The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1926-04-23
Ghost Cities T R5s #s X o:a5H, and 2sa Hi z8o4ss &C. Gs 8asss st d %aa5eas

"a quartet Of untenable cabins SQUAT
ted on the little prairie far below the
Great Northern grade.
The town was started by Eugene
Mccarthy and a partner whose name
was Will Hardy. Mr.. Mccarthy is
one of the pioneer characters Of
Kalispell. In an interview given by
him a few years ago, Mccarthy told.
IN brief, the story Of the establish
ment OF the town. In the course Of
his story, he said:
1--WE really started the town In SeDtem-
Der ny plating it into lots and and ffline
Ile plat In the courthouse at MissOnIe
me contractors put in their Headquarters
9uu IN q rev days we had a city started.
AT Cnat time there was a state law DFovid-
ing LhaC liquor could not be sold within
IWO mile or a construction camp exert
within an incorporated city. So we incOr-
porated. A little while later the comfy
attorney arrested the whole tOwn-tbat As.
III the saloon keepers-but the case fell
through because the town was INCORPORATED.
Il was elected mayor and / believe 7 was
the youngest mayor in existence. was
yusC over 20 years old. Now I guess Pm
Cne Oldest mayor in the country. in DoiDt
OF service, because my successors never
qualnfied and according to law, I'm stil
the king. ~ ''''
Before winter came McCarthvville was o
complete city. We had a city government,
although 1 don't believe there was q single
ordinance on the books, a pOstOffice. side
walks Reg McConnelps dance hail, three
hoIels, a dozen short order houses, three
stores besides the cOmpany's commissarv:
IN Iact everything to supply the necessaries
ana iuXurles OF life as it was lived there
That town in it's balmy days was n
rear, i've settlement. 1t was a place for
rough men and there was nobody else
there. From Cut Bank west, there was no
other town and we were the metrOpOlis Of
miles Of country full Of working men. All
the Supplies for the camps went out from
McCartnyyiIle and an the men from the
camps came in for their pay.
81, winter and summer the construction on
the Dig grade from the summit down was
pushed and the camps held from three
thousand to four thousand men. That
made an enormous pay roll for one town.
ANY man could get a check any time for
3 what was due him, so there was always big
money circulating in the town.
"McCarthyville also had the company
hospital and in the winter Of ninety and
ninety-One that was the busiest place in the
{ young city. LabOrers were scarce in the
5 west, so the company brought them out
4 from the east, most Of them Licked I'D in
e cities. They would come by train to Cut
t Bank and from there on, would have so
/ miles of hiking across the prairies and Ov.
s er the summit.
I Died Like Flies
1T was about as tough a jaunt as any
man would want and it was a whole lot
! more than most Of these city-bred fellows
( could stand. They weren't used to the al
= tttude and hardly any Of them had enough
clothes. They would start out from Cut
Z Bank, in the dead Of winter, and usually
they'd get caught i'm a blizzard out on the
! flat. Then a couple of days later they'd
. WObble into McCarthyYille and drop into q
bunk with pneumonia.
5 well, there wasn't many Of 'em lived
/ through. Buryin's got too frequent and
we begun to take notice. Not that they
d bothered us much in the way OF attending
- services hnnnmCn Wn didn't hnun no famn
y for funerals and anyway, there was no min
4 lister in town. / think that was about the
only institution we ever lacked, though.
1T got so that every morning just at
daylight a big Swede that was acting as
y nurse would haul out a big sled on which
there was loaded a body wrapped in a
! blanket. Then he'd start off up the
y creek to perform the ObseQuies by digging
7 a hole in the Slow and rolling the corpse
y off the sled.
after this had been going on for some
y time, my partner, Will Hardy, said to me,
u I'm gOin' to kill that Swede; he's gettin' on
my nerves with his everlastin' funerals at
e daylight
mo said, we don't want to get the
Swede-the Doctors our man.
Doctor Quits His Job
This doctor had come from Gerat Falls,
= where we understood, he had built up q
fine reputation as a veterinarian. He had
~ q contract with the construction company
to look after the sick and injured men for
a dollar per man Ter month. But these
y men who had just come IN weren't on the
le pay roll yet, so we figured it on. the doc
tor wasn't doing much to bring them back
- to the full vigOr Of youth.
u Hardy agreed with me that the doctor
probably was to blame for all these sud-
den demises, so we organized a committee
Of prominent citizens to go to the hospital
le that night.
rs "The hospital was right in town and az
n that time was one Of the poorest buildings
ID there. 1t was a low, log cabin, no floor,
- and the only window was a uOle covered
with a canvas flap.
~ Drops "swede" With a Pistol
c. I'VE went over i'm q body and I knocked
ID at the door. The Swede opened it part way
and then when he saw who it was he tried
81 to shut it but Hardy reached over my
shoulder and tapped him with the butt OF
a gun. He dropped like a beef. Then we
cast a glance about for the doc, just in time
40 to see his heels following him through tho
a window. The canvas dropped and that was
ne curtains" for him. McCarthyville never
IL ''Then we had another doctor and tn,
ne death rate was much decreased.
n Yes, we had a good deal Of shooting anC
10 one incident / remember as the most de-
y PRAYED case Of murder I recall in my a
years residence in Montana.
COId-BlOOded Murder
"On the 10th Of January, 1871, two broth
ne lers, Joe and Pierre Beaudin, had pitched
70 a tent five miles above McCarthyViue. The
4 2 had Quit their blacksmith sh0D at Twc
~ Medicine crossing and were coming owe,
TO our town 70 start a saloon. That da1
lQ LMey bLayeu luSkue the tent playing freeze
hv out with three other men, Leblanc, Whine
- and Warner.
- "AlOng in the evening, while they Wer
still at the game, the door was opened an,
two masked men ordered them to get thei
hands up and face towards the tent wall
Pierre Beaudin turned around once and on
OF the men said II you look this wa,
again III kin you
XIII him anyway said the other an
then they started shooting.
Joe, Beaudin was shot dead in the ten
and all the others were hit eXeeLt Warner
who made q dash when the shooting starte
and got away. Winner dropped to tn
floor with three wounds from q fOrty-EV
and eraWled under a bunk. He managed {
lcut through the back wall Of the tent an
into the snow, but one Of the men RAJ
around and shot him twice in the heet
Both shots were glancing and did not kl
birn, though he was stunned. LeBlan
was fatally wounded and Pierre Beaudi