Glacier County chief., 1939-08-25
TGranite County, With Millions of Tons of Ore i'm
Silver and Manganese, Hopeful of Day to Come
By EDWARD B. REYNOLDS

i'd RObAnL1 no otner geo.
graphical section of the same
q size in the world has the
same amount of ore in sight or as
many veins as has Granite county.
Philipsburg, its county seat, is sit
uated in the center of an area that
is scanned from one end to the
other with a network of quartz
veins. Some of these veins have
yielded ore valued at millions of
dollars. Two year sterilization of
the price of silver and a potential
market for manganese ore, have
revived interest in the region.
Prospectors continue to comb the
hills of Granite county and small mine
they will strike it rich" Depressions
have failed to daunt the spirit of
Granite county residents who declare
that when the demand comes Granite
county can supply the ore" Silver,
and and some claim that there is copper
eff you go down deep enough"
The Hope mill, first quartz mill of
any consequence in Montana, was Sit
uated in Philipsburg. 1t was completed
in 1866 and handled the ore from
st. Louis. These mines were in lime
formation and consisted of series OF
pockets, some of which proved very
rich in silver. In fact some OF these
pockets were SO rich that the mill was
SILVER following the panic Of 1883"
James Estel and Eli Holland dis
covered the Granite mountain mines
about 1877. but the mines did not
come into prominence until about III
years later. The Granite mine alone
paid dividends of nearly SIS 900 900. For
a period of several years Granite was
one of the busiest and most prosperous
towns in the west. A payday in Granite
was equal to the Fourth of July in any
other town in the state.
Granite Group bonded
Charles he G Ola Ho %ao n Snt Co. e MOD OBJ
tanned a bond on the Granite group
of claims from the original discoveries
for 100000. He formed company In
st. Louis to develop the property. Ac-
cording to legend the st. Louis com
up money and sent telegram to
close down the mine. The telegram
arrived on the day bonanza ore was
discovered Had the telegram arrived
a day earlier, the Granite mountain
venture would have, been recorded a
{.
holders in the company became mil;
lionaires and Granite is remembered
as one of the great silver camps OF
the west.
The first mill was two-stamp chlor-
imitation affair built near the mine.
Later it was increased to 10 stamps
and still later a 100-stamp mill was
erected at Rumsey, about two miles
away. This necessitated the building
of a railroad and in the light OF history
it is regarded as one of the great mis-
takes that huge corporations some
times make.
After the fall in the price of silver
in 1893 and 1894 little attention was
paid to other producing mines IN the
Flint creek mining district and near
the town of Philipsburg. In recent
years, however, there was a short re-
vival of interest in silver because OF
the rise in price due to the govern
ment's price-boltering activities.
The country to the north OF Granlte
is undeveloped although old-timers
have always claimed that it is not i'm,
probable that someday it will rival
Granite mountain in wealth. In the
same direction is the Rolay district
that produced S5,o0O,OO0 in gold prior
to 1900. During the early l9O0s there
was revival of interest in this sec.
ton and the Montana Mining co. OF
a period of time.
Between Granite and Royal the
country is almost impossible because
of doWn-timber and steep mountains.
However, prospecting that has been
done on the surface in this section,
indicates values in gold and copper.
Red Lion District
To the east and south of Granite
lies the Red Lion district, and still
further along in the same direction IS
the famous Atlantic Gable mine that
produced more than $4,000 900 in gold.
There has been little systematic de-
yelopment work in this district. al
though considerable work has been
done by proSpectors. The Red Lion Co.
built a mill in the late 1905, but 1t
was not calculated to save the values
in the ore of that district. When 1T
was found that so percent or more OF
the gold was going over the plates 1t
was abandoned.
In the early lsO0s the Hannah group
of claims, consisting of the. Hannah,
Alice, Dixie and several others, was
bonded to G. E. Savage of Butte. Saw
age succeeded in forming company
in Milwaukee for the purpose of de-
veloping the claims. :.
Professor Traphagen, who examined
the property at the instance of the Wis
consin stockholders, wrote them that
he was favorably impressed with the
property and regarded 1t as one OF the