The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-04-14

lining OF UDcSc miners was well Know
, formed the Lost Reyes Gold Nine
memoirs, which are still unpublished
/ with Keyes to a gold placer diggings
} he had found that was extraordinar-
lily rich. Some of the pioneers say
terview Lepley. Others are certain
; that he wrote to him from Fort Ben
ton. This point is immaterial.
Reyes returned to Fort Benton, or
remained there to receive a reply to
his letter, and finally becoming i'm
patient, set out down the river with
another man, whose name is believed
to have been Sam Hooper. Each of
the men had an Indian woman of the
Gros Ventres tribe. Neither ever re-
turned to Fort Benton and it was
learned later that both men were kill
ed by Indians in the vicinity of Rocky
Point. One of the squaws was also
killed and the other lived, it is said,
till a few years ago, on the Fort
Belknap reservation. 1t was through
this Indian oma that the fate of
Keyes and Hooper later became
known.
When Keyes returned to Fort Ben
ton in the spring of 1865, he was
very secretive about his affairs, but
had plenty of gold dust to make all
necessary purchases, and to one or
two persons whom he tried to interest
in his gold mine, he showed a sack of
considerable size filled with the dust.
He did not give anyone the slightest
information concerning the mine or
it's whereabouts, and when he left
Fort Benton the last time with Hoop
er and the two squaws, the whole
matter was surrounded by mystery.
With news of the killing of Keyes
and Hooper, interest Immediately
was aroused in the whereabouts of
his rich gold mine and many %trappers
on the Missouri began to search for
it, but in vain. Reyes former part
ner, Lepley, always held to the belief
that Reyes had struck a bonanza, but
he was as much mystified concerning
its whereabouts as anyone. Later
Lepley went into the cattle business
in Chouteau county and became a
leading stock grower.
When gold was discovered in the
Little Rockies in 1884, many old
timers believed hat it was a re-dis-
covery of the Lost Keyes gold mine,
but no proof ever was brought for
ward to make this certain. In fact,
many of those best informed concern
ing Reyes thought it highly improb-
able, if not impossible, that Keyes got
as far away from the Missouri river
as the Little Rockies.
When the late Granville Stuart
died more than a year ago, he left
a manuscript of his memoirs of pion-
eer days in Montana, which has not
yet been published, and which con-
tains what he characterizes as 1.-THE
Truth About the Lost Keyes Nine"
This story gives an entirely different
theory concerning the Reyes mystery,
and one which appears extremely
plausible, Notwithstanding there are
one or two obvious errors. These, !
however, have to do with points of
minor Importance. The statement
written by Granville Stuart follows,
it being an extract from his diary,
in 1868, followed by a statement
written later giving supplemental in
formation:
"Gold Creek-July 21, 1868
Thirteen men are here from the
Florence mines lin Idaho). They
have $4,000 in gold dust with them
in buckskin sacks and intend build
ing a boat at Fort Benton and going
down the Missouri river to the states
in it. We advised them not to do it
and also admonished them against
exhibiting so much treasure, as there
are people in the country who are not
particular as to how they come into
possession of gold dust, just so they
get it. They did not seem to pay
much attention to our warning and
went on their way"
This statement was added to in
Stuart's memoirs, as fol-
lows:
"They built the boat at Benton and
a small cannon and some
at the fort and started
down the river. Their fate was not
until several years later, when {
Reyes spent the winter of
1871 on the Missouri river below |
Point and there married an
Indian woman Seeing her husband /
with gold dust, she told him of a /
squaw who had some similar dust and I
elated to him the story of how she t
an by it as follows: 7
"A village of about 100 lodges of
Sioux were camped on the bank of s
Missouri and saw a boat VITA c
White men coming down. The war d
'jors opened fire on them. The mel 4
n the boat had a small cannon which
hey loaded and fired at the Indians,