The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-11-10
PIONEER PASSES
SAITH MILESTONE
ARCHIE MACDONALD, SURVIVOR
YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION
HAS ANNIVERSARY.
Came With Comstock, Discoverer of
Famous Nevada Mine Which Made
Virginia City Famous, to Montana;
Fought Indians and Mined in the
Placers in His Youth.

Placers in His Youth.
At his comfortable home in Boze.
man, where he and his wife have lived
for 80 years, Archie Macdonald, a re-
spected pioneer, celebrated his 84th
birthday recently. He is in fairly good
health for one of his advanced years
and enjoys talking of his early-day
experiences much more than of things
that have happened to him in later
years. He has a good memory, es-
pecially when referring to matters OF
historical interest. He is not only
a pioneer of 1854, but is one of the
three survivors of the Yellowstone ex-
petition of 1874 against the Indians.
Walked to Montana.
He is of Scotch ancestry and was
born in the Highlands of Scotland Oc-
tober %, 1887. He immigrated to
Canada in 1854 and remained there
about 10 years, when he went by
steamboat to New York city and then
to Panama. He travelled around some
on foot, on horseback and OCCASION
ally in a wagon in old Mexico and on
to California, and from there to Mon
tana, walking from Portland, Ore, to
Alder gulch, where he arrived in
1854, and engaged in mining during
the remainder of that year. He then
went to the B~lackfoot country and
spent a short time at Diamond City.
He engaged in placer mining at Hell
ena for a time, and then returned to
Diamond City for a few months, go
ing from there to Hoggem, where he
had a claim.
He not only engaged in mining at
Radersburg, but bought a hotel there,
which he sold in 1868 to the county
commissioners for a courthouse. From
there he went with a team to New
Mexico and Wyoming, and for a time
he was employed by the Union Pa
cific railroad. He was a member of
a party organized at Cheyenne, Wyo-
ming, in 1870 to go to the Black
Hills. He was chosen captain of the
party of $50 men but the United
States troops would not allow them to
into the Black Hills on account of
the Indians. who had been very trou-
blesome in that country. The men
then decided to come to Montana, and
Macdonald is the last of the par
ty which came to Bozeman at that
time, the late August Gottschalck and
Charles Pietsch being among those of
the expedition.
Comstock Joined Party.
The late Thomas Comstock, dis
coverer of the famous mines in Ne
vada bearing his name, Joined this
party on the way to Montana, having
the mine that he supposed at
the time to be worthless for a cayuse.
He put his meagre belongings into
the wagon and rode his cayuse
through, but seemed respondent and
had little to say. A few days after
the party arrived in Bozeman Com
stock committed suicide by shooting
himself in the head with his pistol.
Ills body was buried in the Bozeman
cemetery, where a gravestone was la
ter put up by Nelson Story of Boze-
man.
Against Indians.
Mr.. Macdonald spent the greater
part of the time during 1871, 1922
and 1873 in Cooke City prospecting.
In 1874 he Joined the famous Yellow
stone expedition from Bozeman down
the Yellowstone against the Sioux In
dams, and he and E. D. Ferguson
and James Gourley are the only three
survivors of that expedition. Mr..
Macdonald and some of the others
went back to the Grow agency and
helped to keep guard. The Indians
killed Story's cattle herder and
Il .,1of1,0l nr LIrtp+oy1o 70 y, s1rv "a +hoI
springs. They were driven down the
Yellowstone by the men of this ex-
petition, who took DR.. Hunter and
lis family from Hunters Springs to
he Crow agency, where several of
he men remained as guards for a
'ew months.
After spending nearly two years at
me Crow agency, Mr.. Macdonald
.oined a party going to the Black
Hills, where they prospected without
success for a few months and then
eturned to Montana, some of the par
y stopping at Miles City, Mr.. Mac
Donald being one who returned to
3ozeman in the fall of 1876, and he
been here most of the time since
lie was the first street commissioner
or Bozeman and served in that ca
,acity for nearly II years.
Married Thirty Years Ago.
Thirty years ago he was married
o Mrs. Josephine Chavey, and they
since occupied their present res
dence, which has, however, been re-
modelled. They own other houses,
which the rent. No children were born
Mr.. and Mrs. Macdonald, but he
las been a kind father to her two
.hildren, by a previous marriage,
George Chavey, a Bozeman business