The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-11-09
THE WEST. b wears ago had de


= genus homo who differed a
greatly from his cousins of the east
ern state as Zev differs from a trucl
horse.
These products of western environ
ment had the philosophy of the Arab
the resourcefulness of a Yankee, thu
stick-to-itiveness of a man-trackin;
Indian, and indifference to hardship
the bravery of a Spartan, the imagi
nation of a Monte Cristo, and the
restless energy of a Gagged jungle
beast.
They sought for gold, silver, ant
other precious metals and, in it'
quest, they crossed the trackless des
erts of the West-and left theil
bones to bleach under the pitiless
rays of blazing sun. They scaled
mountain peaks-and died of cold
and hunger. They forded the icy
waters of glacier-fed streams or at
tempted passage by means of impro-
vised rafts-and the waters closed
over their heads.
They invaded the forbidden pre-
cincts of what was, to the Indian,
hallowed ground and they were
burned at a stake for their temerity.
Their scalp locks decorated the CEN
ter poles of Indian lodges scattered
from Arizona to the British line,
but despite hunger, cold, starvation
and Indian torture, the stream of
these treasure seekers never slack
ened. They poured across the CONT
nent from St. Joe, Omaha and Kansas
City, or up the Missouri to Fort Ben
ton. Through the southwest by way
of the Sante Fe trail across Nebraska
to Colorado and Utah they poured
carrying in their wake tide of en-
igration that was checked only by
the waters of the Pacific ocean and
which when it could go no farther
westward eddied and swirled, spread
north and south, up to the Straits of
Georgia and down to the Gulf of Cal
ifornia and then doubled back upon
itself, thus establishing new en-
pire under the Stars and Stripes and
one which has challenged the wonder
and the admiration of the world.
Added States to Union
These pioneers, treasure seekers,
searchers after the Golden Fleece or
to use the honored term which the
West coined for their designation
these "prospectors, added, as a di-
rect result of their efforts, the states
of Colorado, Nevada, California, Ida
ho and Montana to the American
union. Indirectly they are entitled
to credit for Washington, Oregon,
New Mexico and Arizona, as we'll as
the Dakotas and Wyoming.
The prospectors, some of them |
California Argonauts, 9TH
ers from Colorado and others raw |
eastern farm hands or sophisticated |
city jewellers from beyond the Miss
ssippi, built Butte, Helena, and 9TH
er Montana cities and poured sore
" needed stream of wealth into the |
nation following the severe financial
Train of the Civil war.
1t is probably not too presumptu-
JUS to say that were it not for the
thrilling tales of western adventure,
If vast wealth, of sudden riches that
ay almost at the pick-point of the
adventurous prospector, the tide of
European immigration would never
lave set so strongly for American
y
eding the war. Without the wealth
lug from the rocks of the western
tates economic conditions due to an
population would prob
Lbly have caused revolution upon
evolution and the entire map of the
1orld might have long since been
ewritten in terms of tyranny and
lood had it not been for the restless
crew that swarmed in
D California in the 40s and by so do
1g drove the dons back to Mexico
nd Spain and called the attention of ,
he world to the mineral riches of
Western America.
The prospector fretted under the
lea of working for a "boss" but each ]
inter he put his pride in his pocket, {
Mess he had made rich strike in
ne summer months, and came back I
} the established mining camps to f
arm a GRUB stake" for the sum- t
ler's work. In some parts of the c
Test the prospector was known as {
snow bird" He came to the min a
lg or smelling camp with the first
low fall and left at the first thaw. '
.e was nearly always accompanied !
/ later years by one or two burros, t
lose sure-footed, intelligent little Y
casts of which it used to be said 4
lat "heavier you load them the fast r
: they travel" t
Accompanied by his faithful pack .
nimals, usually two in number. pros e
sctors would fearlessly set out across
desert with not a water hole OF
esh water closer than 40 miles or :
ore. The man and his fourfooted II
lends would scale mountain peaks
hiding along trails as narrow as
lie coping on a wall, where a mo-
ent of dizziness or misstep meant II
cath on jagged rocks 1000 feet II
,low. III
They Were Thick
The prospectors were more numer-
is than the leaves on Valambrosa. III
In the sos Chestnut street in Lead