Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1932-02-18


ng Of the proposed high school building,
many 8 and have had the enjoy
ment of the beauties of the trip which
these later discoveries have missed. But
the grandeur Of the mountains, the
charm OF the valleys, lose their attrac-
tiveness when the breath Of q February
storm sweeps across the country. And
1t was straight into a February storm
that the Argonahts rode as they gal
loped westward.
In the party were Clarence Prescott,
Jim Meininger, Captain Townsend Taft
erWard murdered In the Flathead coun-
try), Bill Chinn, Pat Mahoney, Joe
Booth, Sam Mitchell and three or four
others. They outfitted In a hurry, there
was not any time to lose. Each man had
his own saddle horse. but there were
no packhorses In the outfit. At the back
Of each saddle. tied to the skirt, was q
bundle of lunch, there wa q little feed
of oats for the horse, about 10 pounds
of flour and a little coffee In each
bundle. Some pieced this out with
bacon while others took sardines. No
body anticipated anything more than
8 winter panic on the fifty-mile ride.
Most Of the men took whisky with them
after the fashion of the day. Prescott.
experienced in riding, packed three
small TASKS of imported brandy and
kept them out OF sight.
The calvacade reached Alex MorTi-
geau's place on the Jocko just before
dark. There was a little, One-room
cabin there. where the substantial
farmhouse stands now. MorTigeau, even
then, had q family OF considerable size,
but he took In the wanderers for the
night. A blanket was hung up In front
OF the Morrigeau bed In n end OF
the cabin and the ~goldseekers slept on
the floor In the other end Of the little
room. The horses were under rude shell
ter outside. Thus was the first stage
OF the Maginnis gulch stampede. The
rest of the experience Is best told Just
as Colonel Prescott told 1t to me when
/ asked him for this bit of western
Montana history for these trail stories.
I'VE were just getting to Sleep said
the colonel, land this was not as easy
a matter as you might think-when we
were reused by the arrival Of another
party from Missoula- These fellows
were In q sleigh. / remember that Billy
Kennedy was one OF them. Tom Nc
Manus was another and ! think Charlie
Winter was also Ia the sleigh. They
were leading saddle horses, as they ex-
pected to have to race for the diggings
when they got to the hills. They were
going by way OF the Little Bitter Root
There was no room for them In the
cabin so they drove on through the
night
Pat MahOney and Joe Booth were
wide awake at once. They thought II
would not do to let the Kennedy party
get SO far ahead OF us and they In
sisted that the thing for us to do wa
to push right along after them. So we
got on the road again at II o'clock thai
night with an Indian to show us thu
way cross the river at Ant0ine's ford
we rode hard all night end just be-
fore daylight we reached the river a.
the ford, which WAS to let us across
to Camas Prairie for the final dash fol
the mountains beyond where we *
pected to find gold. The Indian led u!
all right and we got across withou1
much trouble. As day broke, we pulled
up at the edge Of Canas Prairie ane
camped for breakfast.
THE weather was mild when we lef
Miss0ula- It was winter, all right. bu
there Was no sigr of a storm and WI
. started, confident that good weather
was q matter OF course. Thu night rid'
had been rapid but not cold, we hat
moved too fast to get chilled and WI
were too intent upon getting to thu
diggings first to pay much attention
to the weather, anyway.
while we we're at Antoine'S ford,
little sitting now began TO fall. Thos'
of us who knew the country, knew tina
the storm was starting In q fashion
that vas not encouraging. While ",
were at breakfast on the east edge o
Camas, the storm strengthened w
didn't stop to make any coffee. Their
wasn't any wood for h fire and WI
hadn't time for q little thing like that
We gave the horses some oats and w
ate what we could In the cold. /
wasn't much.
Just as sOon as the horses had eater
their oats, We were on the trail again
and 1t was but d few minutes befor'
we we're In the midst OF a first elias
blizzard. We we're on the open prairp
and the wind and SNOW were terrific
4 / have seen some hard storms but