, 1889-05-09
How it Caused Expensive Liti-
CATION Long Ago.
An Interesting "Reminiscences Of
the Drum-LummOn.
An Apparently Trivial Incident and It's so
rioas Conssquencss-A Hungry Miner
and . Cranky Landiady.

comparatively worthless ground, by de.
velopment, turns out to be a bonanza" re-
marked R. II. Kemp of this city within
ear shot Of q Review reporter.
81 have been interested in the mining
industry In the territories of Colorado.
Montana and Idaho since early In "a"
he continued. "and have known of many
expensive legal complications growing out
of csrelessness, or the overlooking Of some
important point at the time of locating a
mining claim. One of the many instances
was one of which was
a principal and thoughtlessly was
the cause of . millionaire spending
large sum of money in lawsuits and the
purchase of mining ground that could
have been avoided had | known at the
time what was lea, ned afterward. In the
summer of 1879 Thomas Cruise, now
millionaire of Helena, but then a common
miner and myself, were prospecting on
the hill near where the city of Marysville,
Morta now stands, and on which is To-
Gated the world-famed Drum Lummon
mine. At that time Mr.. Cruise, or
Tommy as we all called him. was devel
oping his great lode, which afterwaru
brought him
FAME AND FORTUNE.
"Mr. Cruse's possessions at the time of
which speak consisted of two full claims
lying side by side-the Dru IN. Lummon
above and the Pine Tree below. NJ, loca.
tions joined on the easterly side of Tom.
my's claims. After making oper dis
ariD | dnA fn OF kn haI
claims. On the eastern end of my ground |
placed stakes at each corner, but when |
came to mark my western boundaries ] |
used Tommy's corner posts for mine. To |
this Tommy seriously objected, hence | re.
turned to the bill the following day to cut |
new stakes and place them along
side of Iommys so as to leave |
no vacant ground between our
locations. ! had properly fixed every tor.
ner except the one bounding the Pine
tree location on the northeast. When | |
arrived a. this point the whistle on the Bel.
mont quartz mill gave warning that the
hour OF noon had arrived. At that time ! |
was boarding at hotel in the camp OF
Belmont kept by a lady who was unusual
ly cranky about her boarders being on
time for their meals; if a fellow was
little lat" he stood a good chance of losing
mis- dinner, besides getting sour looks or a
care to 60 hungry and having some im.
portant business to transact also. instead
OF taking the time to make and plant "a
stake as had done before, cut down
fir tree the height OF cor
ncr stake, few feet from Tommy's
corner, squared it at the top and marked
it the southwest corner of my claim.
Then shoudering my axe | hastand back
to the camp. little thinking of what would
- aE i. 10 81, Al 80
due time bad the claims recorded, did
considerable work on them. and sold out
the following spring. During the sum.
mer of 80 Cruise mountain was the scene
OF great activity. 1t had been ascertainei
that the Drum. Lummon was an
iMARNsE AND RICH
mine, Tommy Cruise was fast growing
wealthy reducing the ore from bis lead in
a FIVE stamp mill The claims that had
located the year before were giving evi.
dence Of being valuable, and in that short
space OF time were worth considerable
money, Below the stake that have been
so particular to describe. was piece of
vacant ground extending from the north
side line of Mr.. Cruses Pine Tree
lode to the creek. Some time
a prospector found some rich float ore near
the creek on this vacant ground. Hoping
to find the lead he traced 1t up Uhe noun
tain side until he came to Tommv's side
line, then he worked easterly and finally
sunk hole bet ween the Pine Tree corner
stake and the small fir that | had cut down
the year before. The distance between the
two points bt ing accurately measured, it
was found to be exactly seven feet and
three inches-just large enough for q
shaft. The prospector sunk right down on
top of wide vein, rich in both gold and
silver. Then ii was easily proven that the
Drum'Lummon vein did not run through
the center of the parallelogram as pat
ented, but passed through 1t diaeonaily,
entering at the south west corner and leav-
ing the location near the northeast corner,
thence passing through portion of the
Pine Tree and running into my ground.
The two stakes described were right over
the hanging wall of the Drum .Lummon
fsanre. About this time Mr.. Cruise was
receiving
OFFERS FOR HIS NINE
ranging from a million up. consequently a
few feet OF ground on the ledge was worth
quite sum OF money. On the cross lode
theory party went in on the Pine Tree
ground, sunk hole. struck the vein very
rich and located n claim a few hundred
feet In length across 1t. On the same
theory the parties who had become inter-
ested in the seven foot tbree-inch claim |
located over the other parties and across
the Drum Lammon mine. II then became |
evident that the location of the Pine Tree |
clsi m was illegal, hence jumping was the |
order OF the day. Another claim was 10. |
Gated with u discovery point on the west |
end Of the Pine Tree. which covered a |
portion of the rich vein. While all this
was gong on Helena people were acquir.
ing interests in all the adverse claims.