Keystone, Montana
MINERAL COUNTY MINING CAMPS
by
Nonda Beardsley
The Montana Ghost Town Preservation Society
The Mineral County area started being developed following the building
of the Mullan Trail in 1859. Extremely dense forests made traveling through
the area undesirable previously. Mullan forbade any of his men to search
for gold for fear a "gold rush" would disrupt the trail construction.
On September 11, 1865 the first two claims were filed, on the St. Regis
River. W. W. Johnson, who had worked as a surveyor on the Mullan project,
filed a gold claim, the "Missoula Gold and Silver Quartz Ledge,"
and Peter Toft filed the "Beaver Gold and Silver Quartz Ledge."
Sketchy records fail to indicate whether either claim was worked.
In October, 1869 a French-Canadian named Louis Barrette, who had passed
through the area a year earlier, returned with a partner, Basil Lanthier,
to prospect. They were panning gold within a few hours of camping on a creek
they called "Cayuse" (a small tributary of Cedar Creek). They
worked their way about four miles up the creek to what they named "Louisville
Bar." As winter was setting in, the men opted to keep their discovery
quiet until spring. Unfortunately, they sent Adolph Lozeau, a trapper in
the area, into Frenchtown for supplies. Lozeau, with the help of liquor,
failed to keep the secret, and the news got out. By daylight the next morning
at least 100 prospectors were scrambling along the creek. It was decided,
in order to keep peace, to survey and record 200 foot claims and assign
them to the men, who were mostly businessmen from Hell Gate and Frenchtown,
rather than drifting prospectors.
The "rush" to such an isolated spot presented some real problems
regarding lack of shelter and food. "Packers soon poured into the snow-packed
drainage with beans (50 cents/lb), bacon (75 cents/lb), and gumboots ($18/pair).
Housing was of the roughest sort -- canvas shelters and brush hovels."
(Mineral County Historical Society Pioneer - Summer, 1983)
It didn't take long for news of the gold strike on Cedar Creek to travel.
An estimated 3,000 men from Montana and Idaho wintered that year in the
gulch; and it was visited by three times that many. The January 21, 1870
Helena Daily Herald reported, "Building ... is progressing rapidly
at Cedar Junction and Louisville; and where two weeks ago dense forests
obstructed the view heavenward, today a fine clearing offers a pleasant
contrast to the surrounding somber woods. Substantial log buildings are
being erected and the sound of saw and axe is heard from morning until night."
(Montana Pay Dirt, p. 271) By the spring of 1870 the population had stabilized
at around 1500.
When the creeks receded from the summer weather the miners began sluicing
the winter diggings. Most of them realized enough gold to make the effort
financially beneficial. But it is said that the businesses in the gulch,
especially the saloons, were the real money makers.
Activity shifted up and down the creek, creating a number of settlements,
beginning with Louisville. The Helena Daily Herald reported on March 3,
1870 that, "Louisville had 680 houses;; Cedar Junction 91. Wages are
$4 - $5 a day." "Louisville ... prospecting is ... running as
high as $1.250 a pan. The Sweeney District ... has bars prospecting 40 cents
to the pan." (Montana Pay Dirt, p. 272) Many of Louisville's buildings
lost their timbers to the flumes that later lined the creek, when Forest
City became the new "hub of activity." The deep ground there,
40 to 50 feet down to bedrock, allowed the miners to tunnel and drift their
claims.
Forest City was the largest and most permanent of the Cedar Creek settlements,
but even the majority of it only lasted until the winter of 1872. It had
stores, post office, blacksmith shop, and a Wells Fargo office. Fifty saloon
keepers and 9 bartenders were listed in the 1870 census of the Cedar Creek
area. "Father Anthony Ravalli came often on his rounds in the area.
Several men and women, injured during work and recreation, were nursed by
this beloved priest." (Mineral County Pioneer, summer, 1984)
Supplies were regularly delivered from Missoula via 60-mule pack trains,
but they could be rather expensive due to "the rate of freight demanded
by packers to come over the bad road leading into the gulch." (Helena
Weekly Herald, Jan. 18, 1870/Montana Pay Dirt, p. 271) The creek bottom
varies from 50 feet to 1/4 mile wide. When the railroad was built it was
understood that the "iron horse" yielded to the mules where there
wasn't room for both to pass. Much of this activity occurred during the
dead of winter when there was no grass available for the mules to eat; they
hauled in grain for them, which was costing $.25/lb.
Between one and two million dollars in gold was taken from the Cedar Creek
camps during the period of 1870 - 1885. Placer gold alone accounted for
$1,000 to $16,000 a year, depending on the year. (Montana Pay Dirt, p. 274)
By 1874 most prospectors had left in hopes of better diggings elsewhere,
especially the newfound gold in the Nine Mile drainage. As they left, the
Chinese arrived to rework what had been discarded. By 1880 the census registered
265 people, about half of whom were Chinese. By 1890 there was nothing left
of Forest City as it had been washed downstream by giant hydraulic hoses
on another claim up creek.
Cedar Creek also had its share of hardrock mining. The Amador copper mine
was originally discovered in 1889 by cutting into a large ore body 165 feet
below the bed of Cedar Creek, but wasn't fully developed until 1900. A townsite
was laid out 11 miles below the mine, with a rail line connecting the two.
People were brought out by train from the east and sold shares in the mine
and lots in the townsite. A small smelter was built on Cedar Creek to process
the ore. In 1919 the tracks were removed in favor of hauling ore by truck.
Much of the old rail bed evolved into the Cedar Creek road as it is today.
Another Mineral County hardrock mine, discovered in 1888 by three miners
and bonded by James K. Pardee, was the Iron Mountain Mine on Flat Creek
north of Superior. It was worked for silver, lead and zinc. By October of
1889 fifty men were working at Iron Mountain and 20 tons of ore were being
sent to Helena daily. Crushed ores were hauled from the mill by wagons to
the Nine Mile Divide and down Pardee Trail to the Clark Fork River. It was
then loaded into flat boats and floated down the river to Paradise. The
final journey was on the Northern Pacific Railway to the American Refining
Smelter at Helena. In 1890 the railroad finally reached the area and a bridge,
paid for in part by the mining company, connected the Iron Mountain station
to the main line. The town was built up as a result of the mining activity
was Pardee, which clung to a mountainside above the mine and mill.
Pardee included the usual boarding houses, 5 saloons, a red light district
and Miners Union Hall. The timber had been removed from above the town to
build the mine and buildings. As a result, rain storms frequently created
mud slides and flooding.
The William Brabson boarding house was more commonly called the "company"
boarding house as the mining company expressed a preference that the miners
stay there. The Brabsons also ran a store and post office, and Mrs. Brabson
organized the school for her children and those of the other seven or eight
families in town. School classes and other community activities, including
dances, were held in the Miners Union Hall. Dances included the polka, minuet,
schottische and waltz. Among the special events were a masquerade, basket
socials, hard times ball, and calico ball. "For a respite from the
wet and dirty mine, miners used to walk across the mountain from Pardee
to Quinn's Hot Springs for a few days rest and bathing." (Mineral County
Pioneer, summer, 1984, p. 3) (Author's note: Quinn's is still a popular
spot for those of us in northwest Montana.)
The Iron Mountain mine was closed in 1898 by the Montana Inspector of Mines.
A fire leveled most of the town of Pardee shortly thereafter.
Another mining area of note in Mineral County was Spring Gulch, now known
as Keystone Creek. In 1887 silver, lead and copper were discovered there.
The town that sprang up around the mine was named Carter after Thomas Carter,
who was the last delegate to Congress from the Montana Territory and the
first representative to Congress when the Territory became a state. The
ore was sent to Horse Plains via flatboats, according to the Missoula Gazette,
which stated that the boaters were forced to blast some spots in the Missoula
River (now the Clark Fork) to avoid "dragging" the boats on the
bottom. (Mineral County Pioneer, summer 1984, p. 14)
The town, as well as the mine, was later known as Keystone. The mine produced
for a few years, but was never as profitable as Iron Mountain. Of all the
Mineral County "ghost towns," Keystone has the most structures
left.
(My special thanks to Cathryn Strombo, Mineral County Museum and Historical
Society researcher, for the wonderful museum tour last summer; and for giving
me a full set of the Mineral County Pioneer when some of the volumes are
hard to come by now.)
