The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-07-30
ANGUS MCDONALD BUILT HUDS0NS BAY FORT ON THE FLATHEAD
I'M 847 RUBSTAKED FIRST DISC0vERER OF GOLD I'M MONTANA

but a solitary Indian rancher called
Mchola.
"On passing the timbered noun
tains of the reservations western
line, we pass many an old hidden
Blackfoot fort, occupied in the days
of blood, and enter the Horse Plains
where in days gone all the tribes OF
the region and more were wont to
eongregate to trade with the Hud-
sons Bay boats dispatched from Col
vile. Here war party of Black
feet tok all our horses from US once
and we narrowly escaped the entire
destruction of our party. They were
so and well armed, while we were
only five with two guns. AS our
horses grazed united, however, they
did not trouble themselves with TAX
| ing our scalps.
1.-The Horse Plains are not SO. call
ed in Indian, their name being Com
kanee, from a yellow granite boulder,
resembling in shape the upper part of
the human body. Frequent offer
| ings were made in good will, in past
days, to that same stone. This plain
will be a place of much resort and
value in days hence.
Leaving it we pass the Bad Rock,
now partially leveled and blasted,
which in my early days was the steep
est pass for pack horses in Montana,
and come to Thompson Falls, named
after the western traveller of that
name; above the falls was an old
Hudson's Bay post last occupied by
myself and party in 1849. Many
II 49,
glass of the finest brandy that ever
crossed the Atlantic were served in
that sylvan building; not a vestige of
lit now remains. Where the stirring
reel of Gillie Cruback and the solemn
strains of the Flowers of the Forest
were whistled and sung, and where
we were glad to hear once a year
from Europe, though seldom, if ever,
from the United States, Montana's
rye grass and evergreen kenekenek
now wave. The wolf may howl there
and the cock of the hills and mea-
dows dance there, but we say with
the old bard, When will it be morn in |
the grave to bid the slumberer |
awake"
men of the splendid type of early day |
fur trader who left an inperishable |
story of romance and adventure that |
is interviewer with the history of the
Rocky mountain region. The Hud- |
sons Bay company produced many
of these stalwarts who became out
standing figures in the scattered COM |
merce of the vast western wilder
nesses. A man of great strength of |
character, dignity and vision, McDon-
aid inherited the best traditions of |
resoluteness, fair dealing and a |
strain of the Scotch sentiment and |
love for the best things in life that |
MARKED him everywhere as a man of
gentle breeding and fine soul. The |
Indians always liked and trusted him, |
and the confidence he inspired in
them saved his life on more occa-
sions than one when trouble doomed
Mcdonald had the distinction of
beng the first man to stake" a gold |
prospector in Montana, and the man
he "staked" found the first gold ever
washed out in the territory, which
later yielded its hundreds of millions
In fact McDonald's action, to which
he gave little thought at the time, re-
suited in the second great epoch in
Montana's history, the first being, of
course, the fur trading period.
This tremendous event came about
quite by accident, and in its circum-
stances was not unlike the finding of
gold in California by James w. Mar
shall in 1S4S. AS has been often told,
The honor of the first discovery of ]
gold in Montana belongs to Francois 1
Finlay, known as Benetsee among {
he Indians, a mixed blood of Scotch ,
and Indian antecedents 1t was, ,
however, the aid given him by Angus ,
Mcdonald that permitted him to