Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-09-26

as well as to the Absaroka
and BeartoOth mountains.
in his later years he spent most of
time in the Saltwater district and
a most thorough knowledge
its mineral possibilities. He To-
iron mines on the west Still
which are still regarded as Of
great potential value although unde-
veloped because of difficulty Of access.
1891 he took out some mineral
claims on some oil springs on Butcher
creek and tried to develop them but
without succeeding in interesting any,
in them. He also located numer-
Gus coal mines in various parts of the
district.
a diary which "Skookum Joe" kept
has been preserved from the years 1886
10 1895. They shed quite a little light
On The life of a prOspectOr Of those
Gays as well as on the mining history
O southern and eastern Montana.
These diaries came into the possession
Oh !. D. ODOnnell Of Billings, who had
grubStaked him on a number of his
later prospecting trips, and they are
now IN the Parmley Billings Memorial
library at Billings.
Claim jumpers were the bane of An
derSon's life as we'll as those of other
prospectors. With locations scattered
over many districts, it was no easy
matter to meet the government re-
qulrements for holding claims. While
a district was in quiescent stage, these
duties were quite commonly neglected
But with any stir of activity, there
were always men at hand to take adj
vantage of any neglect or flaws in
procedure. Companies interested in
getting a foothold often made use of
claim jumpers in order to avoid the
usually heavy demands of the pros
pectors. There were few camps in
which trouble of this nature was not
engendered and bloodshed more than
once ensued.
In the Fort Maginnis district, claim
Jumpers appear to have been particu-
larry active. Anderson mentions in his
diary once that Meadow wanted him
to compromise with the jumpers, Nc
AdoW making a suggestion as to the
division of the leads which Anderson
and his associates consented to. From
entries in his diaries, Anderson EVIL
IDENTIFY thought he was a marked maj
because of his activity against the
claim jumpers along with Fat Jack
WdoSClll dllQ OlIlCIS. Tdl JdCh was
nearly killed by the rival factions in
an incident celebrated in the annals
of the Maiden mines.
In n entry, Anderson says, Harry
told me a man in town had offered
him $40 for powder, fuse and caps tC
blow up Fat Jack. This was since he
was blown up before. 1 heard Shafel
say that he wanted to hang Sage. Bes-
ey and company, but that the town
site company would not stand for it
Think he includes Fat Jack, Lewis anc
myself. He is very angry at the claim
owners" Again he writes, "Campec
with Sage last night. Had a long
talk about the anarchists at Nader
and the bushwhackers.'
A tragedy of his Maiden experience.
is recorded in an entry or March 3
1888. Bachelor has went up to oul
Jumbo cabin and killed himself with
giant powder and also destroyed The
cabin and all that was in it except
the drills. The discovery was made
by Archer and Lackey."
AndersOn's success in locating mine.
and his knowledge of rock formation
became such a tradition that his move
ments were frequently watched by less.
er fry and if it was known that hi
was prospecting up a certain creek, i
was not long before others we're in
vading the same region. This with
his experiences with claim jumpers
made him suspicious of everyone ex-