The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-09-25
HOPE FOR BANNACk
oLD-TIME CAMP MAY ONCE MORE
BECOME ACTIVE.
MINES WILL BE DEVELOPED
Although the Town Is Very Quiet Jus:
at Present Residents Think
the Future Exceedingly
0right.
(Special to Inter Mountain.)

(SDeC1al 10 -llleI "ouHi"ihI
Bannack, Sept. 25-ConditiOns in Ban
mack are the Quietest at present they
have been for many year past. hut the
residents of the oldtime city are Il
cheerful lot and they. knowing that the
hills surrounding their town form YER
table store of wealth in precious metals.
have waited, Micawber like. for some
thing to turn up that will prove to the
world that the mineral wealth of this
section has barely yet been scratched
over.
They have great expectations. too.
these people, and some day with the ad-
vent of capital and perseverance, so es-
sential to all great enterprises, their
fondest hopes will be realized.
1t is true that two of the most success
full dredge boats in all the country are
daily turning over 1900 yards each of
the gold-bearing gravel beds of Grass
hopper creek and thereby adding many
thousands of dollars yearly to the min
eral production Of Montana, but these
add little to the population of the town.
To Bannack belongs the credit OF be-
ing the oldest mining camp in Montana,
not only in placer, but in quartz, ana
It Is of some of the quartz prospects that
this paper proposes to tell, leaving the
ulacer and the dredge boats for flu
ture letter.
Quartz mining dates from 1867, the
fall after the Dlacers were discovered
and the first quartz mill, primitive
affair, ever erected in the territory was
built on Grasshopper creek at a little set
lie nent then known as MarysVllle, bu-
which has now passed away, only a rev
slacks now marking its site.
The first mine ever sues essfully work
ed within the confines Of Montana was
the Decouta which was discovered by
a Frenchman bearing that name.
The ore was decomposed and Stacked
from it's long exposure to the elements.
It's first value was gotten by means or
q gold pan.
The ore was packed down the hill,
distance OF 600 yards, in sacks and then
banned The ore, it is said. averaged
as high as 81 to the pan, and many thou-
sands of dollars were taken out by this
method.
The discovery was made on large
cliff of lime rock, and it is said that $oo'-
600 was taken from this discovery Inc
mill was erected in the spring OF 1865 ana
it was a home made affair. it's stamps
being made from old wagon tires which
had been welded together.
The ore was soft, however, ana 1t
answered it's purpose fairly we'll as long
as the discovery shaft was worked. Al
forwards. a tunnel was started 1T the
base of the cliff to strike the contact,
but the ore encountered was all of low
grade and it has practically been idle
to this day.
The Golden Leaf Mining company has
worked the bar leading from Grasshop-
per creek nearly to the mine. and good
money was taken out. In this work a
great many tellurium nuggets were en-
countered and it is the generally ac-
cepted theory that it all came from the
old DecOuta vein.
From 1864 to 1868, the Butterfield COM
pany of New York, whose agent was
Walter Hopkins, became interested In I.
claim known as Decouta No. 6, and suns
a shaft 297 feet. No large deposits OF
anything save vein ore were found
throughout the line.
Claim No. Z, on the same lead, owned
by John Carhart, was also developed
to a considerable extent and it paid fair
" we'll. These claims were all taken ur
under the old law and We're 100 feet ir
length along the vein.
When the first legislature convened in
1864, in Bannack, one of the first laws
enacted was to extend the length of a
mining claim to 200 feet along the vein
After a few years the claims became