, 1864-01-02
Letter from Hellgate

HELLGATE RoNDE, Dec. lst, 1868.
EDS. STATESMAN We received a
STATESMAN Of Oct. 10th here by the last
mail containing the latest news and as we
cleaned over its columns we exclaimed
"'twas ever thus from childhood's hour,
I've seen my fondest hopes decay" ETC.
Papers are very scarce and come here few
and far between Now that we have a reg
ular U. S. Mail it is to be expected that we
will not remain so long in Ignorance of the
doings of the outside world as we have here
tofore, when we had to rely upon the ram
bling expressmen to bring us whatever news
found its way thus far from the confines of
the civilized world.
The mines still continue to yield the "yel-
low gold so hard to hold" Sinking water
in the South is all the rage and occasionally
we have news, or reports, of new discover
les. The last one is the rumor that a party
of men some thirty in number had gone out
from Benton to the North and struck dig
gings on the Saskatchewan to the north of
Chief Mountain Lake. Three or four of the
party had returned to Benton last month,
brought up a lot of -four and supplies
enough to last the party for the winter, and
have gone back. These diggings, "they
say" are equal in richness to Cariboo and
the explorers and discoverers say that they
have as good a thing as they want. The ex-
tent of the deposit Of course is not yet
known, but as matter of course is big
enough to accommodate three or four thou
sand miners. Agaia they say that they
bara etruob ,,or,, r;ob d;rr;ncro on rho Rir
Horn Fork of the Yellow Stone. This is
all that have heard, no one knows how
many men have gone there as it is late in
the season. Spring will come before we
know of either the extent or the richness of
these reported discoveries | am satisfied
that the miners are hunting up some of the
rich spots which lie on the eastern slope of
the Rocky mountains Next summer will
see a population of probably 10000 men
busy in hunting up and developing the min
eral resources of this hitherto unexpored
basin. l see by your paper an article on
the route to the Kootenay mines. l think
that when the travel goes that way next
summer, the most direct route will be by
the military road as far as Antoine Plantes,
thence by Mix & Russels road to the Pen
d'Oreille Lake; thence across TO the Flat
Head Lake; all of which Gistance-about
$50 miles-can easily be travelled by wag-
ons. Thence pack trains can easily supply
the mining community as they will be scat
tered through the surrounding mines and
mountains as far north as the fiftieth degree
of north latitude and east to the Saskatche-
wan. Next season will be a busy one in
these mountains and will lead to many rich
discoveries. Father DeSmet, who has trav-
eled these mountain fastnesses so long, says
that he knows of these mineral deposits, as
he has passed over them, and says that the
white men are near to the rich places and
will soon open out the country to trade and
civilization. Then adieu to the "poor In
dian" who even now is fast disappearing be-
fore the advance guard of the gold hunters,
and will soon be surrounded and extermina-
ted 1t is to prevent or rather to delay this
result that that venerable missionary explorer
refuses toindicate where these rich spots are,
but time will soon settle the point, and then
we will see if the country will realize the san
guine expectations of Stevens and the other
explorers who have prophesied of its richness
and its future greatness. Yours TRULY.