The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-10-05

creek bed. This gave it a depth of 80
fee to dig to bedrock, but il was easily
accomplished This boat was launched
on April Il. 1897, and was started up
about the 18th of July of the same year,
the people of Dillon turning out in large
numbers TO witness the event.
All. or practically ALL of the values
encountered in the Grasshopper creek.
are found on the bedrock and where the
bedrock is rough the buckets will dig
up four or five feet of it and it will be
washed through the sluices. Where the
bedrock is smooth it will not work as
well. but as rule the value is not as
great in such places On the Greater,
six men are employed on each shift a
deckman, pilot, fireman. engineer and
woodman. About eight cords of wood
are consumed each day and the supply
Is secured from West mountain, IL miles
away.
Z. The officers Of the company who give
matters their personal attention and Who
remain constantly on the ground
throughout the season are r. l.. Champ
lin, president; M. Mcdonald, treasurer
and general manager: r. w. Christian,
superintendent and master mechanic. AT
the Electric boat. William Hughes and
T. b. Barlow and Mac Sinkins perform a
similar duty at the Greater. \. j. Reece
is the extra pilot man, and he also does
the general repair work. Everyone con-
nected with the boats are the most cour-
teous gentlemen, and visitors are al
ways welcomed and shown over either
boat by the efficient people in charge.
Clean-upS are made twice q week, the
boat shutting down, for half shift for
that purpose. The results are not made
public, but report is that the yields are
satisfactory. Among the rifles is all
ways found a large quantity of black
sand and iron rock the latter being or
two different varieties. This is care
fully saved and at the end Of each sea-
son it is shipped to the sme.ter at Oma-
ha. It's value varies a great deal, some
of it having a value of $lSo to the ton,
and again not paying over $3o to the
ton. Last season 50 tons of tais material
was saved and shipped to the smelter.
The value appears to be mostly in the
coarse material
A great many relics of the days when
Bannack was in it's infancy are being
constantly brought to light and saved
in the sluice boxes. Only a few days ago
a heavy 10 carat gold ring was dug out,
and it had evidently been buried since
the early days. A cabinet in the COM
pany's office is filed with these relics
and they consist of coins, cartridges of
all kinds, medals, a part of an old pis-
toll, curious nuggets, belt buckles and a
hundred different articles. The oldest
of the coins is a 10-cent piece and it is
dated in 1926. Another old timer is a
5O-cent piece dated 1888. At point,
which is said to have once been the site
of Henry Plummer's cabin. cache was
evidently encountered, as the buckets
brought up 10 81 gold pieces. $3.50 gold
pieces, i S. gold piece and 5O-cent silver
pieces, dated 1858, 1862 and 1858. The
majority of the coins are dated from
1853 to 1861, although there are few of
recent years. The largest nugget ever
taken out was egg shaped and weighed
$3.50.
At the present time there are four
dredge boats working in the county, the
two Just spoken of, and one on Horse
Prairie the John c. Brennan, and anOth-
err at Bon Accord, belonging to the Mon
tana Gold Dredging company. Both of
these are also said to have had success
this season. Two other boats have been
built on Grasshopper creek, the Maggie
Gibson, which was moved to Alder gulch
after 1t had worked out it's ground at
Bannac.., and the Bon Accord. which
was sold to Oregon parties only a few
weeks ago.