The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-15
A PRETTY TIGHT PLACE
-A N &aJt
Buried in Cave by an Unex-
pected Avalanche.
IMPRISONED FIVE DAYS
A Candle Was the Only Food That
Martin Murdoch Had-Released by
aSecond Snowslide-Nursed
by His Enemy.

.ii@ 'eiei SUI county SIDE OF HomeStake
guich, came to town yesterday He
tells rather interesting story of hard
ship and privation. If he had Just re-
turned from the other side of Chilcoot
pass with the story, instead of from
section of country bounded on all sides
by civilization and plenty, the MARIA
tive would have been only fitting to the
conditions existing in the far north
Wilds. But the fact of its being found
ed on experiences encountered so near
to Butte gives the story a highly col
ored effect. Mr.. Murdoch, a hardy
mountaineer who has weathered the
| storms of 20 winters in the Businesses
| OF the Rockies, regarded his recent eX-
perience as merely an incident in the
| career of a man who makes the wilder
| ness his home, and says that he has
had dozen similar adventures in his
lifetime. His hearers, however, agreed
that he had had an experience they
hoped would never fall to their lot
/ Il have been in some pretty tight
places" he said, but last February [
got into hole and thought that I
would not get out Of it. Yes it was q
| mole, literally. You know how darned
lnqulsltlVe a prospector is, don't you?
Well, I am by nature, I guess, inuuisi-
tive l discovered a kind of a cave or
opening in the ground in the side of the
mountain about mile or two up the
sulch from my cabin. | wasn't salts
ned with good look at it. | must go
down to the cabin and get a candle
and explore the cavern. 1t turned out
TO be a very ordinary cavity in the
mountain, and there was no trace of
Hl-np no in, Fa, 7
could see. The country therea bouts
abounds in similar cavities. After in
| vestlsatlnS 1t thoroughly I set my can
| Ole down and filled m. old pipe and
smoked while I rested up. There was
| crash, a gust of wind and nv candle
| went out. Then all was still | sus-
pected cave-in. l lit my candle and
started to go out of the cave, but where
the opening ought to be was a mass of
snow, rock and broken timbers.
That was the hole / was in. I didn't
waste any time, but jumped into it with
both hands, Juggling away at rocks and
| other debris. 1t was snowslide. of
.course-an avalanche. There was moth
| ing more to fear. All there was to be
done was to dig out and that I thought
| L would do in a short time. Here is
where I was fooled as badly as I was
| 10 years ago when | walked into an old
| abandoned tunnel in Utah and thought
| could find my way out through an
other drift and tunnel. I stayed in that
old mine three days, and would have
been there yet if a searching party had
not found me, sv-.-..4 ..~~4..s...- 80. -.
"The Snow was easy digging, but the
| big trees wouldn't bulge They We're
piled up seven feet deep right over the
| opening. l worked until l became eX-
| hausted. l went to sleep in the cave
and don't know how long I slept. When
| aWoke | renewed my efforts to dig
| out, but it was fruitless task | slept
| again. | was getting hungry, raven
| ously hungry. | must have been in
there five days, probably longer. I ate
the candle and relshed it. I could hear
| the wind blowing, but could not squeeze
my rapidly diminishing form through
the openings between the heap of
broken trees that barred my way. I
| never once thought of starving to death
in there. I thought all the while that
I would get out all right
Il was lying down, half asleep, and
| guess half dead when I was aroused
| by another crash, a roaring. rasping
sound. The mass of rock and timbers
| was swept away by second snOWslide
1t was night and dark as black cats,
showing and blowing. l crawled out
| onto the side of the mountain and half
wished that another slide would come
| along and take me down to the cabin
The walk down to my cabin was the
L
very cold and weak from hunger
My cabin was gone. 1t was reduced
to pile of ashes, which was covered
with is inches of snow. | went over to
another log shanty that I had used for
a stable. In this l slept, covering my
| self with lot of gunnysacks.
My nearest neighbor was a half
breed wood chopper about six miles
away. He and I had row last fall
and of course didnt exchange calls
during the winter. But l was hungry,
and didn't care if the devil lived there
| was on good terms with everybody
| just then.
Late in the following day I found
myself in the half breeds cabin. Ny
| left hand, right foot and both ears were
badly frozen when I pushed the door
open. The half-breed didn't know me.
He grabbed his gun and told me to
throw up my hands, He thought I was
a daylight burglar, but I didn't care.
After he heard my story he couldn't do
enough for me. His kindness reminded
me of home in my boyhood days. He
nursed me for week and brought me
| out all right
"A couple of weeks afterward he
started for a wood camp 10 miles down
the gulch after some bacon and flour
| He thought he could make the trip in
| two days on snowshoes The second
day fell sick. For four days I lay in
the cabin unable to move a muscle
| Then I thought ! should die sure
enough. The fever kept me warm, but
| I was in bad way.
| ION the fifth or sixth day the half
| breed returned on a bOb-sled drawn by
two horses. A wOOdhauler found the
poor fellow lying in the road three miles
| from the cabin. both feet frozen and
nearer dead than alive. The woodhaul-
er was a Frenchman and couldn't speak
| English SO that either of rs cOulI I'M
| derstand. He was a brick, | tell you.
| He rugged up a comfortable bed in the
sled and hauled us half dead unfortun-
ates over to his cabin, four miles dis
| tant. There he waited on us and
brought US back to life They call him
| Pete. He haulS wood and poles down
to the big camp. Jake, the half breed.
and 7 returned to the formers cabin.
and since then have lived together and
are partners. Doing? We are pros