Fergus County argus., 1902-02-05
The Utica Boys After a Sixteen Days
Prospecting Tour In the Bad
Lands Return Home.
PROSPECTING WAS DIFFICULT
Weather Extremely Cold and Snow
Covered the Ground to the Depth
Of Several Inches.

~ party vi pTOSpSNlOIS' Sohsiotihb
principally of residents of Utica, re-
turned to Lewistown last Sunday from
an extended visit to the Blood creek
district, where they had gone for the
purpose Of thoroughly exploring and
prospecting the country in the vicin-
ity of Cliff Deyo's alleged diamond
find.
The outfit consisted of spring
wagon. lumber wagon and couple
of teams OF we'll broken horses; a
plentiful supply of bedding, fuel and
provisions were taken along in order
to cope successfully with the severity
of the weather and every preparation
was made in order to thoroughly ex-
plore the country. The party was
composed of NJ. NJ. Williamson, Geo.
Spencer, Louis Pepin, Tom King and
w. A, Abbott of Utica, while miner
who travels under the name of Run
ming Eagle" Wallace LARSEN and
Dick Stewart accompanied them on
the trip.
1t was rather a tired looking outfit
that struck Lewistown on Sunday and
nothing could be learned of the result
CT the expedition until they had sur
rounded the better hail of "the first
square for two weeks" as George
Spencer put it. In reply to the ques-
ton of the ARGUS reporter. Tom King
said: Diamonds h; why a man
that would cause a stampede like that
ought to be made camp out there the
rest of the winter and live on moth
ing but snow balls and sage hens"
While talking of the affair Louis
Pepin, who was among the first to
discover the Yogo sapphire and who
has worked at the sapphire mines for
tie past two years. said that the party
had travelled over two hundred miles
and had been gone sixteen days.
He said: I'VE went to Gilt Edge
from Lewistown and from there to
the head of Blood creek and drove
down into Blood coulee, where we
oamped for several deys during the
extreme cold weather. From there
we went to Umbrella springs and
returned from there TO Blood creek,
where we prospected for two days and
afterwards went to Crooked creek and
Sand creek. where at the latter place
we found Cliff Deyo's camp. We thor
oughly prospected the surrounding
country but failed to find even a solid
formation and it seems as if the for
nation OF the district is due to sedi
mentary deposits and wash from the
waters of a big sea. Fossilized fish
can be found and sea shells, but there
is scarcely a sign of any mineral for
nation visible The so-called dia
monds are found in the ant hills, which
are abundant in that section and are
nothing but small pieces of quartzitC
or quartz crystals thrown up from &
loose underlying formation"
Several specimens of the crystals
were in the possession OF the party
and the largest of them is less thar
the size of a pea. With the excep
tion to a slight strain to their yarI
. spinning capacities the boys are a
good as ever and one Of the party
after being in town for short time
stated that "he felt as though h
could fly" but whether that was iron
2 the effects of the exhiliarating atmos
3 phere encountered in the bad lands o
e from the spiritual advantages of tn
city it is hard to say, but as Kin
said, there was nobody hurt excep
Running Eagle who froze his face.