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

Of them settled on homesteads IN Pig
Eye basin after the rush at Yogo. Bill
BabcOck was one of those characters
who seemed to live only in pioneer
days. He could tell the tallest stories
in the neighborhood. He came into
Montana from the South Dakota gold
fields, where he was one of the earliest
prospectors, but he almost didn't get
here. He picketed his mules n night
in making camp somewhere in eastern
Montana, and in the morning found
that they had gotten loose and he could
not get near them on foot. He decided
to crease them with his rifle; that is,
shoot so that the bullet hit the little
nerve right where the name started,
which, if properly done, would stun the
animal. Bill, however, wasn't as good
at Singing bullets as he was at sling
ing words, and killed both his mules.
Other travellers found him sitting
disconsolately on one of his fallen steeds
and gave him a lift into Cotton. Bill
was responsible for the story of the
trapper who trained a jack rabbit to
act as decoy to catch coyotes and foxes.
The rabbit would scare them up and
get them to chase him to the trapper's
cabin, where he would rap two times
with his hind legs as a signal. When the
door was swung open the rabbit would
run into a large, open cage inside, with
a little hole in the back through which
he could slip after drawing his eager
and unsuspecting victim into the trap.
ut would have worked out all right"
said Bill, "if the darned rabbit hadn't
got ambitious and brought in a whole
family OF polecats."
Jake Hoover was another Judith bas-
in prospector and rancher with the
gift of CAB" Stop me if you've heard
this one, but it is supposed to have
started with Jake.
Harness was very scarce in the eally
days." said he, land I made a set out
of green buffalo hide. / used the new
harness on my team going after a load
of wood, but on the way back it beg IN
to rain and the harness began to
stretch. The horses kept travelling and
the harness kept stretching, but the
wagon remained right where 1T vas.
! So / went on home with the team, drove
them around a tree two or three times
and went to bed. In the morning the
sun was shining brightly, the harness
had shrunk and brought up the wagon
and there was my load of wood stand
ing by the, tree"
| Barker was a silver mine Of the eight
les. 1t, too, was in the Little Belts. but
easier to reach from the other side.
| There we're three towns In the early
days and one, Hughesville, is still run
| ming. The ore was worth about $45 IN
| silver, with a high percent of lead. A
man by the name Of Hi Wright was one
OF those to discover it and when 1t was
sold his share was about sec, 900. II
went the way Of most easy money, in
the resorts of Fort Benton, and he was
soon back on the job-brOke. He said
They called me a prince when I went
in with $50 900, but when I was broke
they called me a bum. They can make
a bum out of a prince quicker in Fort
Benton than any place 1 ever saw"
Barker was the first camp in this
section to get a railroad. This was
particularly significant of the way II
was regarded as a mining camp. II
was not long after the railroad was
completed before the camp began to &c
down hill and the railroad was aband-
oned. Until the st. Joseph company
took over the diggings there were only
a few prospectors hanging around the
once prosperous town just another
dead village, waiting for new processes
and uses for its metals to come alive
again.
To nearly everyone in central Mon
tana, and particularly in Fergus county
the name Maiden is synonymous with
mining. 1t was discovered in the judith
mountains in 1880. There we're a mum
Der of prospectors in the hills at thai
time, but the discovery is usually at.
tributed to Skookum Joe. But whoever
discovered it, it was a lively spot for the
next couple of years.
The Spotted Horse mine is usually
accounted TO be the richest of the two
most important mines, the other beinl
the McGinnis. There were about five
mines out of "a that paid well anc
many others made grubstakes. 80
P. w. Maiden, who was the trader
at Cotton for many years, developed thu
Spotted Horse mine and the Spotted
Horse mine developed Maiden. Wher
Fergus county was divided from
Meagher county, Maiden was though
of as the new county seat and, being
the metropolis of the county, as Nader
, went. so went the elections. BY 1881
it was on the ~toboggan slide and The
new little town of LewiStown became
: the county seat.
AS Yogo had its Black Milly, 50 Maid.
EN- had a Black Fanny. She lived OF
, the outskirts of Maiden and WASHED
the miners shirts for a living. 1t is sale
that one prcSpector. in alcoholic graf
itude for the snowy shirts she did uI
| for him eacf. week, gave her q sup