Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1929-01-31

was located on a piece of land jus.
south OF the kootenai River on Lib
by Creek. 1t was built by Ole alone
lie was the outworkenist man in
the Flathead country. The building
was small, well built, snug and rat
proof. 1t was chinked with clay from
the nearby clay beds, and the shakes,
doors and windows made by hand.
| Holes few inches deep were bored
IN one of the tamarack logs by a
larger auger, and these four holes. a
loot or SO apart, were pegged by
cotton wood pegs, eight inches long
and on them rested "a rough shelf.
A small camp stove and a crudely
constructed bunk at one side, a hinged
table with box or two, and a palous-
er for a light, besides snowshoes,
rifle, shotgun, pistol and few traps
made up his outfit. Ole Larson had
no notions about finding gold in the
ground. His best name was work.
Doing odd jobs for prospectors, clear
ing an acre or so, and trapping for
mink, badger or beaver or any skin
THAT had market. In this way he
got by and cached some money. There
were no banks within two hundred or
more miles at that time.
| Much of Ole's time was spent away
from his home. 1t was in May, While
he was at Jennings working on the
railway grade, that Jim Young and
Scotty Mac something Il don't re-
call ms full .name) opened the head
gate and turned the water into the
ditch which ran within few feet of
Ole Larson's cabin. Fine and dandy
until the cloudburst come roaring
down Libby Creek from the east
front of the Cabinet mountains. A
binding, whirling snow, followed by
hail and a deluge of rain. In less
than an hour not splinter nor a
speck of the cabin was to be seen.
Hail four to six inches deep covered
the ground and Ole Larson had been
made a poor man indeed. When he
come back from Jennings he knew
all was lost. Trying to pull himself
together, he spent much time in look
ing over the ground about the cabin
site and down Libby Greek as far as
the kootenai River, but no part of
his cabin was found. Larson then
ducked out of the country and no
trace of him has yet been discovered.
However, the kootenai country looked
good to me and | worked on Libby
Creek and some of the other smaller
creeks with my pan, and also made
trip by steamboat up to Fort Steele
III Canada. 1t was on my return from
this trip that | met up with Mike
Shannon. He was an engineer on the
boat and when the boat would be tied
up for any reason, Mike would take
his gold pan down on some bar and
pan out color or so and much black
sand. After the boat smashed up near
McGuire's Island, Mike Shannon was
foot loose, so we took a light pack
and couple of gold pans and went
down on the north side of the Koo-
tenai River to what is now called
China Rapids not far above Kootenai
Falls. At low water the rocks are
bare here and are tipped so that the
dip of the rocks forms natural rifles,
and the flowing water fills the crew
ices with find sand, gravel and some
gold. We cleaned out some of these |
crevices with a small spoon and wire, |
washed out few colors but did not
get enough Of the yellow stuff to do |
us any good.
After eating our beans we set down
on the low bank for smoke resting
our feet on half buried log. In get |
ting up, Mike stumbled over what
ne thought was small branch ON the |
log, and loosed the log bit. On |
looking closer we notice the log was
partly heWed on one side and the |
were not branches but |
pegs, SO we yanked the log up and |
out Of the sand. In doing this
one OF the pegs came out ana |
nearly upset me into the river.
scrambled to my feet and noticed
Mike. His fine rugged face was
all aglow and he seemed to be /
in partial trance or something, /
rushed up to the log and found GOLD |
GOLD! but not placer gold Believe it
or not, friends, There on the ground |
before our bulging eyes were sever
al gold coins. 1t took us but short
time to pull out the other three pegs
from the log. In all we got nearly
S400 in coined gold, pieces Of twenty,
ten and five dollars, besides a few
coins that the bank man said was
Swedish money.
AS Larson had gone out Of the dig
gings, what were we to do? We sure
I'D want to do the right thing about
he money so when we came into
amp we showed the money and asked
he boys to render verdict. They de-
'ided that under the circumstances
md according to the miners, rule that
findings was keepings in a case like
his.
The money lasted heep quick and
made round Of pleasure, besides
'ausing a few blaeN eyes. "Gold is
Where You Find It," ,
--------------