Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1893-12-09

comparatively good condition, having
been carefully nursed by Lieutenant
Elliott.
As anticipated, Cook Colgate was
abandoned, and is by this time dead,
every effort 10 save him proving I'M
awaiting. lie was unable to walk, and
it being impossible to carry him the
pitlul parting was neccssituted that
the lives u the remainder might be
saved. 4 more pathetic story of part
ing has never been related and not
one of The little band can recount it
without bursting. iuio 'cars,
Colglte's home is at l'oSt Falls, Ida
no where he has a wife and four
children, whose only hopes -ow are
that his bleachcd bones may be found
in the spring and given decent inter
taCnt
THE GUIDES STORY
Ia talking Of the hard~hips cnccmt
cred by the party from the time they
ATTEMPTED 90 ut ont of what promised
to be at one time their snowy tomb,
Guide Spencer says:
we arrived at Wmm Springs.
which is on The North Fork Of the Mid
die Fork Of the Clearwater sixty
miles from the mountains, on Septcnl-
her IS We had been here bat four
days when I began to see snow at .
distance on the mountains, and | at
once advised the party that we had
better start back, but they declined,
having been there SO short a tilue and
killed scarcely amy game. 1t was their
desire to stay longer, 50 we stayed
until Oct 10, when we started ahead
ia lind The trail After going fifteen
ulilcs Wc came 10 four feet of snow.
Colgate then became unable TO walk,
ana rs we could not use our snow
shoes we went back and struck the
river. our predicamcnt now fully
daNncd upon us, and while VIC did
not yet lose courage we readily rcaliz-
cd the fact that only the greatest OF
luck could pun rs out Of the noun
Jaius alive We spent four days in
constructing two RATS and loading
everything possible on them.
I'VE started with Curlin Hemmcl-
wright Pierce and Colgate on the first
raft and Kelley and myself on the
second Kelley is Il trappar whom we
engaged 10 accompany us down. We
brought all the provisions he had, and
but for those provisions we would
have all persisted, Kelley included, and
the self sacrifice that the noble old
man made in giving us all of his sup
riies and risking his life for us VIC shall
remember with gratitude to our dying
day We had gone cut about half
mile when The first raft sWlmped,
striking a rock, and throwing Pierce
and Colgate into ,hc river, ana it was
only by the most perflous efforts that
either was saved. We finally straight
ened up the RATS and started aga u.
We worked without much food CT sleep
for five days and got twenty miles
further, when we struck swift rapids
which We could not possibly get
through Here we landed our RATS
with great difficulty, but on the wrong
side of the river This forced us to
fell a large tree, five feet through,
across the river, and finally we fegried
ourselves across
During All this time Colgate was
getting worse. His limbs were so
badly swollen that he could not walk,
and he had been delrious for some
time After getting across the river
we knew we could DO nothing more for
him, and it meant death 10 stay with
him longer Fixing him as comfort
cbly as possible and dividing our pro-
visions equally with him, which con
sisted Of forty pounds Of flour, ten
pounds of beans ANA three pounds OF
bacon with plenty of tea, We kuelt
beside him and in ierycnt prayer we
babe him Cocd-by The snow fen pitt.
lessly ANA the weather was becoming
extremely cold We made fire,
placed wood within his reach aud came
away Colgate moaning and, anid Sobs,
making us promise 20 tell his iumily
that he died Ike d man lie begged
of us that we should 20 and save our.
selves And 50 we left Ills was
on Nov 13, We resumed our journey,
abandoning rafts and going overland
The trip was rs perilous as one on
water fer we constantly came In con
tact with boulders and jagged rocks
and the entertainments were SO abrupt
often from two 70 three hundred feet
above the riTer-that to miss our foot
ing meant sure death one Of the