Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1934-12-08

gulch on the West side Of the divide and
/ mined there for few days. and then
/ they had an excitement on Madison
gnlch at the head Of Nevada creek. I
| got interested In mining with man
| by the name Of Day and John Brown.
We worked that claim until October.
It was q little placer mine and that
fall we dissolved. came back TO Grow
creek and we went on to Sixteen Mile
to hunt. Spent the winter hunting
there with a man by the name Of Col
Inns, an Irishman whose name I have
forgotten, and George Powell, and /
hauled game over TO Virginia City, also
one load to Helena, for which got
1 TO 20 cents per pound. In the spring
Of 1866 I was on Grow creek and Leon
ard was working for Col. G. A. Broad
water. Leonard joined us at Grow
creek that winter. In the spring he
went to Utah with the team, and hir-
ed out by the month to SWEET and
Metzger, driving team. That trip took
us until July before we got back. Then
we got together at Helena. he came
up with q load Of barley and sold It to
Nick Kessler for the brewery, and then
we bought another team from Billy
Lennon. He sold it to us on time and
agreed to furnish us freight from Salt
Lake up here and we made that trip
in the fall Of the year and earned mon
ey enough to pay for the team, six yoke
Of cattle and the wagon.
we bought our outfit Of winter sup
plies went down on the Missouri river
20 miles south of Sun River crossing
(the old Fort Benton croSsing). There
was a man by the name Of Scofield and
two brothers whose names have for
gotten. They each had two teams. We
had nothing to do but hunt that win
ter, and In January, IA young Indians
came along and camped with us over
night. They we're very friendly. In the |
morning when they were ready to leave
they asked us for some vension which
we had hanged up and gave them
whole deer, and they cut it up in
chunks so they could carry 1t easily
(they we're all afoot). They looked
suspicious to us at the time as each one
of them had good lariat. One Of our
outfit in camp Charles Femister, who
was from Utah and was familiar with
Indians wanted to kill every one Of
them and put them under the ice. Mr..
Scofield, being quite an old gentleman
and Of some experience, objected to his
method, thought we had better treat
them kindly and get rid of them in
that way, which we did. Two days lat
er they stole every horse we had but
one there we're Is head Of horses--the
one remaining was so afraid Of Indians
they could not get near enough to take
it). We afterwards found out that ON
their way back they stole quite q few
horses on Sun river, and in the mean
time we got together and made up a
purse to send out a party to see If they
could not get the horses back. We sue
ceeded in getting a Frenchman by the
name of Vel, who had one of the Black
feet squaws for a wife, and who could
understand their language and knew
their ways. We got him to act as in
terpreter, and they went out on the
Marias and succeeded in trading for the
horses. They cost us about $13 per
head to get them back and that is all
they we're worth.
''This ran it into February, 1857, and
then that spring we pulled out in May
for Fort Benton. We made two trips,
one from Fort Benton to Helena, and
one from Fort Benton to Deer Lodge.
Then we were to go down TO Fort Peck
after some freight. The steamboat Fort
Peck landed at a point south of Glas-
gov which they called Fort Peck. They
were unable to come up the river to
Fort Benton because of low water. On
our way in we met the Garrison &
Wyatt trains. They were on their way
fzor n For IL Il .
Fort Union after freight. At the lower
end Of the Big Bend Of Milk river one
outfit had man killed by the Indians,
and the next night Garrison q Wyatt
had man wounded by the Indians
They tried to prevail upon us to turn
back and not go down, but we conclld- !
ed to take chances and make the trip I
all right. The freight we got belonged
to the firm Of Kenny & Jack, hard (
ware firm In Helena.
'"That closed our summers work.
When we got back it was late In the \
fall. After delivering the freight we {
to our winter quarters on the |
Missouri river and In the spring Of '68 (
we went on the road the same as usual (
and made two trips from Fort Benton \
10 Helena and one 10 Virginia City. The \
was very slack and that fall
we bought cattle. We bought from so
10 100 head and took them down to our |
headquarters on the Missouri river, and 1
In the fall got a wood contract to haul
wood from below Sun River crossing to Z
Fort Shaw GOO cords Of wood. I
After we got through with that con- 2
tract we went into winter quarters. Did I
nothing but hunt and look after the I