The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1938-01-14

10 II IL. 1 located Cnree claims on
Left Holding Bag
At length, after having somewhat de-
veloped the well-defined vein, I gave
a two-year lease and option to eastern
capitalists. The purchase price was
$4,000 and 10 percent of their capital
stock d;i During h ed first S year TT they spent,
ground. Believing hat the property was
being damaged. I had a row with their
engineer" My quarrel with him was
not good business, but it was good
ethics. After a long series of squabbles
the deal was called off and I was left
Prior to all this, during the summer
of 1905, I prospected much of Boulder
canyon which in part marks the boun-
Diary between Park and SWeetgraSS
counties. This should not be confused
with the Boulder valley and canyon
which lies between Helena and Butte.
Our Boulder canyon is a great rift in
the Absarokas extending some 80 miles
northward from the Boulder Slough
creek divide to Contact, 80 miles south
of Big Timber. The region is immensely
rugged II picturesque with enclosing
steep, ragged ramparts rising to an av-
erage of 5000 feet above the narrow
canyon floor on either side.
With a portable assay outfit and COM
Portable camp equipment I proWled
that alluring, ragged canyon n its
rugged ramparts during the greater
part OF TWO summer months the while
making hundreds Of assays. I investi-
gated some five or six abandoned small
gold mills. All had suffered the fate of
the Chicago widows Homestake "bo-
nanza.' All had been engineered by in
experienced enthusiasts Or by wildcat
promoters or by both. All are still in
decaying inactivity.
Gold in Boulder Canyon
Yet there is gold in our delightful
value. One of the greatest deposits of
chromite in the known world begins
in the canyon near Contact and extends
almost U.broken nearly 20 miles east
ward across the northern limits of the
AbsarokaS. AS yet the costs of mining,
treatment and transportation have pre-
vented profitable exploitation of this
remarkable deposit.
Many promising prospects of gold
quart have been opened in the RAM
parts Of he canyon, but the veins are
mostly small. badly broken and very
base. Two districts showing rich silver
lead ore are known. One. on the north
ern flank of Baboon mountain at the
head Of the canyon has been partly
opened. but costs of mining at 5000
feet above sea level and 60 miles of
transportation on poor mud roads have
thus far prevented profits. Near Con-
tact. at about the same altitude on the
eastern rim of the west Boulder plateau
there is another showing of rich silver
lead ore as yet unWorked.
For a time I camped with A. B.
Gould at Contact. where I was allowed
to Use his abandoned log saloon as an
assay office. There I made the &C
q~uaintaNCe of several old sourdough
prospectors. I made many assays for
H., -o+ T a. 1~4 ,-l,@11,, ~~;., tl,o;r
confidence. Fol the most part the old
time proSpector is a more or less inno-
cent and in many ways an incompe-
tent m~ineralogist who lives mostly on
beans, sowbelly. whisky and sourdough
biscuits the while he dreams of his
coming big bonanza. They are all sus-
p nc Of Of h nTI sd';sr at sb laGge; yet taey
known them by the hundred, have
learned greatly to like them, and am
grieved by realization that, like the
buffalo, they are now almost an eX-
tinct species.
One evening while Gould and I were
interrupted by asking: Would you like
to see some real gold ore. Doc?"
of course. Tom. That's what I'm
here for"
All right. Well saddle up early in
tn mornin' an I'll show va somethin'
tnaCll make req mar grow Oh YOUR
ches'."
Free Gold
We started out early and wound
along a steep pOOrly-marked trail
southwark up the western rampant of
the canyon some two or three miles
until We were about 800 feet above the
river and about as much below the crest
of the mountain. There we tied u
horses. went afoot about 100 yards be-
low the trail. and came to a prospect
hole about the size OF a Washtub, pos
sibly a little larger.
Within 10 minutes I picked up a
handful of small pieces of rotten, rusty
quartz all showing abundant free gold.
A ton of such quartz must ave assayed
$50. 900. I still have eight of those little
specimens.
Now comes the joke of all this. Your
sourdough prospector greatly enjoys a
clean joke-not always too clean. That
ground had never been located, we did
not locate it: and. as far as I know. it
has not been located to this day.
I am inclined to get even on that old
prospector by allowing the reader of
these rambling tales to figure that
puzzle out for himself. But-b u t.
why be unnecessarily cruel? Those little
specimens were merely tiny remnants
Of a big boulder of float which con
stituted a small part of IN immense
talus slope a half mile wide and extend
ing from near the top of the rampant
nearly 5000 feet to the rumbling river.
The vein from which that float came
seems to be buried deeply and securely
beneath the talus. I don't need it.