The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-06-10

open. Three of the claim jumpers
fell, mortally wounded, in a few sec
onds and the rest broke and ran into
the timber. That ended the attempts
of the claim jumpers to operate in
Montana, at least on any extensive
scale.
The mines of Cave Gulch were
worked in a desultory way as late as
the SOS.
Diamond a Boom Town
For three years, when Diamond
City vas at its best between 1865 and
1858, it was in every sense one of the
best boom camps of the west. Stores,
saloons, gambling houses, hurdy-
gurdy houses and hundreds of log
cabins grew like mushrooms up and
down the gulch. AS Adventures
from the east and west poured in, the
gold belt widened constantly by new
discoveries. Roads were hewn to
camps in every direction, and soon
rumbling stages began to arrive daily
from Last Chance Gulch, where the
city of Helena was growing from
lusty infancy to a mountain metro
polls. Along the trails walked and
rode weatherbeaten, booted men with
wiry bodies and strong faces, some
with pack horses and many carrying
their blankets on their backs as they
strobe along. Soon OK and mule
trains began to drag into the gulch,
hauling stores of goods for trade
with the miners.
In any new camp there were at
first two sharply defined classes
The old miners and the pilgrims" 1t
was almost an invariable rule in the
like Diamond City that the
young men were from the east, while
he grizzled men we're from Califor-
Tia, even though they were natives
If middle western or eastern states.
The ''tenderfoot' arriving in a new
camp without previous exper-
in the mountains was usually
somewhat nervous, uncertain of his
lights and suspicious of all of his new
leighbors and acquaintance. Not so
he veteran miner and mountain man.
When Diamond City came into being
n 1864 the little host of gold seek
who flocked into the gulch found
themselves beyond the reach of the
aw and without the protection or
ontrol of the United States govern
nent. The mineral lands had not
cen declared open to exploration or
urchase and there was really nc way
f acquiring legal title. Actual pos
ession was the only evidence of own
The Law of the Miners
The situation demanded law as
BON as a new district was discovered
nd that without delay. But the
miners and prospectors were
OF in any degree uncertain about
hat to do or how to do it, and the
romptness with which they acted
treasured the "tenderfeet." A
ass meeting was at once called, :
hich organized the district and
lopted rules and regulations for the
and control of all mat
rs pertaining to mining, the use of
alter for that purpose and the ac-
and disposal of mining claims
ter determining of what a mining
aim should consist.
The miners laws of Diamond City
Id the other Montana camps were
Lsed on the eternal principles OF
uity. One of the most important
'ints to be decided in any new dis
let vas the time allowed a miner
a mining company to clay over"
thout being jumped. This was a
regulated by water, snow,
1zen ground, etc. No man was re-
ired to work his claim if it could
t be worked; it was universally I'M
that a claim could not be
mped while it's owner was absent
Indians or kept from work
sickness or for want of grub at
nd.
Claims worth millions were held by1
other tenure than a brief code of
ners' laws like the following:
we, most of the miners of this
trict, resolve, first, that this dis
ct shall be called Confederate
lch, and that a claim shall be 100