The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-09
ANACONDA news,
CEDAR CREEK PLACERS
Once Famous Diggings Will
Turn Out More Gold.
THE PALMY DAYS OF 1870
A Review OF the Work Being Done on
the Mines That Once Made Forest
City a ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Plant Being Put In.
THE PALMY DAYS OF 1870

The discovery of the Cedar creek placers
in the year 1869 was one of the greatest
gold discoveries ever made in Western
Montana. Deer Lodge was then the me-
tropols of Western Montana and was the
base of supplies for the new camp. Short
ly after the announcement of the discov-
cry Forest City was established. In an
incredibly short time the town had a pop
ulation nearly half as large as Anaconda
has to-day. The stampede to the new dig
gings was wonderful and the files of the
New Northwest of 1869, the Deer Lodge
newspaper. contain columns of matter
concerning the rich new ground.
After the diggings were worked out so
that they no longer yielded vast returns
little or nothing has been heard of the
Cedar creek placers. In the current num-
Der of the Mining and Engineering Jour-
nal, however, Fred d. Smith has an ar
ticle which will be of great interest to
those who remember the days of 49, The
article is as follows:
1.-THE placer mining industry in Mon
tana has become settled, and is now car
sied on like any well organized industry
seing managed quietly and systematically
as any manufacturing plant. The placers
in Alder gulch, Madison county; in Bear
gulch, in Granite county, and others still
turn out annually thousands of dollars
worth of gold, though few persons know
whether they are dead camps or not.
This work is done in one of two ways
either a few rich claims that are held by
the more careful owners are being worked
slowly, at will, or else ground from which
the richest pay streaks have been taken
by sluicing and drifting on the bedrock,
and low-grade properties that needed ex-
pensive bitches and long fumes to reach
bedrock, are at last being put into shape
by enterprising men, who are able and
content to invest large sums of money
for the slower and surer pay of this
kind of property.
1.-THE Cedar creek placers, in Missoula
county, are in both classes. Though to-
day one hears of no excitement in that
locality in 1870 Forest City, on this creek
was of such commercial Importance as to
be the wholesale center for towns of such
standing as Missoula. During the few
years following the discovery of these rich
placers, in 1869 the population of this
camp reached nearly 1000, and the amount
of gold taken out then has been estimat-
ed to be from Sis, 600, 900 to 81, 900, OOOt
N For about six miles along this creek
the ground was shallow, SO that the only
equipment needed to work it was simple
sluice boxes. picks shovels, etc. 1t was
for that distance an ideal, poor mans
camp, and in a short time the great
wealth was taken out Above this the
ground was much deeper, and drifting was
resorted to in order to stake the gold from
the bedrock and from the gravel above,
which latter. in some instances. was rich
enough for Is feet above the bed to make
It 'pay to remove. Claims along here of
width of 500 feet yielded on an average
$4,000 each, and were worked until the
influx of water prevented further drifting
even with the fastest pumping that could
be done by hand. No attempts were made
to install hydraulic machinery, principally
on account of the laxity of the business
methods of those days and because of the
great expense of running long fumes
through deep cuts. The amount of water
available at that time for any one party
or company was not sufficient to encour-
age large expenditures of dead work and
cash. Only one attempt was made in those
days to drain the ground sufficiently for
drifting, but this was unsuccessful for
after ditch 90 feet deep in some places
had reached the bedrock, the latter was
found to dip away from the grade of the
ditch. 1t was during this work that so
ounces of gold were taken from the bed
rock covered with two four-foot sets of
timhers.
when the claims were abandoned and
the small workers had deserted the
ground as useless for them any longer
the only salvation was to establish hy-
araulic machinery to work the ground
above the drifts. that along the sides
which was left in the earlier workings
and finally that virgin ground which had