at thirty miutes after 
noon. ' When the alarm was given the fire had 
gained such headway in the extremely dry lum- 
ber that it soon got beyond control and swept 
everything in its path. A brisk breeze was 
blowing, and within an hour the entire town 
was a smouldering ruin, the only exceptions 
being the buildings of S. M. Fitzgerald, J. C. 
McCartney, D. P. Emmons, Frank Cramer, J. 



Hofer, James Parker, the school house and the 
jail. Owing to the fact that insurance rates 
were very high and risks difficult to place, very 
little insurance was carried, and the loss, very 
nearly $50,000 was total. 

This distruction of the town did not dis- 
hearten the people who had made their homes 
there for the last six years. \\'itli the indomit- 
able pluck characteristic of the west they set 
about rebuilding the town, and during the re- 
building times were quite lively. 

During the early nineties very little oc- 
curred out in the ordinary. In the summer of 
1895 there was quite a boom in the little place. 
Several new business houses were put up, and 
numerous residences were built. Among the 
other improvements was the installation of a 
water works system, put in by John Spiker. 
A correspondent stated that during the sum- 
mer there had been more substantial improve- 
ments than for any previous twelve months 
since the founding of the town. 

The next period of importance in the his- 
tory of the town began with the year 1902, at 
which time we find Gardiner a town of about 
250 people. In May of that year it was defin- 
itely announced that the Park branch would be 
extended to Gardiner, and the next month 
trains were running into the town which for 
so long a time had anxiously awaited the event. 
The railroad company and the townsite owners 
seemed destined to have trouble. When the 
road was completed a dispute arose between 
the two concerns, and as a result no depot or 
yards were built. These differences were set- 
tled in November, and the work was at once 
commenced on one of the most unique and 
handsome depots anywhere in the country. 

The completion of the three miles of rail- 
road caused quite a boom in Gardiner. New 
business houses began operations there, and 
the population increased. This activity con- 
tinued the following year, and during the sum- 
mer buildings were going up all over town. 
The special pride of the people was the new 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



t63 



depot, which was completed in the spring. The 
entrance arch to the park was also completed 
that year, the corner stone being laid by Pres- 
ident Theodore Roosevelt. 

In June, 1903, Gardiner became ambitious, 
and decided to incorporate as a city, but the 
movement failed. 



Electric is a little village on the Park 
branch, 49 miles south of Livingston, situated 
at an elevation of 5,185 feet above the sea 
level. It is the site of the coke ovens of the 
Montana Coke and Coal company, and about 
400 men are employed here by that company. 
There is one general store, which is operated 
by the company. The village takes its name 
from the mountain of the same name, which 
is situated on the line between Park county 
and the National Park, the highest peak in the 
park or the immediate vicinity. 

From the time of the founding of the vil- 
lage up to the year 1904 it was known as Horr, 
The name was bestowed .upon it in honor of 
either Harry Horr, the discoverer of the coal 
mines in the vicinity, or Major Jos. L. Horr, 
who in 1884 opened up, the coal mines. The 
village came into existence in 1888 as a result 
of the commencement of operations there by 
the Park Coal & Coke company. The coke 
burning was not on as extensive a scale as it 
now is, and in December, 1888, a correspon- 
dent boasted of having only about 100 inhab- 
itants in the camp, and among these were 
twenty children. On July ist the Horr post- 
office was opened with Laura A. Pinkston as 
postmistress. The establishment of this of- 
fice proved to be a great convenience to the 
people of the little camp, who before had de- 
pended upon Gardiner for their mail facilities. 
The company built about fifty neat white cot- 
tages for the workmen and also the necessary 
warehouses and stores. 

The town of Horr did not enjoy a con- 



tinuous existence. Owing to troubles of one 
nature or another the works of the coal and 
coke company were closed part of the time, 
and as the town depended entirely upon this 
company, when the mines and ovens closed the 
population of the town dwindled to almost 
nothing. During the nineties the Alontana 
Coal & Coke company became the owners of 
the property. During the year 1900 quite 
rapid advancement was made in the little vil- 
lage owing to the activity of the company. 
Mining and coke burning was carried on on 
a larger scale and as a result more men were 
employed. A fire on February 14, 1904, de- 
stroyed the store and saloon of the Montana 
Coal & Coke company, entailing a loss of 
about $20,000. The change in the name of 
the postofifice and town was made in the sum- 
mer of 1904. There have been a number of 
strikes by the employes of the company at this 
point and at Aldridge, the last one occurring 
during the closing days of 1906. Matters were 
satisfactorily adjusted early in 1907, and the 
works are again in full blast. 



Two miles from Electric is the village of 
Aldridge, where are located the coal mines of 
the Montana Coal and Coke company. Here 
is to be found a village of about 400 people, 
nearly all engaged in mining coal. There are 
two general stores, three saloons, a hotel, meat 
market and a school house. There is daily 
stage and mail to the railroad at Electric. 

The town, which came into existence some 
time after the establishment of Electric, or 
Horr, was named after Mr. Aldridge, one of 
the directors of the Montana Coal & Coke 
company. The village was started in the 
spring of 1896, and in 1898 a townsite was 
platted by the state of Montana, per H. D. 
Moore, register of the state land office, under 
direction of the state board of land commis- 
sioners. As both Electric and Aldridge de- 



164 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



pend for their existence upon the Montana 
Coal & Coke company, their histories are some- 
what similar. Aldridge is the company's coal 
mining town and Electric is its coke burning- 
town. 

COOKE. 

In the southeastern part of Park county, 
just outside of the Yellowstone National Park, 
is the mining town of Cooke ( formerly known * 
as Cooke City), the oldest existing town in the 
county. As the crow flies, the camp is about 
35 miles due east of Gardiner, but as the stage 
between these two points goes, through the 
northern part of the park, the distance is about 
60 miles. The town depends entirely upon the 
mines in the New World mining district and 
the population varies from a few dozen to a 
few hundred according to the activity of min- 
ing and smelting operations. There are two 
smelters here and two steam sawmills. The 
business houses of the town consist of three 
general stores, two hotels, two saloons, two 
hvery stables and a meat market. 

In a former chapter we have told of the 
discovery and early history of mining in this 
vicinity in the seventies, when a smelter was 
erected at this point by a company of Bozeman 
men and a run made in 1877. The place was 
not then known as Cooke City, however. Prior 
to the ratification of the Crow treaty in April, 
1882, the county in which Cooke City was 
located was a part of the Crow reservation, 
and white men had no legal right upon those 
lands. But the knowledge that the precious 
metal was to be found here in abundance 
caused quite a number of prospectors to come 
into the Clark's Fork district, as the w'hole of 
that country was then known. By 1880 there 
were several score upon the ground and that 
year the town came into existence. 

The prospectors who were then gathered 
upon the site of the present town of Cooke 
were jubilant, the surface showing sufficient 
to make the most skeptical go wild with the 



dreams of wealth. All were in high hopes and 
living in expectancy of great things for the 
future. The year 1880 was an important one 
in the history of the camp, for it brought about 
the bonding of the Republic group of claims 
to Jay Cooke, Jr., and associates, with a 
promise of active operations on the claim with 
untold fortunes back of the work. On the 
arrival of the Jay Cooke party the hospitality 
of the little company of prospectors were ex- 
tended. The snow, which had been eight or 
ten feet deep over the Republic group, was 
shoveled away that the veins might be shown. 
There were immense bodies of the argentifer- 
ous ore in sight, and on the dumps were 
several hundreds tons of $100 per ton ore 
corded up at the entrance to the tunnels. 

During the time the eastern party were in 
camp a meeting of the miners was held, at 
which time the name Cooke City was given 
to the camp, in honor of the man who had 
just in\-ested in the Republic claims. The name 
was selected by a unanimous vote. Mr. Cooke 
who was present at the meeting, thanked the 
people for the honor and stated that he was 
gratefully affected by the good will extended 
to him and his party, and that his endeavors 
would be for the future welfare of the camp. 
The party then left with the promise to do all 
in their power to have a railroad built to the 
town. 

Notwithstanding these events of the year 
1880, there was little activity in the Clark's 
Fork district until the opening of the reserva- 
tion on April 11, 1882. Then miners and pros- 
pectors poured into the country from all direc- 
tions and the town of Cooke City began an ac- 
tive growth. Aliout 135 dirt covered log 
shacks were erected that summer, which was 
barely enough to accommodate the people who 
now called this place home. The greater part 
of these left the camp for the winter, but re- 
turned the following summer. In the early 
part of June, 1883, a correspondent to the 
Livingston Enterprise from Cooke City said 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



165 



that there were then only about 75 men in the 
cani]j, but that the buildings would all be oc- 
cupied by their owners in about two weeks and 
would have been sooner but for the deep snow, 
which prevented them getting in. That there 
was a large population in the camp that year 
is evidenced by the fact that 227 votes were 
cast there at the November election. A repre- 
sentative of the Livingston Enterprise visited 
the camp that year and in the issue of October 
17th said of the condition of the camp at that 
time : 

"Cooke City, in appearance at least, is a 
typical mining camp, presenting in itself and 
surroundings all the rugged picturesqueness 
that is associated with the description. It is 
situated in a narrow gulch threaded by a swift 
little mountain stream, along which lies the 
street of the town with barely enough room 
for the two parallels of buildings to occupy 
level ground. Thence sloping up on either 
side are walls of rock stored with mineral 
wealth that has called the camp into existence, 
and in every direction peak rises liehind peak 
in an apparently maze of mountains. The 
houses that comprise the town are, without ex- 
ception, the dirt covered log shacks that indi- 
cate the lack of building material instead of 
poverty in purse and mild architectural ambi- 
tion rather than indifference to comfort. * * 
From being small, the present buildings are 
numerous and stretch out to make a street as 
long as the main street of Livingston, though 
the population of the camp will not number 
abo\e 200, exclusive of prospectors scattered 
throughout the mountains." 

In the fall of 1883 the pcojile of the camp 
began to consider the matter of platting the 
townsite, that title might be obtained to lots. 
Under the provisions of the United States law 
for the platting of a townsite upon govern- 
ment land ten citizens of the town might apply 
to the probate judge of the county in which 
the proposed townsite was located to have the 
land surveved as a townsite and sold. The 



law provides for the sale of lots at ten dollars 
each and limited the number that might be 
purchased by any one party, the surveying and 
sale of lots to be done by the probate judge. 
The necessary action was taken by the citizens 
of Cooke City, and early in November, S. 
Deutsch, representing Probate Judge John P. 
Martin, of Gallatin county, appeared on the 
scene and surveyed the townsite, taking in a 
little over 41 acres. While this was going on 
there was indiscriminate "jumping" of town 
lots, which in several cases nearly resulted in 
serious trouble. The townsite as surveyed, 
by Mr. Deutsch included several sites which 
had been filed on by different parties for mill 
sites, and the contest that arose was not set- 
tled for eight years, and there was no clear 
title to lots until 1891. 

Before the plat was filed the cpiestion of 
changing the name of the town was brought 
up. A meeting was held on November 7th 
for the purpose of selecting the name. Major 
Geo. O. Eaton was in favor of calling it Eidel- 
weiss. a German name for a flower that blos- 
somed in the snow. The majority of the 
miners present, however, were in favor of re- 
taining the old name. They argued that Jay 
Cooke was the pioneer capitalist of the camp, 
and that no more fitting name than this could 
be found for the town; besides the camp was 
known throughout the United States as Cooke 
City, and there was no good reason why con- 
fusion should be courted by changing to 
another name. 

The townsite was recorded as Cooke, 
though for many years the place retained its 
former name of Cooke City, and only in recent 
years has the "city" been dropped. The plat 
was recorded in the office of the clerk and 
recorder of Gallatin county by Probate Judge 
J. P. Martin on February 8, 1884. Since that 
time additions ha\-e been platted to the origi- 
nal town as follows ; Vilas & Henry addition, 
July 27. 1889, by Josiah C. Vilas and Frank 
Henry; Republic addition, September 6, 1889, 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



by Josiah C. Vilas, Frank Henry and Edward 
H. Talcott; Court addition, December 7, 1894. 

The year 1884 was a prosperous one for 
the httle town. Building operations were prose- 
cuted vigorously during the summer, and sev- 
eral new business institutions were started, 
among others a bank, which began business in 
the spring. The log buildings of the past gave 
place to frame structures built of sawed lum- 
ber. The rough and ready days were passing 
away. 

In 1885 the campaign for the building of 
a railroad to Cooke City was begun. The dis- 
trict was known to be rich in mineral ; develop- 
ment work had been quite extensively carried 
on; smelters had extracted the precious metal 
from the ore. But the district was seriously 
handicapped because of lack of railroad facil- 
ities. Not only was the camp a long ways 
from the nearest railroad point, but the country 
was so rough that it was almost impossible to 
get into and out of the place. Meetings were 
held in the .fall of the year to devise means for 
securing the interest of capital in the building 
of a railroad. This was not hard to obtain, 
and a corporation was soon formed, the object 
of which was to build to the camp from Gardi- 
ner. The only feasible route from that point 
was through the northern part of the Yellow- 
stone National Park, and congress was asked 
to grant a right of way. The promoters of the 
road were unsuccessful in this, and all efforts 
to secure this privilege in after years resulted 
in failure. Year after year, up to the early 
nineties, the struggle was renewed. Every 
congress during the late eighties and the early 
nineties had to deal with the question of grant- 
ing a right of way through a small portion of 
the park for the Cooke City railroad, but that 
body absolutely refused to grant such a con- 
cession. The struggle was truly pitiable, Here 
were a band of men, confident of the richness 
of the country, struggling on year after year 
to develop the mines, but working against 



such odds as few mining camps have had to 
contend with. The money was ready for the 
building of a railroad, which would 
certainly have resulted in the building of a 
prosperous town, but the only means of ingress 
to the town was cut off. 

The effect upon Cooke City was depressing 
during these years of uncertainty. Occasion- 
ally when there seemed a prospect of success 
the camp would take on new life. In the spring 
of 1889 there was such a condition. Some 
mining property changed hands and a number 
of new companies were organized for the de- 
velopment of mines. Town property also rose 
in value, and the prosperous times that were 
then prevailing over the whole country pene- 
trated even to Cooke City. 

The contest for the title to the townsite 
was not definitely settled until in April, 1891,' 
when a cash patent for the townsite was re- 
ceived in the Bozeman land office in the name 
of John P. Martin, who had been probate judge 
when the townsite was surveyed. The title 
was vested in Judge Chas. S. Hartman, as the 
successor of Judge Martin, who then issued 
the deeds and conducted the sale of lots for 
the benefit of the Cooke school district. 

During the nineties and the first few years 
of the present decade there was not much activ- 
ity in Cooke City or the surrounding mining 
district. The camp was never deserted, how- 
ever, and there was continual development of 
the mines, but not on a scale the richness of 
the territory warranted. 

In the spring of 1905 active mining oper- 
ations were resumed, and the little town again 
became lively. The resumption of work on 
many of the properties that had been idle for a 
long time brought quite a force of men to the 
camp and a recent census gave the town a pop- 
ulation of 260. In the summer of 1906 the 
Republic smelter started up again, and the 
camp is again enjoying some of its old time 
prosperity. 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



[67 



JARDINE. 

Another of Park county's mining camps 
is Jardine, situated about five miles northeast 
of Gardiner, with which town it is connected 
by a daily stage and mail line. A recent 
census gave Jardine a population of 286. Two 
gold quartz mills are located here, and the 
business houses of the town consists of a gen- 
eral store, hotel, barber shop and three saloons. 

Jardine is one of Park county's newer 
towns, dating its founding back only to the 
spring of 1899. Its existence was brought 
alx)ut by the operations of the Bear Gulch Min- 
ing company, which was incorporated in Au- 
gust, 1898. The next spring the company be- 
gan mining and reducing their ores at the 
camp on a large scale. Big sums of money 
were spent in improvement and the new 
camp gained a population of 400 or 500 al- 
most at once. The place was named Jardine. 
in honor of A. C. Jardine, the secretary of the 
compan)'. A postoffice was established wit'.i 
J. B. McCarthy as postmaster. This gentle- 
man also had a general store; the other busi- 
ness houses were an hotel and barl;)er shop. 
Other business enterprises follov,-ed later in the 
summer. A correspondent writing from the 
town about the middle of October stated that 
100 buildings were then in existence in the 
town or in course of construction, and that the 
mining company contemplated the erection of 
thirty more cottages. The monthly payroll 
of the company was about $20,000 during this 
season. The Livingston Enterprise of Decem- 
ber 30, 1899, reviewed the history of the town 
during its first year of existence as follows : 

"Through the brilliant management of H. 
Bush and his associates, Jardine has grown in 
one short year from a rude camp of huts to a 
commercial center of considerable importance. 
Stamp mills, stores, hotels, commodious dwell- 
ings, supplied with water works, electric lights 
and ail the advantages of large centers of pop- 
ulation have been erected during the year. No 



point in Montana, it is safe to say, has made 
more rapid strides toward becoming an im- 
portant mining center than has the camp at 
Jardine." 

Naturally the camp was not as lively in the 
succeeding years as it was during the first year 
of its existence, but it has always been a pros- 
perous camp. 



Twenty-three miles south of Livingston, on 
the Park branch of the Northern Pacific rail- 
road and the Yellowstone river, is the tow^n of 
Fridley, or, as it is known on the railroad maps. 
Emigrant station. Here, at an elevation of 
4,887 feet above sea level, is the chief trad- 
ing point of the Paradise valley, a town of 138 
inhabitants. In the town are one general store, 
hotel, lumber yard, saloon, blacksmith shop, a 
school and an Episcopal church. 

Emigrant station was not located on the 
line of the Park branch when that road was 
completed in 1883, as were most of the other 
stations along that line. But in the spring of 
1886 the railroad officials marked on the map 
the name Emigrant station, which was at a 
point two and one-half miles south of the sta- 
tion called Chicory, which had failed to ma- 
terialize into a town, as was expected when the 
station was located. The following year the 
place became generally known as Fridley, be- 
ing named in honor of F. F. Fridley, and a 
little town was Innlt there. It was brought 
into existence because of the development of 
mines in Emigrant gulch and on ^ilill creek. 
Later it came to depend upon the surrounding 
agricultural country. 



Shields is the name of a little village in the 
rich Shields valley, 25 miles north of Livings- 
ton. It is on the stage line between Sedan, in 
Gallatin county, and Livingston, and has daily 



i68 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



mail. It takes its name from tlie river of the 
same name, which was named in lionor of one 
of the members of the Lewis and Clark party. 
The village boasts of a general store, ho- 
tel, saloon, blacksmith shop and livery stable. 

CLYDEP.ARK. 

Another trading point and postoffice on 
the same stage line as Shields, ten miles north 
of Livingston, is Clydepark. Here is a store 
which supplies the wants of the people in the 
neighboring farming and stockraising country. 
A postoffice was established at this point in the 
late eighties with John H. Harvey as postmas- 
ter. In 1890 it was discontinued, but was later 
reestablished. A townsite was platted at this 
point April 21, 1906, by H. S. Amos. 

SPRINGD.^LE. 

Just within the Ijoundaries of Park county, 
on the main line of the Northern Pacific rail- 
road, nineteen miles northeast of Livingston, 
is the postoffice. railroad station and little vil- 
lage of Springdale. It is fifteen miles west cf 
Big Timber and two miles southeast of Hun- 
ter's Hotsprings, and is the railroad station 
for the latter point, which fact is its principal 
reason for being in existence. The station is 
4,233 feet above sea level." It supports one 
general store. 

huxter's hotsprixgs. 

One of the best known jwints in Montana 
is Hunter's Hotsprings. the site of the famous 
sanatorium. The springs and the little village 
that has grown up around them are located on 
the eastern boundary of the county, two miles 
northwest of Springdale station. The site 
is on a little plain surrounded by high moun- 
tains. The springs are of hot water containing 
rare medicinal qualities, and here come every 
year hundreds of patients from all parts of the 



country to bathe in the healing waters. A fine 
sanatorium, bath houses, hotel and other build- 
ings are built here for the accommodation of 
the visitors. 

In an earlier chapter we have told of the 
discovery of these springs by Dr. A. J. Hun- 
ter in 1864 and his subsequent settle- 
ment at that point in the year 1870, 
so we shall not deal here with this early his- 
tory of the place. Suffice it to say that Dr. 
Hunter believed he had found his fortune in 
these hot springs of water. In 1839 
he had seen the Arkansas hot springs 
wth nothing but a shanty as the pio- 
neer of what a few years laters became 
the resort of thousands of the afflicted, and he 
believed that these springs would attain like 
fame. So, in February, 1870, he and his fam- 
ily moved to the springs from Bozeman and 
there erected a house and began the cultivatio'i 
of the soil on a limited scale. 

Until the near approach of the Northern 
Pacific railroad in 1882 Dr. Hunter did little 
except "hold down" the property. In the sum- 
mer seasons his house was something of a re- 
sort for the afflicted, but the Sioux Indians 
were hostile the greater part of the time, and 
the doctor's family had frequently to leave the 
country, which fact prevented the resort from 
becoming popular. In the fall of 1882 Dr. 
Hunter laid the foundation for a new hotel, 
and in the following year completed the 
building as well as the bath houses and 
other buildings. With the advent of 
the railroad the springs became well known 
and patronized, and their popularity has in- 
creased every year since that date. 

Late in the year 1885 the original locator 
of the springs sold to the Montana Hot Springs 
company, which had organized with a capital 
stock of $150,000 and the following trustees: 
Cyrus B. Mendenhall, Heber Robarts and A. 
L. Love. This company made big improve- 
ments in the property in 1886 and laid the 
foundation for the future popularity of the 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



169 



place. Among other improvements of that 
year was the platting of the townsite of Men- 
denhall on July 5, by the gentleman whose 
name the townsite bore. No town of any im- 
portance from a commercial standpoint was 
ever built at Mendenhall, and the postofifice 
and village has always borne the original name 
of Hunter's Hotsprings. Improvements have 
been made in the buildings at the springs since 
these early days, and Hunter's Hotsprings are 
known today throughout the length and 
breadth of the United States. 



The history of Cokedale is the story of a 
town that was, but now is not. The site of 
the town is nine miles west of Livingston, on 
a spur of the Northern Pacific railroad. Here 
until the spring of 1906 was the coal mining 
camp of the Livingston Coke & Coal company, 
a town of 200 or 300 people, the inhabitants 
of which were engaged principally in coal min- 
ing. The town boasted of two general stores, 
five saloons and other minor business enter- 
prises. With the closing of the mine and the 
dismantling of the works, Cokedale went out 
of existence, and only the vacant buildings now 
remain of what was a prosperous mining 
camp. 

Cokedale came into existence in 1886, 
when the Li\ingstoii Ccke & Coal ci^mipany 
was organized and began the manufacture of 
coke with twelve ovens in operation. This 
was the first coke produced in [Montana. The 
business was a profitable one. and by the year 
1895, 130 ovens were in operation, and a quar- 
ter million dollars was invested in the plant. 
In 1887 the company built a spur to Cokedale 
from a point on the Northern Pacific since 
known as Coal Spur, a distance of four miles. 

The first years of the camp's history were 
lively ones. On June 6, 1889, the townsite was 
platted by Peter O. Sandelius. WilHams" ad- 
dition was platted by William H. Williams on 



July 20, 1892. The postoflfice was established 
in 1889 with Adam Wise postmaster. Many 
substantial improvements were made by the 
company, among others the enlargement of 
the plant. Concerning the camp as it was at 
that time the Livingston Enterprise on Decem- 
ber 25, 1889, said: "Cokedale, the business 
center brought into existence by the company's 
works, is a thri\ing village and can boast of 
two general stores, a postotifice, boarding 
house, hotel, two meat markets and numerous 
other business houses of less importance. Dur- 
ing the past summer the company has erected 
between 30 and 40 neat and commodious cot- 
tages for the benefit of employes." The pop- 
ulation of the town in 1890, according to the 
federal census was 284. 

July 31, 1895, a disastrous fire visited the 
camp, destroying the company's engine house, 
boiler and storage room with its contents, and 
a large section of the tramway sheds. The 
loss was $40,000 and was covered by only 
$11,000 insurance. Because of the hard times 
under which the country was laboring and, 
possibly, also because of the fire, the plant was 
closed down after this event, and for the first 
time since the company began operations there 
in 1886 the fires were withdrawn from the 
coke ovens. This threw 300 or 400 men out 
of employment and was the means of practi- 
cally depopulating the town. The pay roll 
at the time of closing down was from $15,000 
to $25,000 per month. 

Cokedale remained a depopulated town 
until the spring of 1903, when active prepara- 
tions were begun for the reopening of the mine 
and the beginning of coke burning. A force 
of men were employed all spring and summer 
putting everything in readiness, and opera- 
tions were about to be resumed that fall. But 
it was not to l)e, the litigations of Augustus 
Heinze affected the company operating at 
Cokedale, and work was suspended. In Feb- 
ruary, 1905, operations at Cokedale were re- 
sumed. The coal mine was opened up and 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



the manufacture of coke was again begun, lOO 
ovens being in use. Cokedale again became a 
prosperous little city. 

Nearly the entire business portion of the 
city was wiped out by fire on the morning of 
Thursday, July 6, 1905, the loss being about 
$20,000, with only about $5,000 insurance. 
The fire started in a residence, and within a 
few minutes after the flames were discovered 
they had spread to the business houses. The 
Livingston fire department was sent for, but 
before it arrived on the scene the town was in 
ruins. The property destroyed was the gen- 
eral merchandise store of Adolph Jacobs, the 
building being the property of the Schlitz 
Brewing company; the saloon of Antone Mle- 
kush, saloon belonging to Geo. Lusine, another 
saloon, the hall of the Cokedale Coal company, 
one dwelling and two stables. The buildings 
were immediately rebuilt. 

Monday, March 12, 1906, the Cokedale 
mine and coke ovens shut down, throwing 
about 150 men out of work. That the shut 
down was permanent was evident from the 
fact that the machinery was taken from the 
mine and all portable property was removed 
from the. camp. This was the death knell of 
Cokedale. The buildings remain to tell the 
story of what the town had been, but it is 
doubtful if the town will ever again be popu- 
lated. 

C1NN.\BAR. 

On the Yellowstone branch of the North- 
ern Pacific, 51 miles south of Livingston and 
three miles northwest of Gardiner, is the rail- 
road station of Cinnabar, until recently the ter- 
minus of the Park branch railroad and for 
many years one of Park county's towns. The 
place takes its name from the mountain which 
overlooks this point, a prominent feature of 
southern Park county. The mountain was so 
named from the color of its rocks, which have 
been mistaken for cinnabar, although the red 



color is due to iron. Cinnabar is 5,196 feet 
above the level of the sea. 

When work was commenced upon the Na- 
tional Park branch in the spring of 1883, it 
was given out that the terminus would be at 
the little town of Gardiner, on the northern 
boundary line of the park. It was the inten- 
tion of the company to do this, and the road- 
bed was graded to that point. Then came the 
difficulties connected with the Gardiner town- 
site and the company abandoned its original 
plan to build to Gardiner. It was stated that 
the road would be built to a point about three 
miles from the original site selected, and, 
moreover, that a town would be built at that 
point. \\'hen the last rail of the Park branch 
was laid on August 30 a townsite had already 
been surveyed and named Cinnabar. TItjs 
plat was never recorded, but lots were placed 
on sale in December. The growth of Cinnabar 
was not spontaneous. Although it had the 
advantage of being the terminal point, the 
little town of Gardiner "just across the street" 
had advanced into quite a thriving little busi- 
ness place, which thought that it would be a 
question of only a short time when the road 
would be extended and the town of Cinnabar 
would go out of existence. So Gardiner con- 
tinued to be the principal town of the upper 
Yellowstone, and Cinnabar made slow pro- 
gress. During the summer of 1884 an effort 
was made to revive the drooping spirits of the 
new town. Concerning this enterprise the Liv- 
igiTston Enterprise on Au,gust 12th said: 

"There are many rumors at Gardiner, Cin- 
nabar and Mammoth Hot Springs about the 
great town that is to be made of one of the 
two first named hamlets — probably Cinnabar. 
Overtures have been made to the people of 
Gardiner to pay certain sums of money to have 
upon their town conferred the advantages 
that are to produce metropolitan fruit. The 
weight of favor rests at present with Cinnabar, 
which, according to reports, is to be resurveyed 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



(probably witb tbe object of obtaining more 
front and corner lots), and it is to be endowed 
with a fine depot, two or three smelters and 
incidental institutions to promote its greatness. 
The townsite rests under attachments to the 
amount of $10,000 to $jo,ooo, but trifles like 
that will probably not stand greatly in the way 
of its prosperity. Just who is to start the boom 
is not stated, but it is supposed to be C. T. 
Hobart. To the good sense of the upper Yel- 
lowstone people is due the fact that they are 
not yet taking any great stock in these reports. 
There will be a good town in that vicinity, but 
not just yet." 

The second survey of Cinnabar townsite 
was made that month by Surveyor S. Deutsch 
under the direction of Major Armstrong. Four 
hundred and seventy acres were included with- 
in the town, and the new survey made an en- 
tire change in the direction of the streets and 
the plan of the future town. No record of 
this plat has been preserved. Notwithstand- 
ing all these efforts to build a city, the town 
did not make much advancement. 

In the summer of 1895 another attempt 
was made to bring the eyes of the world upon 
this place. June 4th the Cinnabar Townsite 
company was incorporated with a capital stock 
of $30,000 with the following incorporators : 
J. D. Finn, H. J. Hoppe and A. J. Campbell. 
The objects of the company were to purchase, 
improve, hold and sell real estate at and near 
the town of Cinnabar, to construct a bridge 
across the Yellowstone at that point, and to 
put in an electric lighting plant there. A new 
townsite was platted and recorded by this com- 
pany June 20th. Some improvements were 
accomplished by these men in the little town, 
among others the building of a new depot. 

The extension of the road to Gardiner in 
the spring of igo2 was the death blow to the 
town of Cinnabar. What business houses 
there were closed up and the postoffice was 
discontinued. Cinnabar now occupies a place 
on the map only because of the fact that it is 



a station of the Northern Pacific railroad 
the Park branch. 



Chico is a postoffice and small hamlet on 
the east side of Yellowstone river, four and 
one-half miles from Fridley and 27 miles south 
of Livingston. It has a daily mail by stage to 
Fridley. Chico came into existence at a very 
early day, superseding the old mining town of 
Yellowstone City. One mile from the Chico 
postoffice is the health resort of Chico Warm 
Springs, which is the property of Wm. E. 
Knowles. The springs have become quite fa- 
mous locally, and the place is frequented dur- 
ing the summer months by many patients. 

Following is the analysis of the solid con- 
tents of the water, as given by Prof. F. W. 
Clark, chief chemist United States General 
Survev : 



Solid Contents Parts in 100.000 

Calcium carbonate 8.65 

Magnesium carbonate 2.6g 

Sodunn carbonate 2 . 74 

Sodium sulphate 4-^7 

Potassium chloride 83 

Sodium 'chloride 58 

Silicia 3.17 

Total 23.53 



Twenty miles up the Yellowstone Park 
branch from Livingston is a station called 
Chicory. Should a passenger alight there he 
would find a water tank and a section house. 
This is all that remains of w'hat was to have 
been a great city. 

Chicory dates its existence from the sum- 
mer of 1883. When the Park branch was 
building up the Yellowstone river that year 
it was announced that there would be two 
towns built on the line — one at Cinnabar and 
one at Chicory. It is a strange coincidence that 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



both these towns are now merely uninhabited 
stations of the railroad, while several other 
places not then on the map have grown into 
prosperous towns. Jas. Kreppner owned a 
quarter section of land where Chicory station 
now stands, and they do say that it was good 
farming land, but the town laiilding craze 
held the west in its grip at that time, and much 
good agricultural soil was given up to the 
building of towns that never materalized. I\Ir. 
Kreppner sold interests in his farm to Drew 
B. Allen, a well known Livingston real estate 
man, and M. G. Grant, a Northern Pacific en- 
gineer. These three gentlemen then proceeded 
to lay out a town and place the same on the 
market. The following copy of an advertise- 
ment which Allen Bros., who were the agents 
for the townsite, inserted in the Livingston 
Enterprise of March 22, 1883, will explain the 
standing of Chicory as viewed by the proprie- 
tors of the townsite : 

Qiicory, Gallatin county, Montana, is situated on 
the Northern Pacific railroad 28 miles from Livingston 
and about the same distance from the National Park. 
At this point the Northern Pacific Railroad Company is 
building a depot, section house, water tank, etc., and 
many other substantial improvements are going on. 
The town is endorsed by the railroad company, who 
own a one-half interest in the same, and will do all in 
their power to further its interests. The lands lying 
north and south are exceedingly fertile, and west cattle 
ranches are numerous; east are the celebrated Mill 
creek. Emigrant gulch and Six Mile mining districts, 
and in the place itself thrift, energy and intelligence are 
to be found among its citizens. The Villard Mining 
company's claims adjoin the town on the east. The 
gold and silver bearing quartz mines in Emigrant gulch 
are very rich, as are the placer mines. Coal mines 
within one mile of the town are being vigorously 
worked, and iron, lime and sandstone abound. Before 
the town was platted lumber was on the ground for a 
number of buildings, and before the town was entirely 
surveyed buildings were in course of constrm:tion. 
The town is young yet, and thereby affords opportuni- 
ties for securing lots at low figures, and we feel con- 
fident that the constant and increasing demand for the 
same will advance prices from 25 to 50 per cent within 
a short time. Full particulars, prices and plats will be 
furnished upon application to Allen Bros. 



But such flattering descriptions of the 
town-to-be did not build a city, and Chicory 
died before it awoke to a realization of its 
birth. The failure to bring about the building 
of a city at this point is only one instance of 
the miscarriage of the plans of those who came 
west to develop the country and at the same 
time make their own fortunes. 



Muir is the name of a postoffice and rail- 
road station on the main line of the Northern 
Pacific at the eastern entrance to Muir or Boze- 
nian tunnel, twelve miles west of Livingston. 

The site of this place is historic ground. 
Here for countless ages before white men came 
to the country the Lidians of the Columbia 
river country were wont to cross the Belt 
range of mountains on their bufifalo hunting 
trips to the plains of eastern Montana. Later, 
in 1806, Captain William Clark came over the 
pass, located here, on his way to the east. 
Then, when the emigration to Montana set 11 
in the sixties, the pilgrims crossed the moun- 
tains at this point, and the pass became known 
as Bozeman pass, named in honor of the man 
who piloted the first wagon train over this 
route. Nearly two decades after this event it 
was the site of a flourishing town known as 
Muir City, one of the first of Park county 
towns. 

On the loth day of November. 1881, E. H. 
Beckler, engineer in charge. of the locating 
party on the railroad survey over Bozeman 
pass, pitched his tent where the town of Muir 
City was afterwards built, and near the present 
site of Muir station. Mr. Becker immediately 
began the erection of a shack for permanent 
quarters and became the builder of the first 
residence in Muir City. Work upon the ap- 
proaches to the tunnel was Ijegun at that time 
and the next spring the the work of digging a 
hole 2.600 feet long through the mountain was 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



1/3 



put under way. There was quite a large force 
of men at work upon the tunnel for the next 
two years, and it was but natural that a town 
would spring up at this point. The town was 
builded a little distance from the tunnel's 
mouth and on the east side of Billman creek. 
It was named Muir City in honor of James 
Muir, the contractor w'ho pierced the mountain 
for the tunnel. The town was supported by 
the immense work which ga\'e it existence, and 
until the tunnel was completed early in the year 
1884 the little tunnel city was indeed a flour- 
ishing one. There was nothing to support a 
town at this point except the work, and when 
the workmen went away the town was aban- 
doned, and buildings were left vacant. A lire 
on January 24, 1884, destroyed a number of 
these, and some were removed to other locali- 
ties. Muir is one of the highest points on the 
Northern Pacific railroad, being 5,516 feet 
above sea level. 

OTHER PL.\CES. 

Besides the places named are a number of 
country postoffices in different parts of the 
county. Rockcreek is a postofifice twenty-four 
miles north of Livingston, which is supplieil 
with a daily mail. There is also a M. E. 
church at that point. Meyersburg is thirty- 
four miles northwest of Livingston and is on 
the stage line between Sedan and Livingston. 
On the extreme northern edge of Park county, 
forty-five miles northof Livingston, is the post- 
office of Lat, with a tri-weekly mail from Mey- 
ersburg. Ten miles east of the county seat is 
the country postoffice of Bruffeys. In the 
Boulder mining district, just west of the line 
that separates Sweet Grass and Park counties, 
is the postoffice and little mining hamlet of 
Contact. This point is thirty miles southeast 
of Livingston and the same distance southwest 
of Big Timber, from which point it is supplied 
tri-weekly with mail. Pinecreek is a postof- 
fice on the east side of the Yellowstone river. 



thirteen miles south of Livingston, from which 
point it is supplied with mail three times a 
week. A Methodist church is located at Pine- 
creek. Chimneyrock is a postoffice and coal 
mining camp eighteen miles southwest of Liv- 
ingston. It has a daily mail and stage. Fifty 
miles southwest of Livingston and Jive miles 
from the railroad is the postoffice of Miner, 
with a tri-weekly mail. 

There are also a number of railroad sta- 
tions which have not been mentioned. Brisben 
is on the Park branch ten miles south of 
Livingston and has an elevation of 4,716 feet 
above sea level. It was established in July, 
1883. A telegraph office was put in at that 
time with G. T. Noblitt in charge. Trail 
Creek, 4,747 feet above sea level, is a station 
on the Park branch fourteen miles south of 
Livingston. ' Daileys is another station on the 
Park branch, thirty miles southwest of Liv- 
ingston and 4,941 feet above sea level. It 
was established in July, 1883. Another sta- 
tion on the Park branch is Sphinx (elevation 
5,103 feet), forty miles above Livingston. 
Muhlerin station was located at a point forty- 
five miles above Livingston on the Park branch 
in the fall of 1886. Five miles west of Li\- 
ingston is Coal Spur station, from which point 
is built the spur to Cokedale. Nine miles west 
of Livingston on the main line of the North- 
ern Pacific is Hoppers station. Mission is ii 
station on the main line seven miles east of 
Livingston. There was formerly a postoffice 
at this point. Elton is thirteen miles east of 
Livingston and six miles west of Springdale. 

There are other points in the county which 
at one time or another arose to the dignity of 
bearing a name because of being the site of 
postoffices or for other reasons. Maxwell was 
once the name of a Park county postoffice six- 
ty-five miles from the county seat. Hoffman 
postoffice was established in April, 1900, on 
Trail creek, twenty miles southwest of Living- 
ston and fifteen miles southeast of Bozeman. 
The postoffice has been discontinued. Hicks 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



is the name of a discontinued postoffice that 
was located thirty miles southeast of Living- 
ton. Crevasse was a community of miners at 
a point twelve miles east of Gardiner. It was 
settled in 1880. Cowles is a recently discon- 
tinued postoffice fifty-four miles southeast of 



Livingston. Cleora postoffice was established 
in July, 1 89 1, at the Potter ranch on the 
Shields river divide, with W. E. Potter as 
postmaster. It has been discontinued. Bryan 
was once a postoffice twelve miles north of 
Livingston. 



CHAPTER V 



POLITICAL. 



Until the twenty-third day of February, 
1887, when Governor Preston H. Leslie signed 
the bill creating Park county, that portion of 
Montana now known as Park county, together 
with the greater part of the present Sweet 
Grass county and a portion of what is now 
Carbon county, was a part of Gallatin county. 
So prior to that date the political history of 
Park county was merged with that of the 
mother county. Before the building of the 
Northern Pacific railroad through this portion 
of Montana territory late in the year 1882 
there were only a few permanent residents in 
that part of Gallatin county east of the Belt 
range of mountains, which later became the 
dividing line between Park and Gallatin coun- 
ties, and those engaged principally in pros- 
pecting and mining. Consequently the fu- 
ture Park county had up to that time taken 
no part in the political history making of Mon- 
tana territory. 

With the building of the railroad, however, 
a big change came about. Early in 1883 the 
city of Livingston came into existence and in 
a few short months was a prosperous city. The 
Yellowstone Park branch of the Northern Pa- 
cific was built the same year and other towns 
came into being. People flocked into the upper 
Yellowstone valley and engaged in mining, 



stock raising, farming and other pursuits. 
Thereafter until Park county was erected, the 
people east of the Belt range took a prominent 
part in the political history of Gallatin county. 
In a former chapter we have told of the sev- 
eral attempts to bring about the formation of 
a new county and its final accomplishment in 
1887. Therefore we shall not now review this 
history, but shall proceed at once to the story 
of the ballots from the time Park county be- 
came a separate political division early in the 
year 1887. 

The enabling act provided that the follow- 
ing officers should serve the new county until 
the officers elected at the general election in 
November, 1888, should have qualified: O. 
P. Templeton, sheriff, salary $2,000; F. W. 
Wright, treasurer, salary, $2,000; Elsberry 
Martin, clerk and recorder, salary, $2,000 ; M. 
D. Kelly, probate judge, salary, $1,200; John 
H. Holliday, assessor, salary, $1,800; Benja- 
min F. Myers, Geo. M. Hatch and Geo. H. 
Carver, county commissioners; J. H. Elder, 
county attorney, fees and salary of $400 ; Net- 
tie Ballinger, superintendent of schools, sal- 
ary, $880; S. M. Moore, surveyor; T. K. Lee, 
public administrator ; Dr. H. Robarts, coroner. 
The majority of these were Republicans, but 
we find amonar them at least four members of 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



175 



the opposite political faith, namely, Elsberry 
Martin, Benjamin F. Myers, M. D. Kelly and 
J. H. Elder. 

The board of county commissioners met at 
Livingston May 2, 1887, and Park county be- 
gan life as a separate political division. There 
were se\-eral changes in the personnel of the 
county officials before the election of 1888. 
May 3, 1887, J. H. Elder, the county attorney, 
resigned liecause he was not eligible, being at 
the time receiver for a national bank and there- 
fore a federal office holder. John A. Savage 
was appointed by the county commissioners 
on that date to the office. Mr. Savage also 
resigned on October 13, 1888, when Allan R. 
Joy was named and filled the unexpired term. 
E. B. Martin resigned the ofiice of county clerk 
and recorder January i, 1888, and David P. 
Van Home served out the term. Another 
change was made June 6, 1888, when Sig- 
mund Deutsch was appointed county surveyor. 

At the second day's session of the board of 
county commissioners held on May 3, 1887, 
the following minor officers w-ere appointed : 
John Ellison, road supervisor for Big Tim- 
ber; A. J. Kenney, road supervisor for Shields 
River : Frank Beller, constable for Red Lodge 
precinct : William H. Redfield, justice of the 
peace for Livingston precinct to fill a vacancy 
caused by the resignation of M. D. Kelly to 
accept a position as a county officer; John A. 
Ennis, under sheriff; Samuel Jackson, deputy 
sheriff for Gardiner and Cooke. 

The campaign of 1888 was the first one in 
which the people of the new county took part 
as a county, and there was much speculation 
as to the political complexion of the new di- 
vision. The conventions were held at Livings- 
ton. The first one was held on Saturday, Sep- 
tember 8, when the Democrats gathered to se- 
lect delegates to the territorial convention at 
Butte. J. H. Elder presided over this conven- 
tion and O. M. Hatch was secretary. The 
delegates named were B. F. Myers, J. A. Sav- 
age, John Stuff, H. Bliss, W. D. Cameron, 



Morris Roth, D. P. VanHorne, A. H. Delone 
and Alva Mayne. The delegates, who were 
also to represent Park county in the district 
convention were instructed to support William 
T. Field for joint councilman for the counties 
of Park and Fergus. September 15 the Dem- 
ocrats again met at Livingston and named a 
full county ticket for the coming election. This 
convention was presided over by Benjamin F. 
Myers and O. M. Hatch was secretary. The 
Republicans met at Livingston on September 
12, when delegates to the territorial conven- 
tion were selected and a county ticket named. 
Major Geo. O. Eaton was president of the 
convention and S. L. Wallace was secretary. 
The following delegates to the territorial con- 
vention were chosen : C. H. Stebbins, W. E. 
Thompson, C. A. Burg, A. R. Joy and Geo. 
H. Hatch. Alternates were E. Goughnour, 
A. W. Miles, F. D. Pease, Geo. H. Wright 
and H. O. Hickox. 

For the first election the county commis- 
sioners, at a meeting held on September 4, 
1888, named the election precincts, polling 
places and judges of election. 

This initial election occurred on the sixth 
day of November, 1888, and showed the 
county to be Republican, that party carrying 
the county for delegates to congress and joint 
councilman and electing its representative. On 
the county ticket, however, the Democrats 
were successful in electing four officers — one 
commissioner, clerk and recorder, assessor and 
superintendent of schools. There were 1,744 
votes cast for the head of the ticket — delegate 
to congress. Following is the official vote : 
Delegate to Congress — Thos. H. Carter, 
rep., 1,067: Wm. A. Clark, dem., 677. 

Councilman (joint with Fergus) — Geo. M. 
Hatch, rep., 877; Wm. Field, dem., 838. 

Representative — Geo. H. Carver, rep., 
1,126; Geo. J. Allen, dem., 573. 

Commissioners — W. M. Wright, rep., 
1,040; H. J. Hoppe, rep., 1,012: H. O. 
Hickox, rep., 882; B. F. Myers, dem., 884; 



176 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



M. Roth, dem., 437; W. H. Lee, dem., 818. 

County Attorney — Allen R. Joy, rep., 
1,204. 

Sheriff— O. R. Templeton, rep., 1,252: 
John Lenihan, dem.. 445. 

Treasurer — F. W. Wright, rep., 1,201; J. 
A. Lovely, dem., 517. 

Clerk and Recorder — \V. V. Grannis, rep., 
656; D. P. VanHorne, dem., 1.059. 

Assessor — O. Emmons, rep., 844; T. P. 
McDonald, dem., 872. 

Probate Judge — John Clifford, rep., 995; 
^L D. Kelly, dem., 720. 

Public Administrator— T. S. Carter, rep., 
1,155. 

Coroner— Dr. W. T. Collins, rep., 1,165. 

Superintendent of Schools — Miss Brunette 
Ballinger, rep., 761 ; Mrs. Eva Hunter, dem.. 

955- ^ ^ 

Surveyor— S. Deutsch, rep., 1,805; H. S. 

Potts, dem., 629. 

County sea.t — Livingston, 1,382; Spring- 
dale, 274; Big Timber, 35. 

George M. Hatch, who as shown abo\e 
carried Park county, was successful in the dis- 
trict and was elected, serving as Park county's 
first councilman. H. O. Hickox, who was only 
two votes behind the successful Democratic 
candidate for county commissioner, started a 
contest for the office, alleging fradulent vot- 
ing in the Springfield precinct, but dropped the 
matter before the case came to trial. The only 
change in officers before the next election oc- 
curred September 5, 1889, when W. T. Collins 
resigned the office of coroner and W. H. Red- 
field was appointed by the county commis- 
sioners. 

The next election in Park county took place 
on May 14, 1889, at which time delegates to 
the constitutional convention were elected for 
the purpose of framing a constitution for the 
new state. Park county constituted one elec- 
tion district and was entitled to send three dele- 
gates. Under the law not more than two of 
the delegates ifrom each district should be 



members of the same political party. There- 
fore each of the two parties placed two candi- 
dates in the field. The Republicans nominated 
for this honor Geo. O. Eaton and Allan R. 
Joy ; the Democrats placed two of their strong- 
est men in the field in the persons of B. F 
Myers and W. T. Field. The Republicans 
were successful in electing the odd man. The 
vote was : 

Geo. O. Eaton, rep., "^22; Allan R. Joy, 
rep., 548; B. F. Myers, dem., 487: W." T. 
Field, dem., 545. 

After the constitution had been prepared a 
special election was called for October i, 1889, 
to ratify or reject the same, and to select state 
and county officers providing the constitution 
should be adopted. For the office of governor 
there were 1,950 votes cast, a gain in the 
county of over 200 in less than a year. For 
the constitution Park county registered 584 
votes, while only 30 were cast against it. The 
first state election showed the county to be 
strongly Republican, that party carrying the 
county for congressman and the whole state 
ticket by substantial majorities and electing 
even,' member of the county ticket except 
superintendent of schools and coroner. The 
vote : 

Congressman — Thos. H. Carter, rep., 
1,132; Martin Maginnis, dem.. 802. 

Governor — Thos. C. Power, rep., 1,064; 
Jos. K. Toole, dem., 886. 

State Senator — Jas. E. Thompson, rep., 
1,033; William T. Field, dem., 878. 

Representatives — Chas. H. Eaton, rep., 
1.056; Chas. H. Stebbins, rep., 978; Ozias M. 
Hatch, dem.. 702; Benj. F. Myers, dem., 878. 

Judge Sixth Judicial District — Frank 
Henrv, rep., i,iii; ]\Ioses J. Liddell, dem., 

Clerk District Court — Orlando Emmons 
rep., 935 ; James A. Bailey, dem., 931. 

Commissioners — Hugo J. Hoppe, rep., 
923; Geo. T. Lamport, rep., 1,022; Wm. M. 
Wright, rep., 1,031; Wm. H. Bullard, dem.. 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



177 



851; James Connell, dem., 781; Alva Mayne, 
dem., 806. 

County Attorney — Allan R. Joy, rep., 
1,035; Martin D. Kelly, dem, 857. 

Clerk and Recorder — Sigmund Deutsch, 
rep., 989; David P. Van Home, dem., 905. 

Sheriff — Oliver P. Templeton. rep., 1,275; 
Geo. W. McCauly, dem., 639. 

Treasurer — F. ^\^ Wright, rep., i„20i ; 
\Vm. H. Lee, dem., 692. 

Assessor — John Clifford, rep., 960; Thos. 
P. McDonald, dem., 943. 

Public Administrator — Thos. S. Carter, 
rep., 1.076; Jos. E. Swindlehurst, dem., 813. 

Coroner — \Vm. A. Moore, dem., elected. 

Superintendent of Schools — Mary L. 
Blake, rep., 880; Eva M. Hunter, dem., 1,013. 

Surveyor — Chas. Tappan, rep., 1,066; 
Geo. P. Urner, dem., 781. 

At the general election held November 4, 
1890, the only candidates voted for in Park 
county were for congressman, and as a result 
a light vote was polled. The total was 1.443, 
a falling off of nearly 500 since the election of 
the previous year. The official vote : 

Congressman — Thos. H. Carter, rep., 
829; Wm. W. Dixon, dem., 590; Andrew I. 
Corbly, pro., 19; Wm. T. Field, lab., 8. 

The Democrats made an excellent showing 
at the 1892 election and elected nearly half of 
their candidates on the county ticket. The 
election was close on all offices. The Repub- 
licans carried the county for president by a 
plurality of 144, congressman by 92 and gov- 
ernor by 135, out of a total vote of 2,396 — a 
vote larger by over 400 than any before cast in 
the county. The Republicans elected senator, 
one representative*, two commissioners, clerk 
and recorder, county attorney, public admin- 
istrator, surveyor and coroner. The Demo- 
crats elected one representative, clerk district 
court, assessor, sheriff, treasurer, school super- 
intendent and one commissioner. The official 
vote : 

Presidential Electors — Republican, 1,192; 



Democratic, 1,048; Peoples party, 123; Pro- 
hibition, 33. 

Congressman — C. S. Hartman, rep., 
1,136; W. W. Dixon, dem.. 1,044; C. Ed- 
wards, pp., 122; Benj. Atkins, pro., 36. 

Governor — John E. Rickards, rep., 1,159; 
T. E. Collins, dem., 1,024; Wm. Kennedy, pp., 
136; J. M. Waters, pro., 40. 

Judge Sixth Judicial District — Frank 
Henr}-, rep., 1,708. 

State Senator — Geo. M. Hatch, rep., 
1,191 ; J. M. Fox, dem., 1,142. 

Representatives — \\'. F. ]\Ieyer, rep., 985 ; 
Paul L. A'anCleve, rep.. 1.159; J. R. Hathorn, 
dem., 963; Thos. S. Ash, dem., 1,308. 

Clerk District Court — Alvin P. Vinnedge, 
rep., 1,058; Jas. A. Bailey, dem., 1,328. 

Sheriff — Samuel Jackson, rep., 1,161; 
John M. Conrow, dem., 1,245. 

Clerk and Recorder — Chas. Angus, rep., 
1,419; Wm. T. Field, deiii., 942. 

Treasurer — John Harvey, rep., 1,122; 
Harry Dyer, dem., 1,248. 

Assessor — O. E. Lamphear, rep., 1,054; 
Thos. P. McDonald, dem., 1.334; 

County Attornev — Hugh J. Miller, rep., 

1,585- 

Superintendent of Schools — ]Mathew R. 
Wilson, rep., 1,141; Josie B. Duke, dem., 
1,232. 

Public Administrator — Americus A. Rich, 
rep., 1,193; Jol'"'' Caldwell, dem., 1,172. 

Surveyor — A. G. Alexander, rep., 1,692. 

Coroner — W. L. Shawk, rep., 1,294; A. 
F. Leopold, dem., 1,018. 

Commissioners — Geo. T. Chambers, rep., 
1,457; John E. Gustin, rep., 1,298; H. C. Pro- 
vince, rep., 925; Harvey Bliss, dem., 1,049; 
Maurice Roth, dem., 1.307; Chas. Turley, 
dem., 845. 

Location State Capital — Anaconda, 253 J 
Boulder, 5; Bozeman, 1,348; Butte, 108; Deer 
Lodge, 2 ; Great Falls, 38 ; Helena, 678. 

After this election a contest was promised 
for the office of treasurer. Harry Dyer, dem.. 



178 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



was elected over his Republican rival, John 
Harvey, but at the time of the election he was 
not a citizen of the United States, although 
he had lived here for 19 years. On November 
26th, after the election, he perfected his citi- 
zenship in district court, and, although steps 
were taken to contest the election, he was in- 
ducted into ofifice on March 6, 1893. 

Before the officers elected at the November 
election of 1892 had taken office there had 
been two changes owing to resignations. F. 
W. Wright on December 8, 1892, resigned the 
office of county treasurer to accept the office 
of state treasurer and W. L. P. INIcCaw was 
appointed to serve until Mr. Dyer was sworn 
in. On :\Iarch 6, 1893, Wm. M. Wright re- 
signed as county commissioner and Maurice 
Roth was appointed to fill the unexpired term. 

The election of 1892 had given the Demo- 
crats considerable encouragment, but their 
hopes were sent glimmering when the returns 
from the election of November 6, 1894, came 
in. They showed the election of every Repub- 
lican on the ticket. This change in the senti- 
ment was due largely to the prevailing "hard 
times"' and the fact that a Democrat occupied 
the white house. There was a slight falling 
off in the vpte from that of two years before. 
The Peoples party entered the field this year 
and had almost a complete ticket in the field. 
Its candidates polled from 178 to 547 votes in 
Park county. Fusion was effected between the 
Democrats and Peoples party for the office of 
clerk and recorder, but the combined strength 
was not sufficient to elect their candidate. One 
of the greatest contests was for the permanent 
location of the state capitol, and Park county 
declared its preference for Helena over Ana- 
conda. The vote: 

Congressman — Hal. S. Corbett. dem., 409: 
Chas. S. Hartman, rep., 1,276; Benj. F. Mai- 
den, pro., 21 : Robert B. Smith, pp.. 547. 

Location Capital — Helena, io49'. Ana- 
conda, 767. 

Representatives — L. Becker, pp., 340; \V. 



F. Collins, rep., 986; E. C. Day, dem., 721; 
H. P. De Hart, dem., 593 ; G. F. Hudson, pp., 
274; A. R. Joy, rep., 1,275; Robt. B. Kelley, 
pp., 510; W. F. Meyer, rep., 1,055; J. T. 
Smhh, dem., 759. 

Clerk and Recorder — Chas. Angus, rep , 
1,204; R- F- Dougherty, dem. and pp., 1,055; 

Sherriff— J. M. Conrow, dem., 890; R. C. 
Griffith, pp., 199; Geo. T. Young, rep., 1,222; 

Treasurer— H. W. Dyer, dem., 989; A. B. 
Hicks, pp., 263; S. L. Holliday, rep., i.oio. 

County Attorney — Sidney Fox, dem., 
1,015: AI. D. Kelly, pp., 178; W. H. Poor- 
man, rep., 1,092. 

Assessor — Z. H. Daniels, rep., 917; J. H. 
Martin, dem., 835; A. A. Richards, pp., 525. 

Superintendent of Schools — Josie B. 
Duke, dem., 942; A. McAnnelly, rep., 1,322. 

Public Administrator — J. J. Berkey, rep., 

io97- 

Coroner — A. F. Leopold, dem., 659; W. 
L. Shawk, rep., 1,443. 

Sur\-eyor — A. G. Alexander, rep., 1,648. 

The memorable campaign of 1896, when 
the free silver sentiment was sweeping the state 
of Montana, found Park county in the throes 
of an exciting contest. Since the last election 
Park county had lost a large part of its terri- 
tory in the formation of Sweet Grass and Car- 
bon counties and the vote was consequently 
greatly reduced, 1.591 being the total vote 
cast. William Jennings Bryan carried the 
county over \\'illiam ]^IcKinley for president 
by the handsome vote of 1,252 to 328. The 
fusion candidates for congressman and gov- 
ernor carried the county by slightly smaller 
majorities. The fusion state ticket, aside from 
governor, was generally successful in the 
county, although the vote was very close. A 
fusion was affected between the Democrats 
and Peoples parties on county officers and that 
combination elected senator, two representa- 
tives, two county commissioners, clerk district 
court, treasurer and superintendent of schools. 
The republicans elected one commissioner. 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



[79 



county attorney, clerk and recorder, sheriff, 
assessor, public administrator and coroner. 
The vote on the county ticket was close for 
nearly all the offices and the campaign was an 
exciting and spectacular one. The official vote : 

Presidential electors — Republican, 328; 
Democratic, 1,252; Prohibition, 11. 

Congressman — O. F. Goddard, rep., 265 ; 
Chas. S. Hartman, dem., 1,126. 

Governor — Alexander C. Botkin, rep., 5 12; 
Robert B. Smith, fus., 1.029. 

Judge Si.xth Judicial District — Frank 
Henry, rep., 1,108. 

Senator — John R. King, rep., 661 ; W. H. 
Campbell, fus., 868. 

Representatives — Walter F. Jellison, rep., 
719; John C. West, rep., 572; Geo. A. Bruft'ey, 
fus., 836; Albert J. Campbell, fus., 728. 

Clerk District Court — James A. Bailey, 
fus., 844; Geo. A. ]\Iueller, rep., 685. 

Commissioners — Robt. Kelly, fus., 807; 
Napoleon Ebert, fus., 826; William A. Hall, 
fus., 725; Louis Van Dyke, rep., 754; John E. 
Gustine, rep., 717; John F. Locke, rep., 658. 

County Attorney — John T. Smith, I'us., 
740; W. H. Poorman, rep., 836. 

Clerk and Recorder — James N. Sample, 
fus., 747; Thos. H. Smith, rep.. 768. 

Sheriff — Norval J. Malin, fus., 661 ; Geo. 
T. Young, rep., 943. 

Treasurer — Alexander Livingston, fus., 
1,023; Samuel L. Holliday, rep., 544. 

Assessor — Wilbur J. Williams, fus., 701 ; 
Zadok H. Daniels, rep., 850. 

Public Administrator — Edward M. Sybert, 
fus., 715; James J. Berky, rep., 716. 

Coroner — A. F. Leoix)ld, fus., 708; W. L. 
Shawk, rep., /^2. 

Superintendent of Schools — Annie ^Ic- 
Dermott, fus., 792; Annie ]\IcAhelIy, rep.. 788. 

Surveyor — S. H. Crookes, rep., 837. 

Dr. W. H. Campbell was appointed coroner 
on July 6, 1898. to fill the unexpired term. 

Fourteen hunflred and twenty-two votes 
were cast at the general election November 8, 



1898. If anything, this election w'as more inter- 
esting than the one of two years before. Four 
county tickets were in the field — Republican, 
Democratic, Peoples party and Silver Republi- 
can. For some of the offices each of these four 
parties had candidates in the field, while for 
others the same candidate would be represented 
on two or more tickets. The Silver Republi- 
can and Peoples party candidate for congress 
carried the county, while the Democratic can- 
didates for the other two offices on the state 
ticket went out of the county with pluralities. 
The Democratic and Silver Republican candi- 
dates for representatives were elected. On the 
countv ticket the Republicans elected clerk and 
recorder, assessor and surveyor; the Demo- 
crats treasurer and public administrator; the 
Silver Republicans county attorney, sheriff, 
coroner and superintendent of schools. The 
official vote : 

Congressman — A. J. Campbell, dem.. 444; 
T. S. Hogan, sil. rep. and pp.. 596 ; T. C. 
Marshall, rep., 382. 

Representatives — J. M. Conrow, dem. and 
sil. rep., 812; T. j\[. Swindlehurst, sil. rep. and 
dem., 770; G. S. Robinson, rep., 446; C. W. 
Savage, rep., 293; J. J. JMartin, Jr., pp., 184; 
C. H. Pennicott, pp., 116. 

County Attorney — J. A. Savage, dem., 
375; H. J. ^liller, sil'. rep., 648: M. R. Wilson, 
rep., 371. 

Clerk and Recorder — Da\id Boerum, dem., 
386; T. H. Smith, sil. rep., 425: Chas. Angus, 
rep., 468: Ralph Downing, pp., jt,. 

Sheriff — F. Beller, dem., 539; Geo. T. 
Young, sil. rep., 607: Wm. Gallagher, rep., 
286; James Baker, pp., 35. 

Treasurer — Ale.x. Livingston, dem., 
1,089: Geo. T. Chambers, rep., 248. 

Assessor — IM. M. Coleman, dem.. 395 ; W. 
H. North, sil. rep., 36S: Z. H. Daniels, rep., 
4S3 ; R. D. Kennedy, pp., 169. 

Public Administrator — Ed. Cameron, 
dem., 440: Herman Kahle, sil. rep.. 389: C. R. 
Glidden, rep., 312: Wm. Jones, pp., 109. 



i8o 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



Coroner — Joseph Stanley, dem., ^2b: S. 
E. Leard, sil. rep., 518; G. R. Wells, rep., 
422. 

Superintendent of Schools — Anna ]Mc- 
Dermott, dem., 564; Alma E. Evans, sil. rep., 
809. 

Surveyor — Geo. E. Reed, dem., 473: J. F. 
Sohl, sil. rep., 358; S. H. Crookes, rep., 511. 

During the terms of olifice of the officials 
elected at the 1898 election there were several 
changes. Sheriff Young was murdered No- 
vember 9, 1900, and Under Sheriff Frank 
Beller was appointed to till the unexpired term. 
L. H. VanDyck resigned the office of county 
commissioner March 29, 1901, and Albert 
Trager, who had been elected in 1900 was ap- 
pointed to serve until his term of office should 
begin. Commissioner R. B. Kelly resigned 
July 15, 1901, and M. H. Lashorn was named 
by the judge of the district court to fill the 
term. 

While the elections of 1896 and 1898 had 
been extremely nerve racking, beyond a doubt 
the most exciting election ever held in Park 
county was that of Novemter 6. 1900. So 
close was the vote on national issues that 
there were only a few votes between the ]Mc- 
Kinley and Bryan electors. In fact, if the 
election of president had been left to Park 
county, two presidential electors would have 
cast their votes for McKinley and one for 
Bryan. The Republican candidate for con- 
gressman carried the county by a small plu- 
ralitv, the Democratic candidate for governor 
by a fair plurality, while the Republicans car- 
ried the county for the rest of the state ticket 
by a narrow margin. There were six tickets 
in the field for county offices — Democratic, Re- 
publican, Independent Democratic, Peoples 
party. Labor party and Silver Republicans. 
The tickets put forth by these several parties. 
in many instances, contained the names of sev- 
eral candidates on other tickets. In one in- 
stance — H. T- Miller for county attorney — the 
candidate was 'endorsed by no less than five 



parties. This fusion was prevalent in all the 
parties except the Republican. There were 
1,886 votes cast for president at this election. 
The Republicans elected their candidates for 
treasurer, assessor, clerk and recorder, clerk dis- 
trict court, two commissioners, coroner and 
surveyor. The fusion parties elected two repre- 
sentatives, sheriff, superintendent of schools, 
one commissioner, public administrator and 
C(junty attorney. The reason for the 
mixup in political parties at this elec- 
tion was due to splits in both the old 
parties. The straight Republican ticket 
was supported by those who were in sym- 
pathy with the national administration as re- 
garded the money question ; the Silver Republi- 
can ticket was put in the field by those who te- 
lieved in the free coinage of silver ; the regular 
Democratic ticket was supported by the W. A. 
Clark wing of the Democratic party; that la- 
beled Independent Democratic was put up by 
the Daly faction of the Democratic party; the 
Peoples party still refused burial ; and the La- 
bor party represented the many wage earners 
of Park county. The battle of the ballots re- 
sulted as follo\\ s : 

Presidential Electors — Lester S. Wilson, 
rep., 903; Harry C. Kessler, rep., 892; Paul 
McCormick, rep., 898; William W. Morris, 
dem., 900: Daniel G. 0"Shea, dem., 871; 
Oliver Leiser, dem.. 882; Walter N. Holden. 
soc. dem.. 59: John Frank Mahie, soc. dem., 
61; Jas. G. Hoar, soc. dem., 58; Thomas P. 
Street, pro., 20: Wilder Nutting, pro., 22; J. 
N. Bennett, pro. 22. 

Congressman — Samuel G. Murray, rep., 
822: Caldwell Edwards, dem., 750; Cornelius 
F. Kelley, ind. dem., 129; Martin J. Elliott, 
soc. dem.. 56. 

Governor^^avid E. Folsom, rep., 786; 
Joseph K, Toole, dem., 907: Thos. S. Hogan, 
ind. dem., 137; Julius F. Fox, soc. dem.. 40. 
Judge Sixth District — \\'. H. Poorman. 
rep., 1.022; Frank Henry, dem., ind. dem., pp.. 
lab., 800. 



HISTORY OF PARK COUXTV. 



i8j 



State Senator — William E. Thompson, 
rep., 760; John ^I. Conrow, dem., sil. rep., 
pp., lab., 990; Robt. B. Kelley, ind. dem.. 105. 

Representatives — A. P. Stark, rep., 714; 
Geo. H. Phelps, rep., 691 ; Mentor Wetzstein, 
sil. rep., ind. dem., pp., 407; Robt. Orr, sil. 
rep., ind. dem., 180: Benj. F. .Myers, intl. dem., 
lab., dem., 7^,2 \ Thos. M. Swindlehurst, ind. 
dem.. lab., dem., 790: J. E. Ferte. pp. 28. 

Treasurer — Geo. T. Chambers, rep., 638; 
Geo. T. Young, sil. rep., ind. dem.. 543; Maur- 
ice Roth, dem., lab., 464: John E. Gustine. pp., 
ind., 221. 

Sheriff — A. S. Robertson, rep., 892; 
Frank Beley dem., ind. dem., pp., lab., 983. 

Assessor — Zadok H. Daniels, rep., 939; 
James H. Proffitt, dem, ind. dem., pp., lab., 
882. 

Clerk and Recorder — Chas. Angus, rep., 
914: James C. Robinson, dem., ind. dem., pp , 
lab., 896. 

Clerk District Court — Arthur C. Davis. Jr., 
rep., 987; James A. Bailey, dem., ind. dem., 
lab.. 849: C. J. Grass, pp., 12. 

Attorney — Mathew R. \\'ilson, rep., 983: 
Hug-h J. Miller, dem., sil. rep., ind. dem., pp , 
lab., 968. 

Superintendent of Schools — L. D. Glenn, 
rep.. yzT^: Mrs. Nora CoI\-in, dem., ind. dem.. 
lab., I.I 1 1. 

Commissioners — F. A. Krieger, rep., 804; 
Al. Trager, rep., 818: Frank Gibson, rep., 776; 
John F. Locke, sil. rep., ind. dem., 424: J. C. 
McCartney, sil. rep., ind. dem.. 150: E. C. 
Culley, sil. rep., 157: Xapoleon Ebert. dem., 
lab., 799: Samuel O. X. C. Brady, dem., lab.. 
619; Thos. Kane, dem., lab., 488; William 
Jones, ind.. dem.. pp., 256: John Gilchrist, pp.. 
26. 

Coroner — Dr. S. E. Leard, rep.. 1,044; 
Albert V. Leopold, dem.. ind. dem., lab., 646. 

Surveyor — S. H. Cniokes. rep. .1,122. 

Public Administrator — W. H. Yeaton, 
rep.. 781 ; Emanuel Cameron, dem., sil. rep., 
ind. dem., pp., 830. 



Although Frank Henry did not carry Park 
county for judge, the other counties of the dis- 
trict gave him majorities and he was elected. 

Compared with the three previous ones the 
election of 1902 was a quiet one, and the vote 
dwindled down to 1,579. Where two years 
before there had been six county tickets in 
the field, this year there were only the two old 
parties and a part of a ticket by the Socialists. 
Although not a very hard fought campaign, 
the vote of the two parties was close. For the 
head of the ticket — congressman — the Repub- 
licans carried the county by a big majority. 
Of the district and county candidates the Re- 
publicans elected one representative, sheriff, 
clerk and recorder, county attorney, surveyor, 
coroner and public administrator, while the 
Democrats elected one representative, treas- 
urer, assessor and superintendent of scliools. 
The Socialists polled from 137 to 227 votes. 
The official vote: 

Congressman — Joseph AL Dixon, rep., 
859; John M. Evans, dem.. 523; Geo. B. 
Sproule. soc, 183; Martin Dee, lab., 14. 

Representatives — Chas. S. Hefferlin, rep., 
685; IVL W. Pettigrew, rep., 552; Thos. M. 
Swindlehurst, dem., 666; Benj. Meyers, dem., 
624; John F. Mabie, soc, 195; William Dick, 
soc, 180. 

Treasurer— Geo. T. Chambers, rep., 685; 
Henry .McCue, dem., 818; James D. Graham, 
soc, 184. 

Sheriff— A. S. Robertson, rep., 825 ; Frank 
Beley, dem., 702; Theo. Madden, soc, 227. 

Assessor — Z. H. Daniels, rep., 746 ; Jas. H., 
Proffitt. dem., 775; Herst Beever. soc, 184. 

Clerk and Recorder — Chas. Angus, rep., 
898: William Mitchell, dem., 637; AL L. 
Baker, soc, 137. 

County Attorney — A. P. Stark, rep., 

L055. 

Superintendent of Schools — L. D. Glenn, 
rep., 740; Mrs. Nora Colvin, dem., 927. 

Coroner — S. E. Leard, rep., 1,059. 



l82 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



Surveyor — S. H. Crookes, rep., 1,093. 

Public Administrator — C. O. Krohne, 
rep., 822; Emanuel D. Cameron, dem., 615. 

The election of November 8, 1904, was a 
Republican landslide, as was the case through- 
out the whole country. The number of votes 
cast was 2,366, and of these President Roose- 
velt received a plurality of 825. The Repub- 
licans carried the county for congressman by 
nearly as large a vote, for governor by a small 
plurality and for the rest of the state ticket 
by a large plurality. That party elected all 
the candidates on the legislative and county 
ticket with the exception of treasurer, assessor 
and superintendent of schools. The Socialists 
polled an average vote of nearly 250. The 
vote as officially canvassed : 

Presidential Electors — Paul McCormick, 
rep., 1,408; Arthur W. Merrifield, rep., 1,347; 
Thomas Duncan, rep., 1,343; Paul A. Fusz, 
dem., 583; Patrick Carney, dem., 567; Ed- 
ward Cardwell, dem., ^yz; Walter N. Holden, 
soc, 365; John F. Mabie, soc, 354; Jas. G. 
Hoar, soc, 344; Prohibition electors, 9; 
Scattering, i. 

Congressman — Jos. M. Dixon, rep., 1,371; 
Austin C. Gormley, dem., 692 ; John H. 
Walsh, soc, 310. 

Governor — William Lindsay, rep., 1,154; 
Jos. K. Toole, dem., 1,020: Malcom Geo. 
O'Malley, soc, 281. 

Judge Sixth Judicial District — Frank 
Henry, rep., 1,654. 

Senator — Arthur W. Miles, rep., 1,276; 
W. B. Dolenty, dem., 900; Jas. H. Lyons, soc, 

255- 

Representatives — L. H. Van Dyck, rep., 
1,255; W. H. Williams, rep., 1,085; Benj. F. 
Myers, dem., 815; William A. Hall, dem., 
622 ; William Dick, soc, 265 ; Daniel F. 
Keeler, soc^ 210. 

Sheriff — Almon'S. Robertson, rep., 1,322; 
Frank M. Cain, dem., 904; William H. Smith, 
soc, 245. 

Treasurer — Chas. N. Sargent, rep., 849; 



Harry McCue, dem., 1,294; William D. New- 
ton, soc, 233. 

Clerk and Recorder — Chas. Angus, rep., 
1,421 ; O. H. Sandager, dem., 706; Ole S. An- 
derson, soc, 245. 

Clerk District Court — Arthur Davis, rep., 
1,332; Jas. E. Mallery, dem., 807; John 
Beard, soc, 239. 

Assessor — John Harvey, rep., 1,028; Jas. 
H. Proffitt, dem., 1,150; Marshall L. Baker, 
soc. 247. 

County Attorney — A. P. Stark, rep., 
1,474; \Vm. D. Cameron, soc, 372. 

Superintendent of Schools — Miss Mary J. 
Davies, rep., 1,165; ^^^s. Nora Colvin, dem., 
1,164. 

Coroner — Dan Short, rep., 1,180; H. J. 
Mallory, dem., 835; John Fodness, soc, 295. 

Public Administrator — C. O. Krohne, rep., 
1,225; Frank Acklemire, dem., 745; Joseph 
Herman, soc, 217. 

Surveyor — S. H. Crookes, rep., 1,196; H. 
P. Rygaard, dem., 942. 

I\Irs. Nora Colvin, who, according to the 
official count, had been defeated for superin- 
tendent of schools by one vote, on November 
26th commenced an action in district court de- 
manding a recount. The contest was heard 
before Judge Henry December 20th, when a 
recount was made and Mrs. Colvin declared 
the winner by five votes. Upon an order of 
the court Mrs. Colvin was given the office. A 
change was made in the personnel of the board 
of county commissioners November 11, 1905, 
when Judge Henry appointed M. H. Lashorn 
to fill the unexpired term of F. A. Krieger, 
who had absented himself from the state for 
several months. 

The last election held in Park county prior 
to the publication of this work was the general 
election of November 6, 1906. For 'congress- 
man there were cast 2,192 votes. 

The Republicans. Democrats and Social- 
ists had full tickets in the field. The Repub- 
licans carried the county for the head of the 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY, 



183 



ticket by 154. The Socialist vote was about 
tlie same as two years before. The RepvibH- 
cans elected one representative, three commis- 
sioners, treasurer, clerk and recorder, county 
attorney, coroner, public administrator and 
surveyor, while the Democrats elected one 
representative, sheriff, assessor and school su- 
perintendent. The official vote : 

Congressman — Charles N. Pray, rep., 
1,051 : T. J. Walsh, dem., 897; John Hudson, 
soc, 247; J. H. Calderhead, pro., i. 

Representatives — H. J- Miller, rep., 1,053; 
L. H. A'anDyke, rep., 904; Thos. M. Swindle- 
hurst, dem., 955 ; John M. Darroch, dem., 
685 : J. F. Mabie, soc, 235 ; J. F. Rooney, soc. 

255- 

Commissioner (six year term) — M. H. 
Lashorn, rep., 1,059; Joh" ^I- Conrow, dem., 
1,009; John Uhl, soc, 224. 

Commissioner (four year term) — E. G. 
Blair, rep., 1,057; Emanuel Cameron, dem., 
837; Chas. Elliott, soc, 215. 

Commissioner (two year term) — Lawrence 
Link, rep., 1,228: Martin Wilson, dem., 674; 



Clarence Bishop, soc, 236. 

Sheriff — A. S. Robertson, rep., 1.043; 
Harry McCue, dem., 1,156; O. S. Anderson, 
soc, 197. 

Treasurer — Joseph Brooks, rep., 1,308; M. 
J. Walsh, dem., 783; A. D. Peugh, soc, 211. 

Clerk and Recorder — Ray H. Stevens rep., 
1,329; Walter Shaw, dem., 750; R. B. Nesbit, 
soc, 224. 

Assessor — Daniel Short, rep., 828; Jas. H. 
Proffitt, dem., 1,266; M. L. Baker, soc, 225. 

County Attorney — O. ]\L Harvey, rep., 
1,134; J. F. O'Conner. dem., 1,051 ; 

Superintendent of Schools — Mary J. Da- 
vies, rep., 868; Jennie B. Smith, dem., 1,308; 
Mrs. Bessie ^^■illey, soc, 168. 

Coroner — S. E. Leard. rep., 1,083; Jerry 
Melloy, dem., 833; Emil Feyder, soc, 298. 

Public Administrator — C. O. Keohne, rep., 
996; Harry ^^^ Dyer, dem., 918; J. S. Jeays, 
soc, 259. 

Surveyor — Charles T. Sacket, rep., 1,234; 
F. W. Appleton. dem.. 780. 



CHAPTER VI 



DESCRIPTIVE. 



Park county lies in the southern part of the 
state of Montana, a little to the west of mid- 
way between the eastern and western bound- 
aries of the state. To the north is Meaghei 
county ; its eastern boundaries are Sweet Grass 
county and a small portion of Carbon county; 
on the south is the Yellowstone National Park 
and the state of Wyoming; on the west is the 
mother county of Gallatin. The area of the 
county is 2.788 square miles, and it ranks 
among the smaller counties in area, there being 
only nine smaller in the state. 



About three-fifths of the area of the county 
is suitable for agriculture and grazing; the rest 
is mountainous and devoted to mining and 
lumbering. Geologists tell us that most of the 
mountainous area of Park county belongs to 
the eozoic and silurian formations, such .-js 
slate, granite, gneiss and prophyry, with the 
se\'eral varieties of schistone rocks, talcose 
schist and mica schist. Along the base of the 
mountains is a Triassic belt of variable widths, 
and succeeding this is a broad area of nearly- 
horizontal creaceous beds, followed by the Ter- 



1 84 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



tiary formation, which covers nearly one-third 
of the county. Tlie formation is the same as 
that of California, the greater part of Col- 
orado and the Australian gold fields. The gen- 
eral strike of the country is NNE and SSW, 
with a break crossing at nearly right angles, 
and nearly all the mineral so far discovered is 
located in this. Concerning the action of the 
glaciers in the National Park and in Park 
county, Chittenden, in his "History of the 
Yellowstone Park," says : 

"Next in order of the great events in the 
geological evolution of the park is the glacial 
epoch. Its work is everywhere visible and 
certainly overspread the entire region. Un- 
questionably the park was covered with one 
vast sheet of ice, which even the warm ground 
where the hot springs are could not resist. 
Perhaps the most extensive and important of 
all the glaciers was the one which debouched 
from the third canyon of the Yellowstone and 
the lower Gardiner, into the ^■alley below. It 
came from two sources — one in the Absaroka 
range at the headwaters of the Lamar river, 
and the other from the Gallatin range, whence 
ft moved eastward and curved around to the 
left over Terrace mountain, joining the main 
ice stream in the Gardiner valley. The debris 
borne along by these combined glaciers are 
strewn everywhere throughout the north of 
the park, and are particularly prominent in the 
valley of the Yellowstone from the park bound- 
ary north, halfway to Livingston." 

In our description of the topographical 
features of Park county we shall first take up 
the mountains. As stated before, about two- 
thirds of the county's surface is mountainous. 
Along the western side of the county is the 
Belt range of mountains, the crest of which 
is the dividing line between Park and Gallatin 
counties, and the eastern base of which is the 
western boundary of the Yellowstone valley. 
These mountains present an interesting study 
in the various gigantic forms caused by vio- 
lent upheavals in ages past. To the north of 



this range are the Bridger mountains, whic;i 
lie almost wholly in Gallatin county, but which 
extend for some little distance into Park coun- 
ty. In the northeast corner of the county are 
a mass of rugged, snow covered peaks known 
as the Crazies, a most curious and beautiful 
range of mountains. In the southeastern part 
of the county is the Absaroka range, which 
covers the greater part of the county east of 
the Yellowstone river. This name was bestowed 
on these . mountains about the year 1885, in 
honor of the immemorial home of the Crow In- 
dians, Absaroka, which was in the valley of the 
Big Horn river to east of the mountains. The 
range was first known as the Yellowstone 
mountains, and in 1873 ^^'^^ rechristened by 
Major Jones, Sierra Shoshone. They are also 
sometimes called the Snow or Snowy 
mountains. 

In the Absaroka range within the bound- 
aries of Park county are the following promi- 
nent mountain peaks and their elevations above 
sea level : Haystack Butte, 10,997 > Emigrant 
Peak, 10,960; Needle Mountain, 10,933; Pyr- 
amid Mountain, 10,720; Sheep Mountain, 10,- 
628; Mount Cowan, 10,600; Mineral Peak, 
10,250; Chico Peak, 10,200; Sunset Peak, 
10,200; Mount Delano, 10,086; Doane Moun- 
tain, 8,650; Old Baldy, 8,640; Monitor Peak, 
8,450. One of the best known of these moun- 
tain peaks is Old Baldy, the highest in the im- 
mediate vicinity of Livingston, which rears its 
bald head to the southeast of the county seat 
town. 

While that peak has been known as Old 
Baldy since there were white settlements in 
the county, it was known by all the old trap- 
pers and fur traders as Crow Test Peak. Ac- 
cording to E. S. Topping, who has written en- 
tertainingly of the early history of the Yel- 
lowstone valley, the name had its origin in the 
' fact that in the early days, one test of the 
bravery, strength and endurance of a young 
Crow warrior was his ability to climb the steep 
rugged sides of that mountain and re- 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



main tliere for a time. He declared I 
that he liad known young Crow bucks 
to occupy a position on tlie extreme 
peak of that mountain for twenty-four 
hours, clothed in nothing whatever except the 
circumambient air and a proud sense of vic- 
tory. Thus did ambitious Crows win their 1 
spurs and prove their right to enter upon the 
active duties of tribal life and anticipate in 
horse stealing expeditions against the Sioux, 
and other feats of bravery and prowess. 

To the west of the Yellowstone river and 
forming a part of the Belt range is Cinnabar 
mountain, one of the most prominent physical 
features of southern Park county. It was so 
named from the color of its rocks, which have 
been taken for cinnabar, although the red color 
is due to iron. There is a great red gash down 
the side of the mountain, which is known as 
the Devil's Slide. There is an old legend con- 
cerning this, to the effect that the imps of hell 
had been coasting down this mountain and had 
left a red streak of blood, marking the course 
from summit to base. The poet has told of it 
in rhyme : 

Ages ago, one could easily see, 

Yellowstone valley had been on a spree; 
The mountains had risen, canyons had sunk, 

Old Mother Nature got terribly drunk; 
The devil, as drunk as devils could be, 

Slid to the bottom of Cinnaharee. 

But Electric Peak, also in this vicinity, 
leails all the others in height, grandeur and 
character. It is 11.155 feet high and is on the 
northern boundary line of the National Park. 
It is a mountain of mineral, and the electrical 
displav upon its peak during a thunder storm 
is beautiful and appalling. On July 26, 1872, 
Henrv' Gannett ascended this mountain with 
surveying instruments, when he was overtaken 
by an electric storm. He reported his experi- 
ence as follows : 

A thunder storm was approaching as we neared 
the sunnnit of the mountain. I was above the others 
of the party, and. when about fifty feet below the sum- 



mit, the electric current began to pass through my 
body. At first I felt nothing, but heard a crackling 
noise, similar to a rapid discharge of sparks from a 
triction machine. Immediately after, I began te feel 
a tingling or pricking sensation in my head and the 
end of my fingers, which, as well as the noise, in- 
creased rapidly, until, when I reached the top, the 
noise, which had not changed its character, was deaf- 
ening, and my hair stood completely on end, while 
the tingling, pricking sensation was absolutely pain- 
ful. Taking off niy hat partially relieved me. I 
started down again and met the others 25 or 30 feet 
below the summit. They were affected similarly, but 
in less degree. One of them attempted to go to the 
top, but had proceeded but a few feet when he re- 
ceived quite a severe shock, which felled him as if 
he had stumbled. We then returned down the moun- 
tain about three hundred feet, and to this point we 
still heard and felt the electricity. 

Park county is exceptionally well wateretl, 
and it is fortunate that this is so. Nearly all 
the land in the county needs to be irrigated 
before it can be cultivated, and the numerous 
streams in all parts of the county furnish an 
abundance of water for this purpose. 

The principal stream of the county is the 
Yellowstone river, which enters from the 
south, traverses the county in a general north- 
erly direction for about 55 miles, then turns 
abruptly to the east, and after a journey of 
about 20 miles leaves Park county at the town 
of Springdale. This mighty tributary of the 
Missouri has its source in the mountains south 
of the Yellowstone National Park, in which 
region also are started tlie streams that form 
the Snake and Colorado rix'ers, that flow into 
the Pacific, and the Big Horn, which with the 
Yello\\stiinc in time find their way into the 
Atlantic. The Yellowstone flows through the 
lake of the same name, then leaves that beauti- 
ful body of water, flowing in a northerly direc- 
tion for about 150 miles to the great bend at 
Livingston. There it wheels to the east and 
holds that course in a general sense for an 
hundred miles, when it swings slowly but sure- 
ly to the northeast and continues for three 
hundred miles or more, finally mingling its 
waters with those of the Missouri. A peculiar 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



feature of the Yellowstone is the fact that all 
its tributaries of importance come from the 
south side. There is not one stream of conse- 
quence flowing into it from the north. From 
the south come such important streams as 
Clark's Fork, Big Horn, Tongue and Powder 
rivers, while from the north probably the most 
important is the comparatively small Shields 
river. 

^\'ithin the county of Park there are in the 
neighborhood of 40 creeks and rivers, of suf- 
ficient size and importance to bear names, 
which empty into the Yellowstone. From the 
east or south side come the following creeks : 
Mendenhall, Greeley, Lock, Mission, Poison, 
Chicken. Suce, Deep, Pogl, Pine. Barney 
(formed by Cascade, George and jMcDonald), 
Shorthill, Strawberry, Elbow, Neill, Emi- 
grant, Six-Mile, Cedar, Bassett, Trail. From 
the north or west side these creeks empty into 
the Yellowstone : Ferry, Dry, Owl, Fleshmean, 
Billman, Strickland, Trail, Eight-Mile, Big, 
Dailey, Rock, Tom Miner, Mulhern (formed 
by the Cottonwood, Dickson, Deaf Jim and 
Hoppe), Beattie, Reese. Besides these creeks 
are Shields river, flowing in from the north, 
and Gardiner river, which enters the Yellow- 
stone on the southern boundary of the county, 
all of the river except the mouth being in the 
National Park. In the southern part of the 
county there are also a number of other tribu- 
taries of the Yellowstone, which empty into 
that river in the National Park, but which rise 
and flow for the greater part of their length 
within Park county. Among these are Ea.gle 
creek. Bear Gulch creek (formed by North 
Fork, Pine and Palmer creeks). Crevasse 
creek and Hell Roaring creek, of which latter 
steam Grizzly creek is a feeder. Two other 
important streams in this part of the coun- 
ty are Buffalo creek and Slough creek, which 
are branches of Lamar river, wliich in turn 
enters the Yellowstone within the National 
Park. 

Next to the Yellowstone, the most import- | 



taut river of the county is Shields river, one 
of its tributaries. This stream is noted be- 
cause of its historical importance and because 
of the rich valley through wdiich it flows. The 
name was bestowed upon it by Captain Wil- 
liam Clark in 1806 in honor of one of the 
members of the famous Lewis and Clark ex- 
pedition. But among the early trappers it was 
known as Twenty-five Yard creek. Lieuten- 
ant Bradley, who visited the river in 1876. said 
in his journal : "Two reasons are assigned f(jr 
the name : its width, which isn't 25 yards, but 
much less; and the asserted fact that it rises 
only 25 yards from the source of another 
stream, which I can neither affirm nor deny." 
Shields river, as it flows through the valley, is 
increased in volume by the addition of num- 
erous trilnitar)- streams, some of them of con- 
siderable size, that have their sources in the 
neighboring mountains, and which by corro- 
sion have created little valleys throughout the 
plateaus that extend from the river to the 
mountain ranges. The creeks that find their way 
into Shields river from the east side are Crazy, 
Rock, Cottonwood. Dry. Little Lidian, Big 
Indian. Horse. Daisy Dean. Elk. Porcupine. 
Antelope. From the west come \\'illow, Ray, 
Bangtrail, Canyon, Brackett, Looking Glass, 
Flathead, Cottonwood and Potter. 

In the extreme southeastern corner of the 
county are a number of more or less important 
streams. One fork of Clark's Fork takes its 
rise there and is fed by Tidewater, which is 
wholly within Park county. Soda Butte creek 
also rises here and flows thence into the Park. 
It is fed by the Republic and Miller creeks. 

Along the boundary line between Park 
and Sweet Grass counties flows Boulder river, 
which empties into the Yellowstone at the town 
of Big Timber. The greater part of this river 
is in Sweet Grass county, but in several places 
it makes a dip into Park county. The West 
Boulder river, one its principal tributaries, 
rises in and flows for the greater part of its 
length in Park county. Its branches arc 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



187 



Davis and Grouse creeks. The western tribu- 
taries of the Boulder river, which are ahnost 
wholly in Park county, are the following 
creeks : Cowan, Froze-to-Death, Falls, Great 
Falls, Chippie, Four-Mile, War Eagle, Copper 
and Sheep. From the east two creeks enter 
the river within the boundaries of Park county. 
They are Up and Down creek and Basin creek. 

The principal industries of Park county are 
mining, agriculture and stock raising, and it is 
hard to tell which should be placed first. It 
was the minerals of the county that first led 
to its settlement. For some years this was the 
only industry of the county. Then, when the 
railroad was built, settlers rushed in and be- 
gan raising stock and tilling the soil, and all 
three industries have been carried en ever 
since. 

The mining products of the county are 
principally coal, gold and silver. Among the 
other minerals of the county, but which have 
not yet been extensively developed, are copper, 
lead, iron, platinum, tin, bismuth, zinc and cin- 
nabar. The coal mines are found in the foot- 
hills of the Belt mountains, on the west side 
of the Yellowstone river. The precious metals 
are found in the Bear Gulch district, in the 
vicinity of Jardine, in the Xew \\'orl(l mining 
district about Cooke, and in the Boulder dis- 
trict on the east side of the county. Concern- 
ing the mining of .gold and silver in Park 
county a writer a few years ago said : 

But little of the hidden wealth stored up ages ago 
in these mountain^ ha^ been discovered, while it is 
nevertheless a fact that Park county has been pros- 
pected only in a superficial way. Whole districts, ag- 
gregating an enormous area, and filled with the great- 
est possibilities have been unvisited by those of prac- 
tical knowledge in quest of hidden mineral deposits. 
It is no exaggeration to say that if the practiced eye, 
aided by a knowledge of metalliferous formations 
searches among the mountains for a day it is certain 
to find locations that will justify work and explora- 
tion. This is as true of the old districts as it is of 
those but seldom visited. As an example the district 
of Bear Gulch bad been prospected to a certain ex- 
tent for more than thirty years, when a common land- 
slide in the spring of 1898 revealed to the naked eye 



one of the richest lodes of gold bearing ore in the 
state. The Boulder district has been worked for its 
placer diggings for many years, when during the sum- 
mer of 1899 E. H. Cowles, an expert placer miner, had 
used his hydraulic works so thoroughly that on reach- 
ing bed rock, the leads of many rich veins of gold 
bearing quartz were revealed to him. The Emigrant 
district was until recent years only worked for its rich 
placer gold; but great [h .s-ibilitii ^ await the develop- 
ment of the recent ili>ii i\ > nil (luartz leads in the 
Great Eastern, St. Julien and the North Star. 

The smelting of the ores in Park county has only 
been in operation in the New World mining district. 
This district is only in its infancy; but fabulous pos- 
sibilities for her future are often given as the judg- 
ment of prominent mining experts. 

Gold to the value of many thousand dollars is ob- 
tained annually by the Bear Gulch Mining and Mill- 
ing company. 

Gold, fine ounces, .^.487,814— $71,065.93. 

Placer mining to some extent has always attended 
the discovery of gold. It has been extracted from the 
gravel, either liy the old process of panning, or the 
more expensive methods of dredging and hydraulics. 
About one-half million dollars have been realized from 
the partly discovered placer districts of Emigrant 
gulch, while the Boulder district and Bear and Crev- 
asse gulches by their past year's output bear evidence of 
many millions of dollars in undeveloped dust and 
nuggets. 

While it is true that in this district silver usually 
accompanies griM in shuk- i|iiantities at least, of the few 
discoverii- that hir.r linii made in silver leads, the de- 
crease in It- niarkctaliK- price has caused su'ch proposi- 
tions to remain idle lor the lime being. The production 
of silver in Park county for 1898 was about 60.34 fine 
ounces, with a coming value of $78.01. Some of the 
assays made of silver in the New World mining district 
yield 150 ounces per ton and are now lying dormant. 

The Status of gold and silver mining in 
Park county at the present time is told in the 
annual report of William Walsh, state mine in- 
spector. The report was made early in 1907 
and covers the preceding year. The report 
says : 

The mining of precious metals in Park county dur- 
ing the past year has made quite satisfactory progress. 
The chief mineral district of the county is at Jardine, 
formerly called Bear Gulch, where the Kimherly Gold 
Mining company has its njurating property and plant, 
and there are also many pr.ispects in the vicinity that 
are especially promising. It is unquestionably a fact 
that there is a large mineral area in this county in 
which there are great bodies of gold ore that only 
await the investment of money in development and 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



mills, to produce fortunes in return for comparatively 
small investments. This area is over 20 miles square 
and will compare favorably with any gold .district in 
the range. A characteristic of the district is that val- 
ues constantly increase with depth. The field is not 
even prospected, there being as good claims to be dis- 
covered as those now located. 

The following is the production of metals for 
1906: 

Gold, fine ounces, 3,487814— $71,065.93. 
Silver, fine ounces, 1,268.74 — $1,640.39. 
The Kimberly Gold Mines : This group consists 
of fifteen claims located at Jardine. The property has 
been thoroughly developed by tunnels running in 
length froiu 250 to 900 feet, the aggregate lineal feet 
of the workings being over 16,000, and the exploration 
is steadily pushed ahead, placing immense reserves of 
ore ahead of the drifting and upraising have been con- 
structed during the present year. The veins in the 
upper workings lie flat, and the ore occurs in large 
chambers. The country formation is schist and shale, 
and the strike of the veins is east and west. The 
ore value is in gold. The output of the mine is treated 
in a forty-stamp mill and cyanide plant, and this ca- 
pacity is to be increased one-third, the mine now being 
in shape to produce 700 tons of ore per day. The plant 
is operated by electricity. The company has done a 
great deal of surface exploring and in this work dis- 
covered shelite ore in such quantity that a mill is be- 
ing erected for its treatment. There are 80 men em- 
ployed in the mines and mills. The mills are well 
ventilated and provided with proper protection. The 
property is owned and operated by the Kimberly Gold 
Mining company, Mr. H. H. Ryan being the superin- 
tendent, and Mr. W. G. McQuillan the foreman. 

The Crevasse and Helena Chief Mines! These 
mines are located four miles east of Jardine and are 
owned by Mr. W. G. Conrad. There are three 
claims in the group, and they are operated under the 
supervision of Mr. J. G. Fletcher, who is employing 
thirty men. The mine is developed with a 1,200 foot 
tunnel that exposes large bodies of ore. During the 
present year 800 feet of work has been accomplished, 
and upraises made to the surface that afford exits 
and good ventilation. The veins are w-ell defined fis- 
sures with a dip to the southeast at an angle of 45 de- 
grees and run in width from three to six feet. The ore 
is an iron oxide and carries gold as its chief value. 
The country formation is gneiss, shale and granite, with 
the latter as the 'hanging wall of the veins. A 20-stamp 
mill is located near the workings and is treating from 
600 to 700 tons of ore per month. It is intended to en- 
large the mill to forty stamps and equip it with the most 
improved value-saving machinery. 

The Buffalo-Montana Mining Company : This 
is an old property, located at Cooke, and is sixty- 
five miles east of Gardiner, the entrance point, to the 
Yellowstone National Park. The mine has been idle 



for years, but now the old workings are being retim- 
bered and put in shape for the extraction of ore, and 
new departments is in active progress, over 300 feet 
of exploration having been accomplished since the re- 
sumption of the work the past summer. The company 
smelter, that has been idle for something like twenty 
years, has been repaired and put to work treating 50 
tons of ore per day taken from the old dumps. The 
resurrection of this property, and the starting of the 
smelter which is to be remodeled and made thoroughly 
modern in the near future, marks a new era in the min- 
ing history of Cooke. The company is employing lOO 
men. Mr. Chas. Eaton is the superintendent and Mr. 
N. P. Trendennick is the foreman. 



The mining of coal is one of tlie important 
industries of Park county and one of tlie old- 
est. The principal coal mine is at Aldridge, 
where about four hundred men are employed. 
and about as many more engaged in coke 
burning. Until recently the mine at Cokedale 
was in active operation. In other portions of 
the country coal has been mined on a limited 
scale. 

Rich deposits of copper have been discov- 
ered in the Boulder and Six-Mile districts, but 
lack of capital has prevented development 
Copper occurs as a by-product in the output of 
gold and silver. 

Iron ore is also found in the Boulder, Six- 
Mile. Emigrant, New World and Sheepeater 
districts. The ore has only been utilized in the 
fluxing of the more Aaluable metals, with 
which it is found as a by-product. 

Farming has become one of the most im- 
portant, if not the most important, industries 
of Park county. In the early history of the 
county this was not considered an agricultural 
country, and very little effort was made to till 
the soil. But in recent }ears there has been a 
marked change in the industrial pursuits of 
the county, and diversified farming has estab- 
lished itself as a sure means of livlihood. The 
former large numbers of cattle and sheep, 
grazing at will on the vast pastures, have been 
cut up into smaller bands, and it has been 
found a more profitable way of engaging in 
the stock raising business. Now the stock 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY 



C89 



raiser also engages in farming, and the results 
are beneficial to the farmer and the community 
as a whole. 

The farming lands of Park county are 
most all located in the valleys of the Yellow- 
stone and Shields rivers and their tributaries. 
The soil is what is termed semi-arid, as it is 
in nearly all parts of Montana. Only occasion- 
ally could crops be raised without irrigation, 
and no one thinks of trying it, because the lay 
of the land is such that irrigation is easy to 
bring about. Perennial streams flow down 
from the snow capped peaks surrounding the 
valleys, and the construction of irrigating 
ditches is a work of onl}' comparatively small 
labor. The streams are numerous in the agri- 
cultural lands; their currents are swift. When 
once the ditches are made the settler can bid 
defiance to the exigencies of the season. The 
system of irrigation here is the most perfect 
in the world, combining light expense, an 
abundance of water, and a constant descent. 

It is acknowledged by all that there are two 
portions of the county that excel the other 
places. These are Shields valley and Para- 
dise valley, the latter a portion of the upper 
Yellowstone. For productiveness, uniformity 
of climate, fertility of soil and wonderful nat- 
ural resources these valleys have no compeer 
in Montana. 

Paradise valley, lying between the lower 
and middle canyons of the Yellowstone, is so 
called from the evidences of prosperity and 
pleasing picture of contentment on every hand. 
A single instance is yet to be recorded of a 
traveler through the valley failing to express 
admiration for its wonderful beauty. The sub- 
lime in nature is expressed by the awe inspir- 
ing scenery of the upper Yellowstone more 
fully to the onlooker than ever brush or pen 
portrayed it. Flanking the valley on the east 
the tall serrated peaks of the snowy range rear 
their heads, cleaving the low lying clouds like 
a wedge, an impassable barrier, and seeming 
to guard the seclusion of the valley like huge 



sentinels, grim and vigilant. To the west 
stretch the rounded heights of the Belt moun- 
tains, less imposing than those to the east, but 
not less interesting from a geological point of 
view. These ranges, after running parallel 
north and south for thirty-five miles, gradually 
trend toward each other, until they almost 
meet, forming the lower and middle canyons 
of the Yellowstone, and enclosing the valley, 
that lies in an oval shaped basin. The valley 
is thirty-five miles in length and from two to 
eleven in width. 

The general topography of the valley is 
level. The alluvial deposits along the river 
form the bottom lands proper. These are 
flanked on each side by a bench rising about 
40 feet high, which slopes gently upward until 
it merges into the steep ascent of the moun- 
tains. Here and there an isolated butte rises 
upward from the bench lands. This bench land 
is ribbed every few miles with strips of timber 
that follow the course of the Yellowstone's 
tributaries as they rush down from their moun- 
tain sources, creating by erosion little valleys 
that intersect the bench lands at right angles 
with the general course of the valley. These 
streams furnish, throughout the summer, 
abundant quantities of water for the purpose 
of irrigation. Rising as they do in the snow 
fields of the surrounding mountains, they are 
steadily fed by the melting snows through the 
months of June, July and August, the time 
when plenty of water for growing crops is 
most needed. The topography of Paradise 
valley also renders irrigation an easy matter. 

Shields river valley, with its many trib- 
utary valleys, occupies nearly the entire north- 
ern portion of the county. The river empties 
into the Yellowstone at a point about eight 
miles northeast of Livingston, and from this 
point northwest for a distance of about 50 
miles extends the \-alley, one of the richest in 
Montana. The valley has an average width, 
including the bench lands of twenty mile'?, 
making a- total area of 640,000 acres. The 



190 



HISTORY OF PARK COUNTY. 



Crazy mountains, one of the loftiest and most 
inaccessible in Montana, border the valley on 
the north and east with an apparently impas- 
sible front, while it is enclosed on the west by 
the less rugged Bridger mountains. The river 
valley proper, bordered by the bench lands, 
will average a width of one mile. It is very 
fertile and is much less liable to early frosts 
than anv other locality in the state east of the 
Rocky mountains. The soil is a rich alluvial 
deposit, making it the finest kind of hay and 
grain producing land. 

The plateaus, whicii flank the bottom lands 
following the course of the river, extend in a 
gradual incline backward into the mountains. 
The soil has an average depth of three feet 
and is underlaid by substratums of argillac- 
eous matter, thus retaining the moisture near 



the surface of the ground, and rendering irri- 
gation in parts unnecessary. These bench lands 
extending toward the Crazies are a paradise 
for the growth of winter wheat, as the moun- 
tain snows lie here throughout the winter, af- 
fording entire protection to grain sown in the 
autumn, allowing it to mature in the early 
summer before the need of artificially supplied 
moisture is felt. The bench lands on the other 
side, extending to the Bridger mountains, can- 
not be surpassed as stock ranges, exceeding 
any other locality in the state for the advant- 
ages furnished in this branch of agriculture. 

The sides of the mountains of Park county 
are covered with dense growths of timber, 
affording material for lumber and fuel. 
Pine, fir and cedar, abound in all parts of the 
countv. 




MONTANA HAYING SCENE 



PART III 

SWEET GRASS COUNTY 



CHAPTER I 



BEFORE COUNTY ORGANIZATION— 1743 TO 1894. 



The county of Sweet Grass came into exist- 
ence as a political division of the great state 
of Montana early in the year 1895. The 
county derived its name from Sweet Grass 
river, or creek, which flows from the eastern 
slope of the Crazy mountains to the Yellow- 
stone river, and to the late Judge William G. 
Strong belongs the honor of naming the coun- 
ty. The creek received its name from the 
abundance of vernal grass which grows in its 
valley. The grass which grows here gives 
forth a peculiar, sweet odor, somewhat like 
that of vanilla ; hence the naming of the 
stream. 

The date of the advent of the first white 
men to most of the counties of Montana is 
1805 and 1806, when Lewis and Clark crossed 
the state on their way to and from the Pacific 
ocean, and it was some years after that event 
before other counties were visited by members 
of the Caucasian race. But Sweet Grass and 
a few other counties may justly lay claim to a 
date over a half century earlier than this. 

In the year 1741 M. de la Verandrye, a 
French Canadian, accompanied by some Cath- 
olic priests and about fifty men, set out from 
Quebec, Canada, for the headwaters of the 



Missouri river, with the intention of proceed- 
ing to the Pacific ocean. His course in what 
is now Sweet Grass county appears in the first 
chapter of this book. 

On the 1 6th day of July, 1806, Captain 
Clark and party, traveling on horseback on the 
north bank of the Yellowstone, passed a little 
stream, up which a distance of two miles they 
could have found the now famous Hunter's 
hot springs had they gone out of their way 
that distance. Immediately after crossing this 
stream they entered what is now known as 
Sweet Grass county, within the confines of 
which they were destined to remain six days. 
Details of this are found in a former chapter. 

It was not long after the return of the 
Lewis and Clark party to civilization before 
the fur traders and trappers came to the Yel- 
lowstone valley. These hardy pioneers pene- 
trated all parts of the valley on their hunting 
and trapping expeditions, and the many 
streams of the present Sweet Grass county 
were thoroughly covered. No forts or trading 
posts were established this far up the river, 
hc}wever, the nearest being at the mouth of the 
Big Horn river. For many years these were 
the only people to visit the Yellowstone valley. 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY, 



and the records of their operations are very 
meager. It was not until the discovery of gold 
in Montana in the early sixties that the coun- 
try became known to any considerable extent. 

By a treaty signed September 17, 1851, all 
that part of the present state of Montana south 
of the Musselshell river, west of Powder river 
and east of Shields river and the upper Yel- 
lowstone was included in the Crow reserva- 
tion, and in this tract, of course, was included 
all of the present Sweet Grass county. This 
was the condition until 1882, when all of the 
present Sweet Grass county north of the Yel- 
lowstone river and a small portion of that on 
the south side was opened to settlement by 
treaty. In March, 1891, congress ratified an- 
other treaty, which threw open to settlement 
all that part of Sweet Grass county that had 
been up to that time in the reservation. These 
treaties will be treated more fully in their 
chronological order. 

In the latter part of July, 1864, John 
Bozeman piloted the first train of immigrants 
through this section. He was closely followed 
by another train under the leadership of James 
Bridger, that famous trapper and scout. This 
party camped one night in August at the 
mouth of a creek, which since that day has 
been known as Bridger creek. The Bozeman 
and Bridger parties were followed by others 
the same year, and thereafter for several years 
there was considerable travel through the fu- 
ture Sweet Grass county. Many parties on 
their return to the states built boats at Emi- 
grant gulch (in the present Park county) and 
at other points on the upper river and made 
the trip down the Yellowstone. These en- 
countered many dangers from the Indians and 
the treacherous river. 

The second peace treaty with the Crows, 
concluded at Fort Laramie, Dakota, on May 
7. 1868, was an important item in the history 
of Sweet Grass county because of the facts that 
over one-half of the county as it appears on the 
map today was taken out of the Crow reserva- 



tion. The new treaty provided that the In- 
dian reservation should include that territory 
in Montana that was south and east of the 
Yellowstone ri^•er and west of the 107th de- 
gree of longitude, which degree of longitude 
runs through the center of the present day 
county of Rosebud. Under this treaty all that 
part of the present Sweet Grass county north 
of the Yellowstone was removed from the res- 
ervation. A provision of this treaty was as 
follows : 

The United States agrees at its own proper expense, 
to construct on the south side of the Yellowstone, near 
Otter creek, a warehouse or storeroom for the use of 
the agent in storing goods belonging to the Indians, 
to cost not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars ; an 
agency building for the residence of the agent, to cost 
not exceeding three thousand dollars ; a residence for 
the physician, not to cost exceeding three thousand 
dollars ; and five other buildings, for a carpenter, 
farmer, blacksmith, miller and engineer, each to cost 
not exceeding two thousand dollars ; also a school 
house or mission building, so soon as a sufficient num- 
ber of children can be induced by the agent to attend 
school, which shall not cost exceeding twenty-five 
hundred dollars. 

The United States agrees further to cause to be 
erected on said reservation, near the other buildings 
h»:rein authorized, a good steam circular saw. with a 
grist mill and shingle mill attached, the same to cost 
not exceeding eight thousand dollars. 

In July, 1868, Captain LeMott, in charge 
of the troops at Fort Ellis, proceeded to Lit- 
tle Timber creek, in the present Sweet Grass 
county, and there distributed the first annuities 
ever received by the Crow Indians. This was 
in accordance with the provisions of the treaty 
just completed. Soon after this Major Camp, 
oif the LInited States army, was appointed 
Crow agent and he at once began the con- 
struction of agency buildings on Mission 
creek, in the present Park county. Why these 
buildings were not put up near Otter creek, 
as was provided in the treaty, is not known. 

In 1871 the control of these Indians passed 
from the war department to the interior de- 
partment, and Major Pease was made agent, 
the first civilian to hold the ofifice. In Febru- 



I 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY, 



193 



ary, 1875, came orders to remove the agency 
from Mission creek to the Stillwater. Agent 
Clapp was then in command, and by the first 
of April the agency buildings on Mission 
creek were deserted and the agency was estab- 
lished some distance up the Stillwater, near 
the mouth of the Little Rosebud, and on the 
Carbon county side of the river. 

During the fall of 1871 the first attempt to | 
survey a line for a railroad was made in the [ 
Yellowstone valley. Mr. Muhlenberg, a 
Northern Pacific engineer, accompanied by a j 
small military escort from Fort Ellis, started 
from Bozeman and ran his lines easterly to a 
point near the mouth of Pryor creek, there 
being forced to abandon further work on ac- 
count of a heavy fall of snow. During the 
next two years the line was completed through 
the Yellowstone valley. 

The honor of being the first settler on 
Sweet Grass county soil belongs to Horatio N. 
Gage, who settled at the mouth of Duck creek, 
about six miles below Dr. Hunter's hot springs, 
in 1873. In the latter part of July, 1874, a 
war party of Sioux, which had attacked many 
, places on the upper Yellowstone, came to the 
Gage home, killed four head of cattle, but did 
not attack the house. Several times the Gage 
family was obliged to seek protection from the 
hostile Indians at Dr. Hunter's home. Up to 
Februarv, 1875, when arrangements were 
made for the remo\-al of the agency to the 
Stillwater, the Gage ranch was the lowest of 
the habitated places on the Yellowstone. At 
that time Horace Countryman and Hugo 
Hoppe moved to the mouth of the Stillwater, 
and their places became the outposts of civili- 
zation. When the stage line was established 
between ]\Iiles City and Bozeman the Gage 
ranch became one of the stage stations, and 
here were enacted some of the exciting inci- 
dents in this new country. On this ranch Gage 
raised the first alfalfa that was ever reaped in 
Sweet Grass county. In April, 1882, the 
Gages sold two or three tons of alfalfa to 
13 



soldiers who were passing through the coun- 
try. What was once the site of this old stage 
station is now one of the largest and best 
alfalfa fields in Sweet Grass county, from 
which are cut some 2,000 towns of hay a year. 
On this ranch was located the first irrigating 
ditch of the countv. It was constructed in 
1876. 

Almost simultaneously with the advent of 
Mr. Gage in 1873 came two brothers. Al and 
Waborn Harrison, who drove in a band of cat- 
tle and horses and located on lower Sweet 
Grass creek. There they engaged in stock- 
raising, and there they have made their homes 
ever since. 

The year 1875 bn^ught forth more stirring 
e\'ents within the boundaries of the present 
Sweet Grass county, among which was the 
killing of Sam Shively by the treacherous sav- 
ages. That year Major Pease, wnth quite a 
large party, had gone down the Yellowstone 
from Benson's Landing (about three miles 
east of the present city of Livingston) to the 
mouth of the Big- Horn river, where it was 
his intention to establish a trading post. It 
was quite an undertaking, and Major Pease, 
accompanied by a few companions, started out 
from the Big Horn camp with the intention of 
going east to interest capital in the enterprise. 
Owing to the hostility of the Indians the enter- 
prise had to be abandoned before long, and 
Fort Pease abandoned. 

The first settlement made in Sweet Grass 
county, excepting the Gage ranch and the Har- 
risons' home, already referred to, was made 
near the mouth of Sweet Grass creek in the 
year 1877. The men who settled here that 
year were W. R. Bramble, Fred Bartels, and 
W. L. Shanks. It may be of interest to note 
that all of these gentlemen are alive today 
David Riffle settled on Big Timber creek the 
same year. So far as we are able to learn these 
were the only permanent settlers in Sweet 
Grass county that year. These gentlemen had, 
practically, the whole of the Yellowstone val- 



194 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUXTY. 



ley to choose from, and tlieir choice of loca- 
tion was a wise one. as has been proven since 
that time. 

The number of settlers on Sweet Grass 
creek was increased in 1878 by the arrival of 
W. A. Harrison. Mr. Davis and Alex. Ferte. 
The first water right from the Sweet Grass 
was taken that year by W. A. Harrison. The 
same year, through the efforts of W. L. 
Shanks, a voting precinct (of Gallatin county) 
was organized in this colony, and at the elec- 
tion that fall eight votes were cast. The name 
of the voting precinct and the postofifice, when 
that was established, was Sweet Grass. 

David Riffle, who had settled on Big Tim- 
ber creek the year before, took out an irrigat- 
ing ditch in 1878, the first from that stream. 
In 1880 he raised 3,700 bushels of oats and 
four acres of potatoes. 

Sometime in the fall of 1878 Thomas Kent, 
who, as stated before had traveled over the 
whole of the Yellowstone valley, settled at 
the mouth of Bridger creek, at which place he 
has ever since made his home. 

About the time the settlers were building 
homes on the lower Sweet Grass Coleman 
Puett selected a site for a home on the upper 
Sweet Grass, on land that all but joins the 
present site of the town of Melville. 

During the late seventies there had been 
settlement in all parts of the Yellowstone val- 
ley and supplies were brought in to these sel- 
lers over the stage line between Miles 
City and Bozeman. Along this line in the 
present county of Sweet Grass were established 
a number of stage stations and postofifices that 
became very well known points. One of the 
stations was the Gage place on Duck creek; 
another was the Big Timber postofifice, store 
and stage station, on Big Timber creek, just 
across the Yellowstone from the present site 
of Big Timber ; the Bramble road house, at the 
Sweet Grass crossing, was another; while on 
the old government trail leading from the 
Sweet Grass across the divide to White Beaver 



basin was Canyon station, where there was a 
saloon kept by John Brady and a boarding 
house operated by Mrs. Nostrum. 

Among the settlers of the late seventies 
was Sim Roberts, who settled at a point above 
the present town of Melville. Roberts was a 
conspicuous figure in the early history of Sweet 
Grass county, as he has been in its later history. 
He was known as a "killer," and became no- 
torious as a suspected "cattle rustler." He was 
in court many times to answer to different 
crimes, bvtt was never convicted. 

Closely following Roberts came John and 
George Cook, who established the first large 
cattle and horse ranch in the future county. 

The settlement on the lower Sweet Grass 
was added to in 1879 by the arrival of Henry 
Fletcher. John Hoff and Benjamin Hoyseth, 
who took up claims. 

Concerning an event of the year 1879 Mr. 
E. S. Topping, in his "Chronicles of the Yel- 
lowstone." has written: 



On the upper river two old-timers, though young 
men, who had had some narrow escapes from Indian 
bullets and arrows, gave up their lives to the Yellow- 
stone this summer of 1879; one in doing his duty, and 
the other in that higher dutv of helping a comrade in 
distress. 

On the l8th of July Tommy Thompson, Steve 
Gage and some others were driving a small herd of 
Nelson Story's cattle across the Yellowstone near the 
mouth of Sweet Grass creek. The cattle were forced 
into the river at last, and the two men started to swim 
their horses after them. Gage was riding a broncho, 
or untamed horse, so Thompson went ahead that it 
might follow his. When nearly across Thompson 
looked behind and saw that Gage's horse was acting 
badly, so, turning, he swam back. As he came near 
to young Gage, the latter was thrown from his horse, 
and in trying to pick him up Thompson was also torn 
from his horse, and both were swept away and 
drowned. The bodies were found but a short distance 
below and were taken up the river. Thompson had 
been a great favorite with Mr. Story, and the body was 
brought to Bozeman, and a neat monument now stands 
over his resting place, Steve Gage was buried by the 
side of his father, who had died the year before at the 
ranch on Duck creek, which ranch was the lowest 
on the river from 1873 to 1875. 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



195 



Closely following the arrival of Puett and 
Cook brothers to the upper Sweet Grass came 
the "22" outfit, a large cattle company owned 
by two men named Flowery and Lowry, who 
located on land adjoining the original Cook 
Bros.' claim. Sim RoJjerts was for a consid- 
erable time foreman for this company, and he 
was followed by Sam Garvin. 

The years 1880 and 1881 brought quite a 
number of settlers to difterent parts of the 
county. On November 7, 1880, A'easy, Mc- 
Donnell & Fitzpatrick brought the first band 
of sheep to the country which is now Sweet 
Grass county and winteretl them on the Riffle 
ranch. 

It was in 1881 that the first school in 
Sweet Grass county was organized ; it was lo- 
cated on the lower Sweet Grass. A school 
house was built in the fall of the year, and 
Miss Lizzie Evans was the first teacher. \V. 
A. Harrison. W. R. Bramble and E. T. Ewing 
were the trustees. Being the only school in 
the country which is now included in Park and 
Sweet Grass counties, it was attended by chil- 
dren from a large scope of country. There 
was attendance from Big Timber creek and 
from Duck creek. When a school was organ- 
ized in the town of Big Timber in 1884 only 
three or four children of school age were left 
in the pioneer district and it was discontinued 
to be resumed again, however,, in 1889. 

The year 1882 was an eventful one in the 
history of Sweet Grass county, for it brought 
about the ceding of the Crow lands located 
west of the Boulder and the completion of the 
Northern Pacific railroad (late in the year) 
through that part of Gallatin county which is 
now Sweet Grass. 

This treaty was made with the Crows June 
12, 1880, but was not ratified by congress until 
April II, 1882, and, consequently, the ceded 
lands were not thrown open to settlement until 
that date. The treaty provided for the sale to 
the United States of lands formerly in the 
Crow reservation as follows : 



Beginning in the mid-channel of the Yellowstone 
river at a point opposite the mouth of Boulder creek ; 
thence up the middle of the channel of said river to 
the point where it crosses the southern boundary of 
Montana territory, being the 45th degree of north lat- 
itude : thence east along said parallel of latitude to 
a point where said parallel crosses Qark's Fork; 
thence north to a point six miles south of the first 
standard parallel, being on the township line between 
townships six and seven south ; thence west on said 
township line to the one hundred and tenth meridian 
of longitude; thence north along said meridian to a 
point east or west of the source of the eastern branch 
of Boulder creek to the place of beginning. 

Immediately after the opening of this strip 
of land came W. F. McLeod, in whose honor 
was named the McLeod postoffice, driving be- 
fore him a herd of 125 cattle and 200 horses, 
which he brought from his former home in 
Oregon. He is recognized as the first perma- 
nent homesteader in the Boulder valley. Mr. 
Jarrett took up his home on Wright creek, 
where he was the first to prove that apples 
could be successfully grown in this part of 
the territory. 

With the completion of the railroad late 
in the year 1882 came a new order of things; 
the pioneer days were gone forever. The set- 
tlers that came in after that date rode on the 
cars, and the prairie scooner went out of com- 
mission. The old stage stations that had 
done duty for so long along the route from 
Miles City to Bozeman were replaced by 
towns. Dornix, later replaced by Big Timber, 
came into existence and became the center of 
population ©f the surrounding country. Con- 
cerning the passing of one of the old stage sta- 
tions and an important event in the ccxinty"s 
histor}' the Yellowstone Leader in Feljruary, 
1902, said: 

In 18S3 — the year made famous by the building 
of the Northern Pacific and the extinction of the buf- 
falo — a half dozen ranchers held possession of the en- 
tire valley of the lower Sweet Grass. These men were 
W. A. Harrison, Fred Bartels. John Hoff. A. L. Har- 
rison, Ben Hoyseth and W. Ewing. 

At the Sweet Grass cros.sing, where the home of 
Henry Bartels is now located, W. R. Bramble was 



,96 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



keeping a road house at that time, and some three or 
four miles further east, on the old governinent trail 
leading from the Sweet Grass across the divide to 
White Beaver basin, was another road house known 
as Canyon Station. At this place one John Brady, 
who was supiposed to be a bad man from Texas, kept 
saloon, while the boarding department of the hostelry 
was in charge of a somewhat notorious Mrs. Nostrum, 
whose husband was at that time engaged in getting 
out ties for the new railroad. The place bore an un- 
savory reputation, due in part to the fact that Brady 
and Nostrum had provided their establishment with a 
mysterious underground tunnel leading from the saloon 
to a root house some fifty feet distant. Ostensibly 
this tunnel was to be used for protection against In- 
dians, but it was generally rumored that there were 
other purposes. 

Just twenty years ago this spring the roundup was 
vamped one week near the mouth of Sourdough creek, 
a small tributary of the Sweet Grass, a dozen miles 
above the Bramble place. Sam Garvin, who has be- 
come prominent in more recent affairs, was captain 
of the roundup, and among 20 or 25 men in camp 
were several who are now well known in this vicinity. 
They were Ed. Cardwell, W. L. Shanks, Thos. Mc- 
Donald, H. C. Pound, Olaf Lafverson. Chas. Prutting, 
Alf Downing, Walter Story, H. Lowry, John Cook, 
Gus. Sidle, E. S. Tutt, Pat Patterson and others. 

Late Saturday afternoon a half dozen men, in- 
cluding Sam Garvin, E. S. Tutt. Bill Miner, R. 
Potter, Chas. Wickam and Pat Patterson, left the 
camp and rode away in the direction of the Yellow- 
stone, returning early the following morning. 

The same night a little incident occurred at Can- 
yon Station, which was not only destined to wipe that 
particular name from the map of Gallatin county, 
but also to rechristen the place with the name of "Dead 
Man's Gulch." a most suggestive title which if has 
borrie to this day. When the shooting ceased and the 
thick mantle of sulphureous powder smoke had lifted, 
the interior of the Brady saloon looked as if it had 
been attacked by the (commando) of Boer riflemen, 
while the lifeless body of the proprietor lay bleeding 
on the floor. 

Aside from those implicated, Nostrum was the 
only person who witnessed the shooting. According 
to his story. Mrs. Nostrum had already retired to her 
room adjoining the saloon and he and Brady were 
about to retire when a man entered and asked for a 
drink. While Nostrum was serving the thirsty cus- 
tomer, four masked men entered the room. The 
leader immediately pulled his six-shooter and fired on 
Brady. The latter threw up his left arm just in time 
to intercept the bullet, which penetrated the arm above 
and below the elbow and then passed entirely through 
his body, .severing the spinal cord and landing its vic- 
tim on the floor in a lifeless heap. 

Then followed a wild fusillade, perforating floor, | 



ceiling and walls in every direction. As soon as the 
shooting had ceased and the shooters departed, Nos- 
trum started in search of A. L. Harrison, who was 
then deputy sheriff of Gallatin county. During the 
night the two men carefully prepared the body of 
Brady for the "planting," and as soon as daylight 
came Harrison hit the trail in search of the murderers. 
At the round-up camp he confronted Garvin and his 
companions with the information that he had come to 
place them under arrest for the killing of Brady, but 
m turn those gentlemen informed the officer that he 
might avoid trouble by taking the back track, which 
he proceeded immediately to do. 

Returning to Canyon Station, Harrison assisted 
Nostrum in burying the remains of Brady, whose 
grave, which lies on a knoll about a hundred yards 
south of the present road, is still marked by a little 
mound of grass covered earth, enclosed by a rough 
picket fence. 

Soon after the' sliooting the buildings were tern 
down and hauled away ; several of the shooters are 
dead, some are in prison and others are scattered ; 
Nostrum and the w'oman are long since gone and they 
are so nearly forgotten that it is now impossible to 
ascertain their first name. But in his "narrow house," 
John Brady is still waiting for the grand jury at Bozc- 
man to name the man who sent the big chunk of lead 
crashing through his unworthy hide. 

The settlers in Wright valley built a sch(X)l- 
house in 1884. As there were no funds avail- 
able for the ])in'p()se of building the school 
house, the settlers turned out and donated the 
work. Logs were hauled from the Orazy 
mountains with which to put up the building. 
A dance was given at the Jarrett ranch, from 
which was cleared $175, and the building was 
put up free from debt. Miss Agnes Cosgriff. 
now Mrs. J. B. ]\Iendenhall, was the first 
teacher. Among the scholars who attended 
the first school are Mrs. Richard Budd, Mrs. 
T. R. Lanphear. Mrs. J. H. Ammerman, 
James A\'oods, J. W. Fryer and R. S. Jarrett. 

In 1885 the first irrigating ditch of much 
importance in the Boulder valley was taken out 
by Chas. Kimberling and Geo. W. Baker, who 
reaped such bountiful returns therefrom that 
the theme of its success acted as a stimulus in 
bringing forth scores i.if settlers, which re- 
sulted in the establishment of McLeod post- 
office in 1887. 



I 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



197 



The 1887 session of the Montana legisla- 
ture passed an act creating the county of Park 
out of the eastern portion of Gallatin. Be- 
fore the passage of this act the greater part of 
the future Sweet Grass county had been a 
part of Gallatin county; now it became a part 
of Park county. This inchided the greater 
part of its area, but small portions of what we 
now know as Sweet Grass county were taken 
from Yellowstone and Aleagher counties in the 
formation of the county whose history we are 
writing. 

P)y an agreement between the Crow In- 
dians and the United States concluded Decem- 
ber 8. 1890, and approved by congress March 
3. 1 89 1, the Crows agreed t(.i sell to Jhe gov- 
ernment all that part of their reservation west 
of a line described as follows: 

Beginning in the niid-ehannel of the Yellowstone 
river, at a point which is the northwest comer of sec- 
tion number thirty-six, township number two north, 
of range twenty-seven east, of the principal meridian 
of Montana ; thence running in a southwesterly di- 
rection, following the top of the natural divide be- 
tween the w-aters flowing into the Yellowstone and 
Clark's Fork rivers on the west and those flowing into 
Pryor creek and West Pryor creek on the east, to 
the base of West Pryor mountain: tlipncc due south 
and up the north slope of ^.n.i I'lMir ninuntain on 
a true meridian line to a point lilt, .n nnli^ due north 
from the established line belwccn .Mnni.ma and Wy- 
oming: thence in a due easterly cnur-i- on a parallel 
nf latitude to a point wliore it mtcr^icls the mid- 
channel of the Big Horn river: thence folUnving up the 
mid-channel of said river to a point where it crosses 
the Montana and Wyoming state line. 

P.v this act all of the territory within the 
j)resent county of Sweet Grass was removed 
from Indian territor\-. The executive procla- 
mation opening this land to immediate settle- 
ment was signed by President Benjamin Har- 
risou on Saturday afternoon, October 15, 1892. 
I'Tom this land there had been made about 
320 Indian allotments, but the land thus se- 
lected was in the main low, Ijrusby land, and 
not the best Ijy any means. The proclamation 
throwing open the lands had been awaited 



anxiously for a long time, and when it came 
people flocked in in large numbers. That part 
of the lands lying in Sweet Grass county had 
been occupied for many years by two men, 
Thos. Kane and "Dutch Gus," for grazing 
ground without molestation from the Indians 
or the goxernment. Now settlers flocked in 
and these two men were obliged to divide their 
territory with others. The opening of these 
lands meant much to the people of eastern 
Montana. They were both agricultural and 
mineral. To show the nature of this land, it 
is said that in 1893 Harrison brothers trailed 
500 head of cattle from Big Timber to Trout 
creek by grazing them down the Yellowstone 
and up Bridger creek, through grass that cat- 
tle could hide in and without seeing a fence 
on the trip. 

The year 1892 was a pnjsperous one for 
the people of the future Sweet Grass county. 
The sheep and wool business was good; there 
was great activity in the Boulder mines; and 
everybody was prosperous. 

We now approach the first attempt of the 
citizens of the eastern part of Park county to 
bring aix)ut the creation of Sweet Grass coun- 
ty by the legislature of 1893. At that session 
Park county was represented in the senate by 
George M. Hatch and in the house by Paul 
VanCleve and Thos. S. Ash. The two former 
were residents of the east side of the county 
and lent their assistance to the cause of the 
proposed new county — for which they received 
the highest encomiums at home and the bitter- 
est denunciation in the west side of the county. 

The bill to create Sweet Grass county was 
to have come up before the senate on the aft- 
ernoon of February 15, Init on motion of Mr. 
Hatch it was replaced on the general file. The 
next dav, on motion of Senator William L. 
Steele, of Lewis and Clark county, the bill was 
put on final passage and defeated by a vote 
of seven to nine. 

The feelings of the people of Livingston 
and Big Timber over the result are best told 



198 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



by the newspapers of tlie two towns. On 
February 18 the Livingston Enterprise said: 

The joyful news was received in this city Thurs- 
day (February 16) afternoon that poUtical perfidy had 
met its just reward and, notwithstanding the base de- 
sertion of Senator Hatch and Representative Van- 
Cleve, Park county's best interests had been sub- 
served by the defeat in the senate of the bill creating 
Sweet Grass county. As has been clearly pointed out 
in these columns, the bill was not a meritorious one 
and was demanded only in the interests of Big Tim- 
ber town lot boomers and aspiring politicians. For 
this reason it met with the determined opposition of 
three-fourths of the voters of Park county outside of 
the city of Livingston. 

In this city the feeling was bitter against the 
county's representatives who shamefully betrayed the 
trust reposed in them, and a corresponding feeling of 
relief and joy followed the announcement that they 
had been foiled by the indefatigable labors of Livings- 
ton's citizens, who went to the capital at the outset 
and abated no effort until the result was attained. The 
news was heralded throughout the city and responded 
to by a pyrotechnic display that, though brilliant and 
noisy, but faintly indicated the pleasure of all loyal 
residents of this section of the county. 

Tlie Big Timber Pioneer told another 
story. March 9 it said : 



While we did not get Sweet Grass county, the re- 
sult of the efforts have been good, and there is no 
doubt but that the county will be formed at the next 
session of the legislature. Senator Hatch and Rep- 
resentative VanCleve arrived borne Friday night. 
They were met at the train by a large and enthusiastic 
crowd of citizens, who, to show their appreciation of 
the valuable services rendered them by their repre- 
sentatives, had prepared a number of bon-fires, w'hich, 
by the aid of skyrockets and Roman candles, lighted up 
the town and produced an effect altogether grand. 

Thus ended the first campaign for the 
formation of Sweet Grass county. Closely 
following this event came the panic of 1893 
with all its dire calamities. The only bank- 
ing institutions of the county closed its doors; 
operations in the mines ceased; business was at 
a standstill; people could not meet their obli- 
gations, and disaster followed. Follow ing the 
panic came the period of hard times, which 
held the country in its grip for several years. 
From the effect of this Sweet Grass county 
did not recover until the late nineties. But 
during this time the county of Sweet Grais 
came into existence as one of the political di- 
visions of the state of Montana. 



CHAPTER 



AFTER COUNTY ORGANIZATION— 1895 TO 1907. 



Immediately after the defeat of the bill 
for the creation of Sweet Grass county in the 
1893 legislature, the people of Big Timber 
and the surrounding country began their prep- 
arations for the campaign before the next leg- 
islature. Not a stone was left unturned, nor 
a point neglected that might aid in the ulti- 
mate success of the venture. Senator George 
]M. Hatch, who had led the fighting for the 
bill in 1893, was a holdover senator, and would 
represent Park county in the upper house of 
Montana's legislature. The east siders there- 



fore turned their attention to the choosing of 
favorable men for the lower house, and they 
were even more successful that they had ex- 
pected to be. Their work was very clever, as 
the following explanation of the manner they 
took to secure representation by the Big Tim- 
ber Pioneer of February 28, 1895, will testify: 

The history of the late political campaign is fa- 
miliar to all or nearly all. It began with a show of 
great strife between factions in Big Timber to elect 
a delegation to the republican county convention. The 
strife might have been real on one side, be that as it 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY, 



199 



may, but the proper delegation went to the convention. 
The convention from beginning to end was run in 
the interests of the divisionists. Joy, Meyer and 
Collins were noaninated for the legislature, and then 
the attention of every prominent republican in the 
state was called to the campaign in Park county. 
Livingston fell into the trap and knifed the ticket, 
•while the people of the proposed Sweet Grass county 
elected it, thus giving them prestige and a solid rep- 
resentation in both branches of the legislature, while 
Livingston stood in a pretty bad political light and. 
from a division standpoint, with no representation 
whatever. 

On Thursday, November 8 — just as sonn 
as the result of the election was made known — 
there was organized in Big Timber tlie Sweet 
Grass County clu1), the primary object of 
which organization was the formation of 
Sweet Grass county. It was patent to e\-ery- 
body that a determined effort was to be made 
to secure the division of Park county. The 
ofScers chosen were H. O. Kellogg, president : 
E. C. Hale, secretary ; Harvey Bliss and J. A. 
Hall, vice-presidents. These officers also com- 
posed the executive committee. 

The club called a convention to meet at 
Big Timber on December 22 for the purpose 
of drafting the Sweet Grass county bill, pre- 
paring a petition for circulation among the 
voters of the east side, selecting ofificers for 
the proposed new county, and perfecting ar- 
rangements for the campaign. The convention 
was called to order in Busha & Bailey's hall 
by President Kellogg of the Sweet Grass 
County club. A. C. Logan, of Hunter's Hot 
Springs, was selected chairman of the conven- 
tion, and E. O. Clark, of McLeod, was chosen 
secretary. The primaries for the selection of 
delegates to this conventidu had been held in 
the different precincts of the proposed new 
county on December 15. 

The con\-ention was very harmonious and 
adopted the following resolutions without di- 
vision : 

Whereas. The people of the proposed county of 

Sweet Grass, have for several years paid taxes to the 

county of Park, largely cut of proportion to the amount 

■ benefits received, either in the way of roads, pro- 



tection for person or property or county bridges, and 

Whereas, The established county of Park is be- 
coming involved financially from year to year, and 
the expenditures for the years 1893 and 1894 exceed 
the revenue by $100,000, and 

Whereas, The rapid accumulation of debt is 
largely due to tlie mileage paid witnesses for attend- 
ance at the district court and is being rapidly aug- 
mented by the increased population, the propensity for 
crime developed by the general financial depression, 
and 

V\'hereas. We. the citizens of the proposed new 
county of Sweet Grass, believe that by making a 
county of smaller area, the necessary mileage to be 
paid witnesses would he very naturally reduced, the 
road expenses would either be reduced by making bet- 
ter roads for the same money, or less money for the 
same roads, justice would be more easily and cheaply 
obtained by the tax payer, and the prosperity of the 
whole Ixidy of citizens would be increased, and 

Whereas. Tlie tnxalile wealth of the proposed new- 
county of Sweet Grass amounts in round numbers to 
two millions of dollars, and the number of voters reg- 
istered at the last election is 500, the citizens are in- 
telligent, progressive and fairly prosperous, and do not 
believe in taxation without representation : then be it 

Resolved. That we, the representatives of the peo- 
ple of the proposed county of Sweet Grass, do hereby 
reaffirm our belief that by the creation of said county 
we and our children would be largely benefitted in re- 
duced taxation, better means of communication by 
interior roads, better schools and a more upright ad- 
ministration of county affairs, owing largely to our 
better acquaintance one with another, and be it 
further 

Resolved. That we urge upon our representatives 
in the legislature of the state of Montana, to do all in 
their power lawfully to have the bill entitled. "A bill 
for the creation of the county of Sweet Grass," en- 
acted into a law. That we hereby express our confi- 
dence in the ability of our representatives and hereby 
ratify all that our representatives may do or cause to -be 
done in the premises. 

Resolved, That in the work done by the Sweet 
Grass County club they have been actuated by motives 
looking alone to the successful passage of the bill 
creating said county. and we view with favor the reso- 
lution passed by them disclaiming any claiin on any 
office in the bill. 

Resolved, That in order to raise a fund to be le- 
gitimately used in the creation of Sweet Grass countj', 
that each candidate accepting the nomination from the 
convention be required to contribute a sum equal to ten 
per cent of the compensation he would receive in his 
despective office as salary for the first year's service, 
and that the said sum is payable on or before Janu- 
uary I, iSgs. 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY 



Resolved, That a county central committee con- 
sisting of one member from each precinct to be selected 
by each respective delegation shall have power to fill 
all vacancies, appoint committees, and exercise a gen- 
eral supervision over afifairs connected with the creation 
of the new county. 

Kesolved, That the county central committee 
choose from its members an executive committee to 
whom shall be paid the money collected from assess- 
ments and candidates, and who shall pay said money 
out on orders duly signed and countersigned by the 
chairman and secretary of said committee. 

Resolved, That in view of the adoption of a reso- 
lution at the precincts outside of Big Timber at a 
caucus held on the morning of Deceml)er 22, not to 
entertain nominations for office of residents of Big 
Timber, this convention instructs its presiding officer 
not to present the name or names of any qualified 
elector of Big Timber, whose name may be mentioned 
by a member of the convention, to the convention for 
action. 

Resolved, That should we for any cause fail to se- 
cure Sweet Grass county at the fourth session of the 
legislature, we maintain our organization and, regard- 
less of politics, renew the fight at the election to be 
held in November, 1896. 

Altliougli the town of Big Timber was 
eliminated as a factor in furnishing candi- 
dates for ofificers for the proposed new county, 
tliere was no deartli of canchihUes, and tiiere 
were contests for nearly all the offices. After 
much ballotting, the following were nained as 
the officers for the new county who should he 
named in the bill which would be presented to 
the legislature : Treasurer, E. O. Clark, Mc- 
Leod: sheriiif, Jake L. DeHart, East Boulder; 
assessor, W. A. Harrison, Howie; clerk and 
recorder. G. F. Hudson, Indejiendence; clerk 
of the district court, C. X. Skillnian, McLeod ; 
county attorney, Sydney Fox, Livingston; su- 
perintendent of schools, L. C. Olmstead, 
Blake's; coroner, W. G. Strong. Melville; pub- 
lic administrator, R. B. Dunham, Big Tim- 
ber; county commissioners, J. W. Bailey, 
Blake's; A. C. Logan, Hunter's Hot Springs; 
W. P. Franklin, Melville. 

J. A. Hall was elected chairman of the 
county central committee, and the f<'>llowing 
gentlemen were selected for the other mem- 



bers of the committee : Geo. M. Hatch. Big 
Timber ; W. P. Franklin, Melville ; \V. F. Mc- 
Leod, McLeod; J. \V. Bailey. Blake's; W. C. 
McCall, Grey Cliff ; J. N. Kelley, Duck Creek; 
G. F. Hudson, Independence; S. Jarrett, 
Wright Creek; S. B. Roberts, White Beaver; 
J. Lyon, Cpper Stillwater; W. L. Shanks, 
Howie. On the evening of the 22nd the com- 
mittee met and selected the following execu- 
tive committee: J. A. Hall, chairman; Geo. 
M. Hatch, secretary; G. F. Hudson, J. W. 
Bailey and W. P. Franklin. 

Thus organized, the friends of the pro- 
posed new county set to work. A petition was 
circulated, and the number of signers obtained 
was beyond the highest expectations of the en- 
thusiasts. Out of five hundred registered vot- 
ers in the proposed limits of the new county, 
457 signatures were obtained. Only five who 
had been approached with the petition refused 
to sign. It was estimated that the new county 
would have a population of 1.500 people and 
would start out with an assessed valuation of 
$2,000,000. 

On Monday evening, January 7, a meeting 
was held at the office of Savage & Day to take 
action with reference to an organization in 
opposition to the dismemberment of the 
county of Park. The meeting indicated a 
unanimous sentiment of the people of Livings- 
ton against the creation of Sweet Grass county 
and a determination to make a strong effort 
to defeat any legislation of that nature. 

The bill for the creation of Sweet Grass 
county ^\as introduced in the house January 
14 by Representative William T. Collins, no- 
tice of intention to introduce having been given 
January 9. 

At the convention A. C. I^gan, W. P. 
Franklin and J. \\'. Bailey had been named 
as county commissioners, and their names 
were incorporated in the bill. The first two 
named were Democrats, but as the legislature 
was Republican, it did not see fit to start the 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



new county off with a Democratic administra- 
tion, so the name of P. O. Fallang was sub- 
stituted for that of Mr. Franklin. 

On Tuesday, February 19, the bill was 
considered in committee of tlie whole house. 
The discussion was long and interesting. By 
a vote of 31 to 17 the bill was favorably re- 
ported. Then the committee rose, the house 
resumed, and the report of the committee of 
the whole was adopted. 

At the evening session, the bill having been 
engrossed, was read the third time and passed 
by a vote of 34 to 16. 

The bill was now safely through the house, 
but it still had to run the gauntlet of the senate. 
It was reported in that body February 20, 
where it was read first and second times, and 
then referred to the committee on towns, coun- 
ties and highways. 

Upon final vote the bill was carried by a 
vote of II to 7, and so far as the legislature 
■was concerned Sweet Grass county was an as- 
sured fact. 

This is the way the Big Timber Pioneer re- 
]X)rted the receipt of the news in an extra on 
March 2 : 

Yesterday there were several in Big Timber who 
were decidedly blue. They were blue over the delay. 
Not blue because they doubted the ultimate success of 
right and justice, for we believe that every man, 
woman and child, with a few exceptions, in the new 
county of Sweet Gra.=s had belief that the senate would 
accede to their just demands. This morning the gen- 
eral feeling., was brighter and at ten o'clock, when J.- 
\V. BaHfv received the following message, a mighty 
shout rent the air: "Carbon final passage today. Our 
bill before the committee of the whole. We have got 
them." Everybody yelled, hats flew in the air and a 
most general feeling of gladness prevailed. 

."Xt three o'clock this afternoon the news came 
over the wire that Carbon county had passed the 
sena.e by a safe majority and that a motion to re- 
consider had been lost. The news also came that 
the senate was at that lime considering Sweet Grass 
county. At 3 145 came the news, "Sweet Grass passed 
by a vote O'f it to 7." Then how the people yelled! 
At the hour of going to press, 5 p. m.. anvils are 
being fired, flags are flying and everybody is happy. 
This is but a forerunner of the grand ratification meet- 



nig which 
will be gh 



ill be held later and of which ample notice 



The bill was signed by Governor Rickards 
at 10:45 ^- "1- "11 Tuesday, March 5, in the 
presence of State Senator Geo. M. Hatch and 
wife and little daughter Judy, Mrs. O. M. 
Hatch and Captain A, C. Logan. By the pro- 
visions of the bill the county of Sweet Grass 
came into an official existence on that date. 

A monster demonstration occurred on 
March 9, upon the arrival of the train fro'ii 
the west bearing Senator Hatch, Captain A. 
C. Logan, C. T. Busha and J. A. Hall, the 
men who were largely responsible for the 
forming of the county. The last three named 
had been the lobby for the Ijill. Nearly the 
whole town of Big Timber turned out to meet 
them. Anvils were fired and cheer upon cheer 
rent the air. Banners harl been prepared and 
stretched across the streets. They bore in- 
scriptions, "7 to II," '■^^'elc(lme." "Sweet 
Grass County," etc. 

The campaign had lieen a bitter one. Wa- 
gers had been freely offered and as freely taken 
between the people of the two sections of Park 
county over the result, and quite a sum of 
money changed hands. 

Sweet Grass county was created with the 
same liounflaries it now has and was taken 
from Park. \'ellowst()ne and Meagher coun- 
ties, the first named .giving up by far the larg- 
est share. The boundaries are given in a 
former chapter. 

The act provided that Big Timber should 
be the county seat of the new county, until 
after the general election of November. 1896, 
at which election the permanent county seat 
should be selected by tiie voters. Sweet Grass 
county was to be attached to, and form a part 
of, the sixth judicial district. The act also 
provided for the distribution of the indebted- 
ness of the three counties from which the new 
county had been formed and for the amount 
of this that Sweet (irass coinitv sluiuld as- 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



surne ; the indebtedness to be reckoned at the 
close of business on the first day of March, 
1895. These several indebtednesses were to be 
adjusted by having the county commissioners 
meet with the county boards of the other coun- 
ties as follows : Park county. March 1 1 ; Yel- 
lowstone county, March 18; ?ileagher county, 
April I. The amount then determined to be 
due the old counties was to be settled by issu- 
ing warrants. 

The political machinery of the new county 
of Sweet Grass was put in motion on Satur- 
day, the 9th day of March. 1895, when County 
Commissioners J. W. Bailey, A. C. Logan and 
P. O. Fallang held an informal meeting at the 
law office of A. G. Hatch. At this initial 
meeting there were also present County Clerk 
and Recorder G. F. Hudson and County At- 
torney Sydney Fox. There were no official 
proceedings at this meeting, but arrangements 
were made for a special meeting to be held 
March 15. The county officers established 
temporary offices in the Medley building on 
McLeod street. 

.A.t the special meeting of the board, held 
on the 15th at the office of A. G. Hatch, J. 
W. Bailey was elected chairman_of tlie board. 
Constables and justices of the peace were ap- 
pointed for the different precincts. On the 
following day the county was di\ided into 
three townships, Stillwater, Melville and Big 
Timber. The commissioners rented' from Mr. 
Hatch a building for the use of the county of- 
ficers. On the 23rd a room was rented from 
W. L. Shanks for a court room at a rental of 
$50 per term of court. 

The matter of the adjustment of the in- 
debtedness that Sweet Grass county was to 
assume was early taken up. in accordance with 
the provisions of the bill. In order to give a 
clear understanding of the adjustments with 
the several counties, we shall here reproduce 
the section of the bill relating to the settlement. 

That the indebtedness of the three respective 
counties out of whose territory the said county of 
Sweet Grass is hereby created as the same sliafi exist 



at the close of business on the first day of Marcli, iiSgs. 
shall be apportioned respectively between each of said 
three counties and the said county of Sweet Grass by 
deducting from the then existing debt of each of said 
three first named counties respectively all monies be- 
longing to each county, or in the possession or under 
the control of each respective -county treasurer ; the 
excess of value hetween the value of county buildings, 
bridges, real estate or other county property that will 
remain in and belong to each of said first three named 
counties after the creation of Sweet Grass oounty. and 
the value of county buildings, bridges, real estate and 
other property, if any, that may remain in and be- 
come a part of Sweet Grass county, if the greater 
value belong to one of said three first named counties 
respectively shall be deducted from— but if the greater 
value shall belong to Sweet Grass county, shall be 
added to— said indebtedness. Said values to be esti- 
mated by the cost of such buildings, bridges and real 
estate, as shown by the county books, depreciation at 
354 per cent per annum from date of construction on 
all buildings and bridges to govern such estimate of 
value, and the actual value of all other property as 
the same may exist on the first day of March. 1895. and 
the respective remainder as to each of said first named 
counties shall constitute the net debt of each for the 
purpose of division, and shall be divided between each 
of said three respective counties and said county of 
Sweet Grass, in proportion as the taxable property of 
that portion of each of said respective counties, em- 
braced in the said county of Sweet Grass bears to 
the entire taxable property of each county respectively 
^taking as a standard therefor the assessment of 
each county respectively for the year 1894 — provided 
that each respective county treasurer of the said three 
first named counties respectively, shall at the time of 
the said adjustment of debt make out and transfer to 
the county commissioner of Sweet Grass county lists 
of all uncollected taxes and delinquent tax payers; 
that no delinquent taxes due any of the said old 
counties respectively shall be considered in said ad- 
justment, but the same shall be collected by the county 
treasurer of each county respectively, and when col- 
lected, the pro rata share there estimated upon the 
basis of adjustment aforesaid, shall be turiled over 
from time to time to the treasurer of Sweet Grass 
county. 

The Sweet Grass and Park county boards 
of ccunty commissioners held a joint session 
at Livingston March 1 1 and 1 2 to eft'ect a 
settlement, and the adjustment made was mu- 
tually satisfactory. From the assessment 
books of Park county for the year 1894 it was 
found that the total valuation of all property in 
the new county that hafl been taken from 
Park county was $1,005,111, or 21.38 per cent 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



203 



of the total assessed valuation of the whole 
of Park county before the division. The 
total indebtedness of Park county on 
March i, 1895, was $210,520. Sweet 
Grass's' 21.38 per cent of this amount was 
$45,009.28. Deducting the value of county 
property still left in Park county ($2,334.38), 
there was left the sum of $42,774.90 as the in- 
debtedness to be assumed by Sweet Grass 
county. 

Settlement was made with Yellowstone 
county at a joint meeting- of the Ixiards at 
Billings on March 18. It was agreed that 
Sweet Grass county should assume $6,857.32 
of the indebtedness of Yellowstone county in 
addition to $750 for property and bridges and 
$52.68 as the new county's proportion of war- 
rants outstanding, making the total indel^ted- 
ness acquired from Yellowstone county $7,660. 

On the first of April Commissioners Bailey 
and Logan met with the Meagher county com- 
missioners at \\'hite Sulphur Springs, at 
which time a satisfactory settlement was made. 
It was found that the assessed \-aluation of 
that part of the old county that was cut ofif for 
Sweet Grass county amounted to $216,000. 
For this territorv Sweet Grass county assumed 
$7,508.77 of the deljt of tlie old cnunty. 

This made a total of $57,943.67 assumed 
by the young county as a heritage. Warrants 
for these amounts were drawn on Friday, June 
7, 1895. 

The county's first assessment — that of 
1895 — showed the assessed valuation of the 
county to he $1,743,541, as equalized by the 
state board. F(jll<jwing was the result of the 
assessment as taken by the county assessor : 

Real estate and improvements $526,113 

City and town lots and improvements 169,474 

Telegraph lines 13.000 

Telephone lines i.450 

Irrigating ditches 9-^31 

Depots, etc 6,125 

Personal property 650,950 

Total $1,376,943 



To the above figures should be added 
$123,361, the assessed value of railroad lands 
in the county. 

In 1896 Park county brought suit against 
Sweet Grass county for the collection of $i,- 
009.96, interest on the $42,774.90 for which 
the young county had given its warrant. In 
August of that year Judge b>ank Henry de- 
cided in favor of Sweet Grass county. Park 
county appealed, and in April, 1897, the su- 
preme court handed down a decision reversing 
the lower court, and Sweet Grass county had 
that additional sum to pay. 

The assessment of 1896 showed a total 
assessed valuation of $1.978,295 — quite an in- 
crease over the year before. According to the 
figures of this assessment there were in the 
county the following live stock : 249,295 sheep, 
1,211 work horses, 1,405 range horses, 7,851 
stock cattle, 651 cows, 518 hogs. 

Under the provisions of the enabling act 
Big Timber was to be the county seat of the 
county until after the general election of No- 
vember, 1896, at which time the electors 
should select the jjermanent county seat. As 
Big Timber was the only town of any size in 
the county at the time there was no opposition 
to that place at the election, although a few 
votes were cast for a number of other places. 
Big Timber received 321 votes, Melville 25, 
and the other \-otes were scattered among the 
different localities in the county. 

The new county gained slowly Init steadily 
in assessed valuations during the late nineties. 
The assessment for 1898 was $2,277,734.60, 
and on September 6th of that year the county 
commissioners raised the county to the seventh 
class. 

According to the federal census of 1900 
the population was 3,086. At that time there 
were only three counties in the state with 
smaller population — Broadwater, Meagher, 
and Dawson. 

Wdien S\\eet Grass count v came into ex- 



204 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



istence the country on the upper Boulder river 
had not been surveyed, and, therefore, the lo- 
cation of the boundary line between the new 
county and Park county in that vicinity was 
uncertain. It was generally supposed, how- 
ever, that tlie line as defined in the act followed 
somewhere near the watershed on the west side 
of the Boulder, but the survey which followed 
located the line along the stream lx)ttom, some- 
times on one side of the river and sometimes 
on the other. This was a very unsatisfactory 
condition and worked a hardship on the mine 
owners and others in the upper Boulder coun- 
ty. The wagon road to the Boulder camp neces- 
sarily followed the meanderings of the stream 
and was in both counties, the greater portion of 
the road on the southern end being in Park 
county. Much dufficulty was encountered in 
keeping the road in fit condition, and it was the 
general belief that if the road was thrown 
wholly in one county or the other the commis- 
sioners of that county would see that it was im- 
]ir(i\-ed and kept in such condition as the neces- 
sities of the mining camp warranted. As it was, 
it was hard to determine just what portions of 
the road were in the respective counties and 
just where each county officer should perform 
work. The mix-up resulted in poor roads in 
that section. 

To'rernedy this defect, and at the same 
time to secure a slice of territory, the people 
of Park county interested themselves in the 
fnrmation of a bill to be presented to the legis- 
lature of 1901, asking that the boundary line 
in that vicinity be changed so as to follow the 
crest of the mountain range that lies on the 
east side of the Boulder. At first there was 
no objection from the people of Sweet Grass 
county who considered that the measure was a 
meritorous one. But when the bill made its ap- 
pearance and it was found that (|uite a gener- 
ous slice of territory went with the road there 
Mas strenuous objections made by the people 
of Sweet Grass countv. .\ mass meetins: was 



held at Big Timber, and the following set of 
resolutions was adopted and sent to the legis- 
lature : 

To J. N. Kelly, senator, and Robert Brownlce. repre- 
sentative, Helena, Montana : 

We, the citizens of Sweet Grass county, Montana, 
in mass meeting assembled, do protest against any 
change in our boundary line as at present constituted 
between Park and Sweet Grass counties for the pur- 
pose of correcting wagon roads. 

We can see no necessity for such change. The 
fact of a wagon road laying along the line partly in 
one county and partly in another does not afford more 
e.xcuse for change than does a bridge mutually owned 
by two counties across a boundary stream of water. 

The county commissioners of the respective coun- 
ties can readily adjust between the counties the ex- 
pense of maintaining such a road, as they do of 
bridges in many counties. 

We further hold that the natural and only outlet 
for the entire Boulder country is Sweet Grass county, 
and that any change in the boundary of the county 
should be to the west of the main Boulder river, 
thereby throwing the main Boulder in Sweet Grass 
county. 

We request that you use every effort to defeat 
any bill that may he introduced that would take from 
us any part of our county or of said Boulder river. 

Dated February 16, 1901. 

Through the efYorts of Sweet Grass coun- 
ty's representati\es the bill was killerl. The 
matter of straightning the line between the two 
counties was taken up at the next session of 
the legislature, and this time by the Sweet 
Grass county memljers, who asked that the line 
be placed to the west of the Boulder. Rep- 
resentative Brownlee introduced the bill in the 
house, and the committee to which it was re- 
ferred reported it favorably. Later, however, 
it was recommitted to the committee in order 
to give the Park county representatives an 
opportunity to be heard on the question. By 
the terms of a conference between the Park 
and Sweet Grass county representatives Mr. 
Brownlee witlidrew his bill in consideration of 
the fact that all parties to the conference 
should agree to assist in killing all county di- 
vision bills at that session. So the matter has 
rested, and the original boundary lines of 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY 



Sweet Grass count)- have never been disturbed. 

Tliere has been ver}' rapid progress in 
v.-ealth and prosperity during the last few 
years. The assessed vakiatirm was $2,913,653 
for 1905. while in 1906 it had advanced to $3,- 
262,932. That year the total nuniljer of acres 
as,sessed, other than town lots, was 592,197, at 
an assessed valuation of $1,371,917. Town 
property was assessed at $230,953 ; personal 
property at $1,611,646; and the railroads as 
equalized by the county commissioners and the 
state board, $914,366. The total amount of 
taxes to have been collected for the year 1906 
was $90,794.77, or about $30 for each man. 
woman and child in the county. Of this sum 
the treasurer's books showed that only $880 re- 
mained delinquent, making Sweet Grass coun- 
ty in the banner list of the state. 

Early in the year 1907 Sweet Grass county 
was called upon to make a fight for the pres- 
ervation of its territory. This was caused by 
an efifort to create the county of Roosevelt out 
of portions of Yellowstone, Sweet Grass and 
Carbon counties. The bill ft;)r the creation of 
this county was introduced by Senator Annin, 
of Columbus, Yellowstone county, February 
13. In the bill Columbus was named as the 
county seat, and it was provided that the new 



county should be attached to the sixtli judicial 
district. 

A generous slice of this new county was 
to have come from Sweet Grass county ( 508,- 
800 acres), e.xtending along the whole eastern 
side of the county. 

Sweet (irass county people naturally 
fought the dismemberment. A mass meeting 
was held at the court house in Big Timbe. 
Saturday e\ening, February 9, to discuss the 
matter and to organize to fight the bill. There 
were present people from all parts of the coun- 
ty. A. G. Hatch called the meeting to order 
and E. O. Clark was elected chairman. The 
question was discussed in all its details, and 
the sentiment was unanimous that the bill 
should be defeated. Two committees were 
appointed — one to circulate petitions and ob- 
tain statistics, and the other to solicit funds to 
carry on the campaign. 

A lobby against the bill was sent to Helena. 
February 19 there was a hearing before the 
senate committee on towns and counties and 
arguments were heard from both sides of the 
question. Later the committee Ireporteil 
against the bill, but Senator Annin was suc- 
cessful in getting the bill printed. That was 
the last heard of the bill, and on March 8 the 
legislature adjourned without taking further 
action. 



CHAPTER III 



POLITICAL. 



One of the arguments put forth by the 
people of the east side of Park county when 
the matter of the formation of the new county 
of Sweet Grass was being discussed was that 
they were being taxed without having repre- 
sentation in the government of the county. The 
point seems to have been well taken, for we 
find that when the new county was finally 



created in March, 1895, although the parent 
county had given up fifty per cent of its area 
and thirty per cent of its taxable wealth 
to the new county, not a single office 
holder of Park county was legislated out 
of office by reason of his place of residence; 
there was not a single Park county ofifice holder 
in the east half of the county. Yellowstone 



2o6 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



Lounty, on tlie other liaiul, although it gave 
of its territory only about three per cent to the 
new county, lost one of its comniissionerj, 
whose home was within the boundaries of this 
three per cent segregation. 

The first officers of Sweet Grass county 
were selected prior to the formation of the 
county in a mass convention, attended by all 
citizens regardless of party politics. The 
names of the men so selected were embodied 
in the enabling act, and with the exception of 
one change they became the first officers of the 
new county. These officers were mentioned in 
the preceding chapter. 

Xow the constitution of the state of !Mon- 
tana provides for the filling of vacancies in the 
board of county commissioners by appointment 
by the judge of the district court and of other 
officers by appointment by the county commis- 
sioners, so after the bill had become a law, the 
question was raised as to the constitutionaHty 
of that part of the act that named the county 
officers. The matter was taken up to Attorney 
General Haskell, who held that this section of 
the constitution applied to the officers of new 
counties where no provision had been made 
for their selection by election. To remedy this 
alleged defect. Judge Henry, on Monday, 
March ii, appointed to the offices of county 
commissioners the men \\-ho had been named in 
the bill. The county commissioners in turn 
appointed to the other county offices the men 
who had been selected and named in the act 
creating the county. Thus everything was 
arranged to the liking of the lawyers, and the 
men above named served until their successors, 
elected in November, 1896, had qualified. 

The first political convention held in Sweet 
Grass county convened at Big Timber May 
9, 1896, when the Republicans selected dele- 
gates to the state convention at Butte to select 
delegates to the national convention which 
nominated William McKinley for the presi- 
dency. The Sweet Grass county delegates 
chosen were J. E. Barbour, R. B. Briggs, J. 



X. Kelly and C. T. Busha, with Walter Ait- 
ken and M. W. Hatch delegates at large. 

The Democrats met at Big Timber June 13 
and chose deligates to the Butte state con- 
vention, which in turn named Montana's dele- 
gates to the national convention that nomi- 
nated William Jennings Bryan to the presi- 
dency. The delegates chosen were Harvey 
Bliss, Jake L. DeHart, W. A. Harrison and 
Sydney Fox. 

The Republican nominating convention 
was held at Big Timber September 5. J. X. 
Kelly was chosen chairman of the convention ; 
P. L. \'anCleve was temporary secretary, and 
E. ^1. Hall was permanent secretary. There 
were contests for nearly all the offices. The 
convention declaredrin favor of the free and 
unlimited coinage of silver, in direct opposi- 
tion to the Republican national platform. 
Delegates chosen to the state convention, 
which nominated the state ticket, were as fol- 
lows : R. B. Briggs, C. T. Busha, R. M. Fry. 
Chas. McDonnell, W. E. Youmans and P. L. 
\'anCleve. 

There was a bad split in the Republican 
party over the question of silver, and some of 
the members of that party in Sweet Grass 
county determined to put a separate ticket in 
the field. Some of the leaders of that faction 
gave notice of the bolt as follows : 

Those Republicans who favor the free and unlim- 
ited coinage of silver by the United States, without 
waiting the consent of any other nation on earth, and 
who are refused representation on the ticket recently 
presented to the electors of Sweet Grass county by 
the gold-bug element of Sweet Grass county, are re- 
quested to meet on Saturday, the 12th day of Sep- 
tember, 1896, at ten o'clock a. m., at the office of O. 
M. Lanphear, Esq., in the town of Big Timber, for 
the purpose of considering the advisability of putting 
a silver Republican ticket in the field. 

Henry Nicholson, 
John M. Dodge, 
A. G. Hatch, 

L. F. DOUTHETT, 

William M. iRvaNE. 
Sidney Sanner, 

Committee. 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



207 



The silver Republicans met on the 12th and 
decided to nominate a joint ticket with the 
Democrats. 

The Democratic nominating convention 
met in Big Timber on the same da}-. A. C. 
Logan was made chairman and W. A. Moore 
secretary of the temporary organization, and 
a committee was named to confer with the 
silver Republicans with the object of accom- 
plishing fusion. In the permanent organiza- 
tion Harvey Bliss was made chairman and W. 
A. Moore secretary. The conference commit- 
tee reported that the silver Republicans would 
unite with the Democrats and work for the 
interest of the whole ticket if the new party 
were given the naming of the officers for 
representative, clerk and recorder, clerk of the 
district court, one county commissioner and 
superintendent of schools. The Democrats 
acceded to these demands, and proceeded to 
the nomination of the other officers. The 
ticket was named without many contests. The 
convention declared for free silver. 

For the first election the county commis- 
sioners, on September 8, created the following 
election precincts, named the polling places and 
judges of election: 

Big Timber — Buslia & Bailey's hall. T. T. 
Prather, C. T. Busha, T. K. Lee, X. Budd, S. 
-A. Perrine. 

Grace Park — Logan's ranch. A. C. 
Logan, Chas. Meigs. E. C. Baxter. 

Szeaiii/^ Creek — Swamp Creek school 
house. A. Anderson, John B. ^Morris, W. E. 
Youmans. 

M cLeo J— UcLeod school house. G. B. 
Loasby, Frank McLeod, George Muncaster. 

Gillette — Toolhurst's ranch. Branson De- 
Hart, Jas. Reed, John K. Davis. 

Boulder — Perkins' ranch. \Vm. Perkins, 
Adam Troutman, Jake IMiller. 

Upper Stilkcatcr — Jeff Balenger's ranch, 
\\'. H. Hibbert, W. H. Balenger, G. D. 
Pretton. 



Loieer Stillzcater — \\'. E. Anderson's 
ranch. W. E. Anderson, Thos. Flanagan, Ed. 
Buck. 

Merrill— Mathew Miller's ranch. Olof 
Lavorsen, F. A. Austen, Jacob Kroft. 

Reeds Point — ^^Reeds Point school house. 
A. T. Irwin, Jos. Lay, P. L. Hicks. 

Grey Cliff — Grey Cliff school house. W. 
L. Shanks, J. M. Wadsworth, Richard 
Cosgriff. 

Sweet Grass — School house. B. L. Ryan, 
Eric Solbcrg, I'rcd I'.artels. 

Mehille — Melville hotel. Kerschel Frank- 
lin, C. P. Thompson, John R}e. 

Fish Creek — R. Andrews' ranch. Robt. 
McClatchie, J. C. Farrington, Robert Andrews. 

A III erica II Fork — Parberry's ranch. A. E. 
Hopkins, Joe Shutz, Ed. Vesey. 

Jarrett — Jarrett school house. C. W. 
W'estfall, Spencer Jarrett, John Fryer. 

The campaign preceding the election of 
November 3, 1896, was an exciting one, ow- 
ing to the excitement over the free silver ques- 
tion and the breaking up, to a greater or less 
extent, of party lines. The free silver advo- 
cates carried the count}' for Mr. Bryan for 
president by a plurality of six votes out of a 
total of about six hundred. The Republican 
candidate for congressman carried the county 
by 12 votes, wdiile the Republican candidate 
for governor had a plurality of 116. On the 
countv ticket where there were contests the 
fusionists elected their candidates for senator, 
one commissioner, county attorney, sheriff, 
assessor and superintendent of schools ; the Re- 
publicans elected representative, clerk of the 
district court, two commissioners, clerk and 
recorder and treasurer. Following was the 
official vote : 

Presidential electors — Democratic, 298 ; 
Republican, 292; Prohibitionist, i. 

Congressman — rChas. S. Hartman, sil. 
rep., 261 ; O. F. Goddard, rep., 273. 

Governor — Robt. B. Smith, dem. and sil. 



2o8 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



rep., 2^2; Alexander C. Botkin, rep., 348. 

Senator — William J. Hannah, dem. and 
sil. rep., 317; C. T. Busha, rep., 2j'/. 

Representative — John M. Dodge, dem. and 
sil. rep., 226; J. N. Kelly^, rep., 316. 

Judge Sixth Judicial District — Frank 
Henry, rep. and sil. rep., 491. 

Clerk District Court — Sydney Sanner, 
dem. and sil. rep., 211; C. N. Skillman, rep., 

369- 

County Commissioners — Thomas Flana- 
gan, dem. and sil. rep., 357 ; Henry Nicholson, 
dem. and sil. rep., 276; William Nelson, dem. 
and sil. rep., 217; J. W. Bailey, rep., 366; 
Matthew :\Iiller, rep., 216; R. J. McConnell, 
rep., 303- 

County Attorney — Sidney Fox, dem. and 
sil. rep., 389; E. M. Hall, rep., 209. 

Clerk and Recorder — Geo. F. Hudson, 
dem. and sil. rep., 292; J. H. Moore, rep., 304. 

Sheriff — Jake L. De Hart, dem. and sil. 
rep., 342; B. F. Lamb, rep., 272. 

Treasurer — Thomas K. Lee, dem. and sil. 
rep., 291 ; E. O. Clark, rep., 311. 

Assessor — W'aborn A. Harrison, dem. and 
sil. rep., 307; B. O. Forsythe, rep., 283; Fred 
Tritinger, 10. 

Public Administrator — E. C. Hale, rep., 
376; Lige Fowler, i. 

Coroner — Harvey Bliss, 2 ; Phil Crossing, 
I ; Geo. Muncaster, 4; Thos. K. Tolhurst, i. 

Superintendent of Schools — Bessie H. 
Marieless, dem. and sil. rep., 372; L. C, 01m- 
stead, rep., 213. 

Surveyor — D. J. Walvoord, rep., 324; Sol. 
Craft, i; John F. Simmons, i. 

Fusion between the Democrats and Silver 
Republicans was attempted again in 1898, but 
was not accomplished, and all three parties had 
tickets in the field. Some candidates of the 
Democrats and Republicans were endorsed 
by the Silver Republican party, but there was 
no fusion, in the general acceptance of the 
term. The Republicans were generally suc- 
cessful, electing the whole ticket, with the ex- 



ception of the nominees for treasurer and sur- 
veyor. There were 620 ballots cast at this 
election, about the same as at the preceding 
election. Following was the official vote; 

Congressman Thomas C. Marshall, rep., 
324; Albert J. Campbell, dem., 189; Thos. S. 
Hogan, sil. rep. and pp., 51. 

Representative — W. W. Beasley, rep., 
317; W. P. Franklin, dem. 196; L. F. Dou- 
thett, sil. rep.. 79. 

Sheriff' — A. T. Kellogg, rep. and sil. rep., 
310; J. L. De Hart, dem. 293. 

Treasurer — A. Whitney, rep., 288 ; A. E. 
Snook, sil. rep. and dem., 307. 

Clerk and Recorder — John H. Moore, rep. 
and sil. rep., 498; Peter Wormser, i. 

County Attorney — E. M. Hall, rep., 342; 
Sidney Sanner, dem., 155; A. G. Hatch, sil. 
rep., 90. 

Assessor — C. O. Hathaway, rep., 289; 
John Prutting, ileni., 99; O. M. Lanphear, sil. 
rep., 184. 

Superintendent of Schools — Eva L. Dana, 
rep. and sil. rep., 342 ; Mary Frawley, dem., 

254- 

Surveyor — D. J. Walvoor, rep. and sil. 
rep., 253; Solomon J. Craft, dem., 313. 

Coroner — Albert Stubblefield, dem., 12; 
Scattering, 10. 

Public Administrator — A. G. Yule, rep., 
358. 

J. W. Bailey, w^ho had been elected county 
commissioner in 1896, resigned the office July 
16, 1900, and Judge Henry appointed New- 
ton Budd to fill the unexpired term. Mr. Budd 
resigned the following spring and J. A. Hall 
was appointed to the place. W. J. Hannah 
was also appointed to fill a vacancy as county 
commissioner in September, 1901, and served 
a short time. 

The election of November 6, 1900, was a 
hotly contested affair, resulting in a victory for 
the Republicans. The Silver Republicans ele- 
ment did not put a ticket in the field this year, 
and the contest was fought out between the 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



209 



Democrats and Republicans. Four years be- 
fore Mr. Bryan had carried the county; now 
Rlr. McKinley had a big majority, as did the 
other Repubhcan candidates for state offices. 
The Democrats carried the county for their can- 
didate for district judge and elected the clerk 
of the district court antl superintendent of 
schools. There was a gain of 154 votes in the 
number cast — 774 being the total vote. Fol- 
lowing is the result of the 1900 election as of- 
ficially canvassed by the board of county com- 
missioners : 

Presidential Electors — Republican 460; 
Democratic, 287; Prohibitionist, i. 

Congressman — S. G. Murray, rep., 447; 
Cardwell Edwards, dem.. lab. and pp., 276; 
C. F. Kelly, ind. dem., 8; .Martin J. Elliott, 
soc. dem., o. 

Governor — D. E. Folsom, rep., 435 ; J. K. 
Toole, dem., pp. and lab., 305 ; T. S. Hogan, 
ind. dem., 12; J. F. Fox, soc. dem., i. 

Judge Sixth Judicial District — W. H. 
Poorman, rep., 361 ; Frank Henry, dem., ind. 
dem., lab. and pp., 393. 

Senator — J. N. Kelly, rep., 452; W. J. 
Hannah, dem., 304. 

Representative — Jake L. De Hart, dem., 
345; Robert Brownlee. rep., 418: W. W. Beas- 
ley, ind., 8. 

Sheriff — Oscar Fallang, rep., 390; Thos. 
K. Lee, dem., 384. 

Clerk and Recorder — J. H. Moore, rep., 
409; M. S. Bryant, dem., 362. 

Clerk District Court— B. F. Mjelde, dem., 
387; C. N. Skillman, rep., 370. 

Treasurer — \V. A. Harrison, dem., 298: 
J. W. Geiger, rep., 460. 

County Attorney — A. G. Hatch, dem.. 
358; E. M. Hall, rep., 400. 

Surveyer — D. J. Walvoord. rep., 493; S.J. 
Craft, dem., 13. 

Superintendent of Schools — Stellah Wal- 
ker, dem., 402; Edith Marieless, rep., 361. 

County Commissioners — Francis Irwin, 
rep., 379; O. B. Nevin, rep., 456; R. J. Mc- 



Connell, rep., 454; Harvey Bliss, dem., 358; 
Peter ^Michaels, dem., 351; C. P. Thompson, 
dem., 231. 

Assessor — C. O. Hathaway, rep., 528; 
Albert Haak, dem., 230. 

Public Administrator — A. G. Yule, rep.,. 

The general election of November 4, 1902,. 
resulted in a complete victory for the Repub- 
licans, that party electing every candidate on 
its ticket. This was the first election in the 
county at which the dominant party had car- 
ried the ticket from topi to bottom. There was 
a falling off of the vote, the highest number of 
votes cast for any one office being 631. Never 
in the political history of the county had there 
been so many "split" tickets. The offivcial 
vote : 

Congressman — J. M. Dixon, rep., 376; 
John M. Evans, dem., 200; Geo. B. Sproule, 
soc, 5; Martin Dee, lab. and pp., 7. 

Representatives — Robert Brownlee, rep., 
393 ; E. H. Cowles, dem., 224. 

Sheriff' — O. A. Fallang, rep., 435 ; Geo. 
M. Briner, dem., 196. 

Treasurer — J. W. Geiger, rep., 389; Chas. 
A. Bailey, dem., 239. 

Clerk and Recorder — Harry Allen, rep., 
319; J. W. Cochran, dem., 311. 

Assessor — Ralph Jarrett, rep., 340; Pros- 
per Tessier, dem., 283. 

County Attorney — E. M. Hall, rep., 316; 
A. G. Hatch, dem., 309. 

Superintendent of Schools — Mrs. S. G. 
Webster, rep., 353: Rose Maupin, dem., 276. 

Surveyor — D. J. Walvoord, rep., 366; S. 
J. Craft, dem., 239. 

Senator J. N. Kelly resigned in the spring 
of 1903 to accept the office of receiver of the 
Bozeman land office, and on April 30th Gov- 
ernor Toole issued a proclamation calling for 
a special election in Sweet Grass county to 
elect a successor. May i6th was the date set 
for the election. The Republicans nominated 
J. W. Bailey and the Democrats W. P. Frank- 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



lin. The vote was : J. W. Bailey, 272 ; W. P. 
Franklin, 100. 

B. F. Mjelde resigned the office of clerk 
of the district court in the summer of 1903 
and on August 5th of that year the county 
commissioners appointed Harvey C. Pound to 
fill the unexpired term. 

Seven hundred and eighty-six votes were 
cast at the general presidential election 
November 8, 1904, the largest number that 
had ever before been cast in the county. Again 
were the Republicans successful in electing 
every candidate on the county ticket. Theo- 
dore Roosevelt carried the county for president 
over Judge Alton B. Parker by a vote of 538 
to 174, and the Republican candidates on the 
state ticket carried the county by nearly as 
large a vote. Following is the vote at this 
election : 

Presidential Electors — Republican, 538 ; 
Democratic and Labor, 1 74 ; Peoples party, i ; 
Socialist, 48; Socialist Labor, o; Prohibition, 2. 

Congressman — Jos. M. Dixon, rep., 533 ; 
Austin C. Gormley, dem., lab. and pp., 185; 
John H. Walch, soc, 43. 

Governor — William Lindsay, rep., 477; 
Jos. K. Toole dem., ,lab. and pp., 261 ; ^Lilcom 
G. O'Malley, soc, 40. 

Judge Sixth Judicial District — Frank 
Henry, rep., 605. 

Senator— Chas. McDonnell, rep., 420; W. 
L. Martin, dem., 325; W. J. Knapp, soc, 35. 

Representative — Benjamin O. Forsythe 
rep.. 434: Herman Utermohle, dem., 296. 
Thomas B. Breedlove, soc, 36. 

Treasurer— Dick Budd, rep., 618; M. N. 
Olmstead, soc, 49. 

Sheriff— Oscar A. Fallang, rep., 473; 
Henry Schrader, dem., 248; Frank Schaefer, 
soc, 65. 

Clerk and Recorder— Harry C. Allen, rep., 
566; A. E. Walker, dem., 188. 

Assessor— Ralph S. Jarrett, rep., 516; 
Geo. Munroe. dem., 227; J. :M. Dunbar, soc, 
32- 



County Attorney — John E. Barbour, rep., 
434; H. A. Hatch, dem., 316. 

Surveyor — Derk J. Walvoord, rep., 532. 

Superintendent of Schools — Alice Web- 
ster, rep., 452; Mattie Smoot, dem., 314. 

Clerk District Court — Harvey C. Pound, 
rep., 443; John H. Ammerman, dem., 286; 
L. C. Bade, soc, 34. 

Under the new law the nominations for 
county offices were made at a primary election 
held September 4, 1906. The result of the 
Republican election was as follows : 

Representative — Robert Brownlee, 311; B. 
O. Forsythe, 284. 

Sheriff— O. A. Fallang, 292 ; H. M. Lamb, 
260. 

Treasurer — Dick Budd, 587. 

Clerk and Recorder — H. C. Allen, 499; 
F. O. Maerdian, 131. 

Assessor — Ralph Jarrett, 259; J. W. 
Davis, 248; E. L. Patterson, 122. 

County Attorney — J. E. Barbour, 331 ; J 
T. Vaughan, 305. 

Superintendent of Schools — Alary R. 
Deegan, 383 ; May Baxter Vestal, 243. 

Surveyor — D. J. Walvoord, 567. 

County Commissioner (two year term) — 
H. O. Kellogg, 294; Jos. Kern, 214; B. O. 
Hollopeter, 97. 

County Commissioner (four year term) — 
John Rye, 522. 

County Commissioner (six year term) — 
Geo. Loasby, 447. 

The Democrats, believing that there was 
very little hope for any ticket they might name 
and not desiring to go through the expense of 
two campaignis for one election, did not attend 
the primary election in any numbers. There 
were a few votes cast, however, for nominees 
on the Democratic ticket, many of them being 
for Republicans. The result of this election, 
as canvassed by the board of county commis- 
sioners was as follows: Representative, 
Robt. Brownlee; treasurer, Dick Budd; clerk 
and recorder, H. C. Allen; assessor, R. S. Jar- 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



rett; county attorney, John T. Vaug-han; su- 
perintendent of schools, M. B. Vestal; sur- 
veyor, D. J. Walvoord ; commissioner (two 
year term), Theo. Olson; commissioner (four 
year term), Jos. Lay; commissioner (six year 
term), Henry Nicholson. There were ties on 
the vote cast for some of the offices and these 
were decided bj' lot by the board. For the of- 
fice of representative Robt. Browmlee and Geo. 
W. Baker received the same number of votes, 
and the former was declared the nominee by 
the board. For county commissioner, two 
year term, Theo. T. Olson and Jos. Kern were 
tied, and the former was selected by lot. Some 
of the candidates named by the Democrats re- 
signed and others were named by the central 
committee. 

When the general election was held in No- 
vember there was opposition to the Republi- 
can ticket only for four offices — representative, 
county attorney and two commissioners. The 
result was a falling off in the vote, only 586 
votes being cast. The Republican ticket was 
elected without a break, although the result 
was close on one of the commissioners. Fol- 
lowing was the official vote : 

Congressman — Chas. N. Pray, rep., 403; 



Thos. J. Walsh, dem. and lab., 152 ; John Hud- 
son, soc, 22 ; J. H. Calderhead, pp., o. 

Representative — Robert Brownlee, rep., 
407; Geo. W. Baker, dem., 154. 

Sheriff— O. A. Fallang, rep., 498. 

Treasurer — Dick Budd, rep. and dem., 
528. 

Clerk and Recorder — Harry C. Allen, rep. 
and dem., 534. 

Assessor — Ralph S. Jarrett, rep. and dem., 

SSI- 
County Attorney — John E. Barbour, rep., 

309 ; A. G. Hatch, dem., 277. 

Superintendent of Schools — Mary R. 

Deegan, rep., 467. 

Surveyor — Derk J. Walvoord, rep. and 

dem., 487. 

County Commissioner (two year term) — 

H. O. Kellogg, rep., 301; Theo. T. Olson, 

dem., 243. 

County Commissioner (four year term)^ 

John Rye, rep., 425. 

County Commissioner (six year term) — 

Geo. A. Loasby, rep., 281 ; Henry Nicholson. 

dem., 277. 

Coroner — IMulkern, rep., 44. 



CHAPTER IV 



DESCRIPTIVE. 



Sweet Grass county, Montana, is located 
in the south central part of the state, its south- 
ern boundary being only about ten miles from 
the Wyoming line. It is about eighty miles 
in length from north to south — and its great- 
est width is a little less than fifty miles. 
On the north lies Meagher county ; to the east 
is Yellowstone county; Carbon county is on 
the southeast, separated by the Stillwater 



river ; Park county bounds Sweet Grass on the 
south and west. 

The area of Sweet Grass county is 2,887 
square miles, and the altitude ranges from 
4,000 to 11,000 feet above the sea level. Of 
this area a rough estimate would place about 
one-half in the class designated as valley and 
bench lands; the remainder consists of moun- 
tain ranges and forests. Of' the latter 570 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



square miles are included in the Yellowstone 
forest reserve and 90 square miles in the 
Crazy mountain reserve. There are, perhaps, 
five or six hundred square miles of the area 
of Sweet Grass county that can be irrigated, 
while the rest is grazing land. While there 
is that much that can be used for irrigated 
farm purposes, less than one-tenth of that 
amount of land is under water today. The 
remaining acres are still waiting for the ap- 
plication of work and water to make them pro- 
ductive and profitable to their owners. 

Within the county of Sweet Grass are 
rugged mountains and sheltered valleys, many 
rivers and creeks, deep canyons, great forests, 
a land of sunshine and shadow and peaceful 
homes. The summers are cool and delightful, 
and the winters are exceedingly mild and com- 
paratively free from severe storms. The air 
is pure and invigorating; the scenery grand. 
Here are opportunities for those who are seek- 
ing homes in one of the best countries in these 
United States. And Sweet Grass county has 
a population of about 3,500 people! 

In the northwestern part of the county is 
the Crazy range of mountains with their per- 
petual snow covered peaks, from which rise 
the streams that flow into the Yellowstone 
from the north. There are many high peaks 
in these mountains within the borders of Sweet 
Grass county. Among these are Crazy Peak 
on the western boundary line of the county, 
raising its snow covered head to an elevation 
of 11,194 feet above the sea level; Fairview 
Peak, also on the western boundary line ; Cin- 
namon Peak in the extreme northwestern cor- 
ner ; and Porcupine Butte, in the northwestern 
part of the county, which has an elevation of 
6,970 feet. In the southern part of the county 
are the Absaroka range of mountains, not less 
lofty and awe-inspiring than the Crazies. 
Mount Douglas is the highest mountain peak 
of this range in Sweet Grass county ; its eleva- 
tion is 11,300 feet. 

Sweet Grass is one of the best watered 



counties in ^Montana. The Yellowstone river, 
flowing from west to east, divides the county 
into two nearly equal parts. Flowing into the 
Yellowstone from both the north and south 
sides are no less than fifteen or twenty import- 
ant creeks, which, with their tributaries, form 
a perfect network over the county, furnishing 
the elixir of life to vegetation in erevry por- 
tion thereof. 

On the south the county is hemmed in by 
spurs of the Rocky mountains, from whose 
snow-capped summits come many important 
tributaries of the Yellowstone. The farthest 
west of these is Wright creek, in the valley of 
which some of the earliest settlers took up 
residences. A little to the east of Wright creek 
is Prather creek. Then comes the Big Boulder 
river, or creek, one of the most important 
streams of the county. Its principal tributaries 
are the West Boulder, East Boulder and Bahel 
creek. Some sixty miles from the point wdiere 
this stream flows into the Yellowstone at the 
town of Big Timber a little spring bubbles out 
of the ground, and this is the commencement 
of the Boulder river. This is in the extreme 
southern part of the county, away up in the 
mountains which cover the whole of that part 
of the county. The journey from that point 
to the mouth is an ever shifting panorama of 
beauty. Surrounding the upper valley are the 
giant peaks standing guard over the untold 
mineral wealth buried there ; down in the lower 
valley are the happy homes and highly de- 
veloped ranches of the men and women who 
have builded. 

The power that could be generated along 
this stream is incomprehensible, and were it 
properly harnessed to modern machinery it 
would produce sufficient electricity to run 
many mills and factories, besides furnishing 
light and heat for a large city — and that with- 
out in the least interfering with either present 
or prospective diversion of water for irriga- 
tion purposes. 

Twentv-eight miles above the mouth of 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY 



213 



Boulder river are the Natural bridge and the 
Natural bridge falls, where the waters of the 
river fall a distance of about one hundred feet. 
The Natural bridge is a limestone formation 
over the river at the head of the falls, it having 
been carved out by the action of the water. 
At the ordinary stage of the river the water 
goes under this bridge, but in high water the 
river flows over the bridge. 

Continuing east from the Boulder we find 
these other streams coming into the Yellow- 
stone from the south : Upper Deer, Lower 
Deer, Bridger, Work, Hump, Whistle, Section 
House Gulch, Countryman, which is formed 
by North Fork, South Fork and numerous 
other creeks, and then the Stillwater river, 
which forms the southeastern boundary of the 
county. 

Flowing into the Stillwater from the Sweet 
Grass county side are the following creeks : 
Buck, Jackson, Cow, Spring, Trout, Bad Can- 
yon, West Fork of the Stillwater and others. 

Equally well watered is the northern half 
of the county. From the perpetual snow fields 
among the lofty peaks of the Crazy moun- 
tains come down numerous babbling creeks, 
traversing the whole of 'the northern part of 
the county and furnishing abundance of water 
during- the irrigating season. Farthest to the 
west is the historic Duck creek, upon the banks 
of which located the first white settler of 
Sweet Grass county. There are three principal 
forks to • this creek. Next to Duck creek is 
the Little Timber, with east and west forks and 
other tributaries. White Tail creek lies to the 
east of this. 

The next stream of importance is Big 
Timber creek, which rises in the Crazy moun- 
tains just outside of Sweet Grass county, 
flows in a southeasterly direction, and empties 
into the Yellowstone opposite the town of Big 
Timber. Its principal tributaries are Swamp 
creek. South Fork, De\il creek, Amtong creek 
and Hailstone creek. Otter creek empties into 
the Yellowstone a short distance east of Big 



Timber, and with its branches drains a large 
territory. Its most important branches are 
Ten-Mile creek, Wheeler creek and the North 
and South Forks. 

One of the most important streams flow- 
ing into the Yellowstone from the north is 
Sweet Grass ri\'er, or creek, which has its 
source in the Crazies §t a point twenty-five 
miles north and west of Big Timber, flows in 
a southeasterly direction, forming almost a 
half circle, and debouches into the Yellowstone 
at a point about twelve miles east of the 
mouth of the Big Timber. Its tributaries are 
the East Fork, Cayuse creek and Scofield 
creek. To the east of this river is White 
Beaver creek,, which has a large tributary in the 
West Fork. 

The Musselshell river touches the county 
on the northeast corner, and the extreme north- 
ern and northeastern part of the county is 
drained by creeks which flow into that river. 
One of these is Big Elk creek, which flows 
across the extreme northwestern corner. Lebo 
creek and American Fork are two important 
streams which drain the northern part of the 
county and empty into the Musselshell. Other 
important creeks in the northern and north- 
eastern part of the county flowing into the 
Musselshell are Fish creek with numerous trib- 
utaries, Mud creek and Big Coulee creek. 

Now let us consider the relation these num- 
erous streams bear to the prosperity of Sweet 
Grass county. Anyone at all conversant with 
the nature of the soil of the arid west and the 
scarcity of rainfall realizes the value of moun- 
tain streams. While the plainsman regards 
the mountains as representing so much waste 
land, the western farmer knows that they are 
the very fountain head of his wealth and 
prosperity. These mountains conserve the 
water supply until the heat of the long 
summer days melt the snow, which has 
been held in storage in the higher ranges, at 
a time when it is needed by the farmer to 
moisten his crops. While there is some "dry 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



land farming" carried on in Sweet Grass coun- 
ty, it is the exception rather than tlie rule. 
The principal crops of the dry farms are winter 
wheat and rye. 

Because of the splendid distribution of 
water and the ease with which this water can 
be diverted from the streams, owing to the 
natural slope of the land, hundreds of canals 
now tap the sources of supply and carry the 
water to every portion of the numerous val- 
leys. As a result many thousands of acres of 
arid land, which in days gone by were consid- 
ered worthless, have been reclaimed from their 
desert state and now produce crops of grain 
and grasses that are unsurpassed in quality and 
quantity anywhere on earth. 

The farming lands of Sweet Grass county 
are, of course, in the valleys of the streams, 
and nearly all of these valleys are highly pro- 
ductive. It shall be our purpose now to de- 
scribe some of the most important of these 
agricultural areas. 

The Yellowstone valley extends across the 
county from west to east, and its length in 
Sweet Grass county is about fifty-five miles; 
its average width about two miles. There are 
many fine farms in the valley. 

The Boulder river valley is one of the best 
known and most prosperous in the county, and 
has been described as the "Garden Spot of 
Sweet Grass County." In fertility of soil and 
scenic grandeur it is unsurpassed. From the 
mouth of the stream at Big Timber for a dis- 
tance of thirty miles up the stream it is all 
taken up with ranches,' and many hundreds 
of acres are under cultivation. Including the 
bottom and bench lands, the valley is about 
five miles wide. Of the Boulder valley a writer 
in the Big Timber Pioneer of December 13, 
1906, said: 

* * * No transformation could be more bewil- 
dering than that ■v\''hich has taken place in Boulder 
valley within the past ten years— and alfalfa is its name. 

Oats and wheat are among the most profitable 
crops grown on the Boulder. The yields are enormous, 



and the market very satisfactory. The hog industry 
has not yet assumed large proportions, but it is re- 
garded as holding bright prospects for the future. 
Whilst the cattle industry has been the most im- 
portant on the Boulder, the big sheep feeder has 
early recognized the superior fattening qualities of 
alfalfa. 

As in all parts of the county the Boulder 
valley is watered by irrigation, and it contains 
numerous private irrigating ditches. 

The valley of the Sweet Grass was the first 
part of the county that received settlers, and 
it is one of the richest parts. Near the foot 
of the Crazy mountains, where tlie stream 
heads, the valley is in the form of a large basin, 
in which are many thousand acres of rich 
farming lands. Following down the stream 
the valley narrows, yet many ranches are scat- 
tered along it, all using the Sweet Grass water 
in the cultivation of the adjacent lands. About 
eight miles from the mouth of the creek the 
valley widens again, and here are many thou- 
sand acres more of good land. Of the many 
private ditches in this valley there is one of 
special importance. This is 19 miles long and 
carries 1,000 inches of water. It was com- 
pleted October 15th, 1903, for O. B. Nevin. 
Three thousand acres of land were covered 
at a cost of $4,000. The water is taken from 
the creek at a point about two miles north of 
the town of Melville. 

To the west of the Sweet Grass valley are 
a number of valleys which are very productive 
and thickly settled. These are the valleys of 
the Big Timber, Otter and Swamp creeks, all 
of which have their source in the Crazy moun- 
tains. The Big Timber valley is about six- 
teen miles long and the average width about 
a mile and one-half; the south fork of the Big 
Timber is five miles long and one mile wide; 
Swamp creek is ten miles long and about one 
mile wide. These valleys are watered by 
canals taken from the streams and run paral- 
lel with the creeks. 

Another one of the important valleys of the 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



215 



county is the Stillwater, lying along the south- 
eastern border. This valley is 65 miles long, 
and on the Sweet Grass county side there are 
about forty ranches in the valley. This was 
in the Crow reservation until 1892, since 
which time it has been settled. Leaving the 
Y'ellowstone at Columbus you can pass up the 
Stillwater and see mile after mile of land in 
alfalfa, oats, wheat and other cereals in the 
valley proper, while back in the hills are graz- 
ing lands of unsurpassed luxuriance. If you 
go up the river far enough you will come to 
what is known as the lower canyon, far famed 
for its beauty and grandeur, with its midnight 
gulch, its natural bridge, its bee-hive rock, its 
ramparts and battlements, and its buttes. Then 
comes the far famed Stillwater basin, with its 
coal, copper, nickel and other precious metals. 

One of the best and cheapest water pro- 
perties in the state of Montana is that operated 
by the Dry Creek Canal company, a co-opera- 
tive irrigating concern which has its canal 
south of the Boulder river. The canal is eight 
miles long, carries 2,500 inches of water and 
supplies 3,200 acres of land, comprising sep- 
arate ranches. The greater part of the stock 
was issued in exchange for labor performed 
by members of the company and beneficiaries 
of the canal, and the expense for water is 
limited by the cost of maintenance, which is 
merely nominal. There are no flumes, the 
ditch being cut through solid ground. This 
ditch was put in by a settlement of Mormons. 

In the northern part of the county are 
other agricultural communities, on American 
Fork and other streams. 

Many of the ranches of Sweet Grass 
county contain from 25,000 to 30,000 acres, 
but these are gradually being divided 
into smaller ranches. Except on dry land 
farms, where summer fallowing is necessary 
and only one-half of the farm can be cropped 
every year, 160 acres is plenty large enough 
for any farmer to cultivate as a farm should 
be cultivated. 



Within the last five years ranch property 
has fully doubled in value. Ranches that 
could have been purchased for $3,000 five 
years ago cannot be bought for less than $6,- 
000, while lands that were barren wastes and 
considered worthless at that time are now pro- 
ducing splendid yields. The rapid decrease 
of the public range compels the stockmen to 
depend more on the production of his ranch 
to feed his stock. As the result the ranchman 
is paying more attention to the intensified 
farming of his land by adopting more ap- 
proved methods, thus increasing the produc- 
tivity of the soil. This, in connection with 
an increasing demand for tillable land, ac- 
counts for the rapid increase in valuation. 
Lands improved and unimproved sell from $10 
to $50 per acre. Agriculture is only in the in- 
fancy of its development in Sweet Grass 
county, and the opportunities and natural ad- 
vantages here are unsurpassed in the west. It 
is estimated that there were 6,500 acres more 
land under cultivation in 1906 than there were 
in 1905. 

Formerly the public range was depended 
upon almost entirely to provide feed for stock, 
but under the new order of things an acre of 
land will produce sufficient food to keep ten 
times as much stock as it did before. 

On properly irrigated ranches wheat yields 
from forty-five to sixty-five bushels per acre, 
oats from sixty to one hundred and five bush- 
els, barley from seventy-five to one hundred 
bushels, potatoes from two hundred to four 
hundred bushels, alfalfa from three to six tons, 
timothy from two to three tons, and other pro- 
ducts in like quantities. 

Although for a long time it was supposed 
that fruit could not be raised in this climate, 
Sweet Grass county is now producing fine ap- 
ples and plums, while the smaller fruits — ber- 
ries, currants, strawberries, etc. — grow every- 
where. 

One of the leading industries of the county 
is stock raising, although it is not carried on 



2l6 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



as it was in the early days before the ranges 
were taken up for ranches. Nowhere in Mon- 
tana are the natural advantages more favor- 
able for stock raising than in Sweet Grass 
•county. Blessed with a most generous supply 
of water, a very essential commodity for grow- 
ing forage crops and for the winter feeding of 
stock, and sheltered by the mountain peaks 
from the cold winds and severe storms. Sweet 
Grass is indeed a paradise for the stockman. 
Among the stock, sheep easily lead. In fact, 
for years Sweet Grass county had the reputa- 
tion of being the greatest sheep raising county 
in the state. During the winter of 1906-07 fully 
350,000 sheep were fed on the ranches of the 
county. Of this number, about 110,000 were 
•owned by sheep men of other places, who rec- 
ognize the superior quality of Sweet Grass 
county alfalfa. 

This is also a great cattle country. During 
the year 1906 there were shipped from Big 
Timber 355 cars of cattle, which went to the 
eastern markets. 

Another industry that is fast coming to the 
front is the raising of hogs. Those who have 
tried the experiment ha\"e found it very profit- 
able. The hogs are fed on alfalfa during the 
summer and then fed on grain about two 
months. During the winter of 1906-07 A. L. 
Bray shipped, from Big Timber, five or six 
cars of hogs to Seattle and Billings. 

A writer in the Big Timber Pioneer of De- 
cember 13, 1906, tells of mineral resources 
of tlie county as follows : 

In the matter of mineral resources few states and 
Tiot every nation can claim the variety or amount found 
and utilized in Sweet Grass county. 

Gold, silver, lead, iron, copper, coal, lime and 
sandstone, all have been mined and sold from this 
county. 

Gold to the amount of about $200,000 has been ex- 
tracted from rock and gravel in the Boulder river 
district. Silver in combination with lead — galena — 
has been shipped in car load lots to be smelted, and 
profitable returns received. 

The Boulder river district is continuous from Big 
Timber southward for a distance of sixty miles, the 



valuable metals being found in the part beyond thirty 
miles from Big Timber. Through the canyon, the 
rocks, corroded by water and ice to a depth of hundreds 
of feet, show metal bearing seams continuously, so 
that even those that run may see. 

Every mile of the thirty miles of canyon has 
located claims, some being worked, many held be- 
cause of lack of money to do more ; the owner sure of 
its value confidently looks forward to the time when 
the Boulder will come to its own and its worth be 
appreciated. 

Hundreds of mining claims, showing now only a 
little hole in the ground and a little pile of ore near 
by, were at one time valued in the thousands of dol- 
lars, and at such valuation many were sold. Now 
they can be secured by anyone taking the trouble to 
claim them. 

Commencing at Big Timber and continuing south- 
ward directly great beds of sandstone are seen, all 
of a uniform gray color, but for building or shaping, 
this stone is as good as can be found in Montana. 

Beyond the upper sandstone, the Larmine beds 
outcrop, and in it are several layers of coal, thick enough 
to warrant mining and from which a considerable 
quantity of coal has already been mined. These 
layers, though but at most four feet thick, supply 
coal superior to anything found in the west, so much 
better that, though costing fifty per cent more, it is yet 
economical for fuel. As a substitute for imported 
soft coal, which is yet considered a necessity for the 
working of iron, it has been proven to be equally 
good. 

Beyond the sandstone beds lime rock shows, not 
in seams, not in beds, but mountains of it, and in 
comparison with other lime rocks none can be su- 
perior to it. Kilns for producing lime suitable for 
building purposes have been in operation for years. 

Beyond the lime area for thirty miles the rocks 
are seamed with quartz bearing iron, copper, silver, 
lead and gold. Iron ore of good quality and high 
percentage shows in such quantities that if but a small 
part of it could be so placed that transportation would 
cost but little, such as is possible in the Great Lake 
region, a million dollars would be a small estimate 
of its value ; located as it is, it is valueless. It will not 
always be so. 

Recently the statement was made that under very 
favorable conditions one per cent copper ores could 
be worked with a small profit — there are half mile 
areas in Sweet Grass county in which the ordinary 
country rock contains more than that, and rock with 
percentages as high as five per cent can be found as 
easily as boulders in Big Timber. 

There is an area of over twenty square miles in 
the Boulder district where copper bearing quartz can 
be found outcropping in any half mile square. With 
a few exceptions the percentage is not high — eight 
per cent or less. Occasionally, how^ever. it is found 
up to forty per cent. Leads on which development 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



217 



work has been done in every case have exceeded ex- 
pectations when depth was obtained. One with a depth 
of something over two hundred feet gives assay with 
over twenty per cent copper with forty dollars of gold 
per ton. This ore, though very rich, is so located 
that it could be taken only at great expense from the 
mine, an expense so great that the possibility has 
not been considered. 

Another copper lead, having a width of over 
thirty feet and extending over three miles, is now be- 
ing developed with extensive operations in view. Six 
men are at work at the present time on this lead, 
and the results shown are reported as being most sat- 
isfactory. 

The Crazy mountains, twenty miles north of Big 
Timber, have never been prospected by persons com- 
petent to give an opinion of any value. 

Some ranchmen, however, resting a few moments 
while following a deer on one of the .mountains, 
noticed that the rock they were sitting on was un- 
usual in appearance, and taking some with them, learned 
from others that the rock was galena — almost pure 
lead with silver. Where found the rock was nearly a 
foot and a half thick and extended as far as examined. 
Development work later confirmed the value of the 
lead, but difficulty in getting the ore down the moun- 
tain and transporting to railway with lack of capital, 
by which these could be overcome, necessitated the 
temporary closing of the mine. Work will be com- 
menced in the spring as soon as conditions allow. Car- 
load shipments from this mine give smelter returns 
of sixty per cent lead and about twenty ounces of 
silver per ton. 

That there are enormous bodies of lead in these 
mountains is proven beyond a doubt by the presence 
of galena crystals in the gravelly soil eight miles from 
the mountain along Big Timber creek. The amount 
of galena in this soil is almost enough to make it 
profitable washing for that alone. 

While there has not been much activity in 
mining operations in Sweet Grass county for 
many years, during the early nineties there was 
more interest taken in mining operations on 
the Boulder than in any other industry. The 
Boulder district is partly in Sweet Grass 
county and in Park county; but as the 
town of Big Timber was the principal 
outfitting point for the camp during 
the days of activity. They are properly consid- 
ered as belonging to this county. Of the his- 
tory of this district prior to the panic, which 
suspended all operations, Mr. H. C. Freeinan 
wrote in 1895 • 



According to the best information obtainable gold 
was first discovered on Baboon mountain in 1864 by 
those pioneer prospectors, John Allen and Barney 
Hughes. This district was then within the territory 
of the Crow Indians and continued so until by treaty 
the western part, including this district, was ceded to 
the United States, and by proclamation of President 
Harrison it was formally opened to the public. In 1891, 
1892 and 1893, up to the period in the summer when 
the panic struck Montana, it was the scene of great 
activity. During this time, also, the available agri- 
cultural lands in the valley of Boulder creek were taken 
up for homesteads. 

A large number of mining claims were located, and 
the rush of prospectors and miners into the district 
started the town of Independence, about three miles 
above the head of Boulder creek, in 1893. After the 
usual preliminary work incident to a mining camp in 
an isolated district, far from supplies and roads, supplies 
and machinery were gotten in from Big Timber, and 
systematic work was begun. As four cents per pound 
was the rate for transportation for supplies and machin- 
ery from Big Timber, a portion of their labor was natur- 
ally directed to opening and improving a road. Prog- 
ress enough was made to reduce freights to three cents 
a pound, and this was reduced to one and one-half 
cents a pound in the autumn of 1894. 

The first stamp mill taken in, other than a pros- 
pecting mill; was that of the Hidden Treasure Com- 
pany — a ten-stamp mill— and located on Basin creek, 
on the west side of Baboon mountain, the mine being 
nearly a mile distant on the south slope of the same 
mountain. The next mill was taken in by the Inde- 
pendence company and was located on Boulder creek, 
just a]<n\e the tnwnsite of Independence. This was a 
throe-. tamp Kendall mill, (.stmialed to be equal to an 
ordinary ten-stamp mill. In the next year this com- 
pany added a ten-stamp mill of the ordinary style. 
.\bout the same time the Daisy organized as the Treas- 
ure State Mining company, put in a ten-stamp mill on 
their property on the south slope of Baboon mountain, 
adjoining the mine of the Hidden Treasure company, 
and the Poorman company brought in a Crawford mill 
and put it on its property, three-fourths of a mile south 
of the Treasure State and Poorman mines, to furnish 
the power for the mills and light for mills and mines. 

In August. 1893, another ten-stamp mill was 
brought in by the King Solomon company and located 
about a mile southeast of the Poorman. Some lesser 
outfits for prospecting and light work had also been 
brought in. which are not necessary to mention in de- 
tail. At this time, when the camp was booming and 
alive with hope and expectation, the panic struck Mon- 
tana. Some of the banks went under, and ve'ry soon 
the necessary money supply to keep the mining opera- 
tion afloat until self sustaining, was cut off, and only 
one developed to a condition to be self-sustaining, had 
funds tied up in suspended banks. Very soon all opera- 
tions were brought to a standstill. 



CHAPTER V 



BIG TIMBER AND OTHER PLACES. 



There is only one town in Sweet Grass 
county that has arisen to the importance of 
having municipal government; this is Big 
Timber, the county seat, and a town of about 
i,ooo population. Next to the county seat 
town comes Melville, a little village in the 
Sweet Grass valley. These two are the prin- 
cipal towns, but there are a few other settle- 
ments in teh county that should be considered 
in this chapter. There are at present nine 
postoffices in the county as follows : Big Tim- 
ber, Melville, Nye, Howie, McLeod, Grey- 
clifif, Reed, Merrill and Busteed. 

BIG TIMBER. 

Big Timber is situated on the main line of 
the Northern Pacific railroad, a little to the 
west of the geographical center of the county. 
The town is builded on a high bench or plateau 
a short distance above the confluence of 
the Boulder with that river . The bench 
upon which the town is built is 4,090 
feet above sea level, d The location is a 
sightly one and commands a good view of the 
surrounding country. To the north one can 
look over twenty or thirty miles of ridgy green 
uplands to the superb Alpine range of the 
Crazy mountains. To the south one can look 
across a vast billowy expense of pasture and 
farming lands to the Snowy or Absaroka 
range, whose enormous bulk reaches away into 
Wyoming, lifting their masses of granite and 
snow 10,000 feet to the blue heavens. The 
landscape is unique and beautiful in whatever 
direction the eye is turned. 

Nature has paved the whole townsite with 
boulders and gravel. In fact, this particular 



locality appears to have been one of nature's 
chief dumping grounds for drift in the glacial 
age. Bed rock is fifty feet below the surface, 
and down to that depth the soil is full of 
boulders of all sizes, shapes and formations. 
Undoubtedly, during the glacial period these 
were carried down from the mountains from 
the south. On the principal thoroughfares of 
the town these boulders have been cleared 
away, but once out of the main streets they are 
the first thing to attract the notice of the 
stranger. Big Timber has sometimes been 
termed the "Cobblestone City" because of 
these boulders. 

Big Timber is the natural business center 
of a large scope of country, and draws its 
of a large scope of country, and draws its trade 
from great distances. Livingston, the nearest 
town on the west, is 35 miles away, while 
the nearest town on the east is Columbus, at 
a greater distance. Most of the business houses 
of the city are built of building stone, quarried 
a few miles from town, and give the little town 
a handsome appearance. To see Big Timber 
at its best, one should visit it during the sum- 
mer months, the wool hauling period. Then 
the wool teams come in for fifty miles or more 
— from up the Boulder, the Sweet Grass, the 
Big Timber and from the flanks of the 
Crazies. Two, and sometimes three, wagons 
are fastened together, drawn by six or eight or 
ten horses. 

The name of the town is a misnomer and 
conveys a wrong impression, as there is no 
natural timber on the townsite or near it and 
never was. The town was named after the 
old Big Timber stage station at the mouth of 
Big Timber creek, and there in the early days^^ 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



219. 



were found some of the largest trees in the 
whole Yellowstone valley. 

Big Timber came into existence on its pres- 
ent location in the year 1883, but before that 
date there had been setlements near this spot, 
accompanied by efiforts to found a town, and 
we shall consider these before taking- up the 
history of the town proper. 

Back in the late seventies, after the In- 
dians in this part of the country had been sub- 
dued and white people were beginning to make 
their homes in the Yellowstone valley, but be- 
fore the railroad was built, there was estab- 
lished a stage and mail route between the 
towns of Bozeman and Miles City. This stage 
road passed along the north bank of the Yel- 
lowstone river, and along the line w^ere num- 
erous stage stations, where horses could be ex- 
changed and where passengers and drivers 
might secure refreshments. One of these sta- 
tions was located on the north side of the river, 
just below the mouth of Big Timber creek, and 
was known as the Big Timber road house ; 
this was the first Big Timber. J. F. Marley 
conducted the station, and there was also a 
saloon owned by another party. Later other 
enterprises were started there. A toll ferry 
was put on the river by Keiger brothers; a 
store was started by R. B. Dunham ; Big Tim- 
ber postoffice was established with Mr. Dun- 
ham as the first postmaster. This station on 
the north side of the river reiuained in exist- 
ence until the railroad was built through this 
part of the territory in 1882, when the stage 
line went out of existence, and with it the sta- 
tion of Big Timber, which was moved across 
the ri\-er and formed the nucleus of a new 
town. 

This brings us up to the founding of 
Dornix, which was in turn to be abandoned 
for the starting of the town of Big Timber 
on its present location. In the summer of 
1882 the Northern Pacific railroad was built 
through this part of the country, and a bridge 
construction camp was located on the south 



side of the Yellowstone, just west of Boulder 
creek and nearly opposite the mouth of Big 
Timber creek. Here the men who were em- 
ploved in building the bridge across the 
Boulder were camped. Most of the laborers 
were Irishmen, and they christened the camp 
Dornix, which, though appropriate for the 
camp, did not preserve the euphony so char- 
acteristic of the names o'f western towns, and 
was not destined to live. Harvey Bliss, for 
many years afterward a prominent citizen of 
Sweet Grass county, was one of the contractors 
and built the approaches of the railroad bridge 
across the Boulder. 

The railroad company put in a spur down 
to the river at the point and named the station 
Dornix. The depot consisted of a platform^ 
and a tent. Quite a little settlement was then- 
built up here. The store and postoffice were' 
moved over from across the river, and a saw- 
mill was erected, which manufactured rough 
lumber for the construction of buildings by 
the few settlers, the lumber being rafted down 
the Big Timber from the forests up in the 
Crazy mountains. After the bridge had beetl 
constructed and the railroad builders had de- 
parted a new industry sprang up to keep the 
town of Dornix in existence. This was the 
matter of getting out ties for the railroad com- 
pany. Contractors employed forces of men ta 
get out the ties from the timber up the Big 
Timber and Boulder, and these were brotight 
down to the Yellowstone and piled up along 
the track for use at different points on the 
line. Owing to this work and the fact that 
quite a number of settlers were coming into 
the country and taking up land in the vicinity, 
we find that Dornix had grown to quite a. 
flourishing little village by the summer of 
1883. 

That fall arrangements were made to plat 
a townsite at this point, and as the town was 
builded on government land, the platting was 
done under the direction of the probate judge 
of Gallatin county. Sigmund Deutsch, of 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY, 



Bozeman, a surveyor was sent to Dornix to 
lay out the townsite, which he did in the latter 
part of September. Concerning the platting 
of the town and the condition of the little place 
at that date we reproduce the following, which 
was published in a Bozeman paper about the 
first of October : 

U. S. Engineer Deutsch has just returned from 
making a survey of the embryo city of Dornix, located 
thirty-five miles east of Livingston on the Yellowstone 
river, at the mouth of Boulder creek and on the North- 
ern Pacific railway. He reports the town growing very 
rapidly. There are already twenty-five houses, four 
stores, four saloons, a blacksmith shop and the usual 
number of trades and professions which are the usual 
adjuncts of a town. The population numbers about 
100, the majority of whom find employment with the 
Montana Lumber company. This firm has a very large 
saw mill on Boidder creek, and manufactures about 
six million feet of lumber annually. This is also a 
great point for getting out railroad ties. Over 200,000 
are stacked up along the track for shipment. 

Mr. Deutsch was ordered by the territorial author- 
ities to survey and plat eighty acres of a townsite. The 
probate judge of Gallatin county is selling lots at $10 
each. He (Deutsch) predicts a prosperous future for 
the town, which, by the way, is owned by the company 
and is without real estate scheme to profit by its growth. 

The town of Dornix was not to retain its 
identity long after this. Farther up the 
Boulder, about a mile from Dornix. John An- 
derson had settled upon land, which later be- 
came the townsite of Big Timber. Here in the 
latter part of 1883 the railroad company 
moved its station and built a' neat depot. This 
change in location, it is said, was made be- 
cause of the steep grade at the town of Dornix 
and the difficulty in handling trains there. The 
company called the new station Big Timber, 
and abandoned the Dornix station. A Dornix 
correspondent to the Livingston Enterprise of 
November 12, 1883, said of the arrangements 
at that time : "A stop is made at the town of 
Dornix, where there is not even a platform, 
but where all passengers alight or come aboard. 
The train then crosses Boulder creek to a neat 
new depot called Big Timber, erected on the 
railroad land, but which has no buildings 



around it nearer than those of Dornix, across 
the stream." 

In the month of December, 1883, the town 
of Dornix ceased to have an official existence,' 
and the town of Big Timber was founded. 
Postmaster R. B. Dunham received instruc- 
tions to move the office to the new location, 
and the name was changed to Big Timber. 
Mr. Dunham, who was also the proprietor of 
the store in Dornix, moved that to the new 
town. Concerning the removal to the new 
site, a correspondent writing on December 11, 
said : "The old town of Dornix is a thing of 
the past. Everybody is moving up to the new 
town, one mile west, at the new depot, as fast 
as possible. * * * R. B. Dunham, postmaster, 
has received instructions to move the postoffice 
up to the new town, which he will do tomor- 
row, together with the store. There are others 
who will soon follow in the same wake." 

Se\eral others moved at about the same 
time. The neighbors came with teams and 
mo\-ed the store building of James Mirielles 
up to the new town, and it was made into a 
hotel for William Bramble. Mr. Mirielles was 
appointed postmaster, and later, in partnership 
with ^^'alter Allen, erected a building and 
started a store. C. E. Brooks and brother 
moved their saloon to the new town at about 
the same time. A correspondent writing from 
Big Timber December 20, said: "The new 
town of feig Timber now has two stores, one 
saloon and a hotel, and another saloon and 
restaurant are in contemplation." 

Of these early buildings in the new town, 
the Wool Exchange saloon building and the 
Owl saloon building were destroyed by fire on 
April 9, 1894. The Big Timber hotel (Bram- 
ble's) was also destroyed by fire in the mid- 
dle nineties. The old Kiege'r ferry, which had 
done duty so long across the river from 
Dornix. was purchased by Joseph Hooper, and 
it was hauled up the river for him by J. G. 
Marlev. It was placed in position on the west 
side of the Boulder near the town and was op- 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



erated until 1884, when Mr. Hooper con- 
structed a toll bridge. The Hart brothers had 
charge of the bridge for a time, and later A. 
G. Yule was in charge. 

Church and Sunday school work was taken 
up in the little town at this early date. Mrs. 
Ellen DeWitt Hatch took up the work of 
forming a Sunday school, which she conducted 
for a long time. The first church services were 
held in the town in 1884 by Rev. Alfred 
Brown, who came from Livingston. 

While the population of Big Timber did 
not increase rapidly during the first few years 
of its existence, it became one of the best trad- 
ing points in the Yellowstone valley. This 
was because of the wool trade which centered 
here, and while we find that during the late 
eighties the population of the town was not 
at any time over 200, it became noted as one of 
the largest wool market in the United States, 
an average of about 1,000,000 pounds being 
shipped every year. C. T. Busha and Joseph 
Hooper put up a wool house in 1885, but the 
bales of wool came in such numbers that the 
railroad company was obliged to build a large 
store house to keep it from being- damaged. 
One of the earlier business houses of the town 
was a meat market, which was started by 
Daniel Hogan. The building was made by 
standing railroad ties on end. 

One of the editors of the Livingston En- 
terprise visited Big Timber in May, 1886, and 
wrote as follows of the town as he found it at 
that time : 

Big Timber is a most thrifty little town, and when 
its resources are considered, it is apparent that it can 
never be anything other than a good business point. 
It is the main supply point for a large and productive 
territory on the north and south, ranks next to Helena 
and Benton as a wool market, and has the advantage 
of being favorably located in numerous other particulars. 

During the year 1886 there were shipped 
from the town alx)ut 1,028,000 pounds of wool. 
Heavy losses were made by the sheepmen dur- 
ing the severe winter of 1886-87, and the ship- 



ments for 1887 fell a trifle below the million 
pound mark. That year Big Timber ranked 
second among the towns of Montana terri- 
tory as a wool shipping point. Mr. Thos. K. 
Lee furnishes the information that during the 
winter of 1886-87 there were just fifty-one resi- 
dents in Big Timber. 

An estimate of the town's population in 
1888 placed it at 200. That year about 
1,000,000 pounds of wool were shipped. An- 
other event of that year was the establishment 
of a store by Busha & Bailey. 

Although John Anderson had surveyed the 
townsite when the town was first started, it 
was not recorded until 1889. According to 
the official records he platted the townsite on 
August 27, 1889, filed the plat for record on 
September 5, and the plat was approved by 
the commissioners of Park county on Septem- 
ber 6th of that year. The townsite consisted of 
160 acres, which had been homesteaded by 
Mr. Anderson, and the streets were laid out 
parallel with, and at right angles to. the rail- 
road. The lots were placed on the market by 
Mr. Anderson and A. M. Harris. Since the 
original townsite was platted there have been 
three additions made. Boulder addition No. 
I was platted by Lucy A. Merielles September 
4, 1890, and was filed September 18. It con- 
sisted of eighty acres and had been taken as a 
homestead by Mrs. Merielles. Boulder addi- 
tion No. 2 was platted by Albert Stubblefield 
September 4, 1890, was filed and approved the 
same day. This was an eighty-acre tract and 
was one-half of Mr. Stubblefield's homestead. 
He sold one-half of the townsite to T. K. Lee. 
Yellowstone addition was platted by Daniel 
Hogan July 25, 1891, was filed July 27 and 
approved by the Park county commissioners 
August 5. There were eighty acres in this 
addition, and was originally the homestead of 
Mr. Hogan. 

The wool shipments for 1889 were about 
up to the average, 984,635 pounds being billed 
out of the town. Besides the wool, 33 cars of 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



mutton sheep and 27 cars of horses and cattle 
were shipped. 

The year 1890 brought the town's first 
fire, which destroyed a few thousand dollars 
worth of property. It occurred April 9, when 
the following losses were reported: Shank & 
Lee, bank building, $500; Moore & Stocker, 
drugs and stock, $2,500; Oscar Anderson, 
house, $800; H. O. Kellogg, house; H. O. 
Hickox, house, $400; Harvey Bliss, two 
houses, $250. 

The federal census of 1890 gave Big Tim- 
ber a population of 265. That year trade 
opened up better in the spring than ever before 
in the town's history, and an era of prosperity 
was begim. Merchants did a thriving busi- 
ness, and new buildings were going up all over 
the town. Among others was the first sub- 
stantial brick building, put up by George 
Hatch. In April W. L. Shanks and T. K. Lee 
started a private bank, the first in the town. 
The wool business was good, and there was the 
largest shipment that had yet been recorded in 
the town's history. 

While the year 1890 had been a prosperous 
one the next year distanced it completely. In 
December the Livingston Enterprise said of 
the little town down the river: "During the 
year now closing the growth of Big Timber 
has been marvelous, fully $150,000 having 
been spent during that time in the way of 
buildings and improvements." Among the 
principal buildings put up that year were the 
Grand hotel, erected by Jacob Halverson ; and 
the brick block, now the Oxford hotel, erected 
by W. L. Shanks. Among the new business 
enterprises was the Frst National Bank, which 
opened its doors in July. The wool shipments 
for 1891 were nearly 2,000,000 pounds, or 
over one per cent olf the entire wool clip of the 
United States. Other shipments from Big 
Timber were thirty-two cars of cattle, ten cars 
of horses and 1 1 5 cars of sheep. While there 
had been a school in Big Timber from the time 
the town was founded, there was not a suitable 



building for school purposes until i8gi, when 
Judge Lee and George Hatch donated land 
where their claims joined for a site for a brick 
school house. This was built, but had to be 
rebuilt because of a storm on Thanksgiving 
day, which blew off the second story. 

For some time each year seemed to eclipse 
all previous years in the building up of Big 
Timber, and the year 1892 was no exception 
to the rule. The Pioneer of June 28 said that 
a census of Big Timber taken at that time 
would reveal the fact that the town had dou- 
bled in population during the last twelve 
months. There was some little talk of incor- 
porating at this time, but there were no results 
from the talk. The wool shipments for 1892 
were the largest in the history of the town, 
and were believed to have been the largest 
from any town in the state. The shipments 
were as follows: Sold, 1,446,342 pounds; 
consigned, 640,309 pounds, making a grand 
total of 2,086,651 pounds. The ruling price 
was from i6>< to 18 cents a pound. 

The year 1893 opened up with the usual 
activity, and there were more people in Big 
Timber that spring than there had been in the 
town before. Many of these were outfitting 
for the Boulder mines, which were then in the 
height of their glory and adding much to the 
prosperity of the town. 

Then came the panic, which seized the 
whole country in its iron grasp. Big Timber 
suffered severely. Its wool and mining in- 
dustries, which had contributed most to the 
town's prosperity, were paralyzed. Mining 
was discontinued entirely; the price of wool 
got so low that it was hardly profitable. Dur- 
ing all its previous history Big Timber had 
been a place of unusual activity and business 
enterprise, and the depression led some to be- 
lieve that its former standing was lost forever. 
Adding to the general feeling of depression 
was the failure of the First National Bank, 
which closed its doors on July 27. 

The bank's affairs were not in bad shape, 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



223 



and steps were soon taken toward a reorgani- 
zation. This \vas accomplished by the organ- 
ization of the Big Timber National Bank, 
which opened its doors on December 18. De- 
positors of the old bank were paid in full by 
the new concern. There were other business 
failures, and for a time the bottom seemed to 
have dropped out of the town. But there was 
soon a rally, and the panic was weathered. 
The town was a long time in recovering from 
the effects of the panic. During the next few 
years there was a gradual improvement, but no 
radical change for the better until the latter 
part of the decade. 

Coming on the heels of the financial de- 
pression were a series of fires, nearly all of in- 
cendiary origin, which from October, 1893, to 
the next April did damage estimated at $50,- 
000. The first of these fires occurred on the 
evening of October 31, when the Criterion 
building and three adjoining buildings were 
destroyed, the fire having been started, it was 
supposed, by a tramp. The second conflagra- 
tion was on the evening of December 26, when 
the livery and feed barn of Mastin & Co. 
burned, together with part of its contents. This 
was started by an incendiary. 

The most disastrous conflagration in the 
history of the city up to that time was set by 
a firebug on Thursday morning, March 29, in 
a vacant building owned by the Clark Cattle 
company, and before the fire was gotten under 
control nearly $15,000 worth of property had 
been destroyed. The town at the time had 
very poor fire protection, and it was only by 
the greatest exertions of the citizens that much 
greater damage was prevented. 

The last of this series of fires occurred 
Monday night, April 9, 1895. and was the 
most disastrous of all, the losses being about 
$20,000. 

The creation of Sweet Grass county in the 
spring of 1895 had a beneficent effect upon the 
town of Big Timber, and resulted in a small 
but healthy growth. The wool shipments that 



year reached the enormous figures of 4,138,- 
763 pounds, equalled by no other city in the 
state. The average price paid was only about 
nine cents, but at this low price the receipts 
were nearly $400,000. To ship this product 
required 169 cars, and the freight charges were 
over $43,000. On October 25th the wool 
warehouse of the Northern Pacific burned, 
causing quite a loss. Two other buildings in 
the vicinity were also consumed by the flames. 
Another event of this year was the erection of 
the Episcopal church, a stone structure. 

Two of the principal events of the year 
1896 were the starting of a flour mill and the 
establishment of an electric lighting system. 
Articles of incorporation of the Pioneer Mill- 
ing company were filed on the second day of 
the year in the county clerk's ofifice. The in- 
corporators were C. T. Busha, E. O. Clark 
and E. B. Clark, of Big Timber; and N. L. 
James, of Richland Center, Wis. The capital 
stock was $15,000, and the purpose of the com- 
pany were to erect and maintain a milling 
plant. Work was commenced at once on the 
mill, and it began grinding wheat June 25th. 

Articles of incorporation of the Big Timber 
Electric Light and Power company were filed 
March 6th. The incorporators were John 
Martin, Sr., and J. S. Jays, of Livingston, 
and Charles Bowhay, of Townsend, and the 
capital stock was $5,000. The plant was erec- 
ted at once, and since then Big Timber has had 
electric lights. 

The town was visited by another fire early 
on the morning of June 11, 1896, which did 
considerable damage, destroying two stone 
business block and stocks of goods. 

The wool shipments for 1896 amounted to 
3,281,155 pounds. This was believed to be a 
larger shipment than from any other point in 
Montana that year. 

The years 1897 and 1898 passed without 
incident worthy of mention. There was very 
little improvement in the town, but the effects 



224 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



of the hard times were gradually passing 
away, thus paving the way for the activity 
that was to come in 1899. 

Times continued to steadily improve. In 
1900 the federal census showed a population 
of 438. The wool shipments that year were 
2,300,000 pounds. The next year they were 
about 2,000,000 pounds, and the average price 
paid was 13 cents. 

In 1 901 several events took place that are 
worthy of being recorded in the history of Big 
Timber. One was the establishment of a 
county high school. This question was de- 
cided favorably at a special election through- 
out the county on July 8th. There was a small 
vote cast, but the majority for the establish- 
ment of a school was large. 

Another important event was the building 
of a woolen mill in the city, the first woolen 
mill ever built in the state of Montana. Wil- 
liam Whitfield was the promoter of the mill, 
but a large share of the stock was taken by 
local capitalists. The mill started up July 26, 
1901. 

The question of incorporation was a live 
issue in 1901. During all the years of 
its history Big Timber had been without a 
water system and fire protection, and many 
citizens were anxious to incorporate in order 
that these might be secured, either by having 
the village put in the water works or to grant a 
franchise to some company that would. In the 
spring of the year a gentleman arrived in Big 
Timber who signified his desire to establish a 
water works system in the town, and set about 
to secure the interest of others in the enter- 
prise. After talking the matter over, he dis- 
covered there was a strong sentiment in favor 
of incorporating the town. A petition was 
then prepared, and in a few hours 105 signa- 
tures had been secured, nearly everybody ap- 
proached signing it. The petition was consid- 
ered by the board of county commissioners 
June 3 ; that body took favorable action on it 
and employed A. E. Snook to take the census 



of the proposed incorporation. Mr. Snook 
completed his work and reported to the board 
two days later ; he had found 673 people living 
within the proposed limits of the town. Ac- 
cordingly the board ordered that an election be 
held on Monday, July 15th, to vote on the 
question. 

Immediately began a hard fought cam- 
paign. Some of the citizens thought that the 
city should own its own water works system 
when one was installed, while others believed 
the proper way would be to grant a franchise 
to a private company, and it was generally 
understood that this was to be done if incor- 
poration should carry. Those who opposed 
were not, necessarily, adverse to incorporation, 
but they were against the granting of fran- 
chises. The vote was close, and incorporation 
was defeated by a vote of 54 to 50. 

The third company of the Montana na- 
tional guard was organized in Big Timber in 
1 90 1 and mustered into the service on August 
26th by Adjutant General McCulloch, assisted 
by Lieutenant Colonel Harvey Bliss. The com- 
pany was known as C company. The commis- 
sioned officers were: Captain G. H. Preston; 
first lieutenant. Bird Vestal; second lieuten- 
ant, H. Hanly. 

Big Timljer was finally incorporated in 1 902. 
A petition was circulated early in August 
asking the county commissioners to take the 
necessarily legal action to bring about the 
founding of municipal government. The mat- 
ter was considered at a special meeting of the 
board on August 6th. The petition was found 
to have 130 signatures, but its legality was 
questioned, and action -was deferred until the 
September meeting that the question at issue 
might be referred to the attorney general of 
the state. The bone of contention was sub- 
stantially as follows : 

When the petition was first circulated a 
clause was inserted to the efifect that the 
signers pledged themselves to oppose the grant- 
ing of franchises or contracts for any public 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



225 



utilities. That section ot tlie petition was 't was ordered that a census of the proposed 
, , . ,, poration be taken. 

worded as follows : 



We, the signers of this petition, believing that the 
proposed incorporation should own and operate its 
own water works, it is mutually understood that we are 
opposed to the granting of franchises or contracts for 
public utilities by such proposed incorporation, and in 
case the town is incorporated we will always do all 
within our power to prevent the granting of such fran- 
chises or contracts. 

To the petition with that clause inserted 
there were 107 signers. Several citizens, how- 
ever, who favored incorporation but did not 
desire to bind themselves by the aforemen- 
tioned clause, inserted another clause to the 
effect that they favored incorporation, but 
would not pledge themselves either for or 
against municipal ownership, franchises or 
contracts. Of these signers there were 23, 
making a total of 130 signers to the petition 
asking for an election for incorporation. In 
the list of signers were the names of a few men 
who had left the city before the matter was 
considered by the county law makers ami there 
were also found the names of a few who lived 
outside of the proposed boundaries of the in- 
corporation. 

On these grounds Messrs. Harvey Bliss, 
H. O. Kellogg and J. E. Barbour objected to 
the board granting the petition. County At- 
torney Hall held that the two clauses defining 
the position of the signers were surplusage and 
therefore should not be considered by the board 
in considering the petition. However, to avoid 
complications, it was decided to wait until a 
later meeting before taking final action. 

At the commissioners' meeting September 
2nd the matter was again taken up and 



After a careful examination and investigation of the 
same, and it appearing to the satisfaction of the board 
that said petition contains more than 100 qualified 
electors now residing within the limits of the pro- 
posed incorporation after deducting the names of all 
persons who have withdrawn from said petition or 
moved from the limits of said proposed incorporation 
since signing said petition, upon motion of Commis- 
sioner McConnell, seconded by Commissioner Nevin, 
15 



John E. Clark was named enumerator, and 
he reported to the board September 4th that he 
had found 665 persons living in the town. The 
commissioners then granted the petition and 
named October i8th as the day for holding 
I the election at which to decide whether or not 
j the town should be incorporated. As judges 
for this election they named H. C. Allen, L. M. 
Howard, Harvey Bliss, H. O. Kellogg and J. 
F. Asbury. 

At the election incorporation carrieil by a 
vote of 94 to 16. After the commissioners 
had canvassed the vote they ordered an elec- 
tion to be held ou Saturday, November qth, 
j for the purpose of electing a mayor and four 
aldermen, two from each of the two wards. 
Two parties, each representing the policies of 
the two factions, came into existence. A meet- 
ing was held and a "citizens" ticket nominatetl, 
the members of which were pledged to oppose 
municipal improvements and were against the 
granting of franchises and contracts. Another 
set of men met and placed in nomination can- 
didates on a "progressive citizens" ticket. It 
was the sense of those who took part in this 
convention that the city should put in and 
maintain a water works system and should es- 
tablished an efficient fire department. An ex- 
citing campaign followed. 

At the election probably every vote in the 
town was brought out. The candidates on 
both tickets were solid business men of the 
town, and the election hinged almost entirely 
on the policy which was to govern the young 
citv. The "progressive citizens" elected every 
man on the ticket by decisive majorities. Fol- 
lowing was the vote : 

Mayor — John F. Asbury. p. c, 84; H. O. 
Kellogg, c, 61. 

Aldermen First Ward — Henry \\'itten, p. 
c, 62; S. A. Perrine, p. c, 37; Solberg, c. 31 : 
W. L. Shanks, c, 31. 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY 



Aldermen Second Ward — Frank Blakes- 
lee. p. c, T,2: Henry Nicholson, c, 25; A. G. 
Hatch, p. c, 49. 

The first meeting of the city council was 
held at the office of the county assessor on the 
evening" of December 10. The oath was ad- 
ininistered by Judge H. C. Pond, after which 
the wheels of the city government were set in 
motion. A. G. Hatch was chosen president 
of the council. The following appointments 
were made by the mayor and confirmed by the 
council : Clerk. E. C. Hale ; police magistrate, 
H. C. Pound; treasurer, J. W. Geiger. At a 
later meeting A. G. Yule was appointed 
marshal. 

Under the law municipal elections are hel<l 
on the first Monday in April, and it was there- 
fore necessary to hold another election on 
April 6. 1903. There was only one ticket in 
the field and this contained the names of the 
officials then serving. There were a few scat- 
tering votes cast. 

At the annual election of 1904 only one 
alderman from each ward was elected. S. A. 
Perrine succeeded himself in the first ward, 
and F. E. Blakeslee in the second. 

Although the much desired water works 
had not yet been put in. the necessity for some 
kind of fire protection was felt, and in 1904 
the Big Timber fire department was organized 
with a membership of 39, with J. P. Clark as 
chief. Two chemical engines and a hook and 
ladder truck were purchased by the city, and 
quite an efficient department came into ex- 
istence. 

The worst fire in the history of the city, 
from the stand point of property loss, occurred 
Monday night, January 16, 1905, when the 
Hatch block and the entire stock of the Hun- 
gerford pharmacy and almost the entire stock 
of the Fair store were destroyed, involving a 
loss of about $35,000. 

At the annual election held on April 3. 
1905, John F. Asbury was reelected mayor, 
defeating H. O. Kellogg by a vote of 69 to 



;^j. Henry \\'itten and A. G. Hatch were re- 
elected aldermen from the first and second 
wards, respectively, without opposition. 

At the annual election of 1906 S. A. Perrine 
was reelected alderman from the first ward ; 
in the second G. H. Howard was elected, de- 
feating F. E. Blakeslee. 

During the year 1906 Big Timber made 
rapid strides in public improvements, and the 
rapid growth and thriving condition of the 
town has resulted beneficially. To show the 
ciindition of tlie town as a shipping point, it 
may be said that the receipts of the Northern 
Pacific railway for the year ending December 
I, 1906, was approximately $206,487, an in- 
crease over the previous year of $50,000. 

At a special election held June 23 the 
electors of the town decided to issue bonds for 
$40,000 for installing a system of water work.s, 
something that had been needed for years. It 
is to be a gravity system, and work will be be- 
gim on it in the spring of 1907. 

During the year more than one and one- 
quarter miles of cement walks were constructed 
and about three-quarters of a mile more were 
contracted for. The Big Timber Pioneer said 
of the building activit}- for the year 1906. in 
its special edition of December 13: "The past 
year has witnessed an unprecedented growth 
in buildings, but the demand for dwellings 
and store buildings is far in excess of the sup- 
]dy. Not an empty house of any description 
can be found in the city, notwithstanding the 
large number that have recently been erected. 
and a number of prospective residents are 
awaiting the completion of dwellings now in 
course of construction." 

In the matter of education Big Timber has 
always kept pace with the demands of the 
steadily increasing population. A handsome 
new high school building was erected in 1905, 
which is thoroughly modern in every respect 
and splendidly furnished. The county high 
school is accessible to all of the children of the 
county and presents an opportunity to the 



i 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNT\'^ 



227 



young people to acquire such an education as 
will prepare them for college or fit them for 
the practical duties of life. That the value of 
the school is appreciated is shown by the large 
attendance of pupils from every part of the 
county. The city public schools are graded to 
and including the eighth grade and employ five 
teachers. The work embraces the prepara- 
tion of the pupil for the high school. 

Big Timber supports three church organi- 
zations — Methodist, Episcopal and Congrega- 
tional. Each organization has a substantial 
church edifice, and enjoys a growing congrega- 
tion. There are also a number of members of 
the Catholic denomination, and services are 
held here occasionally. 

The secret organizations of the town are 
as follows: F. O. E., Aerie No. 790: K. P., 
Big Timber Lodge, Xo. 25 ; Masons, Doric 
Eodge, Xo. 53 : :d. W. A., Big Timber Lodge, 

MELVILLE. 

The second town in Sweet Grass county in 
si.ve and importance is Mehille. located on 
Sweet Grass creek, twenty miles due north of 
Big Timber. The little \'illage is on the stage 
and mail route from Big Timber to Two-dot 
and has daily mail. The townsite is on an ex- 
tensive flat, which takes its name from Cayuse 
butte, a large jagged shaped elevation that 
o\'erlooks the town. 

Although Melville is not a large town, it 
is, and has been from the date of founding, a 
t'lriving trading point. Li the town are one 
general merchandise store, a harness and shoe 
shop, a blacksmith shop, a saloon, a hotel, a 
school building, a church and several secret 
organizations. 

Melville came into existence in 1882, when 
H. O. Hickox started a store there and named 
the place Melville in honor of Lieutenant Mel- 
yU\e, of Arctic fame. 

By the fall of 1888 we find that the village 
consisted, besides the store, of a school, saw- 



mill, blacksmith shop, a harness shop, and a 
hotel building was built there that year. 

The Melville townsite was platted by Mr. 
Hickox November 21, 1904. Since then sev- 
eral residences have been erected, and the lit- 
tle town has become the winter residence of 
several neighboring ranchers who take up their 
residence here in order to give their children 
the advantages of the excellent school there. 



Xye is the name of a postoffice and little 
village on Stillwater river, thirty-six miles 
southwest of Columbus, with which point it 
is connected by a state antl mail line, and 
forty miles south of Big Timber. The busi- 
ness houses of the little village consist of a 
store, hotel, blacksmith shop, and there is also 
a public school in town. The present village 
has a very uneventful history, but the old Nye, 
or X"ye City, as it was called, which was lo- 
cated south of this point, had as interesting a 
history as one could wish for. 

The old X^-e City came into existence in 
the year 1887, and for a period was one of the 
liveliest mining camp in Montana. Prior to 
that date there were a few shacks in the vi- 
cinity of the spot on which was afterwards 
built the town. They were the property of 
Jack V. Xi'ye, Joseph Anderson (commonly 
called Skookum Joe), A. S. Hubble and a few 
other prospectors and original locators of min- 
ing claims. Among the other early prospect- 
ors who operated in this vicinity during the 
seventies and up into the eighties were Wil- 
liam Hamilton, Hedges brothers. M. M. and 
R. L. ]\IcDonald. Joe Shutes and others. These 
worked their claims on the upper Stillwater 
with indifferent success until the year 1886, 
when the Minneapolis Mining and Smelting 
company bought most of the claims in the vi- 
cinitv and began operations on a large scale. 
Then began- an era of activity on the upper 



228 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



Stillwater and Nye City, named in honor of 
Jack V. Nye, sprang into a lively existence. 
The company, at an expense of about $4,000, 
built a wagon road into the camp and spent 
other thousands of dollars in other improve- 
ments. Miners and laborers poured into the 
new camp from all directions. Cooke City, the 
flourishing mining camp to the south, wa.s 
nearly deserted, and there was almost a stam- 
pede from Big Timber. 

The town dates its existence from early in 
August, 1887, and in an almost incredibly 
short time there was a flourishing little city. 
According to a correspondent from the new 
camp to a Livingston paper, grading for the 
smelter began on August 8, and there was on 
that date quite a force of men at work there 
and a big rush was on. From the same 
authority we learn that preparations were be- 
ing made for the opening of a general mer- 
chandise store and a restaurant, and that a 
petition was being circulated asking the postal 
authorities to establish a postoffice there. Two 
saloons were opened on the 20tli of the same 
month. 

The townsite was platted in August, and 
there was a big demand for the lots. A Xye 
correspondent to the Livingston Enterprise 
of August 27, said : "The arrival of the com- 
pany's attorney, accompanied by A. S. Hovey, 
surveyor, of Helena, has caused some demand 
for town lots, their business being the platting 
of the townsite. etc. Pending the completion 
of this work, the refusal of over forty lots 
has been given by the townsite agents." The 
town was built in a well shaded basin at the ' 
base of the well known Granite range, the 
mountains rising abruptly from the outskirts 
of the village and towering into the clouds. 
The view from the town was a grand and pic- { 
turesque one. 

Work was provided for everyone who ' 
came to the camp in the construction of the | 
mills and smelter and in the mines. By fall 
there was a town of five or six hundred people 



where a few months before there had been 
nothing. During this, its most flourishing 
period, there were two stores, five or si.x res- 
taurants, eleven saloons and a few other enter- 
prises that go to make up a mining camp. The 
postoftice was established that fall, mail being 
carried by a private carrier, who was paid with 
money raised among the inhabitants of the 
town. These were the only mail facilities un- 
til July, 18S8. when a tri-weekly service was 
established by the go\'ernment. The name oi 
the postoffice was Nye, but the townsite and 
town itself were referred to as Nye City. 

Nye City was not destined to long remain 
the flourishing town it was during the first 
days of its existence. Because of the fact that it 
was found that the town w^as on the Crow In- 
dian reservation, thus making impossible the 
acquiring of title to mining claims, and be- 
cause of internal dissension, the Minneapolis 
Mining & Smelting company closed all its 
works. This was fatal to the town. The peo- 
])le who had gone there with the idea of gain- 
ing untold wealth gradually abandoned the 
camp. Finally practically everybody left, and 
there came a time when there was no one left 
but the postmaster, and Nye City entirely dis- 
appeared. Then the postoffice was moved up 
to its present location, and there was nothing 
left of the old town but the memory. 

There was some little activity in the camp 
in the spring of 1894, owing to some discov- 
eries and developments of nearby properties, 
but this did not last long. A bridge was built 
over the Stillwater at the camp by James 
Hedges, E. A. McAtee and Lee Lute; that 
spring, a blacksmith shop was built and there 
were a few other improvements. 

OTHER PL.\CES. 

Ten miles southeast of Big Timber is the 
postoffice and station of Grey Cliff. Here is 
also a store and blacksmith shop, which sup- 
ply the wants of the farmer and stock raiser 



HISTORY OF SWEET GRASS COUNTY. 



229 



ill that vicinity. Grey Cliff came into exis- 
tence as a railroad station in the spring of 
1894. I'rior to the ceding of a tract of land 
by the Crows in 1892 this part of the county 
was on the reservation, and of course not open 
to settlement. It was in March, 1894, that a 
surveying party, in charge of Harry Ralph, of 
Helena, located depot grounds for the North- 
ern Pacific at different points along the line in 
the recently ceded Crow lands. The govern- 
ment allowed the railroad company acreage 
fur depot sites, at points ten miles apart, on 
these lands, and one of the points selected by 
the surveying party was that of Grey Cliff. 

Reed postoffice is located on the Northern 
Pacific railroad and the Yellowstone river 
twenty-four miles southeast of Big Timber, 
the station name being Reeds Point. There is 
a general merchandise store at this point. 

Howie is the name of a country postoffice 
located on Sweet Grass creek, twelve miles 
northeast of Big Timber, with which place it 
is connected by stage and mail route. This is 
the oldest settled community in Sweet Grass 
county, it having been settled in 1877. In the 
early days a postoffice was established near 
the mouth of the creek and named Sweet 
Grass. Here in 1881 a school was established, 
which has been in existence ever since, with 
the exception of the years from 1884 to 1889. 
There is also a Norwegian church organiza- 
tion, which has been in existence here ever 
since 1886; services being held in the school 
house. In May, 1892, the name of the post- 
office was changed to Howie by the postoffice 
department, without consulting the wishes of 
the patrons of the office, a fact which was re- 
sented by the people of the vicinity. 

McLeod is the name of a postoffice on 



Boulder creek, twenty miles southwest of Big 
Timber. It is on the stage and mail route be- 
tween Big Timber and Contract. The postoffice 
was established in 1887, and was named in 
honor of W. F. McLeod, who came to the 
Boulder valley from Oregon in 1882. 

Wormser was the name of a postoffict 
(since discontinued) located twelve miles 
north of Big Timber, on Big Timber creek. 
It was named in honor of Rev. A. Wormser, 
who was president of the Holland Irrigation 
Canal company, which in 1896 built a large 
irrigating canal in the Big Timber valley, for 
the purpose of putting under water a large 
tract of land. Wormser postoffice was estab- 
lished that fall and the town of Wormser City 
was founded. A. L. Ouwersloot opened a store 
in the place, which drew trade from quite a 
large colony of Hollanders who settled on the 
irrigated land. Wormser City townsite was 
platted by Mr. Wormser October 25, 1898, 
and the plat was filed March 17, 1899. No 
lots were ever sold in the proposed town, and 
there is no such place now in existence, the 
postoffice having been discontinued. 

Merrill is a postoffice and railroad station 
on the Yellowstone river and Northern Pacific 
railroad 32 miles southeast of Big Timber and 
ten miles west of Columbus. It has daily mail. 

Busteed is a country postoffice on Cedar 
creek in the extreme eastern part of the county. 
It is twenty-eight miles north of Columbus, 
from which point comes its mail. 

Reynolds is' a railroad station two miles 
west of Grey Cliff. 

Manila is a Northern Pacific railway sta- 
tion, located four miles west of Reed postoffice. 

De Hart is a railway station seven miles 
southwest of Big Timber. 



PART IV 

CARBON COUNTY 



CHAPTER 



CURRENT EVENTS 



The territory now comprising Carbon 
county, was, prior to 1892, a part of the Crow 
Indian reservation, with the exception of a 
small piece of territory lying in the southwest 
corner which had been opened previous to this 
and made a part of the county of Park. This 
was done because of the immense coal deposits 
at Red Lodge which the owners wished to de- 
velop. When this strip of territory became a 
part of the county of Park in 1887, active de- 
\-elopment work was started at the coal fields 
at Red Lodge and an embryo town was started 
adjacent to them. 

It was not, however, until the completion 
of the Rocky Fork and Cooke City branch of 
the Northern Pacific railroad in 1889, that the 
mines were worked on an extensive scale. 
After the completion of the road a large force 
of men was employed at the mines and Red 
Lodge came into prominence as a coal produc- 
ing district. 

At that time this was considered princi- 
pally as a coal mining and stock raising district 
and but little thought was given to the agri- 
cultural possibilities then lying dormant with- 
in its borders. A few, however, saw these pos- 
sibilities and knowing the value of the rich bot- 
tom lands, settled along the creeks and valleys 
in the ceded strip. Those who settled here 
prior to 1889. were: Thomas P. ^McDonald, 



Preston Hicox, William X. Hunter. Anthony 
Chaffin, A. A. Ellis, Thomas Hogan, J. L. 
Maryott, W. R. Mahan, James W. and John 
W^ Torreyson, and B. F. Pippinger. In 1889, 
the first sawmill was brought into what is now 
Carbon county by A. S. 'Douglas. It was a 
snjall portable steam sawmill with a capacity 
of about 5,000 feet per day and was located a 
short distance abo\^e the town of Red Lodge. 

In 1892, the remaining portion of the ter- 
ritory now comprised in Carbon county was 
ceded by the Indians to the government and 
thrown open for settlement. This territory 
rapidly filled up with settlers and the i<-rtile 
creek bottoms soon became the homes of hun- 
dreds of thrifty i>eople and the country was 
transformed as if by magic into fields of wav- 
ing grain, and the Indian tepees were replaced 
by comfortable, though, sometimes rude, dwel- 
lings of the white settlers. 

It was not until 1895. that the thought of 
a separate political division entered the minds 
of the people of the new territory, and, even 
then, many were opposed to the plan. In fact, 
during the political campaign of 1894, the sen- 
timent of a majority of the people was strong- 
ly opposed to it and the members of the legis- 
lature elected that year, were generally under- 
stood to be unfavorable to the plan. The mem- 
bers of the legislature from Park county were 



23-^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 



Allan R. Joy, of Livingston, Dr. Collins, of 
Hunters Hot Springs, and W. F. Meyer, of 
Red Lodge. During the winter of 1894-5, 
the sentiment of the people in this section 
underwent a complete change and they clam- 
ored for county division. Accordingly W. F. 
Meyer, the memher from this end of the 
county, introduced House Bill No. 9, provid- 
ing for the creation of the county of Carbon 
and fathered the bill through the house. He 
\vas aided in his efforts by his colleagues from 
the other end of the county. The bill passed 
the house by a large majority, but when it 
reached the senate the vote was a tie. T. P. 
McDonald was sent to Helena by the citizens 
of Red Lodge to lobby for the bill and the fol- 
lowing telegrams will be of interest. These 
were sent to C. C. Bowlen. who was chairman 
of the committee here and were as fullows: 
February 19, 1895, "Bill in hands of senate 
committee. Have five days to report." Feb- 
ruary 27th, "Bill will be voted on today, will 
wire result." February 27th, "Bill put over 
until tomorrow. Broke." February 28th, 
"Tie vote in senate on Carbon county. Will 
come up tomorrow when president of senate 
will be present." ]\Iarch ist, "Carbon county 
bill passed senate on a vote. Botkin voting for 
us. Will be reconsidered tomorrow." March 
2nd. "Carbon county bill only lacks signature 
of officers. ^Motion to reconsider lost. Shake." 
March 2nd, "Send me three hundred by Mon- 
day's mail, sure." 

The contest in the senate was very close 
and needed the deciding vote cast by Lieut- 
Gov. Alexander Botkin to decide it. W. F. 
Meyer still retains the gold pen used by Gov- 
ernor Richards in signing the bill. The act 
creating the county of Carbon was as follows : 

C.\RnoX COUNTY, 11. B. NO. 9. 

Be it enacted by the legislative assembly of 
tlie State of Montana : 



Section L That all that portion of Park 
county aiul Yellowstone county situated with- 
in the following boundaries, to-wdt : Beginning 
at a point in the mid-channel of the Yellow- 
stone river opposite the mouth of the Stillwater 
ri\er: following thence down the mid-channel 
of the said Yellowstone river to the intersec- 
tion of said channel of said Yellowstone river 
with the township line running between 
Ranges twenty-four (24) East and twenty-five 
(25) East; thence following said township 
line due south to its intersection with the west- 
ern boundary of the Crow Indian reservation; 
following thence in a southwesterly direction 
the west line of said Crow Indian reservation 
to the terminus of the said southwest direction 
of said line: thence running due east to the in- 
tersection of the mid-channel of the Big Horn 
river ; thence following the said channel of the 
said Big Horn river up in a southwesterly direc- 
tion to its intersection with the north line of the 
State of Wyoming, all of said boundary from 
the said northwest corner of the Crow Indian 
reservation to the Wyoming line being a part 
of the boundary line of the Crow Indian reser- 
vation, as established by law ; proceeding 
thence from the intersection of the mid-channel 
of the Big Horn river with the south line of 
the State of Montana, due west to the inter- 
section of the south line of the state of Mon- 
tana with the township line separating range 
fifteen (15) East from range sixteen (16) 
East ; thence following along the line between 
ranges fifteen (15) and sixteen (16) East to 
point in the mid-channel of the Stillwater 
ri\er: thence following the mid-channel 
the said Stillwater river to the place of beginn- 
ing, be, and the same is hereby created into a 
new county, to be known as and" named Car- 
bon county ; and the town of Red Lodge with- 
in the boundaries mentioned shall be, 
until otherwise provided by law, the county 
seat of said county, and all laws of a general 
nature applicable to the several counties of the 
state and their officers are hereby made ap- 




A BAND OF SHEEP READY FOR MARKET 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 



22,2, 



plicable to the said county of Carbon, and its 
officers, as the same may be liereafter elected 
or appointed, save as herein otherwise espe- 
cially provided. 

The following named persons are hereby 
appointed to fill the offices set opposite their 
names, respectively : 

Alvin A. Ellis, county commissioner; 
Orville E. Millis, county commissioner; 
Robert C. Beattie, county commissioner; 
Thomas Hogan, sherifY; Charles C. Bowlen, 
treasurer; Edward McLean, clerk and re- 
corder; Henry G. Province, assessor; George 
W. Pierson, county attorney ; Henry G. New- 
kirk, clerk district court; Lizzie McDonald, 
superintefident of schools; J. H. Johnson, 
coroner; Gilbert Patterson, administrator; 
Charles Printz, county surveyor. 

Approved March 4, 1895. 

The new^ county was organized May i, 
1895, and the building formerly occupied as 
a store building by J. H. Conrad & Co., was 
utilized as a court house. The county commis- 
sioners at once let the contract for a jail to 
Phillip McLaughlin for $1,700. Among the 
first acts of the board was the appointment of 
justices of the peace and constables in the pre- 
cincts recently formed. The names of the pre- 
cincts and officers appointed were as fol- 
lows: Red Lodge, (jeo. H. He} wood, 
Henry M. Mcintosh, justices; John ^Ic- 
Kee\er. John Johnson, constaljles. Rock- 
vale, Edward J. Boulden, Orrin Clauson, jus- 
tices: James Xewton, — Hughes, cnn^tables. 
Joliet, Bruce Leverich, W. R. Crockett, jus- 
tices ; Harry Duffield. Caleb Duncan, consta- 
bles. Absarokee, S. T. Simonson, justice; 
Dana F. Gushing, constable. Rosebud, R. O. 
]\Iorris. justice; T. F. George, constable. 
Red Lodge Creek, Geo. Jackson, justice; Geo. 
B. Stevenson, constable. Clark's Fork, Geo. 
LTrner, justice; Phillip Sidle, constable. 

In the settlement between Park and Carbon 
counties, it was determined tlmt Carbon county 
should pay to the county of Park the sum of 



$14,524.14, as her proportionate share of the 
Park county indebtedness. Carbon county's 
share of the indebtedness of Yellowstone county 
amounted to the sum of $11,986.28, and in 
September, 1895, the county of Carbon issued 
twenty year bonds in the sum of $46,028.65, 
to cover the entire indebtedness of the county. 
The affairs of Carbon ran along very 
smoothly for a numljer of years and the county 
grew in wealth and population. In 1899. the 
assessed valuation of all taxable proix;rty in 
the county had passed the two million dollar 
mark and the county was raised to the seventh 
class. The raising of the rank of the county 
also raised the salaries of the county officials 
and the raise was as follows: Treasurer, 
$1,500 to $1,800: sheriff, $1,800 to $2,000; 
assessor, $1,000 to $r.20o: clerk of court. 
$1,200 to $1,200; clerk and recorder, $1,200 
to $1,800; county attorney, $1,000 to $1,200: 
county superintendent of schools, $600 to $800 
per year. 

That the stock industry had grown and 
j prospered in this county is evidenced by the 
I fact that in the year 1899 over one million 
pounds of wool were shipped out of Carbon 
I county and many shipments of cattle were 
j maile. 

The court house was burned to the ground 

in 1899, but nearly all the records were saved. 

A new brick court house costing about $15,- 

I 000, was constructed immediately which is up- 

I to-date and modern, and has ample office room 

fur the transaction t)f county business. 

The .Absarokee Forest reserve was set 
aside b}- proclamation of President Roosevelt 
in 1902 and is bounded as follows: Beginning 
at the northwest corner of township 5. south of 
range 16 east, thence running east to the north- 
west corner of township 5, range 18, which is a 
point where Fishtail creek crosses the township 
and range lines: thence south to the standard 
parallel : thence east along standard parallel 
to the southwest corner of township 5, south 
of range 18, east; thence south to the south- 



234 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, 



west corner of township 7, south of range 19 
east; thence east along township hnes between 
townships 7 and 8 south of range 19 east, to 
southeast corner of township 7, south of range 
19 east; thence south to the boundary hue 
between Montana and Wyoming. 

The assessed vahiation of Carbon county 
since its formation in 1895 has been: 1895, 
$i,300,0CK); 1896, $1,369,272; 1897, $1,367- 
642; 1898, $1,826,513; 1899, 2,206,635; 1900, 
$2,346,547; 1901, $2,572,824; 1902, $3,253- 
543; 1903. $3,054,356; 1904. $3,522,932; 
1905, $4,062,063; 1906, $4,217,886. By com- 
parison with the assessment of last year the 
valuation shows an increase of $161,000 in 
real estate and improvements, including both 
ranches and town lots, $30,000 in mortgages 
and money, $72,000 in net proceeds from 
mines, $19,000 in merchandise. $58,000 in 
sheep, $23,950 in beef cattle, there being no 
beef cattle at all in the county a year ago the 



first of March, and $3,000 in work horses. It 
also shows 157,468 acres of land assessed, as 
against 152,801 in 1905. 

The Yellowstone park branch of the 
Northern Pacific railroad is now building 
toward the Bear Creek coal fields and new 
towns have been started at Belfry and Bear 
Creek and it is exxpected that the Bear Creek 
fields as soon as opened up will surpass e\en 
those at Red Lodge. 

The county of Carbon has a brilliant 
future assured. No county in the state has so 
many and varied resources. It has the best 
defined and best developed beds of high grade 
semi-bituminous coal west of the Missouri 
river, many fertile valleys where crop failures 
are unknown and the yield is always surpris- 
ingly large, a good home market for all pro- 
duce, and, al:)ove all, a good healthful and in- 
vigorating climate and industrious and law 
abiding citizens. 



CHAPTER 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 



Red Lodge, the capital of Carbnn county, 
is located on Rocky I-"ork creek at the font of 
the Bear Tooth mountains. The elevation 
above sea level is about 5,500 feet. Although 
located in a high altitude the climatic conditions 
are very uniform and the temperature rarely 
goes to extremes. Sufficient snow for sleigh- 
ing purposes is a treat seldom experienced in 
winter and disagreeably hot weather in sum- 
mer is almost unknown in this section. 

The vast coal deposits existed at Red 
Lodge were known of many years before an 
attempt was made to develop them, but in 
1887 the Rocky Fork Coal company was 
formed by Walter Cooper, Sam Hauser and 
Sam Word and active developments were com- 



menced. In 1888, Babcock and Miles and J. 
D. Losekamp were tlie first merchants and the 
next year O. E. Millis and J. H. Conrad Co.. 
opened mercantile establishments here. This 
year marks the beginning of the industrial and 
commercial imix>rtance of Red Lodge and the 
coal camp, as it was formerly termed, assumed 
an air of stability. The tnwn now linasted of a 
! population of aliout four hundred people. The 
j Rocky Fork branch of the Northern Pacific 
railroad was completed to Red Lodge in June. 
1889, and was followed by a large influx of 
settlers and workmen for the mines, and the 
output of the mines was greatly increased, 
\ new buisness enterprises promulgated and the 
town grew apace. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUXTV 



235 



The town was platted in November, 1889, 
by John W. Buskett, secretary of the Rocky 
Fork Town and Electric company. Some 
trouble was experienced in getting title to the 
land by the townsite company owing to the 
priority rights claimed by the railroad com- 
pany. The railroad claimed by right of grant 
every odd numbered section in this territory, 
but the government decided that as this had 
been a part of the Crow reservation their claim 
was invalid. 

In the spring of 1892, T. P. :McDona!d and 
135 others petitioned the county of Park for 
incorporation and Joseph McAnnelly was ap- 
pointed to take the census of the town. Ac- 
cording to his official report the population of 
the town at that time was 1,180. An election 
was held to determine the proposition with T. 
P. McDonald, ]M. J. Fleming and Keyser 
Brown as judges, and the proposition carried 
by a vote of 146 to 18. Another election was 
held August 15th, to select officers for the 
town with Keyser Brown, Roger Fleming and 
Jewett L. Miskimin as judges, which resulted 
as follows: Wm. O'Connor, mayor; C. C. 
Bowlen, A. E. Flager, Thomas Bailey, Hugh 
Earlev, Terrence Fleming and August Egan, 
aldermen. 

For the next two years the town enjoyed 
a substantial growth, and the coal mines, 
which have always played a very important 
and transcendent part in the continued growth 
of the city of Red Lodge, constantly increased 
their output. Several hundred men were em- 
ployed by them and the increasing payroll 
added to the volume of business transacted in 
the town. 

The town experienced its first large fire 
on March 23, 1900, and the following morn- 
ing only the charred and blackened walls re- 
mained to mark the spot which had been the 
business center of Red Lodge. The fire broke 
out in W. R. Hall's general merchandise store 
about six o'clock in the morning and was pro- 
gress was not stayed until it had devoured the 



three compartment two-story brick buildings 
owned l>y the Red Lodge Improvement com- 
pany, occupied on the ground floor by W. R. 
Hall's general merchandise store, Larkin & 
Fleming's wholesale and retail liquor house, 
and the extensive hardware store of Fulton & 
Dalton. On the second floor were the rooms 
of the Red Lodge Business Men's Club and 
the offices and printing plant of the Red Lodge 
Picket and Carbon County Democrat, the 
dental parlors of Dr. George Dilworth and the 
office of Dr. A. C. McClanahan. In addition 
to this block.which wasa land mark of the new 
town, being the first brick business block erec- 
ted in the town was the brick block built the 
previous year by the I. X. L. Co., and occupied 
on the ground floor Ijy the extensive clothing 
department store of Alderman Frieman, with 
offices of Attorney George H. Bailey upstairs 
— representing in the aggregate an expendi- 
ture of over $100,000 — and it was only owing 
to the fact that there was scarcely no wind 
blowing at the time that the flames did not 
communicate to the adjoining property on the 
north and south and carry away the entire 
business section of the town, at least, it was 
due, perhaps, to the fact and the bucket bri- 
gade stationed on the tops of adjoining huid- 
ings, who incessantly kept pouring streams of 
water upon the burning buildings, and the 
committee wlio had charge of the blowing up 
of the burning walls, that the flames were con- 
fined to the property destroyed. The origin of 
the fire is unknown, but it probably started 
from spontaneous comlnistion in the basement 
of Hall's store. Because of the strike, the 
pumps at the mines were closed down and out- 
side of the bucket brigade, no water was avail- 
able. 

Several heroic rescues were made, but be- 
cause of an explosion in the basement of Hall's 
store, one man was pinioned in the debris of 
falling walls and was Inirned to death. He 
was John E. Davis and his last words to his 
companion. George W. W'isewell, who was 



236 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 



saved, were: "George this is a hard way to 
die." 

The loss and the amount of insurance as 
far as can be ascertained were as follows : L 
X. L. Co., $35,000, insurance $14,000; \V. R. 
Hall, $25,000, insurance $14,000; Larkin & 
Fleming, $6,000, insurance $2,000; Fulton & 
Dalton $10,000, insurance $3,000; Red Lodge 
Picket and Carbon County Democrat printing 
plants, $5,000, insurance on Picket $1,600; 
Business Alen's Club $2,000, no insurance; Dr. 
Dilworth, $1,500, insurance $700; Dr. A. C. 
McClanahan, $500, besides loss of A. H. 
Davis, jeweler, and the blnck owned by Air. 
Frieman, value unknown. 

The result of this conflagration clearly 
demonstrated the necessity of an organized fire 
fighting force and in July a department was 
organized with a charter membership of fifty- 
eight. The membership fee was fixed at one 
dollar and the number of members limited to 
fifty. B. E. Vail was elected president; C. C. 
Bowlen, vice president; F. W. Dalton, secre- 
tarv: W. J. Deegan, treasurer, and \Vm. Lar- 
kin. J. A. \'irtue and Elmer Akin, trustees. 
W'm. Larkin was elected as chief and J. J. 
Fleming, assistant chief. 

A hook and ladder company and two hose 
companies were formed and members of each 
and foremen were as follows : 

Hook and Ladder Company — W'm. Gebo, 
foreman; Barney Hart, assistant foreman; Ja- 
cob Jarvin; George \\\ Burke. F. C. Byrne, 
Frank Sicori, James McGinnis, Martin Golden, 
James G. Smith, Thomas Ross, C. J. Wilks, 
Thomas Conway, Matt Gillen. Henry Green, 
John Murray, F. W. Dalton, B. E. Vail, \V. 
D. Hays, Val Bailey, Roger Fleming. 

Hose Company No. i — Elmer Alkin, fore- 
man ; Wm. Larkin, Walter Akin, Paddy Flem- 
ing'- J- J- Fleming, W. J. Deegan, F. W. Alden, 
A. J. Egan, Frank Lyle, T. Fleming, T. R. 
Austin, E. J. AIcLean. Simon Hasterlick, P. 
Gillen, T. F. Pollard. A. Budas. R. L. Davis, 



M. J. Kerrigan. J. E. Mushbach, Arthur Mor- 
gan, A. Alorrison. 

Hose Company No. 2 — Joe Hart, foreman; 
J. A. Virtue, assistant foreman; Thomas 
Skelly, F. Sparling, C. C. Bowlen, James 
Copeland, O. Paulson, George Jones, Prosper 
Vanlippeloy, George Taft, Sanford Reuland, 
Walter Alderson, Grant McMasters, Bernh 
Rydberg, A. H. Davis, George Mushbach, 
John Dunn, Ed. Ricketts, D. G. O'Shea, and 
F. L. Cameron. 

It is well to note that since the organiza- 
tion of this department and their acquisition of 
a suitable ec|uipment. the town has not had a 
fire of much consequence, and the citizens point 
with pride to its fire department which is not 
surpasser by that of any town in the state of 
comparative size. 

On May i, 1899, the tax payers of Red 
Lodge voted in favor of the issuance of bonds 
to the amount of $25,000 for the purpose of 
constructing a system of water works. These 
bonds were redeemable in ten and twenty years 
and the rate of interest was five per cent, an- 
nuall}-. This issue was dated October 2, 1899. 
This amount of money was found to be inad- 
equate for the undertaking and accordingly, in 
order to furnish the necessary funds with 
which to complete the project an election was 
held July 16, 1900, which resulted in a vote of 
51 to 42 in favor of a second issue to the 
amount of $10,000. ten and twenty year bonds, 
bearing'five per cent, interest. 

The source of water supply is Rocky Fork 
Creek, a stream of pure sparkling mountain 
water and the water is taken from the creek 
two and one-half miles above the city, and the 
gravity system is utilized. Five miles of 
water mains have been laid at a cost of about 
38,000 dollars, and the revenue since the com- 
pletion of the plant has more than paid all 
operating expenses and the interest on the 
bonds. Water was available for use in Oc- 
tober. I go I, since that date Red Lodge has 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY 



^17 



had tlie purest and best supply of water to be 
found in the state. 

In October, 1901, an infantry company of 
the Montana National Guard was organized 
here and mustered in by Adjutant General R. 
Lee McCulloch, being Company D, First Mon- 
tana Infantry. The company started with a 
membership of fifty-one and elected Joseph Z. 
Vennie, captain; E. E. Esselstyn, first lieuten- 
ant; W. J. Deegan, second lieutenant. That 
membership of the organization has increased 
to about seventy-five. .\11 the members take 
great pride in their organization, and as a con- 
sequence, they have a well drilled and well 
disciplined company. 

The Rocky Fork Coal company, was suc- 
ceeded in 1902 by the Northwestern Improve- 
ment company, a company controlled by the 
Northern Pacific Railway Co. Since the ac- 
quisition of the mines by the new company the 
output has been greatly increased and up to 
the time of the fire in June of this year as high 
as one hundred car loads of coal were shipped 
from this point daily. 

On June of this year a dire catastrophe 
ossurred at the mine workings when eight 
miners met their death from the effects of the 
terrible white damp. It seems that the night 
shift, unable to penetrate through the foul air, 
had made their exit through the air shaft about 
two and one-half miles to the east, and their 
non-appearance at the usual hour and place 
aroused the apprehension of the day shift, who 
feared that some accident had befallen their 
comrades. The alarm was given and a rescu- 
ing party of some twenty men at once started 
to render every possible assistance to the un- 
fortunate men. The w^ork of rendering as- 
sistance was made doubly difficut by the failure 
of the large electric fan to work and purify 
the air. Many of the rescuing party were ef- 
fected by the awful damp and had to be as- 
sisted to the surface by tlieir companions. The 
death list comprised the following J. E. Bracy.. 
Terrence Fleming, Mike Garrish, Tom Skelley, 



W'm. Bailey, Matt Riekki and Alvin McFate. 

-\ great crowd surrounded the mine, many 
being in the most intense state of excitement; 
anguished relatives of the doomed men were 
almost frantic with grief, and the scene was 
such as to excite the utmost sympathy. 

The members of the rescuing party showed 
themselves to be of indomitable courage. 
Among the most daring of these were Wm. 
Haggerty, Samuel Hasterlick, James McAllis- 
ter, Fred Willey, and E. J. McLean, who 
worked like veritable trojans and vastly aided 
in recovering the bodies of the dead miners. 

From the facts brought out at the coroner's 
in(juest, the jury found that these men had met 
their death as a result of the carelessness of 
the ofiicials of the mine who had not reported 
the existence of the damp in the mine. 

•The fires which had been raging in these 
mines for fifteen years, broke out in the new 
workings at this time and for the past two 
months a large fire fighting force has been em- 
ployed at the mines. The fire, was placed un- 
der control about the middle of July and now 
the miners have gone back to the work of min- 
ing coal and by September ist of this year, it 
is expected that the mines will be working in 
full blast again. 

Because of the big fire which occurred in 
1900, and which destroyed the record books 
of the city, it is impossible to ascertain with 
any degree of certainty, the names of the mem- 
bers of the council of the city of' Red Lodge 
prior to that time. The officers of the city 
since its incorporation, so far as can be ac- 
curately learned, are as follows : 

1892 — Mayor, Win. O'Connor; city clerk. 
T. C. Ross. 

1893 — Mayor, \Vm. O'Connor; clerk, T. 
C. Ross. 

1894 — Mayor. E. E. Esselstyn; clerk and 
attorney, Geo. W. Pierson. 

1895 — Mayor, J. M. Fox; clerk and attor- 
nev, Geo. \\'. Piersun. ^Ix. Pierson resigned 



238 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 



during his term of office and G. D. O'Shea 
was appointed. 

1896 — Mayor, Geo. G. Hough; clerk, J. 
R. ,\ndre\vs. 

1897 — Mayor, Geo. G. Hough; clerk. R. 
L. Davis. 

1898 — Mayor, \\'ni. Larkin ; clerk and at- 
torney, Geo. H. Bailey. 
1899 — Same as 1898. 

1900 — Mayor, Wm. Larkin; clerk and at- 
torney. Geo. H. Bailey; aldermen, A. E. Fla- 
ger. T. R. Austin, Fred W'illey, Dan Davis, 
Emil Romersa, and M. H. Lucas; city treas- | 
urer, Edward Olcott ; police magistrate, Oscar 
Geanstrom. 

1902 — Mayor, Wm. Larkin; clerk and at- 
torney, Geo. H. Bailey ; aldermen, John Dunn, 
A. Alorrison, S. Reuland, Emil Romersa, M. 
H. Lucas, A. E. Flager; treasurer, Edward 
Olcott ; police magistrate, Oscar Geanstrom. 
1902 — Mayor, C. C. Bowlen; clerk and at- 
torney, Geo. H. Bailey; aldermen, W. A. Tal- 
mage, B. Hart, F. A. Sell, A. Morrison. John 
Dunn, Wm. Haggerty; treasurer, E. J. Mc- 
Lean ; police magistrate, L. P. Sichler. 

1903 — Mayor C. C. Bowlen; clerk and at- 
torney, G. \\'. Pierson ; aldermen, J. S. Rob- 
bins, 'Geo. Burke, W. S. Hall, W. A. Tal- 
mage. B. Hart, F. A. Sell; treasurer, E. J. 
McLean ; police magistrate, L. P. Sichler. 

1904 — Mayor, S. D. Metier; clerk and at- 
torney, Geo. W. Pierson ; aldermen, Lewis 
Chapman, Martin Wood, Thos. Donahue, 
Geo. Burke, W. S. Hall, J. S. Robbins; treas- 
urer. E. J. McLean; police magistrate, Chas. 
\\'ilson. 

1905 — Mayor, S. D. Metier; clerk and at- 
torney, Geo. W. Pierson; aldermen, Roger 
Fleming, H. C. Provinse, J. F. Flaherty, J. M. 
Logan, Lewis Chapman, E. P. Ricketts; treas- 
urer. E. J. McLean; police magistrate, Chas. 
Wilson. 

1906 — Mayor, T. R. Austin; clerk and at- 
torney, Geo. \\'. Burke; aldermen, Roger 
Fleming. Frank Valentine. H. C. Provinse, 



Oscar Johnson, Wallace Hayworth, J. M. 
Logan; treasurer, E. J. McLean; police magis- 
trate, M. H. Lucas. 

Red Lodge has the destinction of having 
the only sociahst mayor in the State of Mon- 
tana, in the person of T. R. Austin. 

The city is well supplied with churches, 
having six church organizations with good 
memberships. The Congregational church is 
the oldest organization, having started in the 
old log school house in the summer of 1S90. 
It now has a membership of about sixty. The 
Calvary Episcopal w-as the second church or- 
ganization in the city and this also startetl in 
1890. It has a membership of about sixty-five. 
St. Agnes Catholic church was established in 
1893 and enjoys having the largest member- 
ship of any church in the city, having 677 
members. The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran 
is second in membership in the city having 
about 600 members in good standing. The 
Methodist Episcopal church which was started 
in 1 89 1, has a membership of alxiut seventy- 
five. The Adventists also have a church or- 
ganization, but do not hold regular weekly 
services. 

Eight secret societies have organizations 
and all are in a flourishing condition. They 
are; 

Carbon County Lodge, No. 56, A. O. U. 
W. Bear Tooth Lodge, No. 534, B. P. O. E. 
Brondel Court, No. 1493. Catholic Order of 
Foresters. Red Lodge Aerie, No. 742. F. O. 
E. Garfield Lodge, No. 36, L O. O. F. Star 
in the West Lodge No. 40, A. F. & A. M. 
Summit Camp No. 328. W. O. \\'. Red 
Lodge Cabin, No. 4, Fraternal Order of 
Mountaineers, recently instituted. 

The following is a summary of the condi- 
tions as they exist at present: 

Red ■ Lodge, with a population of over 
3.000, is situated at the terminis of the Rocky 
Fork and Cooke City branch of the Northern 
Pacific railroad, 44 miles from the main line 
and 45 miles from the Yellowstone National 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, 



239 



park by trail over the Bear Tooth Mountains. 
It has a good water works system owned by 
the city, an electric plant, two telephone ex- 
changes, a fire department that would be the 
pride of any city, of like size, three banking in- 
stitutions, three hotels, and scores of handsome 
homes and business blocks. It is the center of 
the largest measure of semi-bituminous coal 
in the west, and also the center of a large agri- 
cultural, stock raising and wool growing area, 
and exports annually large consignments of 
hay, grain and vegetables. The variety of its 
resources, the beauty of its environs, the purity 
of its water supply, and the health producing 
<|ualities of its climate all combine to add to its 
attracti\-eness as a home and business location. 



Bridger is a flourishing village on the 
Northern Pacific railroad and Clark's Fork 
river, twenty-five miles northeast of Red 
Lodge and 45 miles southwest of Billings. It 
was platted February 27, 1902, by A. H. We- 
they, and is located on section 21, township 6. 
south range 23, east, M. P. AI. It is the center 
<if a rich coal mining and stock raising dis- 
trict and near the town are found large stucco 
l)eds which have been worked for the past ten 
years almost continuously. The town has a 
bank, three hotels, school and opera house with 
a seating capacity of 300, a creamery, with a 
capacity of 300 pounds per day. a good water 
system and an electric light plant. It has a 
populatiijn of about 300 and will soon vote on 
the question of incorporation. It has telephone 
connections with Red Lodge and Joliet and 
daily stages to Red Lodge, Joliet, Golden and 
Riverview. The only church organization is 
the ]\Iethodist Episcopal church which is 
largely attended. It has three secret societies, 
the Brotherhood of American Yoeman, Fores- 
ters of America, Court No. 6, and Camp No. 
6819 of the Modern Woodmen of America. 



Joliet is the second town in importance in 
Carbon county, both in the matter of popula- 
tion and volume of business transacted. It is 
situated in the midst of the largest and best 
agricultural district in the county, on the 
Rocky Fork and Cooke City branch of the 
Northern Pacific railroad, 26 miles north of 
Red Lodge and 17 miles northwest of Brid- 
ger. The town is about half a mile from the 
railroad and the station name is Wilsey. Con- 
tains a bank, flour mill, hotel, live weekly 
newspaper, the Joliet Journal and other hues 
of business common to small towns. It has 
long distance telephone connections with out- 
side points and a rural free delivery service. 
Stage daily, except Sunday between Bridger 
and Gebo. 

The population is about 300 and the ques- 
tion of incorporation is soon to be voted on by 
the residents of Joliet and present indications 
ponit to a large vote for the proposition. 



The station name for which is Froniberg 
is a village on the Northern Pacific railroad 
and Clark's Fork river, which was first settled 
in 1897 and platted April 20, 1898, by Fred- 
erick H. Davis. It is twenty miles northeast 
of Red Lodge and seven miles north of Brid- 
ger, the banking point. It is located in the 
midst of a good coal mining district and a con- 
siderable amount of coal is shipped from this 
point every year. 

OTHER TOWNS. 

Absarokee is a postofiice on Stillwater 
creek, 35 miles northwest of Red Lodge and 
13 miles southwest of Columbus, the nearest 
banking and shipping point on the Northern 
Pacific railroad. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 



Bowler is a village f