Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1935-08-01

ulOckeu. lOHl ana his partner pulleu
on their boots and crawled out. There
was no chance of going around the
lumber on that narrow mountain road
and it would be a task to find the
horses in the dark. There was only one
thing to do-and they did it. They
unhitched the horses OF the merry max
ers, lead them around the blockade,
carried the girls through the mud to
their loaded wagons and perched them
there while they took the boxes off
the spring wagons, carried them and
the wheels to where the horses were
and put the entire equipage together
again. Then they reloaded the girls,
whose escorts seemed ra~.cr helpless
in the face Of such high handed tactics.
and retreated to their beds when the
party left. The heavy wagons had been
pulled out of the mud and on their
way the next morning before the pleas
ure party returned.
George Evans, an old-time mining
and stock man, now residing at Suffolk,
worked at the Castle mine and at its
later neighbor, Copperopolis. That part
Of the Milwaukee road called the Jaw
bone" MI. Evans recalls, wa first built
because the owner thought they could
make money houling ore from Castle.
The chief promoter, as all Montanans
know, was the man for whom Harlow
ton was named and while the Jawbone
didn't realize money it expected to
make from Castle, central Montana
owes it a vote of thanks for opening
a large wheat and stock territory which
hitherto had been divided, with much
inconvenience to the residents between
the Great Northern and The Northern
Pacific railroads.
Mr.. Evans was the engineer at the
freak mine of Copperopolis. Its ruins
are more easily accessible to the Gu
rious than many others, since it lies
only a little way off the main highway
between Martinsdale and White Sui
phur Springs. 1t was IL miles from
Castle and some of the dismantled ma
chinery in the older mine was used to
start the new mine.
Men named Bluett and Graham own
ed the mine, which showed rich ore
from the surface, but neither had any
capital to work it. They finally leas-
ed the property to three miners who
sank a shaft and took out ore which
brought them $4,000 clear.
OF course such a find could not eS-
cape the attention of the Anaconda
people and Bluett and Graham leased
and bonded the mine to them for $780,
900. The three miners didn't seem to
care. They divided the $4,000 they
had made and went on a loot" which
lasted in two cases until the money was
gone and in the third case until the
man was gone.
Copperopolis grew like a corn field
On a July night. There were six sa-
looms, which, says Mr.. Evans, was 9
sign of prosperity. No self-respectine
miner would locate in a one or two a
loon town if he could help himself
The Anaconda company started tx
work the mine Immediately. At tht
200-foot level they were taking out gooC
paying ore, but the vein dipped sharp
ly down and away from the drift st
they decided to sink the shaft deeper
and drift out to meet the slant in tht
ore vein. This was an expensive pro-
cess, but it was finally accomplished
only to have the engineers discover tina
the ore ran out just above where thu
vein should have connected with thu
passage. A year had passed and
there being no use to continue the mine
the company forfeited the S500,000 Il
the owners and went on to newer fields
Mining appears to have been as muci
a gamble as farming.
Hidden in the heart OF a canyon II
the Little Belt mountains lie the ruin'
Of the old mining town of Ycgo. Mos
people connect the name with blu
sapphires found there without realiz
ing that another treasure cleaned il
the tumbled rocks along this littl'
branch of Judith river.
Yogo was started in 1879, miners com
ing in from Fort Benton by way o
Stanford and thence across the divld
into the headwaters of the Judith. Min
ing in Yogo was all placer, or gulch
mining and the mother lode has no
been discovered to this day. One o
the chief citizens of Yogo was a negresS
Black Milly, or Niger Milly, who RAJ
the hotel and worked side by side witt
the men on her various claims. Sh'
was a negress who came up the Mis-
souri, by boat and drifted south from
Fort Benton with others of her race
She located several claims in the gulcl
and named them all for presidents
There was the Garfield, the Georg
Washington and the jefferson anon
others. The George Washington pal
the most. but none of the claims wa
ever worth a great deal. Niger Mill
always said she would be the last man
to leave the canyon town-and she wa.
She left to become an inmate OF tn
county poor farm.
c. c. David, Billy Babcock. and tn
Eton brothers were among early miner
1 AT Won IN cfou an IN Iatftifh haCtn a