The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1898-09-17
A Party Of Hunters Make ;
Chastity Discovery.
THE BLEACHED BONES OF A MAN
Only Half of the Mystery I'm
folded in Finding the All
That Is Mortal of Victor
Emile Girardin.
History of the Case.


fer and w. S. Jennings, while they
were out hunting on the slope of
Dry Fork Baldy, about 10 or ~
miles east of Neihart. They were
on the ridge between the waters of
the North Fork and the Dry Fork
of Belt creek and not far from the
head of Carpenter creek when in
one of the widest places Of the
mountains they stumbled upon the
skeleton of man, far advanced in
the stages of decay. The bones of
the trunk lay very nearly in their
natural position, but the skull was
found about 20 feet away and down
the slope, with the lower jaw brok-
en-.
About 10 feet up the hill from
the trunk, and lying close to a
clump of trees was found coat and
vest, both of which had gone far in
to a state of decay. The coat was
of dark checkered wooden. There
was no overcoat, and only few
traces of other clothing, principally
! those of underwear.
| What had led man to such Il
place was naturally a mystery. 1t
is dry ridge, far from water, and
there was no sign of a camp having
been pitched in that place. 1t was
a place where nobody would camp.
Kempfer and Jennings searched dill
igently for any signs to indicate
that death had resulted from vio-
lence, but found none, further than
the fracture of the lower jaw as
mentioned before. The other bones
are intact. They looked for knife
or other weapon but found none.
Neither was there pick or other
tool to indicate his calling.
But upon lifting the coat, the
lining and pockets of which had rot
ted, they saw "A pocket book and
some papers fall to the ground. The
pocket book or purse, waa Of fine
Russian leather, and silk lined but
all it contained was silver 80 cent
piece. The papers were too wealth
er beaten to permit of much hand
ling, but the boys found from one of
the papers the mans first name was
Emile, and that he had declared his
intention to become citizen of the
United States in the district court of
Silver Bow county when Ben or
Reuben l.. Davis was clerk of said
court, and Montana was territory.
Other papers showed that he was
French Switzer. He was D feet :
or 8 inches high and wore IL No. 40
coat. He must have weighed 10 or
1S0 pounds. His coat and vest had
evidently been hung upon limb of
the tree, whence they had fallen to
the gronnd.
All else had perished. There was
no sigh of either shoes or hat. The
bones had been somewhat gnawed
by squirrels and rats, and looked as
if they might have been exposed to
the weather for period of five or
ten years. The teeth were good, but
some of them, dried loose, were
dropping from their sockets.
The chain of evidence thus gath
cred would seem to indicate that
the dead stranger had been passing
over the range to or from Yogo or
Wolf creek, and had been taken sick
at this place, where he perished. If
it had been winter time, his coat
would not have been off, or he would
have had an overcoat, which is not
true. This also dislodges any theory
of his having frozen to death.
If he had been killed by wild
beasts, the ribs and other bones
would have been broken and many
of them would have been eaten. The
bones are not broken. The fact is
fairly well established that he died
in the summer time from sickness, or
from heart failure superinduced by
exhaustion after he had been lost.
The discoveries of this ghastly OBJ
ject brought the pocketbook with