The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-06-11

open. Three of the claim jumpers
fell, MORALLY 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 amy extensive
scale.
The mines of Cave Gu1ch were
worked in a desultory way as late as
the SOS.
Diamond Boom Town
For three years, when Diamond
City was at its best between 1865 and
1868, 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 mpuntain metro
polls. Along the trails walked and
rode weatherbeaten, booted men with
why 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
rx<,o h IL 10 ~ hn
camps like Diamond City that the
young men were from the east, while
the grizzled men were from Califor-
mia, even though they were natives
of middle western or eastern states.
The ''tenderfoot" arriving in new
mining camp without previous exper-
fence in the mountains was usually
somewhat nervous, uncertain of his
rights and suspicious of all of his new
neighbors and acquaintance. Not SO
the veteran miner and mountain man.
When Diamond City came into being
in 1864 the little host of gold seek
ers who flocked into the gulch found
themselves beyond the reach of the |
law and without the protection or |
control of the United States govern
ment TIE mineral lands had not
been declared open to exploration or
purchase and there was really no way
of acquiring legal title. Actual pos
session was the only evidence of own
ership.
The Law OF the Miners
The situation demanded law as
soon as a new district was discovered
and that without delay. But the
veteran miners and prospectors were
not. in any degree uncertain about
what to do or how to do it, and the
with which they acted
soon treasured the "tenderfeet." A
mass meeting was at once called,
which organized the district and
adopted rules and regulations for the
and control of all mat
.ers pertaining to mining, the use of
water for that purpose and the ac-
luiring and disposal of mining claims
lfter determining of what a mining
lain should consist.
The miners laws of Diamond City
md the other Montana camps were
,ased on the eternal principles of
,quity. One of the most important
Joints to be decided in any new dis
riot was the time allowed miner
II a mining company to ''1ay over"
Without being jumped. This was a
natter regulated by water, snow,
rozen ground, etc. No man was re-
uired to work his claim if it could
ot be worked; it was universally I'M
erstood that claim could not be
umped while its owner was absent
lighting Indians or kept from work
y sickness or for want of grub at
and.
Claims worth millions were held by
o other tenure than brief code of
1iners' laws like the following:
1--WE, most of the miners of this
fstrict, resolve, first, that this dis
riot shall be called Confed4rateI
Iulch, and that claim shall be 1901