Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-11-07
GAME WITH DEATH.
Pioneers Took Long Chances and Few
Prospectors Escaped the Indians.

Prospectors Escaped the Indians.
Ought to run into 'em somewhere
long about here If they amt pulled
out or cashed in
Jack Fisher impaired this opinion
to Allen Cochran and Jack McDougall.
pulling up his pony on a deer trail
leading down to the Kootenai river
in Montana. He referred to five other
prospectors they had left on Libby
creek the preceding fall. The first
white miners to penetrate that section,
they comprised a respectable proper
ton of the entire states white popula-
ton then, for this is story of the
cruel and conclusive days Of fifty years
ago in the west.
The next turn Of the trail proved
the accuracy of Fishers sense Of loca-
ton. They came to an old camp with
the ashes long cold and scattered. A
rusty frying pan lay on the ground In
one place; an overturned coffee pot in
another. A buzzard tapped heavily
of wolves loped into the forest.
The prospectors needed no further
notification of something serious
ahead. Their frontier eyesight told
them much of the story before they
tore apart the charred logs Of what
had been the camp shelter and uncov-
cred the partly burned bodies Of three
Of the five men they had expected to
greet again alive. Wet weather had
erased ground traces of the tragedy,
but other evidence of an Indian attack
remained as readable as If the mud
was full Of moccasin prints. The place
Is on the Snowshoe road, about four
miles from where Libby is now locat-
ed.
Fisher and his companions surveyed
the situation with the comments Of
men familiar with the ghastly tokens
of human violence. They methodical-
ly attended to their ponies, and then
they gathered and buried the rem
mans they found, marking the spot
with a rude monument of loose gran
lite. After that they ate supper. smok-
ed long and low, far into the night,
the freight sta 1ing into the wilder
ness shadows { ound them and the
wolves restlessly waiting beyond,
Fisher, Cocb In and McDougall
came to Spoka Falls from Walla
Walla in the 81 ing of 1861. They
were packed avy with prospecting
outfits an6 hes led for an unknown
section X Mont ina. Camped among
the Irdians at the falls they found
five white men ,ound for nowhere in
particular and ally to go anywhere.
Who they were g nd where they came
from is a part o. tn, forgotten per-
sonalities the early wet absorbed so
ners by Fishe.' and his friends, and
then the parry trailed away eastward,
They left lot white face behind,
This was ih the morning twilight Of
time, so far as Spokane Is concerned.
Arriving at the stream since known
as Fisher river with no more than the
incidental mishaps and hard work Of
breaking a way through the wilds
they crossed the divide and discovered
Libby creek. Here they panned out
paying placer and settled down to a
summer of hard work. When the
winter began to bare its
fangs in the autumn frosts the Walla
Walla men urged return to Spokane
Falls and the warmer climate Of the
inland empire until the next spring.
I'VE can't do anything here after
the creek freezes" Fisher argued. Be
sides, we're likely to run shy Of grub.
These Indians are sure to be in the
same fix, and there's no tellin' what'll
get into their heads when they get
Is that our best play is to pull out till
spring"
Were plenty fixed for them In
dians," one answered, "and We'll have
more dust washed out than we can
pack before ever you fellows get back
in the spring. We're overlooking no
bets this trip. So If ice and Indians
are troubling you hit the trail. We
camp right here till the creeks played
out"
The men from Walla Walla were
counted able to take care Of them
selves on any angle Of the iron game
of the frontier. A suggestion of panic
on their part appealed to them as a
friendly form of a joke. Too wise in
their time and place to waste the win
ter in needless risk and hardship,
they packed up what food they would
need for the trip out, left the rest at
the winter camp and came back to
Spokane Falls. 1t was their return to
Montana that proved the five had not
been plenty fixed for them Indians"
People who live securely about that
spot today would likely shrink from
The situation that confronted Fisher
and his friends around their fire in the
ravaged camp. Their manner Of
it Is not a soft and lovely
But it was governed by
the fearless purpose and unhesitating
actions that made the west and the
world possible for people who can
shrink. There are no finer examples Of
this recorded in the history Of the
race than the course adopted at that
camp fire.
representatives Of their kind there In
the mountainous immensely Of Mon
tana. With them were the graves Of
former comrades struck down un-
warned and subjected to the extremes
of savage torture in dying. Around
them lurked the Indians who years
later were still strong and desperate
enough to crush the impetuous Gus
Ter Somewhere among these and OF
them were the murderers Of the pros
pectorS.
The granite monument loomed In
solemn warning through the gloom Of
the unguarded mountain night over
the three left there alive and alone.
They might stay and take the chances
of another summers work along the
creek or they could turn back, and
this would be reasonably safe. Except
for the matter of few ounces Of dust,
and plenty Of that could be picked up
they were as well off per-
sonally in any other section of the
But the three sat around that camp
fire under the bond blood owes blood
in dangerous isolation. Those bonds
were never forged to finer temper
than in the making Of civilized west
ern America. 1t was to be a white
mans country, and whenever a white
man crossed the boundaries in the be-
ginning he accepted the pioneering re-
Sponsibilities of his race. An empire
spread around. but it offered room
only for grave to the man
who faltered or failed.
The three around the fire were the
stamp of men that stayed. They dis
cussed no other line Of action than
the capture and punishment by the
white mans law. The white mans
papolt,, ,,,uct he ayactad Thraa white