The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-04-09
MoNTANA'S ICE MINE.
How Nature Lays in Store in Win
ter and Keeps 1t in Summer.

From the San Francisco Call.
Seven miles to the north and little
to the east of the Cheyenne Indian
agency in Custer county. Mon, is
well filled with ice that eNcites much
curiosity among the ranchers and
cattlemen of that section. Every cow
boy who visits the well has much 70
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 effort to fnd
the origin of things; however, they all
agree that the ice FORMS in the we'll
during the summer and that it actually
thaws during the winter. This ap-
parent contradiction of the natural
laws that govern the outside world
has carried the fame of this we'll for
miles around and people have travelled
great distances TO witness the forma-
tion of icicles during the hot wea ther
OF July.
This well 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 cmpties into Rosebud eight
miles from where the Rosebud joins
the Yellowstone river. This portion IF
the mountains is covered with a
growth of tall pines
Fourteen years ago three men pros.
pecting for silver. mistakng certain
colors in the rocks. began sinking a
shaft; at fifteen feet ii was disagree
ably cold: at twenty feet the cold had
increased so rapidly that they were
thoroughly frightened. They could
feel currents of cold air rushing up
from the creVlces in the rock they
imagined they were digging into some
mysterious underground cavern; they
had heard just enough of wonderful
adventures of digging into caves and
underground lakes, and being alone in
this wilderness, where the very still
ness permitted the ears t. hear and
the mind to imagine all manner Of
gruesome powers hid beneath the rock
so thoroughly filed them with the
fear of Impending danger that they
abandoned the work which has since
gained such renown.
The SUBMITS of Little Wolf Noun
tains are covered with scoria. which
has all the appearance and texture Of
a good grade of tiline. 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 We're formed over the eastern half
of Montana, extending into western
Dakota. The burning of these beds Of
coal was the beginning Of the bad lanl
formation, The fine deposits Of clay
above the coal were burned as brick
are burned in a kiln and formed tho
SCoria. Where the heat was greater.
and rock and sand were present, 1t
melted and mixed with the coal and
coal ash, forming large cinder-lika
rocks, which are sometimes mistaken
for lava. As the coal burned out from
beneath the clay, now baked into
scoria and melted into cinders, It
broke into small divisions and fell
promiscuously down into the pits thus
formed. Volcanic ash is found scatter
ed over the Little Wolf Mountains and
the eastern portion of Montana. Il
must have drfted with the wind from
powerful eruptions in the Rocky Noun
tains ,as there are no indications of any
volcanic action in the vicinity of the
ice Well The Little Wolf Mountains
are merely IA rough range of buttes
apparently of the same origin as all the
bad land buttes. Their submits, tow
ering above all the other buttes. have
given them the name of mountains, but
they are only of slightly over 1000 feet
altitude.
If ice were to be put into the well dur
ing the winter it would keep through
out the summer nearly as wei as IL
stored away in ordinary icehouses. BY
chance nature has formed almost the
identical conditions that man has made
use of to preserve ice throughout the
hot weather, The shaft is the cavity
in which TO store the ice; the volcanic
ash, filling into the open space between
the loosely piled rock, serves the pur-
poes of sawdust in keeping out the
warm draughts Of air; the altitude ana
the north SLOPE are favorable to the
preservation of the ice: tall, dense for
est prevents the heating of the sur
face rock by the direct rays OF the
sun: the rocks are too porous for the
water to soak uD, so to speak, from
beneath; the facts are that in many
places near the tops of the but.es, on
the sides where the rocks have fallen
loosely together, they are perfectly dry