The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-01
BUTTE News.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO
How the Big Moose Lake Copper
Mine Was Discovered.
DIGGING A DOGS GRAVE
Mineral Bearing Ore Was Found Which
Proved to Be Rich in Copper-It
Was Deserted in a Placer
Stampede.
DIGGING A DOGS GRAVE

Il During the past week several of the
owners of the big copper mine eight
miles from Moose lake spent their vaca-
@8tions in Butte One of them told a
friend an unpublished story in connec-
tien with the first discovery of the big
lead % years ago. 1t is supposed by
many that the mines were discovered
only two years ago. To all intents
and purposes it was, for the original
discoverers are now out of the state
and have been for years, and none of
the recent discoveries knew anything
about the lead until they accidentally
ran across it two years ago next May.
The story of the original discovery they
learned only a few months ago, and
this is how it is told:
In the fall Of 1873 or 1874 Con Corco-
ran and Joe Featherly left Philipsburg
for the Salmon river country in Idaho.
They had two pack mules and riding
horse each. They travelled by easy
stages, hunting and fishing along tie
route. They camped for a week at
Moose lake and probably killed the first
moose that ever fell at the hands of a
white man in that beautiful basin. A
quarter of a mile below the lake is q,
large tree which the settlers have nam
ed ''moose pine" 1t is said that the
moose Featherly killed was hung UP on
that tree and dressed.
The men proceeded on their journey
up the middle fork of Rock creek and
camped for several days among tine
great craggy peaks of the main range
of the Rockies which tower majectic-
ally above the timbered mountains sur
rounding them, their SUBMITS continu-
ally covered with snow. This is indis-
putably one of the widest and grand
est mountain scenes in the state. Its
grandeur is indescrbabe Mountain
lion, bear and deer used to abound
there. Now only an occasional black
bear is seen. playing tag with a chip
munk and chasing woodchuck. Grouse
are not to be found where once they
made the hunters heart glad.
Roaming over the high passes in that
district the men found deer tracks, and
with the instinct inherent in them they
followed them. Towser, the pet setter
was right on the spot and as eager as
any Of them to find the object of the
search. IN some way unexplained Cor
cQran'S gun was discharged and poor
1owser was a, corpse. The men agreed
to. give the dog a decent funeral and
forthwith set about digging a. hole in
the loose rock and earth. using sticks
and sharp slabs Of rock as tools The
first rock they loosened was broken,
and it looked like mineral bearing Gre
Still another was removed and more
and more the men became convinced
that they We're digging ins rich crop
pings. The dog was buried in a mole
about two feet deep, after which tie
men returned to" camp carrying pieces
of the strange looking ore. BY their
crude process of assaying, the men re-
duced the samples and were convinced
that, while gold did not predominate
the rock contained large per cent
of copper. &c..
THE guns We're stacked and the pick
and shovel put into active service 4
shaft IL feet deep was dug, after which
the men returned to the burg. The ore
was assayed and preparations made to
return to the mine. About that time a
placer gold excitement attracted the
wealth hunters to another part of the
state, and Corcoran and Featherly
Joined the stampede and never return
ed to Moose lake.
Last summer Dorland and johnson,
so the recent story goes, found the
skeleton of the dog near the tunnel they
are driving. Dorland suggested that
they name the tunnel Dog Tunnel"
and now when the boys speak of that
tunnel they refer to it as the dog hole
These copper deposits are said to be
rich, and while the owners do not say
much about them, it is inferred that
they have great confidence in heir
property. Last year a large mining
company of Butte sent its agent there
to inspect the mines, and the result of
his visit. it is believed, will bring the
district into prominence.
s25 reward to any one proving that L.
u