Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-10-25
TOWNS O
l.

rected prospectors from all over the west
to the district as a result Of the gold
quartz discoveries. More than 500 men
were gathered there and all were stalking
out claims. The Crevice, Willow Creek
and Ned lodes were the first to be OPP
ened up. Then came the Strawberry,
Boss Tweed and Keystone. There were
indications that Pony would be a great
camp, greater in fact than the new dis
coveries of Butte, Glendale and Philips
burg.
Nevertheless it was the development
of the discoveries of Butte and the other
camps that put the first crimp into h
future of Pony. Miners deserted the
camp and abandoned their claims when
stories of the tremendous operations at
Butte came TO them.
The fickleness OF fortune, the element
of chance in mining, has no better IL
lustration than that in the last mining
camps, for which the future held great
fame and riches, but which have sunk
into complete oblivion. Lion City, west
of Dillon, was one Of those that had its
hour of fame along with Pony. In 1878
the old camp of Trapper passed out Of
the picture and Lion City became the
successor to it's fame. Two years after
its Incorporation, Lion City had a per
manent" population of 500. Occasion
ally it accommodated as many as 500
miners and prospectors down from the
hills to get supplies or to make new
locations. In 1880 Lion City had %
mines, a postoffice, two stores. three
saloons II two hotels. Today there
is hardly an evidence of the town left
on the landscape.
In 1865 the town of Montana was in
corporated, 10 miles northeast Of Ban
mack and in 1868 the name was changed
to Argenta. AT one time mining ground
staked out in this district was repre-
sented by 5000 claimants. Argenta has
gone the way of Pony. There is now but
little activity there, although some work
is still being prosecuted.
In 1866 Beartown in old Deer Lodge
county had a population of 1000, and
was regarded as the toughest mining
camp in the territory when 1t reached
the zenith of its fame in 1870. Reynolds
City, across the gulch in Bear creek, had
500 inhabitants and one of its mines
produced a million in gold in less than
two years. Oblivion has enveloped both
these once promising camps.
Maiden in Fergus county was another
location that made a bid for fame as
one of the territory's most promising
camps. The discoveries were located on
the reservation embraced in the Fort
Maginnis military post and to satisfy
the citizens the military commander re-
duced the boundaries of the reservation
SO that the miners and citizens would
not. be required to observe army regula-
lions. Maiden was a thriving commu-
nifty when Lewistown was merely a stage
station and 1t demanded recognition as
the county seat. Today its mines are for
gotten.
The fame and lure of Butte wrecked
the hopes of many surrounding mining
camps during the latter seventies and
the early eighties. Gunderson, Red
Mountain City, Moose Creek, Glendale
and Argenta. all hoping to replace Ban
mack and Alder gulch as the scene Of
rich and active operations, succumbed
when Butte took on the proportions of a
supercamp, the like of which never be-
fore had been known in any mining
district.
Montana ghost cities form an interest
ing chapter In the mining development
Of the territory and state. There are
/, hundreds of them. They represent the
J blasted dreams of a great army Of men
who followed the quest Of gold through
out the west. The forty miners Of Cali
fornia were the stampeders of the sixties
in Montana. Their numbers were ever
augmented as the fame of Bannack and
Alder Gulch and Last Chance gulch
spread through the and 1t may be
that in a new ere in a recrudescence of
prospecting, these ghost cities of the
past will be brought to life again. In
many of them the mineral deposits were
not exhausted but when operations be-
! came expensive and the yields low, the
prospectors and miners of those days HE'D
themselves to new "diggings." They
sought only the b%onanzas. They wanted
sudden wealth-overnight riches. They
staked all on the chance Of a single find
that would bring them the treasures Of
Croseus. OF the slow, modern processes
, of quartz mining with its tremendous
requirements Of capital and labor, they
knew and cared nothing. If their placer
diggings did not pan out, they were off
at once to new fields in search of better
luck.