The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-03
A pEsERTEp MARnIE TOWN..
The Gold Discovery That Built Brid . e.
water In q Canadian Wiidern es..

The Gold Discovery That Built Brid . a
water In Canadian wilderness.
Up in Ontario said j. W. wheatIev.
a civil engineer of Montreal a.there is a
deserted town called Bridgewater. which
is built entirely of marble. Abo1,t 25
years ago farmers wife was search
ing In the woods for a pig that had
strayed from the family pen In a par
ticularly dense part Of the woods she
Iound a spring of crystal water Being
thirsty. she stopped over to drink. AS
she did 50 she slipped on round stoae
when rolled from under her foot and
fell into the water. Attracted by the
peculiar color of the stone, she fished it
out and took 1t home. 1t was found to
gold. 81 = .
"Bridgewater at that time was about
~ miles from the nearest railroad, and
the site of the town was bowling Wild
erness. But such was the effect OF the
accidental discovery Of gold that within
SIX months the wilderness had blossom
ed into a bustling, substantial city Of
5000 Inhabitants and more a-coming.
They came from every quarter. There
We're cid forty miners from the Pacific
slope, amateurs from England and the
United States, prospectors from every
field. Shafts and tunnels were driven
by hundreds.
I'm sinking a shaft one mile south of
the town, on the claim of b. Flint a life
senator OF Canada, a vein Of white mar
BILE was found. At the suggestion of
Senator Flint who wanted little or
nothing for the material, the town of
BridgeWater was built solidly Of marble.
1t has even to this day a court house,
school, church. hotel, stores and private
dwellings constructed wholly OF white
marble. One mile north of the town
are an abandoned grist mill and an axe
factory whose foundations are built of
marble.
While the town was booming the en-
tire country adjacent was prospected.
Some Of the shafts and tunnels driven
were more than 100 feet in depth, but,
remarkable as 1t may seem, there was
never sufficient gold found by the pros.
pectors collectively to pay the cost Of a
single mine in the district. Still, the
earlier disappointments only increased
the virulency of the gold fever, which
laid hold Of the farmers around Bridge
water with particularly tenacious
grasp. In fact, SO excited did they be-
come that many OF them actually en-
ployed armed guards to prevent tres
passers from picking up the loose gold
which they imagined existed on their
places in vast quantities.
THE place where the original nugget
was found by the woman in quest of a
pig was christened Aladdin's Cave, and
land in its vicinity sold for fabulous
prices One farmer whose farm ad-
Joined the cave sold five acres to an
English syndicate for $100, GOO cash. The
syndicate spent another 500, 900 cash. The
velopng the claim, but never obtained
a single ounce of free gold. In all it
mined about 100 tons OF quartz. In re-
turn the syndicate received a bill for i
about 1915 smelling charges over and
above the value Of the gold in the
quartz. It was the last shipment of
quartz, for the cost Of hauling ship
ping and smelling was in the neighbor-
hood of $150 a ton more than the rock
produced.
''One old Irishman at Bridgewater
Patrick Kehongh by name, received an
offer of $125,000 cash for his farm, which
consisted of 100 acres of rock piled, bar
rem land He promptly refused the Of
fer, holding out for $150QO0, which ne
never got. To-day one could buy the
property for almost anything over 81
an acre,
Within couple of years it became
patent to all that mining in Bridgewater
would never pay. So silently, one by
one, the prospectors stole away from
their marble residences, to be followed
shortly by the owners Of the marble
stores, leaving the once thrifty town to
settle down to a lonely, d-chok ed
and futureless desuetude."-N. Y. Sun.