Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1936-02-15

heel and cracked open, their patched
breaches, their long, dirty boards and
hair, looked to the general more like
brigands than honest Christians" Most
Of them wore no shirts, only flannel
vests under antelope-skin Jackets, with
seedy looking felt hats or shapelesS
caps of buffalo hide. mo doubt" the
general decided, they prefer to look
this way In order to conceal their
winnings and will outfit from head to
foot when they reach civilization"
Much of the gold mined at Alder
Gulch and other strikes In Montana
and Idaho doubtless found its way
down the Missouri; the famous captain,
Grant Marsh, was said to have taken
one cargo of more than million dol
lars in gold dust. But 1t was hard to
tell what might be carried by the non
descript crews that came down in the
mackinaws, nor how often the gold
brought on the steamboats, might
change hands enroute.
The miners were heavily armed with
shotguns, rifles and revolvers and re-
lied upon their individual bravery or
the association Of friends to keep off
thieves and Indians. Even travelling in
fleets did not always work, for the post
commandment reported that the boats
above mentioned had had q run-in with
Sioux while passing Fort Buford and
had lost one man.
Several days earlier, "eight poor
devils" had come to the fort, not to
buy but to beg provisions, saying that
among them there was not the price
of one small glass of whisky"
On Oct. IL, eight more boats stopped
at Fort Stevenson, bought supplies and
camped nearby The men reported a
good season in the diggings and were
much better looking outfit than their
predecessors. Vigorous fellows" the
general found them, "tall, heavily built,
most of them young They conducted
themselves very decently and seemed
different from the insolent roisterers
who go down by steamboat"
For the next two weeks, four or five
mackinaws a day passed the fort and
by the 25th, steamboats, were also rae
ing against time. The Lady Grace was
at the landing when the Imperial lum-
bered in with 800 miners on board. In
stead of two or three weeks, the latter
boat had been nine weeks enroute down
from Benton, had been on 20 sand bars,
detained by every imaginable sort of
trouble, and consequently was out OF
provisions. The captain reported that
they had stopped frequently to hunt
deer, antelope and buffalo and had
bought what little could be spared at
Fort Buford but It was never enough
for the miners. When the Lady Grace
left, she took many Of the Imperials
passengers, for they preferred an extra
fare to longer delay. She was hardly
out of sight when the Benton appeared,
hoping to get up to Buford and back
before winter set in.
Halloween night brought the long
awaited Zephyr, the last boat that had
gone up that summer. She had struck
every bar In the river and had been
piled up on one of them when the
Imperial buried her nose there, too
Still, In the devious ways known to
river pilots, she had pushed a way
through the channel and would now
make st. Louis In time.
ssThere remains" the general wrote,
sorlIv one boat above Stevenson. the
Benton, and when her smoke has dis
appeared over the horizon, we shall see
no more until next spring"
T'hak happened Nov. 4 when she
downstream with not an hour
Ia srare.s There was already ice on the
rrseks near the fort and the soldiers
na6 wsSh what seemed TO their French
~snsassnnsar1der. 'nr0videnfial good for
tS1r1e !" discovered an open coal vein on
the reservation.