Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-22
An OLD timer
ON THE STAND
VIM. 2 Parks Told Of Early
ViciSSitudeS of His Mine.
PARKS PARROT
Went BIZ oke Several Times and Sold
The Defense Opens Its
Case.
PARKS PARROT

The proceedings this morning were en-
liyened by the testimony OF VIM. r.
pa rks. an old timer who was one or the
ORIGINAL ,ocators of some of the ground
which figures in the present controversy
! Mr.. Parks ave his testimony IN ms o"n
! character istic way and judge. attorneys
and spectators were VIZ"
! laughter at different times as Mr.. PARKS
told the story Of his early day triouia-
lions in Butte.
M, Parks said his home was IN -"
York but he was now a resident q Ma 80,
90, co,,n tv. He came to Montana ~ ~
o,a 70 R,tte in 1865. He lived IN butle
IN +o 1881 or 1882 and then Went oAch -
Now york for a few years. WINE :
ros;dant Of Montana he had Ioiloweu
quartz and placer mining. - go
mine known as Parks Parrot a q IT,
tie discovery shaft sunk on It. There was
also a shaft on the Shakespeare aDout
20 or 80 feet north Of IT.. on PARKS far-
rot there was a nice vein oI aOout -
inches Of copper ore.
what did you do first In reference 70
working the claim? ~ asked Mr.. Cotter.
"Well." replied Mr.. Parks after dellD-
Grafton. 1.-THE first thing | did was to go
broke. 1 had a few dollars and | hlred q
man to put up a small smelter. me man
said he knew all about the swansea
smelters. but 1 don't think he ever saw
Swansea. Anyway he fixed me. Then !
went to work. l believed in the old say
ing that where you lost money was a
good place to find it. I went to work on
my claim and opened up a vein OF ABOUT
! three inches of copper ore. ) kept WORK.
ing until the shaft reached q depth OF
over 100 feet
II worked it just as fast as ! could get
money to work it. It was worked right
along" :,
Did you ever ship n copper"
Yes. | shipped during 1873 and 1871
continuously until copper fell. Ihen
shut her down n sold to Patterson. ~
maid. He also quit. In 1857 sofa =
!, Franklin Farrell, through Migeon."
.Wher did you ship your copper!
81 shipped some to Swansea and some
to Pope, Cole & Co., of Baltimore
What year did you ship to Swansea,
1T don't remember. Then sofa y
! Hauser; that was probably in 1874 or 1850
} The ore was shipped by team to Corinne
4 Utah."
! .Wha year did you build the smelter?
) I'm 1866 I had the smelter built. l re
! member that right we'll. l reduced SOM
! ore from the discovery shaft OF the faf
; rot and got out some bullion
, How long did you reduce ore?'
I mot very long. My money gave out
: We had plenty of ore, but we put the dis
, charge on the wrong side of the furnace
Characterization by Mr.. Scallon: Al
= ter YOU quit smelling in 1866, what al
4 you do?"
4 II went to work wherever I could get
= lob. I worked some in the old placer dig
= eings In 1867 and kept working 'roun
= when / could get it. ! worked that wa
e until ~ or 70. Then I went down I
= Utah. Utah was on the boom then. | re
maine there four or five months. The
I began to believe that we had a bette
camp here and l soaked my saddle hors
and came back. ! went to work at th
Parrot mine. sinking and taking out or
1t was the first shaft in the district thu
had reached a depth of 100 feet. 1t toe
me about four years to sink It.
How many feet did you sink it eac
year?' :.
II can't tell you; but any of the ole
timers around here can tell you abol
that"
what did you do after coming bao
from utah?"
"Took out some ore. sold it to the Fir
National bank, through Hauser, and he
lots of fun and Billy chuckled. "Ye
l was about as foolish a man as ev
made a camp" he added.
Did you work the mine yourself?'
Eyes. One year I got in the hole.
owed Lee Foster 1880 for a whisky bl
and / turned some of the proceeds ov
to him"
when did you shut down the mine? %
Tell me the year copper p al
l will tell you."
"HoW long were you shut down?"
Mot long. l negotiated a loan fro
Judge Davis and sunk a new shaft
feet in depth. Then l sold"
During how many years We're y
shut down?'
IT don't think it was a year. Perha
! did not TAX out n ore for a We
and a half, but we were sinking"
when did you sell?'
what year did Chief Joseph take Il
country % replied Billy, reflectively.
I'm 1871 said the court.
"Well, that year l was booming, II
you. had all kinds of money and
thought I owned the First National bal
I got s6o.ooo n $4,000 for the ore
Sold"
Here followed a Renaissance, told
y Parks own inimitable "a which v
= greeted with roars of laughter, the CO
Joining in as spontaneously as the la
r yers and spectators. The story was
an early-day run on Hauser's bank. n
the First National bank, and how Pa
=. came to the rescue. In substance, 1t
- to the effect that Parks and Dick Hau
met one day on Main street. Hau
was looking blue and Parks asked
pan what the trouble was. Hauser said tn
~ 49, -..ro - AAo NIL tho xAnNp