Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-04-24
Horses Stampeded by Flies Led to Discovery Of Rich Gold Mines

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stampeded by flies during the hot
weather OF 1872 was responsible for
the discovery Of the rich and IA
mons lead mines which long Oper-
ated In BeaVerhead county, and
lost white mule was the cause of
the mountain upon which some Of
the richest of the veins were To-
Gated, being called Lion mountain.
The mines on Lion mountain, IL 600
feet high, were eventually all operated
by the Hecla Mining Co. of which
Henry Knippenberg was manager ano
one of the principal owners. The camps
which grew up at the foot Of the hill
were Glendale, Lion City and Irapper'
now ghost towns, If not entirely OBJ
liberated. The Hecla was for long
time the only exclusive lead mining
company in Montana.
It was in the summer OF 1872 that
Jerry GrotOVant, Joe McCreary, Charles
DeLorimer and James Bryant left the
Vipond mining district, where they
were mining and prospecting, to make
q hunting and prospecting trip into
the Beaverhead country and in the vi
entity of Lion mountain, then I'M
named. The year before they had Wis
tied the head Of Trapper creek and
knew that the country abounded in
game for they had been most success !
full in killing sheep, deer and noun |
A few miles from where the town /
of Glendale was later located they /
we're camped when they lost their /
horses, stampeded by flies, which were /
unusually bad. There was only one Of
them in camp when the horses, grazing
nearby, tOrmented beyond endurance
by the flies, broke into a rum kicking
and snorting, and headed for the brush
where they could at least rid them
selves mOmentarily from the insects
When the others Of the party re-
turned all started hunting the ami
mails, going in different directions.
Bryant headed up the creek toward the
mountain. He walked for time, then
sat down on rock to rest While sit
ting there his attention was attracted
to fragments of rock on the ground
which to him appeared to be good sill
yer ore. Further investigation revealed
that the rock upon which he was Sit
ting was the outcropping of the ledge
from which the ore fragments had
come. He stopped hunting horses right
there and fastened back to camp to tell
his partners of his find. 1t was a long
way to the nearest asSayer and it was
weeks before they got their sample to
one and obtained report on It, When ;
they did get it, the specimen showed t
high values, in lead, not silver. J
The men in the meantime had Staked
They were mining in rough country /
in which there we're no wagon roads. l
The ore had to be packed out. The !
four gave a contract for packing to I
Bill Hamilton who had a mule pack I
train. The ore was packed from the
mountain down the creek to a point
where a wagon road had been con-
Structed. From there it was freighted
to Corinne, Utah, the nearest railroad
station, and shipped to Denver, where
1t was Smelted. They took out $4,000
worth of ore in short time.
News of Strike Spread Rapidly
The news of the strike spread and
Immediately there was rush of miners
from Bannack and other sections and
numerous other profitable properties
were located. Among the first men on
the ground was Noah Armstrong,
prominent as a mining man in the
mountain region at that time, and
later at Seattle. He had been engaged
in mining development work about the
plete Sampling outfit. From a super
ficial survey, he became convinced
that he was in a great lead producing
region. He obtained options on a num-
Der Of properties and went to Indian
apolis, where he organized the Hecla
company with Knippenberg as the
head, Thomas A. Hendricks as vice
president and couple of other cap
italists named Allen and Atkins sub
Stantially interested. Charles L. Dahler
OF Montana also participated in the
forming of the company.
The Thomas Hendricks mentioned
was later vice president of the United
States. elected as the running mate of
Grover Cleveland on the democratic
ticket in 1885, He was a native of Ohio,
but moved to Indiana when a young
man and was for many years prom q
inent in politics and financial circles f
in that state. Mr. Hendricks. after be-
coming interested in Montana mining :
with Mr.. Knippenberg and Armstrong, y
visited the state upon several ocaS-
ions, not only the properties of the
Hecla company in Beaverhead county Il
but most of the other mining regions i
of the state where operations were u
under way at that time.
In the fall of that year the Cleve p
mine just below the Hecla and a half o
mile from Trapper, was discovered by s.
Hen Harvey and Doc Day It was about ?
that time that the incident occurred L
which resulted in the naming of Lion q
mountain. a
Mountain Named
Jerry Grotovant, one of the party /;
which made the first discovery of ore n
on Lion mountain, owned white mule, n
and it strayed away from their camp Fl