The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1922-07-07

Ever since the first square-toet
savage, back in the abysmal dark.
ness of the childhood of the race
: picked up gold nugget from the bed
of prehistoric stream, bored a hole
in it with his stone piercing awl and
hung it, as an amulet, around his
neck, suspended from piece of ten
don extracted from the leg of his
chief source of meat supply, the wild
horse-the hunt for metals, precious
and otherwise, has occupied prom
inent part in the lives of the people
of almost every race.
| There is a fascination about the
hunt for precious metals that few
can resist. When the Mormons first
settled in Utah, Brigham Young
found it advisable, as head of the
church and successor of Joseph
Smith, Goods anointed," to forbid
his people to seek for precious met
ais The Wasatch mountains lay
temptingly near.
The command of the president was
obeyed only because disobedience
would mean the cutting off of sup
plies among the faithful, with no
other source to draw on short of
Omaha or San Francisco
When the Gentiles came the Nor
mon quickly forgot that mining was
unlawful and Joined in the gold rush
quite as eagerly as his unregenerate
brothers. Young's command was
prompted by the belief that his peo-
pie, given a free rein, would neglect
farming for prospecting ~ and his
colony would starve, as a result.
Gold Did 1t
While the fur hunter explored the
west, it was the gold seeker who
made it populous. A bit of yellow
metal picked up by an ignorant la |
borer beside the mill of Jacob SUIT
ter, a Swiss adventurer and gentle |
man of fortune, started the rush |
which wrested the Bear state from
the Dons.
1t was the gold of Alder gulch,
Bannack, Virginia City and Last
Chance which brought the thousands
INTO this state to fill the valleys with
glittering towns, fat farms and or
chards the prairies with lowing herds
of cattle and the hills with quartz
mine shafts and mills.
1t was the gold in the Black Hills
that caused the white man to violate
treaty obligations with the Indian,
brave the dangers of death by tor
ture, starvation and thirst, pouring
in across what was in those days
known as the Great American desert i
IN such numbers that they ultimately +,
and drove out the fierce, +,
brave and numerous nation of Sioux ,
Indians. /,
Although gold is touchstone that {
turns wilderness into a garden, |
sends men scurrying like flies to the
perpetual SHOWS of Alaska or the per- |
)etual tropic heat of the Congo, to |
Australia or Siberia, Nevada or Ma 7
aysia, it occupies but a puny place {
lmong the riches dug from the breast I
If mother earth. c
The output of gold in the United /
'tates in 1920 was only 49,509,400. "
he wheat output for the same period
vas $1,135, 100000 while King Corn "
bowed bank surplus of $780, S
21,00G. Gold is sadly outdistanced
mong the mineral products. Petro- k
cum, as an illustration, brought in n
he amazing sum of 81, 100000, 900 k
I 1920. Silver production amounted
p NV, 20, VI NEARLY 9o,UUU,UUUI
lore than did the gold production,
lille copper brought more than =
222, 100000 -
In 1875 two New Workers, Edward
nd Michael A. Hickey, set their To-
alton stakes on tree-clad hill over
,oking Butte. One claim they nam
l the Anaconda" in recollection of
eneral Grants bulletin during the
eye of Vicksburg in which he stat
that the federal army was grip
ing Lees forces as within the folds
ar anaconda
Another they named the "St Law
,nce," in memory of their birth
ace, st. Lawrence county, and
ird they named New York" out
compliment to their native state
The first two locations mentioned,
ong with others, made by those who
ere attracted or encouraged to con-
1ue by them have already added
e stupendous sum of $1,750,000,-
20 to the nations wealth since that A
,tober morning in 1875, and Butte
II lis just getting good"
They Built Cities
These Butte mines have built three