AUGUST 2021 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter From the new North-west (Deer Lodge) Oct. 26, 1877 A N E W M I N I N G T O W N - J u n e 4 , 1895 COLOMA, Near the Head of Camas Prairie, Rapidly Growing. It is a young camp but the surrounding mines and country promise for it a prosperous future and steady growth. But few of the Standard’s readers know that there is such a town as Coloma on the map of Montana, and not many of those who know of its existence can tell its location or anything regarding it. Six months ago there was no such town, but now it is a delightful and thriving community, with the promise of a successful and prosperous future before it. It is small, but it is busy, and business is what makes a town. When the success of the Mammoth mine became assured, those who are interested in the property began to make arrangements for the accommodation of their employees, and thus the town of Coloma was established. Its existence has been a brief one, but it promises to become well known as the location of one of the best mining properties in the Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ state. – The Anaconda Standard Newspaper, accessed via https:// chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
P a g e 2 Kendall, Montana- General Store G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r Thomas R. Matlock was a progressive, independent merchant with unlimited faith in the gold deposits of the North Moccasins. He bought a lot in Kendall early in 1902 while still operating a boarding house in Whiskey Gulch near Gilt Edge. The cornerstone for the Matlock General Store was placed in April 1902, and business opened in August of that year offering staples and “fancy” groceries, dry goods, notions and “gent’s furnishings”- all at Lewistown prices. T.R. Matlock General Merchandise Store, date unknown, Courtesy of Lewistown Public Library and www.mtmemory.org When the gold gave out in 1911 and most businesses left, Matlock hung on until 1912 before building a new store in Hilger and closing shop in Kendall. He then ran a weekly delivery wagon from his store in Hilger to serve the few remaining Kendall residents. Matlock always believed that the gold mines at Kendall would revive and never dismantled his Kendall store. He was right. In the 1980s and 90s, the renewed mining at Kendall by Canyon Resources Corporation extracted over 300,000 ounces of gold; but by then Matlock’s store had crumbled into ruin and Matlock was long since gone. -Interpretive Sign, Kendall Townsite Current Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz The Sourdough Schoolhouse was built in 1912 on the David Nevin property in what became known as School District 43. In the school year 1951-1952 the teacher, Evelyn Larson Willson, taught at the school. Since a teacherage, a house or accommodations for the teacher to live, wasn’t available she lived in the one room schoolhouse. She partitioned part of the one room schoolhouse off with a blanket to serve as her bedroom at night. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
P a g e 3 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r MacFarland or Pineau Placer Also known as the Pineau Placer, the MacFarland placer is one of the largest producers in the Gold Creek district as well as being the best documented. The placer was located on the upper middle fork of Gold Creek around 1870, but development of the placer did not occur until 1896. Gus Pineau, Eugeen McFarland and Green Dudley discovered the Friday placer mine in 1895. Shortly thereafter McFarland and Pineau, along with two new partners, began mining the other nearby claims. McFarland is credited with the camp associated with the placer. The camp is credited with $35,000 in gold dust and nuggets between 1896 and 1913. The gold was coarse, about the size of No. 8 buckshot. It has yielded large nuggets, typically 10 ounces, but the largest weighed in at 27 ounces. The gold is valued Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz at $16 to $17 per ounce while the gravel was said to carry about 40 cents gold per yard. – Courtesy of: https://deq.mt.gov/ The history of Danielsville starts way back at the turn of the 20th century when an old Frenchman made a discovery of gold outcroppings in the district. The Kendall Chronicle reported that “The country was hard to get into. On one of the highest peaks, the hardy old man worked away. He found plenty of float and finally found a vein.” He would later lead a party of local men to his discovery but, as the snow started to fall and the cold, miserable weather set in, even the old man became disoriented as to the treasure’s location. Everyone gave up the search but the determined old Frenchman went on alone. His body would be found high in the mountains the following spring. In 1901, the three Daniels brothers along with Frank Jones and Dick LaCerse would rediscover the lode. The news reached Deer Lodge and prospectors arrived for the loot. The townsite of Danielsville was born in 1902 and soon included a genPhoto by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz eral store, saloon, hotel and blacksmith shop, among several miners’ cabins.
P a g e 4 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r A LOOK BACK ON PIONEER Main St. in Pioneer, Courtesy of the Great Falls Tribune MAY 11, 1935- OLD WEST STILL LIVES IN TOWN OF PIONEER, MONTANA Pioneer, the quaintest little town in Montana, and tucked snugly at the feet of the newly-made mountains of rock dredged from 50-foot depths in the bottom of Gold creek, holds to her ancient spirit of pioneer days; holds to her quaint atmosphere of the old West and to her pristine state of hospitality, her primitive buildings and her venerable lure for gold. Protected at her back by a panorama of a mountain range and at the front by rolling foothills and on either side by piles upon piles of rock, she rests snugly in the cradle of her birth. On the inner walls of the old stone buildings may be seen the names of old pioneers carelessly scrawled there with their dates going back to nearly three quarters of a century ago. Many old prospectors still roam "them thar hills'' for gold with their burro, brawn, beans and bacon for subsistence while they pick hundreds of tiny holes in the mountain side in search of that precious metal. But more than that, "for there's gold in that thar crick", the Pioneer Placer Dredging company in November, 1933, installed a gold dredge that weighs more than 1,500 tons and takes 7,000 cubic yards of rock and dirt from the bottom of Gold creek every 24 hours. A long line of heavy steel buckets of nine cubic feet capacity, and each bucket weighing almost a ton, continually swoop to the bottom of the river and fill themselves with rock, sand and gold, and without pause carry their burden up a ladder weighing more than 100 tons, to a hopper where they dump their load of rock, sand and gravel. From the hopper a big distributor takes the cargo and sends the dirt and gravel to the sluice boxes where water takes the small pebbles and the dirt rolling and rippling down the boxes and the gold is picked up by quicksilver and carried by gravity to the bottom. A big revolving screen separates the finer pebbles and dirt from the big rock. The smaller rocks are taken on a rubber carrier up the 100-foot stacker to the top of the great piles of rock on the bank and the heavy rocks are deposited back in the bottom of the river. The dirt and sand, after being robbed of the gold, is taken on carriers to a distance of about 25 feet from the spud, or big steel post at the back of the dredge which serves as an anchor for the dredge to swing from, An old landmark in Pioneer, Courtesy of the Great Falls Tribune
P a g e 5 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r and again the river receives part of that which was taken from her bed. Power is brought from a high tension line on a cable enclosed in rubber, and is carried under the water until it emerges to come into four transformers on the dredge, where it is transformed down to 4.400 volts. This power feeds nine motors, one of 200 horsepower capacity and the others ranging from 15 to 35 horsepower. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz A huge winch raises and lowers the bucket line and swings the dredge around to the position the operator desires. All movements of the dredge are controlled by winches, and the winch room, or control room, with all the levers looks at first glance like an overgrown asparagus patch. There are mammoth gears measuring 45 feet in circumference, a bucket line and ladder weighing more than 100 tons each, upper and lower tumblers, and enormous revolving screen, dump chutes, conveyor, the various winches, four transformers, nine motors, the big spud made by riveting gigantic steel beams together, main gearing, bucket idler, gold tables and the big boat with a nine-foot hull. The boat measures 250 feet in length by 50 feet in width and about 40 feet above the nine-foot hull. Seven feet of the bull is under water. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz So it is, that the restful little town of Pioneer, Montana, holding sacredly and religiously to her pioneer spirit, is still pioneering, but in a big way in her search for gold and the Old West still lives. With the protection of the great hills of rock piled in her front yard, no other town can be built upon Pioneer and steal the glory of the Old West. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz And in another three-quarters of a century when the pioneers of today have written their names upon the walls of the old rock buildings and have gone to mingle with their ancestors, the little town of Pioneer will not have been robbed of the glory, and the Old West shall still live. -Montana Oil and Mining Journal, Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
P a g e 6 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r Garnet, Montana- Frank Davey owned and operated Davey’s General Store (built in 1898) and the Garnet Stage line, owned a hotel, a mining claim, and a blacksmith shop. Frank always wore a buffalo robe when he drove the stage and was known to have an ample supply of buffalo robes available to keep the women passengers warm on their ascent into the Garnet range. Frank passed away in 1947 while walking to one of his mining claims. By 1948 the majority of his leftover store merchandise, personal belongings, and mining claims were auctioned. His Garnet Lode claim, which consisted of most of the land where the town had been built, was donated to the United States Government by Davey’s heirs. Some of Davey's Prices: eggs sold for 30 cents a dozen, coffee for 25 Davey’s Stagecoach, Courtesy of www.blm.gov Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz cents a can, butter for 30 cents a pound, and shaving soap was a dime. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Butcher Hank Crawford, Bannack's first sheriff, was living in a cabin along bachelor's row when he heard the news that Henry Plummer was "looking" for him. He was ready and shot Plummer in his right arm but Plummer would regain his shooting prowess and chase Crawford out of town. Plummer went on to become sheriff. Henry Plummer “There was a close contest for sheriff. Jeff Durley of Jimmy’s Bar, ran against Plummer and Plummer was elected sheriff by three majority, and a large number of miners, living down the gulch, regretted Plummer’s election, which was due to their staying away from the polls.” - The Dillon Tribune, April 20, 1888, Accessed via: www.montananewspapers.org Frank Davey, Courtesy of www.blm.gov
P a g e 7 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r Pete Zortman Comes Home Oliver Peter Zortman came west in 1888, lured by gold discovered in eastern Montana’s Little Rocky Mountains. He struck it rich several times, ran a cyanide mill, and left his name on the town of Zortman. He was part of an elite group—one of very few to leave the Little Rockies with a small fortune in gold. He joined the Masons in Chinook and eventually ended up in Big Timber where he died of cancer in 1933, penniless. No stone marked his final resting place, but the local newspaper that documented his passing mentioned that he was buried in a hand-dug pauper’s grave. A few years ago, Zortman residents decided to honor their namesake. It was no small task to discover Zortman’s unmarked resting place. A long search led to Zortman’s membership in the Masons. The leatherbound records of the Big Timber Masonic Lodge offered details of Zortman’s funeral. With permission from Zortman’s relatives, several veterinarians, a Chinook undertaker, cemetery workers, and assorted Zortman residents oversaw the exhumation. The remains of Pete Zortman surfaced from the chocolate soil in Big Timber’s Mountain View Cemetery with some difficulty. Water from an irrigation ditch immediately flooded the hole as the backhoe dug. Three feet of muck was removed, and pieces of the coffin and Zortman began to surface. The yellowed bones were placed in a newly made pine coffin and loaded onto a truck. On August 27, 2005, a vintage hearse carried the pine box to the Zortman Cemetery. A smattering of relatives and most of the town of Zortman attended the graveside services. Pete Zortman was home. –Ellen Baumler Zortman, Montana, 1908. Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 951-885 Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Ellen Baumler is an award-winning author and Montana historian. A master at linking history with modern-day supernatural events, Ellen's true stories have delighted audiences across the state. She lives in Helena in a century-old house with her husband, Mark, and its resident spirits. To view and purchase Ellen’s books, visit: http://ellenbaumler.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html Ad from the Enterprise (Harlem, MT), April 8, 1908, Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
P a g e 8 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r Keystone, Montana- Keystone was actually the third name for this mining town. It was first called O'Rourke after miner Phillip O'Rourke who with the help of a couple friends found veins of silver and lead in the area in 1887. The name was changed to Carter in 1890 to honor Thomas Carter, a U.S. Senator who helped to establish a post office in the town. The town boasted a few hundred residents until the silver crash of 1893 which hit the town hard. The town saw a comeback a few years later and was known as Keystone, named after a local mine. By 1925, silver prices fell again and the townspeople moved on. The Hotel Vendome in Carter, Montana (later Keystone, Montana) Excerpt from The Daily Miissoulian Newspaper, October 1, 1914, Accessed via: https:// chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz My/Donor Information: SUBSCRIBE TO THE GHOST TOWNS AND HISTORY OF MONTANA NEWSLETTER! Renewal? Y/N Send a Gift to: NAME____________________________________ NAME___________________________________ ADDRESS__________________________________ ADDRESS_________________________________ CITY______________________________________ CITY_____________________________________ STATE__________________ZIP________________STATE_________________ ZIP________________ Yearly subscriptions are $19.95 (published monthly). Please make checks payable to Ghost Towns & History of MT, LLC and send with this clipping to P.O. Box 932 Anaconda, MT 59711
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