The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-02-26

~ 'a N1O 49,
legislature passed an act creating
Fergus county out of the big county
of Meagher. A hot fight for the
county seat between the prosperous
mining camp of Maiden and the then
struggling village which had named
itself Lewiston, after the abandoned
military Camp Lewis, was won by
the latter, which later added a "w'
and became Lewistown, and the be-
ginning had been made of the devel-
opment of the greatest agricultural
county in Montana.
C%uriously enough, as it seems to-
day, the Judith Basin, which has
since become famous for it's fertile
lands and its splendid stock ranges,
was one of the last sections of Mon
tana to become civilized, and when
the county of Fergus came into be-
ing there were few men who travelled
it's trails who did not wear a six
shooter. The reason was that it was
far from a railroad and inaccessible
eve by stage lines on account of the
great distances from the more thick
ly settled communities of Montana.
This made it a more or less safe re-
treat for horsethieves, road agents
and other bad men for whom various
sheriffs had warrants, or whose adj
dresses were sought by vigilante com
mittees somewhere.
Before 1885, when the area now
comprising Fergus county was part
of Meagher county, the county seat
was at White Sulphur Springs, a
long trip from the Lower Judith with
horses. The cattle men who were
running stock on the ranges near
where Lewistown now stands were
constantly suffering at the hands of
rustlers and h~orsethieves, and they
had to work for their own protection
with vigilance committees instead of
having the much-needed protection of
the law. In 1884 Granville Stuart
led an expedition of cowpunchers
that dealt out summary justice to
many bad men. On many mornings
the sun rose to discover with it's
rays in quiet spots along the Judith,
Musselshell, and Missouri rivers
CHASTITY faces staring forth from
tight-drawn nooses - stark forms
swaying in the breeze, dangling from
cottonwood trees.
1t was said by some that a few in
nocent men suffered in these raids,
but the facts of all the h~angings will
never be known. The determined
men who rode hard on the trail of
vengeance seldom spoke about their
doings, and unless the memoirs COM
piled by Granville Stuart before his
death a year ago contain an account
of the activities of the vigilantes of
the prairie, it is not likely that this
chapter in Montana's history will
ever be written. Whatever may have
been the rights or wrongs of indy
idual cases in these quick trials and
the summary execution of the I'M
written law of the range, the men
who thus took the law into their own
hands undoubtedly acted for the best
as they saw it, and there is no ques-
ton but that the general result was
salutary. A wholesale cleaning out
of the rustlers was effected and the
stockmen, big and small, breathed
easier and slept more soundly.
Maiden a Promising Camp
In 1885 the principal settlement
in the Judith country was the min
ing camp of Maiden, where the first
discovery of minerals was made in
May, 1880, by Joe Anderson and
Jones. In June of the same
year their prospecting party was
joined by G.. G. Snow and F. j. Nc
Partlan. The news that rich placer
diggings had been struck there soon
attracted other miners, and many To-
were made in Alpine, Warm
Springs and Maiden gulches, the
of Maiden being started at once
in the last named. The first quartz
lode discovered was the War Eagle,
which was located by Jones and An
derson, who later took as a partner
Perry w. Meadow. :
Meadow, whose death in Florida
occurred only some three years ago,
was one of the most interesting of I
Ill the pioneers of Montana, and he I
several fortunes out of claims L
discovered neal Maiden hat summer |
If 1880, notably from the famous a
Spotted Horse mine. He was in Mon =
as early as July, 1861, when he >
at Fort Benton after a trip 9
Up the Missouri from st. Louis or the i
ll-fated steamer Chippewa, which l
)lew up in Disaster bend after catch l
fire. In December, 1861, he was u
prospecting on Gold creek, in the u
Lodge valley, where the first q
,old discovery in Montana was made
he following spring. He washed
tut in Pioneer gulch some of the fl
irst gold taken from the soil of il
Iontana. He set up n of the first a
awmills, if not the first, in the ter h
itory. He located part of the town m
tie where Bozeman stands today 81
built there the first commercial a
lour mill in Montana. He also To- W
ated the town of Coulson, near the in
lite of which Billings later was start q
d..
First for County Seat BIZ
In 1855, therefore, Maiden had m
We years of growth behind it and DE-
as looked upon by many as the tn
est mining camp in the territory hi
wal of Butte. Visions of a great Sc
ty there we're seen by the residents. at
But when the county of Fergus 70
as created, the village of Lewistown
hich had struggled into existence a ge
sar or so before, was the choice of tie
lie big stockmen in the Judith Basin D.
,r county seat because of it's central qu