Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-09-03
ANDERSONVlLE, A
GHOST TOWN
COMPETITION AMONG SALOON
KEEPERS WAS CLOSE; FIRST
NAMED GEORGETOWN
(By HAROLD L T

(By HAROLD SYLTEN)
IN MANY Of Montana's canyons and
mountains are villages Of q genera
ton long since past. They are the
ghost towns" of days when the ter
ritory was young and dreams and as
pirations were limited only to the i'm
agination of whatever adventurous soul
first thought Of building a city or an
empire, or at least q home of his own,
where in a few short years he would
be monarch OF all he surveyed"
Fergus county has many Of these
ghost cities, whose very remnants are
lost In well titled fields, corrals or gar
den patches. If buildings remain they
are scarcely recognizable, for where
once the miner, cowboy, soldier or trap
per found Joy in games Of chance or
quenched his thirst in the sample
ROOM" the winters supply Of pork is
now hung, or, when autumn comes,
wood is piled high to guard against
frosty evenings.
Such a ghost city Is Andersonville in
Warm Springs gulch, n and one-half
miles west of Maiden, queen Of all BY
gone cities in central Montana. Ander-
sonville enjoyed but little Of that evan
escent glory that was Maiden's. 1t
knew little Of the thrill that came to
Maiden, Kendall or Gilt Edge, where
men spent thousands of dollars in the
search of gold, silver or other natural
resources that would bring sease and
comfort.
History Was Brief
A~ndersonville enjoyed but a brie1
history but it must not be forgotten
that it had a p~ostoffice long before
Maiden and that for years an obdurate
government allowed A~ndersonville tt
be the terminus of q stage line thai
carried mail for the thriving mining
city up the canyon. Maiden never for
got that slrr and there are still gray.
haired prospectors in the Judiths who
will grow dangerously chOleric when
ever it is mentioned.
The town was located Feb %, 1883
| by Thompson, Pendleton, Arnold an<
} others and, as q matter OF course, wa.
named Georgetown in honor Of ths
first president, whose natal day the.
celebrated by founding another terri
torial city. Later, through some mean
or other, the name was changed to An
Jacksonville, this time honoring "Skoo
kum' Joe Anderson, one OF the discov
l erers Of the Warm Springs mining dis
trict. "Skookum" Joe stills lives In tn
hearts of many prospectors and II h
t had lived and written that diary h
started n evening at Billings Their
t might have been another western saga
Only q few lines were written durin|
+ the evening before he died.
BY the fall of 1883 Andersonville haI
/. a rapid growth and SO log and fran
r buildings were the necleus Of what tn
city fathers hoped would be a thrivin
r metropolis. P. Meadow had q whole
: sale and retail store under manage
ment Of A. M. Thompson who ais
j was postmaster. Meadow, however
:. later sold his stock to stock to Higle
f of Maiden and Higley and ThompSo
opened a store at Maiden, much to tn
t disgust of residents of Andersonvill'
1t was Higley who tried the experimer
g of drying giant caps in the over Of HI
Y kitchen stove and soon after he wa
e in the market for a new stove.
d Fine Liquor Store
j. j. Campbell had a fine liquor stor
t at Andersonville, but competition Wa
+ bad. Midway between Andersonvill
and Maiden was the Alpine saloon, an
: it caught trade coming and goinl
Early in January, 1884, Providence ir
~ l4z--~oL oVI TIM A1~foo co1Nnn H,,rvNo ~
: 1t was q cold, frosty morning, and whe
Charles Holmes, John Peck, Ira China
and Ed Toy were precipitated into
snowbank In their rush to escape til
u fire they were greatly chagrined to fin
I that their entire stock of wet goods ha
a been destroyed. Peck was injure'
d When he left the burning building +
went by way of the. front window an
:" took frame, sash and all with him.
e j. D. Thompson had q livery stab
and q sample room" at Andersonvil
in the fall of 1883. Sample room dot
lie not mean anything to the younger ger
G Grafton, but in territorial days a samp
re room meant exactly what it promises
it One sampled everything in stock. TT
Is word saloon had proved to be irritatir
s to Kansas drys and the phrase samp
II room had been discovered as a como
# alton that proved less annoying. Tel
: ritorial states such as Montana observ
rs ed this amenity rather closely.
Ben Dexter's sawmin was the prie
n of Andersonville. With Its Hoe pa
Is ent saw 1t produced 10000 feet of lun
IL Der every 10 hours, not to mention IL
,e single department that was capab