Evening journal., 1899-03-15
ICE FROM A MINE.i
Natural Refrigerator in the Noun
tains of Montana.
A wclg That Freezes I'm Summer and
Thnwa Ont In Winter-An In
teresting Freak of
Nature.

Nature.
Seven miles north and little TO the
east of the Cheyenne Indian agency In
Custer county, Mont, Is a we'll filed
with ice that excites much curiosity
among the ranchers and cattle men of
that section. Every cowboy who visits
the well has much to tell and invariably
advances his own explanation. Many
ingenious theories are given which tend
to indicate that mankind of all degrees
of scientific knowledge put forth an ef-
fort to find the origin of things; how
ever, they all agree that the ice forms
in the we'll during the summer and that
It actually thaws during the winter.
This apparent contradiction of the
natural laws that govern the outside
world has s,carried the fame of this well
for miles around, and people have trav-
eled great distances 10 witness the for
nation Of icicles during the hot wealth
er of July.
This we'll is within a few hundred
feet of the summit of the Little Wolf
mountains, on the north slope, at the
very beginning of Greenleaf creek,
which empties into the Rosebud eight
miles below and about so miles from
where the Rosebud joins the Yellow
stone river. This portion of the noun
tins is covered with a dense growth Of
tall pines.
Fourteen years ago three men pros
pecting for silver, mistaling certain
colors in the rocks, began sinking a
shaft; at IS feet it was disagreeably
cold; at 20 feet the cold had increased
SO rapidly that they were thoroughly
frightened. They could feel currents
of colo air rushing up from the crevices
in the rock; they imagined they were
digging into some mysterious under
ground cavern; they had heard just
enough Of wonderful adventures of dig
ging into caves and underground lakes,
and being alone in this wilderness
where the very stiffness permitted the
ears to hear and the mind TO imagine
all manner of grewsome powers hid
beneath the rock, so thoroughly filed
them with the fear of impending dam
ger that they abandoned the work,
which has since gained such renown.
The SUBMITS of the Little Wolf
mountains are covered with scoria,
which has all the appearanceta and tex
ture os a good grade Of tiling 1t is
usually red, but varies in color through
all the shades down to black. These
varying colors give the beautiful tints
to the thousands Of buttes throughout
the bad lands. In comparatively recent
geological times vast beds of Ignite
coal were formed over the eastern hall
Of Montana extending into western
Dakota. The burning of the beds OF
coal was the beginning OF the bad-land
formation; the fine deposits of clay
above the coal were burned as brick
are burned in kiln and formed the
scoria; where the heat was greater and
rock or sand was present it melted and
mixed with the coal and coal ash, form
ing large cinder-hke rocks, which are
sometimes mistaken for lava.
As the coal burned out from beneath
the clay, now baked into scoria anc
melted into cinders, broke into small
divisions and fell promiscuously dowr
into the pits thus formed. Volcanic ash
Is found scattered over the Little Vol
mountains and the eastern portion o.
Montana. It must have drifted Will
the wind from powerful eruptions il
the Rocky mountains, as there are ne
indications of any volcanic action in the
vicinity of the ice well. The Little Vol
mountains are merely high range O
buttes apparently Of the same origin
as all the bad land buttes. Their sum
mits, towering above all the othei
buttes, has given them the name o.
mountains, but they are only Of slight
ly over 1000 feet altitude.
During the winter the well is nearl,
filed with snow. Enough water from
the early spring rains finds its wa.
. through between the rocks to mix will
the snow and freeze into one solid mas
Of ice. The ice in the well is formed b.
the cold of the winter season, but doe
not begin TO form sometimes till tn
winter is half gone. In turn it is melt
ed by the heat of the summer, but doe
not begin to melt until the summer
half over In the early part of the sum
mer it is still freezing in the well, ant
during the first half of the winter 1t !
still melting. The well acts as refrig
orator. 1t receives the heat slowly, ant
J then gives it OF just as slowly. If tn
earth received and gave off heat rapid
", the hottest weather would be il
: June and the coolest in December-il
fact, the seasons follow nearly mont
? behind the sun. The conditions SUI
/ rounding the ice well cause it to fol
low the seasons from six TO eight week
later.
f It is a fact that if on hot day yo
walk rapidly into the cave to where tn
E ice is, it feels as though a strong cuI
} rent of cold air were blowing agains
e your face. The sensation is so decic
edly real that it requires carefr
demonstration to prove to the cor
4 trary, and even, then it almost seems a
I though the demonstration had been
e mistake. 1t can be easily tested by us
ing smoke, or better still, a rathe