The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-16

when they had finished II and firmly plant
ed it in the ground the father made them
all swear that never so long as they lived.
would they divulge the location or them
selves dig the place found that day. And
these poor, ignorant voyagers, to whom
the church's command was law, kept the
secret WELL for these placers have never
been discovered. one of them, who was
married TO a Blackfoot woman, often used
to tell that the church kept them poor,
and he would tell her about finding the
gold and what the father said; how they
erected the cross, and his making them
swear by it that they would never dig it
or tell where it was. When this man fell
sick and died his wife married an Amer-
can, an employee of the American Fur
Company and she repeated to him what
her former husband had told her about
the mine. And he and others went often
to look for the ground, but they never
found it, Numbers of parties have
searched for it, but always in vain
Then there is the lost placer of the Mis-
souri, In 1865 two men named Keise and
Lepiey owned a little bunch of cattle and
also placer claim on Silver creek, not
far from Helena. The cattle were in
creasing, and the placer was paying fair
ly we'll but not enough to satisfy Keise.
So one day he started off with saddle and
pack outfit to hunt richer ground, leaving
his partner to look after the cattle and
the mine. Nothing was heard of Keise
until the following spring, when he arriY-
ed at Fort Benton on the first steamboat,
having boarded it at Fort Copeland, which
was situated in the second bend of the
Missouri above the mouth of Milk river.
II was said afterward that he visited Fort
Copeland several times during the WIN
ter, going there for supplies, and that on
one of these visits he pointed toward the
east, but a little south of the river val
1aY- nd o1osr 1,.aA stsaf~i Nr1G lxy
There is my country"
When Keise arrived at Fort Benton he
brought with him $1,000 in gold dust, and
meeting there the Keefe Brothers. old
friends of his, he told them that he had
found some very rich ground down the
river, and urged them to join him in work.
ing it, While they set about building a
large fatboat, he went up to Silver creek
after his partner. Arriving there, he told
Lcpley that he had discovered the richest
placer down the river that he had ever
seen.
Sell all the cattle and the placer,
John" he. said ''for whatever you can
get and come with me. If you can't sell
them, give them away, but by all means
come with me. We can make more GU:
Of that ground in a week than we can
out of this in a year"
But John Lepley was cautious, to which
trait he owes the safety of his scalp and
the title of cattle king, for he Is now one
of the largest cattle owners of Montana.
Instead of agreeing to accompany his
partner he tried to keep Keise from go
ing back representing the extreme dam
ger there was of being killed by the In
dians and indeed, at that time and for
years afterward the Missouri valley, from
Fort Benton to Omaha, was alive with
hostiles But Keise would not listen so
Lepley went with him as far as Fort Ben
ton, and saw the party off. They had a
large, safe hatboat well loaded with pro-
visions, mining tools and lumber for sluice
boxes, and they were, of course, well
armed.
One morning early in May they swung
out into the stream and John Lepley stood
on the bank and watched them glide
swiftly down around the bend and out of
sight, and he thought then that he would
never see Keise again. And he didn't.
The men have never been seen since.
Their boat was never found, nor anything
else, which could be Identified as theirs.
Their fate is but another one of the mys-
teries that weird and treacherous river,
those tangled growths of cottonwood and
willow, which line its shores, will keep to
themselves
In later times Mr.. Lepley spent six
years hunting for this placer, and more
recently there have been one or two par
ties in the field every season in search of
it, thus far without success. 1t may
never be found. The country is of vast
extent, the placer probably a glacial de-
post and of limited area But some
where along those 600 miles of winding
stream, bad land coulee and bluff lies a
patch of placer ground which the wealth.
lest Klondiker would not despise.