Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1935-07-06

NNAAA~AAA% @FeH~t@N%
He was known as aSkookmm yee,D q
name as good IS any other to west
erners whose ethics did NOT encourage
undue curiosity. The last night OF
his life Skookum Joe wr0&e In his
diary: @My real unHne Is Richard Dick.
was q bad boy and left hanae when
/ was 16." He was probably born In
England for the Billings library has
his declaration Of intention 70 be-
come q United States citizen where
In he acknowledged being a subtect
Of her Majesty, Queen Victoria The
final entry In his diary continues;
bud, believe I've located the main
lode. You'll find Il just three miles
above" And there the peHciied
scrawI stopped.
I. D. Oponnell had staked Skookum
Joe to grub, horses, wagon and tools
with the understanding that Joe's finds
were to be divided equally between
them. With the patient optimism Of
the born prospector Joe, trudged for
years over miles Of desolate Montana
wilderness, digging into hillsides. pan
ming gravel from creek beds, lonely,
weary, and persistent. he kept q daily
diary. His little notebooks, scrawled In
pencil, covering the years between 1873
and 1895 are In the Billings library,
and speak eloquently Of the courageous
patience Of q man whose life was mar
rowed to one goal-the finding Of gold.
They encompass all the tragedies, little
human dramas, struggles, hopes, dis
appointments. and loneliness Of ore
mans hfe-flies, mosquitoes, deep snow,
rain, heat. cold, lame or sick horses,
illness. From the pages come to us
breaths Of the early west.
June %, 1891. Went to Nye. Old
Bill Hamilton back from Canada.
Drunk today. Oct. 2, 1891. Three horse !
thieves hung last night near Red Lodge. /
May II, 1892. Anarchists hung j. e. /
Wason at Alpine gulch last night. Stole |
So from him. Sheriff In Maiden look
ing up the case. don't want to tell
who done 1t. May is, 1892. Stop at
Rhodes. Give cat some meat from box.
Stay all night. Cat dead in morning
SO we don't eat anything here. Think
anarchists won't try to run out any
white man. Clear this morning so /
wash my coat. If it gets dry win go
to Mocassin."
His days were marked by cooking,
washing, tending sick horses and by the
high adventure of locating promising
veins Of copper, iron, coal, oil and fin
ally, gold. May 10, 1892. Wash clothes
and the black horse"
Skookum Joe probably did more than
e4AAJ
industry of Montana. he located the
Spotted Horse mine, near Maiden, now
a ghost town, which he sold to Nc
AdOw, founder of Coulson, for IS 500
and which Meadow sold later for $780,
900.
Joe having located the copper mines
on the Saltwater was responsible Tor
the Nye City boom of the '80s He help
ed open up the Castle mine, and located
tcf of ~ ell
potential value.
He was, Mr.. ODonneu says, a strik- I
ing figure even In those early days of 1
idioSyincrasses. Grim, taciturn, deter &
mined, dressed always in corduroys, e
leading q pack horse, he tramped from
Maiden to Nye, and from Nye to Red
Lodge, man to whom wealth could
have no meaning, devot1ng his Life 7
10 the search for gold, and he died
poor man, on the eve Of big discov- I
cry. ~
Most Of his later days we're beset by t
illness. Enlargement of the heart, the 2
doctor told Mr.. O,DonneIl, but Joe
wrote: "Aug. rs, 1894. Some gold today. 9
Got very tired today. Feel very lone Z
5ome. Think the highlode is center of .
gold leads. Heat is hell Nearly sick. Z Z
Got something. Can't tell yet what It \
IS. Weak. Fever. Take coal oil and y
whiskey. Feel better" A few days q
alter: Got q blacktal buck before I :,
rot my pants on this morning. Very I.
ack. Used bottle OF most bitter truck :,
ever tasted Cot the mail Note from -
Bud Mcdonnell" =
And thus the weary fight goes on y, ~
During the summer of 1895 there is re- ~
leated reference to q newborn hope:
Pan out some rich prospects. Been w.
n trip after big thing. Gold In all -
God places" Beneath that triumph we -
snse an undercurrent Of fear. for N
nan, Davidson, was DIGGING SkoOkum M
oe, day after day, step by step, shrewd, at
uthless, ready to jump the claim. Joe, II,
qually shrewd, was outWitting him eff ",
sctively, covering his finds, leaving
o clues. Out in the solitude of Mon ca
ana's hills a silent, nerve-w racking ch
uel was being waged. Joe writes: tn
July 3, 1894. Start to dig. Men came DO
long so panned and quit Don't want dr
, show them gold. July 5. ProSpectors
ay around to see what I'm about. Be
ug. 81 Seen man with horse. Gone up er
eek about two miles" And Joe, little tt
iSpecting his end near, so effectively iei
,vered his trail toward wealth, that no so
ne has ever found it. The last entries
/ his diary are: July II, 1895. Note of