The daily miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1879-1885, 1882-01-01
THE CATARACT MINING DIS
TRICT.
It's Extent and General Charac
ter-Some of the Principal
Mines, and the Develop
ments Thereon and
What They Yield.
by \. j. ELDER.

after the discovery of the Bannacl
mines, a party of Rannack prospect"r
made their way acro~> the Deer lodg
pass of the Rocky Mountains, theme
via Butte rccru~-od the same. and dc
Sccnded into the canyon of the BoulIc
river. following that stream down to tn
mouth of Cataract creek. Here the.
/ pitched their tents and soon made Il dis
covcry of rich placer ground, whirl
has ever since been known by o!
timers ~ the "Olh Bar They workc'
! the bar in the crude way Of mining G
I that day, until their grab gave oul
when they rrtrac'd their steps for
fresh supply. 1t will be remembers
that this occurred before the discover
of Alder t;ulch. and long before. that q
Last Chance. THE "Old Bar after
wards passed into the hands of the Stu
art brothers and Rrcce Anderson. VIII,
built houses at the mouth Of the creek
moved their families into them an,
worked the bar extensively and success
fully for some years.
When the quartz mania of ls6-
struck the Territory the NcIrwiI
brothers made some discoveries ON tn,
banks of the Cataract, about two and /;
half miles above its mouth. They
found very good ore, but having no way
to utilize it, and the excitement diving
out, they soon abandoned the leads am
engaged in placer mining and other
pursuits that brought in ready money
For SONS years after this there was II,
prospecting done except for placer
lil'ts--i few companies working
ground successfully here and there
throughout the district; but in the FIJI
OF lo1'', company under the leader
ship Of Zach Thompson, discovered tn,
Big Medicine, Susie Brown, Mt
Thompson and other leads, which get.
ting no!scd about, soon brought Other
pi"spcctors into the field, and many
leads were discovered and located.
In the summer of 1879, one smith an
old California and Colorado prosprctor,
discovered the Mantle Lode. This led
I" the first Regular stampede to the dis
trict, hundreds of old proSrcctors rush
ing in from all parts of the Pacific
Coast In the fall of that year the dis
trict was regularly organized, the Roul-
der river being in the center, dividing
i, north and south. 1t embraces an area
of about IN miles squarc,its western linn
IT'S being within les, than % miles of
Butte, and, 9if may be permitted to
dlgress, it may be OF interest to vo,Ir
merchants to know that Butte can be
the emporium OF this soon to he great
mining district, il the road through the
Park be kept in proper repair
In the spring of lsso, John T.. Law
son and Jack Airport purchased the
BOULDER prospect of Brown and Hatha-
way, and immediately put on II force of
men to develop it. The mine is located
east OF Pole Mountain, one of the hivl,-
'st points in the District, and west of
Basin creek. Cataract and Basin creeks
W" OF the largest tributaries of the
Boulder, enter the latter stream abont
he center OF the district, about one
ME apart. Up tothis time the mouth of
ataract had been selected as the ploceto
'u'ld the town of the district, Il ..drod-
aii' having already been established
here But when Lawson and Al,nort
est shippers, carry the Largest stock