Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1941-05-03
Granite Mines Poured Wealth Out in Form of Silver Bars



A few years ago when ghost
towns all over the west were SELL
ing at a dime a dozen Granite,
Mont, was one Of the few, IL not
the only one, which was not of
fered at q bargain price. Stin
owned by st. Louis capital but
dead since the turn Of the century,
rumOrs around Philipsburg say that
the rock bottom price for which the
Granite mines, with the town
thrown in, can be obtained Is
Sc, 1000, 900.
what was she in her glory to COM
mand such a price?
For one thing she had at one time
the richest silver mine IN the UnlUed
States. with Tombstone as her closest
competitor Tombstone, because Waiter
Noble Burns combined in q book her
UNIQUE name, her rich silver mines
immortality, mostly we must admit
because Of undue emphasis placed on
all outlaw activities.
Law and Order Ruled
But Granite, born too late for fame
IN history for her misdeedS as otneI
mining camps and COW towns nVeo
her short span of years In an age wnen
law and order had conquered the IRON
tier. NO wild cowboys, after months on
the cattle trails, rode their nofseS Ineo
her saloons and gambling nails 70
shoot out the lights; no heavily armed
town-tamers staggered along her steep
and crooked streets; no rate miners
mob marched to deal out their rough
and ready Justice to violators OF the
mountain code; she never even nao a
desperate in whose legends OF OUT
laWry her name might be kept anVe.
She was Just q town proud OF ner
place in the sun and she showed 1t IN
her exhibit to the Columbian expo
sition, a two-tom chunk OF ore from
the Bi-Metallic mine assaying nearly
1000 ounces of silver to the ton,
The usual mining camp Is likely 70
be Just a bunch Of Shanties haSuiy
thrown up to last while the wealth. Is
exploited and doomed TO be apan-
doned. But with q 10-foot vein OF rich
silver ore GRANTEES future looked
bright and she spent her money law
ishly to construct what are now patnet-
icaliy extravagant monuments 70
shattered dream.
THE most pretentious of these Is the
Miners Union hall, a two-story pulld-
ing of brick and natural rock In ex-
ce6tionallv good shape considering how
long it has been abandoned On the
first floor are the club rooms Win
some of the furnishings still IN place.
climb the rickety wooden stairway TO
the hall on the second floor. Here the
boarded windows admit little light ana
in the semi-glow the hall seems enor-
NOUS Chandeliers still hang IN place
and on the stage stands the scenery
as it was when the curtain came down
for the last time on drama In fancy
and life Of town.
Hail Has Memories
This ghostly twilight and the musky
smell of decaying wood makes it easy
for the imagination to drift back 10
those DAYS of so years ago when the
whole town gathered there. Happy,
brilliant, and gay as any metropolitan
ballroom that hall alone has memories
no millions can buy.
five miles southeast Of PhilipSburg on
Granite mountain from which both
the mine and the town probably got
their names At her best she had
population close to 1000. The altitude
Is quite high, probably between 5000
and 1000 feet and in 1891 snowdrnts
still lay deep In her streets in June. |
THE town proper is located along a
small ridge with buildings spilling over
on each slope. In the early days wood
was brought in with pack mules and
water was hauled with specially con-
structed one-horse water carts.
The road between Granite and Phil
ipsburg at one time was the best and
busiest road in Montana. 1t was a
steep climb and the "skinners" who
moved the thousands of tons Of sup
plies and machinery required by the
mine, mills and the town, equalled IN
skill and daring any Of the early Gay
overland freighters. An idea of mag
nitude of their operations can be OBJ
tanned from the fact that cable Tor
the Granite mine, weighing more than
- n
move it, and that was just small
item compared to some of the machin-
cry that was moved up the hill
The same stories that are told OF a
hundred other mines in these noun
tains circulate about Granite. One,
later emphatically denied by the syn
dictate, relates how the discoverer shot
q deer and trailed it to where 1t zen
near the present site OF the mine.
STOPPING to pick up the deer the man
found a piece Of float which started
the search. 1t could be true about
Granite but every mine in the country
couldn't have been discovered in ex-
actly the same manner.
Charles d. Mcclure, the original To-
Gator of the claim, took it up In the
early seventies and then allowed 1t
to lapse. Encouraged by DR.. j. M.
Merrill. then aSsayer at the Hope mill,
he started development work on It
again in 1880. To him belongs the lions
share Of the credit for the fame that
the mines later received. He directed
operations, he raised money and that
in itself was no mean feat for in those
days, when easy money was still COM
ing out of placer claims, capital for
any other kind Of prospects was hard
to raise. But above all he had un-
shaken faith In the mine and when
things looked the blacklist it was this
alone which kept the whole works J
from being abandoned.
He managed to obtain bond on the