New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-07-07
XIV.
MINING IN MONTANA.
EARLY DISCOVERIES AND PRESENT
METHODS

THE PLACER SYSTEMS SPEEDY DISAPPEARANCE
THE HELENA DISTRICT-PEoPLE WHO
HAVE GROWN RIm AT THE MINES
fFRoMA STAFF CORRESPONDENT THE TRIBUSRl
Copyright. 1889; BY The York Tribune.
Helena, Montana, June 25.
Wherever there are mountains in Montana there
are mines In one shape or another mineral man.
ifestatiors are written in the rocks or Oh the
ground wherever the earth lifts and tumbles.
To the average eye they will not be very sig
nilicant manifestations. The average man who
comes out here to see how metals discovered
and converted from black dirt and white rock
into gold and silver, will find himself powerfully
impressed with the wisdom of that feature of
the Providential plan which gave to different men
different mental qualities and tastes and tcnden-
ces. for, after going through a mine, he can but
reflect how little gold and silver there would
be in the world if it were left to him to find
it and render it of value The little brown-stained
stones here and there on the mountain side that
give so quick an impulse to the prospector's heart
are utterly commonplace and meaningless TO the
unframed eye 1t has seen little brown rocks
many time, and it cannot readily perceive, even
after succession of lectures wherein these little
brown rocks differ from the little brown rocks
il has come across heretofore
The Montana mining district covers an immense
territory nearly fifth of the new States acreage
The district has not been, yet, more than super
fcially prospected, and only the merest beginning
has been made toward the actual development
of its wealth. As you roam around in the noun.
tains you will see thousands of little earthen
mounds piled up by the side of pine shack
and black hole in the ground. Each of these is
a claim upon which mining experts have deemed
il worth while to do several hundred dollars
worth of work. Each contains minerals in what
quantity nobody knows or can know until mod
ern machinery has burrowed in and up and down.
In Montana, as in California the earliest min.
ing was the simplest. The gold was rot dug out
of rocks until there was no more to be washed
from the sand and gravel of gulch and valley.
But quartz mining followed more quickly upon
placer mining here than il had done elsewhere. The
miners who came to Virginia City and Helena
when the Alder and Last Chance gulches were
discovered were from the older mining States,
and they knew that free gold among the sand
and pebbles in the bottom of creek proved
gold in confinement in the rocks above the creek.
They knew that the gold in PARTICLES and nuggets
must have come from somewhere and have gone
through process in order TO reach the free state
and TO get into the valleys. That lesson they
haQ learned in Cauf0rnla ana NeNduH, anu many
of them were soon at work in the hills hunting
for familiar signs Little else than the stalking
out of claims was done while the placer gold
lasted The earliest discovery of gold in Mon
tana is attributed TO q Scotch halfbreed from the
Canadian Red River Valley. Being halfbreed,
he was naturally rover, and he came into Mon
tana to trade with the Indians. Being Scotch
man, he naturally struck spot where gold hap
pened TO exist. lie lived at Deer Lodge, on the
west side of the Main Rockies, and he noticed
yellow particles in the sand at the bottom Of
the creek that flowed past his dugout. He washed
some OF it in 1852 and collected spoonful Of
dust which he sent TO Fort Benton 1t was pro-
nounced 10 be sure-enOugh" gold, and
from time 10 time he collected
more Several years later he bought
some goods from trader, and induced him TO
accept ounce of dust in payment. The trader
handed il TO an agent of the American Fur Com
pany who ascertained its value 10 be $l5. This
incident led many persons 10 look around in the
creek bottoms and gulches and from SaS to
! S62 good deal of profitable washing was done
The first discoveries Of decided Importance were
made on Grasshopper Creek, branch OF the
jefferson River the n0rthwestery fork OF the
Missouri. Here, in 1862, the city Of Bannack
WAS founded. and IL quickly grew into large
mining camp In The summer OF that year TWO
prospecting parties started TO search the Big Horn
Mountains. One OF these, led by James Stuart
was organized In Bannack. The other led oy