The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-16
LOST MINES OF THE WEST.
VAIN SEARCHES MADE FOR SOME
FABULOUSLY RICH.
The Dead Miners Lost Cabin-HOw
Father De Smet Set Up u Cross and
SwOre His Men Never to Mine the
Gold They Had Enund

There is not mining community in the
has not an ancient and cherished tradi-
ton of lost mine of fabulous richness.
Here in this Northern Montana region
one hears of three such mines. One Of
them is the Lost Cabin mine. A French
man came into Helena many years ago,
bringing with him thousands of dollars
worth of gold dust. He told his friends
that he had found some placer ground
richer than any ever worked The dust
he brought down had all been PANIED out.
With sluice boxes thousands of dollars
could be washed out in a day. OF course
this news created the greatest excitement
His friends prepared to accompany him
back. but ere the day for the departure
arrived the Frenchman was taken ill and
died. Just before his death he managed
to gasp:
''Blackfoot country, two small lakes,
cabin between them l built"
Now this information was very indefin-
lite. There are two Blaokfoot countries.
One is that great eXpanse of forest in
which rise the Big Blackfoot river and
it's tributaries; the other was, in those
days, the eastern slope of the Rockies.
from the Missouri to the Saskatchewan.
The miners wondered which one he
meant. Party after party was organized
to search for the Lost Cabin mine. Both
countries have been explored again and
again. Year after year has gone by
and parties are still searching for it, UNI
daunted by the failure of their predeces-
sors, hoping ever that the morrow VIII
reveal to them two little lakes nesting
in the depths of the forest, and between.
a rude little cabin, long since in ruins,
perhaps, but still the evidence of untold
wealth.
One autumn, not many years ago, the
Blackfoot man and the writer went up in
to the mountains to hunt goats and big
horn. We took an old Indian trail up the
Cutbank stream, crossed the divide--the
backbone of the world as the Indians
say-over steep slope of shell rock rest
ing on a cliff thousands of feet high, and
pitched our camp several miles down the
western slope. Early the next morning
we were afoot and climbed a high ridge to
the south. Reaching the crest, we sat
down to rest and wet our wind. Far be-
low US at the foot of the ridge, fed by the
eternal SHOWS on the summit, We're two
broad, deep valley. The stream connect
ing them meandered through a wide bed
of gravel and sand.
Lost Cabin mine" cried the Blackfoot
man.
Sure" 1 said land just look at the
goats over on that knoll"
ITO thunder with them" he replied, and
fairly flew down the mountain, the writer
following closely.
All that day we searched between the
two lakelets for signs of a cabin and not
finding any we made all sorts of excuses.
An avalanche might have carried 1T away;
a big freshet might have swept it into the
lake; Indians might have discovered and
burned it, Not satisfied, we returned the
next day with pick, pan, and shovel, pros
pected the rims of the bars, creviced the
bedrock of the channel, washing pan after
pan of gravel But it was labor lost; not
a color of gold, not grain of black sand
was to be found. So we gave it up and
turned TO hunting, with fair success.
The Lost Cross mine is a tradition in
which the church is mixed up. Many years
ago there came to the American Fur Com
pany's post on the Upper Missouri the
Jealous Jesuit missionary Father de Smet
After laboring with the Indians in that vi
entity several years he determined to visit
the different tribes inhabiting the Eastern
slope of the Rockies to the north, and from
the voyagers trappers, and hunters sur
rounding the fort he chose six to accom-
pany him. all of them Canadian French or
mixed French and Indian, and, like him
self. true Catholics, who believed the
church to be supreme in all things, both
spiritual and temporal
Leaving the fort, which was situated at
the mouth of the Marjas river, they went
up the Valley of the Teton until they
reached the foothills of the mountains,
and then proceeded northward along the
great trail which the tribes had used for
untold centuries in their wanderings
north and south. They journeyed along
very slowly, for they had only the horse
they rode-no pack animals al all-and oc-
casionally veered from the great trail to
the east or west, hoping to find Indians
camped along the valleys of the different
streams, but none was found. In fact
they did not encounter a living soul until
they rode into Mountain Fort on the
Saskatchewan, one of the Hudson Bay
Company's posts.
Somewhere along this route 1t is said
they camped by a small stream and boiled
a kettle of fat buffalo ribs, and after the
meal was finished one of the men went to
the stream to wash the vessel. He
scooped some sand into it and commenced
to scour the greasy sides every now and
then throwing out the sand and water and
scoopng up a clean supply. Wnen he had
about finished, and the water remained
clear in the spot, he noticed some yellow
CLEANS among the sand in the bottom of
the pot and further examination proved
them to be nuggets of gold. There was
almost a handful of them, and he hurried
back and gave them to his father. The
voyagers at once became excited, and
proposed to return to the Missouri and
procure the necessary tools to work the
placer. But after a few minutes of deep
thought the father arose and said:
my children, this gold has been the
cause of nearly al the crime and misery
the world has seen. Think, now, of the
trouble and misery you would cause
should you start to mine II here. In a
few months this beautiful, peaceful coun-
try would be overrun with wild and des-
perate men. They would destroy the
great herds of game we see about us on
every hand. They would fight and MUIR
der the poor savages, who would se sure
to resent the invasion of their country and
the destruction of their food supply, and
these are your people, for you are, every
one of you, married to women whose
brothers and sisters, and therefore your
relatives too, you would doom to certain
destruction should you exploit this
ground Nor can l see that by digging
this gold you could possibly benefit your
selves AS you have lived before, in the
midst of peace and plenty, so you can con-
i've still tho