Glacier County chief., 1940-03-08
Alder Gulch Stampede Put
End to Bannack Newspaper

EGQO 10 DaMTlaCk
A few weeks following the discovery
of gold in Grasshopper creek Ban
nack) a printer with small army
press and a shirttail full of type APP
peared in Bannack, unloaded his out
/ fit, and announced that he had come
to the new gold fields to establish the
first paper in the territory, which was
then Idaho. He Immediately proceeded
to get out his first and only issue of
the Bannack Newsletter, a small
poster size sheet. In this work he was
assisted by Col. Wilbur F. Sanders,
who wrote the salutatory and several
other editorials. A few days after the
publication Of the initial issue of the
Bannack Newsletter came the news
of the phenomenal strike by Bill Fair
weather and his friends in Alder gulch
where gold had been found in super
! abundance. Immediately thereafter oc-
CURED the Virginia City stampede,
one OF the most notable gold rushes in
what Is now Montana and which was
participated in by every ablebodied
adult in Bannack who did not possess
! rich pay ground. The stampede swal-
! lowed up the Bannack Newsletter.
its publisher following the rush of
argonauts, and what to him was the
road to oblivion. He loaded up his
!
trail to Alder gulch and never was
heard of more.
Thirty years later his little press. a
queer contraption to modern disciples
OF the art typographical, was found in
discarded junk in the rear of the old
Virginia City Madisonian, successor to
the Montana Post The writer sent the
little press to the historical society in
Helena where it now reposes with other
/ precious relics in glass case so that
he who runs may read.
! The authority for this historical bit
was the late Tom Baker. a talented
newspaper man who was on the early
editorial staff of the Montana Post
/ when 1t was a fledgeling paper, and
who was in the position to know the
! truth about this first attempt to pub
lish a newspaper in these parts.
Baker reported the second session,
and many following, of the territorial
legislative assembly. He was the only
correspondent on the ground and was
committee on appropriations. This
man, being unlettered, leaned heavily
on his learned newspaper friend where
any official reports were to be pre-
! pared. When the appropriation bill was
drawn up near the end of the session,
Tom Baker doing the work, inserted
a paragraph appropriating $3.50 for
the newspaper correspondent, who was
himself. The chairman questioned this
proposed expenditure and Tom said to
him:
/ 1T is done in parliament" And the
chairman, who was an EngliShman,
as was Tom also. approved the item
and Tom got the money. The custom
was continued for several subsequent
sessions but newspapers began to null
tiply and when there were too many
correspondents, it was abandoned
The first real newspaper established
in the new territory was, Of course.
the Montana Post, John. Buchanan,
who brought modest printing plant
with him across the plains by OK team,
published the first issue of the Post.
weekly, on Aug. 81, 1864. Its sub
scription price was IS per year and
single copy sold for so cents. Bu-
chanan published two issues, when Ben
Tilton, a youth of "a who had come
establish book and stationery shop.
bought Buchanan,s printing plant and
newspaper, paying him $1,000 in gold
for an outfit which was worth prob
ably $780, Tilton was a good business
man and under his management the
he had to pay his printers around 500
per week in gold and all other ex-
penditureS were high. Among the dis
tinguished men who helped edit the
Post were Col. Wilbur F. Sanders. hero
of the Vigilante uprising against
Henry Plummer and his bandits;
Judge Henry N. Blake. later of the
supreme court: Capt James H Mills,
later to become famous as the editor
of the New Northwest at Deer Lodge;
Thomas Dimsdale. author Of "Vigi-
lantes of Montana" and Tom Baker.
With such men contributing to the
Post it was bright and shining pub
t,,
sold one-third interest in the Post
to Benjamin Ditties. Later when Hell
ena came up and Virginia City was
going down. Ditties bought the Tilton
interest and moved the Post plant to
Helena where he established the Tri-
Weekly Republican. The Montana Post
had been a republican newspaper of
strong Union sympathies and Virginia
City settled by the left wing of
General Prices army was strong for
secession and the lost cause. This feel
ing helped to cut into the Posts bust
ness and was the principal reason for
its removal to Helena where a major
ity of the electors were republicans
and Unionists. The removal of the
Post to Helena made room for new
newspaper in Virginia City which was
followed by a dozen more in the course
of time. The old Virginia City Madi-
sonian gradually absorbed its COM
/ pllIOTS ana Is StIll going SIIOIlS.
But back to Tom Baker. He was an
unique character and deserves more
space in the historical archives of
Montana than his story occupies. In
the early fifties he was an apprentice,
nearing the time when he would be-
come a journeyman. in the composing
room of the London Times. In those
days the apprentice was punished cor
porally for any mistake or infraction
of the composing room rules, the most
common method being flogging. Tom
dropped a page form of type, and it
went into "pi," which meant four or
five days work to do over again. This
knew that as soon as the knowledge
Of his mishap came to the attention
Of the foreman he would be flogged