Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-09-22

IF a man had ont-tenth of the gold
that went down the creeks in the
early days Of quartz mining in Mon,
tana he would be many times a mil.
lionaire,' was the comment made by
an old-timer yesterday.
when it first became known that
there was gold and silver in the quartz
lodges of Montana many means were
developed to extract the gold there
from. One millwright l recall wrig-
ged up stamp mill at Bannack, max
ing practically the whole thing right
there on the ground. The stamps were
made fom wagon tires welded one on
top of the other, and these were fas.
tened to cam shafts made of wood
The plates were the only things not
manufactured at Bannack and these
were freighted across mountain ranges
from an old mining district, which
had already been abandoned, in Idaho.
Water furnished the motive power
and fir log with hard wood pins
driven through it at angles revolved
and caught similar pins on the cam
shafts and caused the stamps to rise
and fall. In this manner many hun.
dred cords of ore were milled in the
early days, and It had to be very rich
ore to pay byb this process. Not any.
where near all of the values were say.
ed and the tailings we're all allowed
to run down the creek, and thousands
of dollars were lost in this manner
and never recovered, for no one in
those days ever thought there was
anything left in the tailings that could
be recovered. No effort was ever
made to save them for future work.
ing, and this is how the first money
went down the creeks of Montana to
be lost forever. for freshets have scat.
tered these old tailings from the site
of the mill to the mouth of the Mis-.
souri,, thousands of miles away.
1T was the same old story In every
one of these free gold camps of the
early days. Arastras were built by
miners everywhere and in these no
effort was made to save the tailings,
and freshets carried them down the
streams. Ore had to be worth hun
dred dollars or more to the ton to be
worked by these crude methods en-
ployed years ago, and, as general
thing. but little over half of the val
ues were saved. The rest of the money
went down the creeks and was IRE.
trievably lost. In many parts Of the
state today are found the ruins of
these old-time mills; many of them
were constructed Of stone. The ma
chinery was hauled by OK teams across
the continent and It was the best that
could be secured at that time.
All of the mining men had thoughts
OF rich, freemilling ore only, and
the ore that was found at the grass
roots was rich, such as the Cable
Mountain, Summit, Sterling, Marys-
Vile, Red Bluff and many more whose
names are now but little more thar
memories, having produced ore at the
grass roots which rivaled the richest
rock that is being produced in south.
ern Nevada today. But the mills were
only fitted to mill free-gold ore. When
the base ore was encountered at the
water level, they were all obliged to
give up the effort to mill the ore.
Many of the companies went broke,
others hunted up other fields, but of
the old-time mills Of the early COS,
there is scarcely one In use today.
Quite lot of the machinery has been
brought to Butte and converted into
copper in the precipitating plants,
number of mills in Madison county
having been looted for this purpose.
But all these mills left behind big
piles of tailings.
Then there is another manner in
which money went down the creeks
in the early days and has been lost
forever. In all the placer claims Of
Montana an abundance of black sand
was encountered. This was looked up-