The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-07-27
ADIS0N C0UNTY'S LOST PLACER MINES -

"HERE is scarcely a county in
Montana that has not story of
lost cabin or lost placer dig
gings. Madison county is no ex-
ception to the general rule. and she ha
several good stories of wonderful finds
which were made in the early days. and
then all trace of their whereabo
being lost by the death of the men who
uncovered great wealth. only to lose it
again by unfortunate circumstances.
On the Madison valley. early in the
sixties. settled a little old Englishman
who is known far and wide among the
old-timers of the state as English
George His name was George Thorpe.
and he died few years ago from the
effects OF the grippe and he now sleeps
in the cemetery at Virginia City. where,
with many another arsonaut Of the west.
he is awaiting the last call from Gabriel's
trumpet.
He came to Montana during the gold
excitement which followed the discov-
cry of the wonderful nlacers of Alder
gulch. but he claimed to have been on
the Yellowstone in the employ of the
Hudson Bay company. as a hunter and
trapper long before Montana or Idaho
had place on the map.
holu digging was not to his liking. He
had followed the occupation of hunter
and traDner all his life. and the number
of years he had lived was problematic
When he first came to Alder gulch it is
said that he looked old and scared and
when the writer can first remember him
he looked as old as he did the year be-
fore he died. Shortly after he reached
Alder gulch he made his camp on the
no If NVn
ran creek and engaged in trapping, fish,
ing and hunting as means of gaining
livelihood. He did not relish the idea
OF living alone. so he married Ban
mack squaw, secured a few head of pony
mares. few head of cattle and began
raising cattle. horses and pappoOses. He
never cared to work hard at manual la
Dor. would rather hunt in the mountains
or trap than eat and this is story told
TO the writer of this narrat tive while on
a horse hunting expedition on the up
per Madison one night when we were
camped out and when it was too cold
to stay in bed. 1t is the story of the
lost placer of Madison county and is
implicitly believed in by all of the old
timers of that section. He did not want
to tell it at all but being pressed to
a considerable length, he told it, and as
near as l can remember it is as follows:
1T was in the early '70s, he said,
when old Madison John. a Bannack
buck. who is brother to my old wom-
an. came down to the ranch from the |
Lemhi reservation. late in the fall, and
said that one white man had killed an
other in the West Fork country. The |
man had been killed with a pick and
that implement was still sticking in the
n no
had been dragged to washout. and a
lot of rocks had been piled upon it. John
also said that a dugout had been built
nearby. prospect hole or two sunk, |
and that dam had been built Just be-
low the spring which gushed from the
hillside close by the cabin, and that
there was every indication that a lot of I
gravel had been lately washed out but
that he could not find the place from
where the Dirt had been taken, but a trail |
led off into the timber which. if fol-
lowed. would probably show from where
the dirt had come. He had with him !
nugget worth probably SIS, which he
had picked up on table in the dugout.
] asked him how long the man had
been dead and he said not to exceed a
week as the stencil from the corpse was
the means of its burial place being dis
covered.
Il told John to keep quiet about his
discovery. not to tell it to any other
White man and that he and I would go
up there to see if we could find any,
thing worth carrying away. He agreed
to do so, and a day Or two Afterwards
We started out together for the place
where crime had probably been COM
mlt-~d. At place on the upper Madi-