Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-03-04
By EDWARD B. REYNOLDS

VTF5 HAT sunny day on May 20,
1868 when Bill Fairweather
q handed Henry Edgar a gold
pan filled with black sand and
gravel and told him to see if he
could wash out some tobacco
money, Montana really commenced
to boom. Fairweather started
something in the way of a gold
rush that lasted for a goodly num-
Der of decades. 1t lasted through
the era of the wild, reckless gold
miners and continued through an
era of mechanical dredges. But
the most exciting days were those
of the placer era. This era started
with white miners and ended with
Chinese.
At one time Alder gulch boosted one
of the largest Chinese colonies IN the
west. They numbered close to 1000
and they didn't take a back seat to
the white men In providing excitement.
Their life was packed with drama and
although their records fail to show the
disastrous results Of the more violent
whites. they provided their share OF
thrills.
The Chinese followed the miners into
Montana and arrived in great numbers
with the railroad builders. For some
reason 1t was the Japanese who
eclipsed them, thereby forming a paral-
lei with the Sino-JapaneSe strife now
under way in Asia. United States cen
sus fluctuations reveal that in 1890
there were 1882 Chinese and Japan
csc In Montana. Ten years later, In
1900 the Japanese population had
grown to 2,441 and the Chinese had
shrunk to 1879.
The Chinese came with the railroad |
builders in the eighties. They came |
from the Pacific coast side and welded |
picks and shovels. They came in such |
numbers that they aroused the an
tagonism of white workers and fur |
niShed problem. History records that |
white workers using dynamite were so /
careless in their blasting that hundreds /
Of Chinese were killed. Scores we're !
killed daily.
At Weeksville white powdermen were |
engaged in blasting off q shoulder Of
the Cabinet mountains to pave a way I
for the laying Of the roadbed Of the /
Northern Pacific railroad near Mis-
soula. Chinese laborers were toiling
away uCdlDy. II Vic HOWhCAAiCAA
thought Of it they yelled warning.
Most Of the time they let the charges
go and Chinese laborers were buried
under slides Of rock or killed by fall
ing boulders.
Chinese Came Early
Not all the powdermen were as wild
as those at Weeksville, but history
records them as a tough, rough lot
and Chinaman was only China
man.
The Chinese came earlier to Alder
guIch. There were few there in 1883
and 1864 when Henry Plummer and
his gang of road agents were pursuing
their career of murder and robbery
They were probably lucky in this ac-
count because without doubt they !
would have furnished living targets for
the shooting practice of the blood
thirsty road agents.
BY the time the Chinese came to
Alder glllch, Col Wilbur r. Sanders,
Capt. Jack williams, x. Biedler and
the Vigilantes had brought law and
order to Montana. The power Of the
road agents had been shattered and
the weak were given a chance to live
However, the Chinese we're In Alder
gulch early enough to scramble in the
dusty streets for gold when Bill Fair
weather rode by, scattering handsful Of
gold right and left for the sheer Joy
of seeing the antics Of children, China