The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-08-17
AN ACE OF SPEED
FROM OX-TEAM TO
FAST AEROPLANE
BY r. r.. KiIroy

A. W. McCune, JT., Will T6cdu
many an episode of the early days i
Butte and Anaconda when the nam
of McCune was one to conjure with
The elder McCune, still alive, was
compeer of DAILY, Haggin and Hearst
With Haggin he was an owner of tn
famed Cerro de Pasco mine in Chile
long one of the richest silver proper
ties in the world.
About century after Columbus
time the Cerro de Pasco was discov
cred and for almost 800 years it ha!
been a producer. It's life, which GOV
ers copper and gold era as well as
silver, affords an illustration of the
longevity of a mine which we who
are SO interested in the magnitude OF
the deposits in the Butte hill may
we'll consider. No doubt there were
evil prophets two centuries ago who
predicted that the Cerro de Pasco
would not last 10 years.
McCune is remembered in Amazon
da because of his connection with the
Mill creek flume, constructed to
bring wood from the mountains for
fuel for the old Anaconda smelter.
AS a transportation line it was the
life of the plant, just as important
in those days as is the B., A. & P rail-
road now.
The younger McCune is best re-
membered as one of the venturesome
youths who 80 years ago endeavored
to perpetuate the stage coach in
these parts. He was a member of
the old Overland club of Deer Lodge
and one of two or three left of that
organization. John and
Dan Morony, Paul and Will Mitchell,
Will Coleman, Nat Hoss, Will
Schurtz, Charlie Renshaw, Arthur
and Achille Menard, John and Will
liam Fisher, Fred Wildman and Nc
Cune were among the charter mem
bers.
A gorgeous Concord coach that
first made it's appearance with Buff
falo Bills Wild West show about '95
or '96 was treasured possession of
the club. Paul Mitchell, son of DR..
Mitchell, one of the founders of the
Warm Springs sanitarium, was the
coach whip of the old club and many
stories are told of his skill and dar-
ing with the four-in-hand. 1t turned
over with him in the Salmon river,
Idaho, crushing his life out. For
years the coach lay in the bottom of
the stream until it was salvaged by
4 Big Horn rancher.
Mitchell and his friends were the
,peedsters of the period A fast
curing automobile will cover more
,erritory today in one hour than they
would maybe in eight. Yet they
we're regarded as the last word in
'apid transportation. Montana has
;een extraordinary development in
yehicles within comparatively short
ime. There are still with us men
Who drove ox-teams across the
,lains. Next to the travels of the
indians that was the slowest method
# locomotion. The saddle horse, par
icularly speedy in the pony express,
vas development. The world mar
'eled at the rate at which mail was
across the territory in !
ested by hostile Indians by the dar-
ng riders of the period.
The steamers, which laboriously |
temmed the current of the Yellow
tone and the Missouri to Fort Ben
on could only operate in summer
r while the ice was out of the rivers.
fanny of Montana's pioneers arrived
n these boats. The arrival of the
abroad marked an epoch in the
pening of the vast area in the north
rest. Montana's first sight of the
ron horse was in what is now Beav-
rhead county, a branch of the Union
'acific stretching north to tap the
ew mining camp.
Today four great transcontinental
ystems operate into Butte and it is
far cry from the old wood burning
lie Milwaukee, which today races up
lie slope of the Rockies at faster
)eed than it descends. The over
Ind stage ran away from the prairie
,hooner and the steam engine and /;
lie electric locomotive from both. !
he high-power automobile can beat ,
lie fastest train across the state even
18th the present incomplete condi- s
ons of the roads.
Paul Mitchell's stage, travelling at
p speed from sunrise to dark, with !
frequent change of horses, might S
,ver 100 miles under favorable cir c
instances. That would have been
to talk about around the
mp fire at the end of the journey. G
ct here comes youth who will c
take off from New York B
the morning and caring not for I
ugh roads or steep grades, take t
PIPER that night in a San Francisco G
fe.
1t is incomprehensible that in any Y
her generation during the worlds II
story, that is to say, during the G
etime of one man, so marvellous a c.
can take place as that +
the age in which we chance to live II