The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-10-22
ANACONDA NEWS.
DAYS IN HELENA
McDearmop Talks to a
Denver Newspaper Man.
Y ON THE GROUND FLOOR
b. McDsermon Was Dine OF the First to
D6g FOR Gold In Last Chance-Soid
Out for the Paltry Sum
OF Eighteen Dollars.

= Attorney +. r. McDearmon. who used
% live in Montana. in the early days.
xrhen everybody picked up gold. was
- Denver the other day. and in an
Interview with a Republican reporter
! told his story. The article in the
Republican is as follows:
The man who laid the first logs for
miners cabin on the present site of
Helena. Mont. Is at the Brown Pal
ice hotel.
Taken sick while engaged in the
Erection Of his intended cabin home.
ahe pioneer sold the pile Of logs that
he had gotten together as the founda-
zion for his future residence. and the
little patch Of ground surrounding 1t.
which he had staked on as a claim.
DO another hardy adventurer. who a
Happened along for SIS. A few
1ays later the claim and the logs were
bold for Just 100 times that amount
= II guess I was either too lazy or too
u~nlucky." said T. r. McDearmon. a
brominent lawyer of st. Charles. Mo-.
while talking of the early days In Mon
lama at the Brown Palace last night.
Eat any rate. I never struck IL rich
IN those days Of good things In Mon
lana And I was right on the ground
Moor. too" he added. almost ruefully.
II started to build a cabin in the
heart OF the present site OF Helena, and
abandoned 1t IN less thar two weeks
OF the time that the stampede into
Last Chance gulch began. Within n
few DAYS OF the time that i sold my
claim and my logs for a paltry SIS.
10000 people stampeded into that gulch.
and about the site of my proposed lit
te cabin hundreds of cabins sprang
up as II in a night.
PAY dirt had been struck In rich
quantities n one of the greatest min
ing booms that was ever known was
on. and the of the present
capital of Montana had been laid on
the site of my SIS pile of logs.
II pulled out of Missouri In 1868"
continued Mr.. McDearmon. and head
ed for the far West because ] was dis
Gusted with war and wanted to get
away from the sound OF II m from
the sight of the men engaged In II.
When / left home 1 told my friends
not 70 write to me of II nor to send
me any newspapers. ] went up the
Mississippi and Missouri rivers by
boat. and after I left Omaha Il was
y year before I heard OF the doings OF
VII WI y WI tttt
We landed at Cow island. $50 miles
from Fort Benton. which was then the
head of navigation on the Missouri.
We were in the midst of the Bad
Lands and had to make our own wagon
trail into the mining country.
-Four typical Georgians. headed by
a gray-haired patriarch of so. were the
DISCOVERIES of Last Chance gulch. which
afterward developed some OF the rich
est placer gold mines ever known.
These Georgians were a shiftless lot.
They hung about our camp over Vir-
ginia City way, for several months.
They were too lazy to do actual work.
so when II came TO the point where
they had to do something OF starve,
they did what many shiftless men did
in those times-went prospecting.
THE mex we heard OF them they were
slufcing In a gulch six miles from our
camp. When we asked them how they
were getting along they said: oh. we
are panhing out 81 or 50 a day apiece
and we'd rather do that for ourselves
han to work for somebody else for
more
"something made us suspect that
they were doing better than they let
on" continued Mr.. McDearmon. and
we sent the best miner in our camp
over to the gulch where they were To-
Gated to do a little prospecting on his
own ard our He returned
In q few days and reported that he had
found nothing but color But six weeks
later IL became known. despite the Sc
crecy maintained by the Georgians.
that they struc II rich in the gulch,
ard the stampede began.
. But the four shiftless fellows had
rad the rich dirt to themselves for
three months and had made themselves
rich. After the stampede l saw the
patriarchal leader of the quartette
bending under the weight of a pan of
gold he was taking TO his cabin as
the result OF a days work. He took
$50. 900 out of the gulch. and each OF
his companions took as much.
s.vigilantes?" continued MIR. McDear-
mon. in answer to a question. Yes.
we had vieiiantes in Montana In those
days. ] remember waking up one
morning and. as I looked out OF my
cabin, seeing the body Of an old fellow
I bad PLAYED cards with every night
during hat winter. swinging In the
air three feet from the ground. He
had always been a quiet and seemingly
a rood enough sort of a chap. and tbs
vigilantes decided hat he was a cattle
thief and hung him.
They got several men in that raid
One Of the men they hung that night
had had a fight with his partners and
a been shot all to pieces. He wal
living on a bench about TO die wher