Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1934-12-15

There were few hard cases win
tering IN the city that the viglInutes
had driven out OF Alder GuIca1. Oue q
these was Tom Duffy, who had killed
DIS man Ia Montana; bat the degpera-
Goes al had TO go very slow IN Salt
Lake City. In the winter of 1883 there
were . great many Of Va waiting for
the snow TO 80 50 we could get back
70 the diggings. Among The rest were
/ two young men from Wisconsin with
/ whom I became acquainted, and when
told them had been over the road
before. they wanted to come with me-
I'VE grew very tired and anxious
and about the first Of February. 1854
we concluded we would risk the trip.
though I knew it would be q hard one.
There were only two houses between
the settlement and Alder Gulch I be-
neved knew the road very well. but
the deep snow over the country changed
the appearance Of everything. About
p. m. we decided to cross Bear river
and get over into the Marsh valley and
on TO the foothills where I knew there
was a road and good camping grounds.
The place we headed for was eight
miles away.
Il thought we could make that our
camping ground the first night out. but
we ran into two and half feet Of snow
and could make It only half way. we
had to walk ahead Of the horses to
break trail for them. We saw nothing
but snow and sagebrush. The boys were
scared and wanted to turn back. The
bowling of the wolves and coyotes was
frightful. I had young, wild horse,
and we were afraid TO go on for fear
we might lose our way. We tied our
horses to the sagebrush, shoveled snow
from the ground, spread our blankets /
and lay there till daylight. The two
boys got in the blankets boots and all. /
took mine OFF. The next morning my
boots were frozen 50 hard couldn't L
get them on, and had to make the
next camping place, about three miles,
In my stocking feet. The snow was dry
and I was about as wen off as If I
had my boots.
When we got to the camping place
there was a large pile Of wood, so we
made fire and thawed out everything.
We put the horses on the hillside where
the wind had blown off the snow, and
there was good grass. We stayed there
until noon to Let the horses feed When
we started out we heard a lot Of fell
lows talking below us. They had got off
the trail, and hollered to us to find
out whether we were on it. They were
some freighters who had had to leave
range, and were trying to get their
Cardwen was one Of them.
=
had blown the snow off the grass so
the horses could get something 10 feed
on. That same night we camped on the
divide between Malad and Marsh valley
and it was so cold we came near freez-
ing to death. We got into grove of
willows, cut down a huge pile Of them
and made big fire. We made our flap
jacks and had supper there. 1t was so
cold the horses would not go out to-
feed. though there was good grass as
the wind had blown off the snow. We
took turns keeping up the fire, and
spread our blankets down on some Of
the willow tops we had cut. We made
such big fire that the snow melted
for some distance around us. When I
wakened in the morning the hair OF my
head was frozen to the ground where
I had rolled partly off the blankets. We
stayed there two hours after the sun
came up to see If we couldn't get the
horses TO feed. We packed up and got
down off the range and into the Malad
valley.
Eve travelled all day without stopping
and very late that evening came TO a
knoll bare Of snow, but without wood
OF water, though there was plenty Of
sagebrlsh. We built fire Of sagebrush j
and got our supper and lay down In our /
blankets as we were. About IL O'Clock
we were surrounded by wolves and coy :
otes We were afraid they would at .
tack the horses. The moon was bright,
we got up, packed and started to look
for the trail. The snow was not so deep u
now, and knew the lay OF the c0un-
try, 80 managed to keep pretty close
TO the trail. We got TO the crossing OF
Portniff river at daylight. Crossing the
river our packhorses got down and we
had 10 get into the water TO save them.
We saved everything but our cooking
utensils, q fryingpan and q coffeepot.
1--WE got across the river where there
was grove Of dry cottonwoods. We
made q big fire, dried ourselves and
bedding and got breakfast. We made
Our bread in the mouth OF a flour sack
baked it on shovel, and cooked our
bacon ON wood skewers. We made a
hearty meal, at that.
I'VE found bare place for the horses
and delayed q couple Of hours, then
packed up and started out as good as
new"