The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-06-04
IT WAS A FISH STORY
And If You Don't Believe 1t Just Ask
Con Sullivan Of Butte.
HE CAN TELL YOU THE TRUTH
The Published Account of the Dis
coVery of Sullivan and Bunker
Hin Mine Was Written BY Ro-
mancer With a Set of Wheels.

| Butte, June 3.-The Standard or laSl
| Saturday reprinted from the Gin
! cinnati Tribune a remarkable
fish" story purporting to tell
| how the famous Bunker Hill
and Sullivan mines were located
by 'Tim' O'Rourke and Mike" Sulli-
van. The writer manages to make a
most romantic story. telling about how
both were broke and were frying their
last piece of bacon 60 miles from the
nearest point of supplies. 1t tells about
how at this desperate point they sud
denly noticed some ground which the
mule had paved up. and sullivan is
quoted as saying: t
"Howly. Moses, Tim, will yez look
at this?'
They staked out the claim and start
ed for Spokane, 60 miles distant, and
had nothing to eat en- route except a
rabbit which they killed. The account
says that both men are now million
aires several times over. II says that
the mule still wallows in clover at his
masters ranch in Walla Walla, and
never has to do any work. The paper
says that Sullivan drank himself to
death a few years ago. and in his time
consumed more liquor than any other
man in the West
Scarcely any story has been publish
ed in regard to Western mining adven-
lures which contains so little of fact as
this fanciful tale about the discovery
Of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines.
Instead of Tim O'Rourke and Mike
sullivan the discoveries were Phil
O'Rourke. Con Sullivan and Jake KEEL
logg. Con Sullivan, instead of being
dead, is as alive as any man in Butte.
and was in the Standard office to-day.
Every miner in Butte knows him. He
scarcely ever drinks, and no one in
Butte ever saw him drunk. AS for the
'Howly Moses" tale there is no man
in Montana that talks English with
less accent than does Con Sullivan.
A Standard reporter struck Mr.. Sui
Ivan this afternoon for the true, UNI
vanished story of the discovery of
these mines. moi
There isn't any story to it," said
Con. no story at all. 1t is the most
unromantic thing that ever happened.
and there is nothing to tell. All l
want you to say is that 1 am not
dead"
Mr.. Sullivan was assured that the
fact of his existence would be heralded
to the world.
You might add" said Sullivan,
that the mines were not dis
covered by a mule. There was no mule
there at all. and in fact it wouldn't
have been possible hardly TO have got
a mule in there"
How did you find 1t. Com
"Why, just like every other mine is
found. l was living at Murray. Idaho.
Phil O'Rourke was an old friend of
mine He and Kellogg came in one
day and showed some samples of ore
which they had picked up. The ore
looked so good TO ME that 4 decided to
go out and locate it. They described
the place and | went out there. found
the place described and located the
Sullivan mine. / let O'Rourke and
Kellogg i'm on the ownership because
they had put me on TO the place.
O'Rourke and Kellogg had the Bunker
Hill, but / was not in on that at all.
| had nothing to do with that. We
were far from broke when we located
these claims, and as for being down
To the end of our CRUDE stake. we could
get all the grub we wanted within two
and one-half miles, and had plenty of
money to pay for 1t. The two claims
were sold afterwards for $675.000. /
had a fourth interest in one of the
claims. Those are the mere facts i'm
the case, but of course there is nothing
in such a story to do for a newspaper
yarn"