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 2009 MONTANA COWBOY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE LEGACY AWARD DISTRICT 6 W.E. “LIMESTONE” WILSON (1860 – 1938) William E. Wilson, known later in life as “Limestone” or Limerock” was born November 5, 1860 at Berrian Springs, Michigan. At eight years old he moved with his parents to Holt County, Missouri. While living there and in Oregon, he completed a common school education. Imbued with romantic notions from reading frontier stories while quite young, Mr. Wilson yearned to go west and discover a gold mine. When the Black Hills excitement broke out in 1878, his parents moved to Deadwood, South Dakota where his father established a lucrative business as a gardener, selling fresh vegetables to the miners and their families. In 1879, Wilson went prospecting in the Black Hills. He didn’t have much use for his father who by then had married five times, so in the spring of 1881 at 20 years old, with companion George Neligh, he set out on foot for Montana Territory. Being unfamiliar with conditions and deceived by false reports, they nearly starved to death on the way. While encounters with the Sioux impeded their travel, they were able to reach the mouth of O’Fallon Creek near present day Fallon, Montana where they passed some buffalo hunters loaded with meat for the Northern Pacific railroad camps. This happenstance led to Wilson going to work for Brown and Dewey on the Northern Pacific grade near Cabin Creek, about 35 miles north of Glendive. Soon tiring of his railroad job, Wilson sought to go mining and headed down the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in a ‘borrowed’ boat headed for Kansas City and onto New Mexico. He wrecked the boat on ice at or near Bismarck, North Dakota. Nearly broke and out of a job he headed back for Montana in the winter of 1881-82. After rambling around all winter, Wilson landed in Maiden on April 15, 1882 without a dollar in his pocket. He made a grubstake working at placer mining and then started prospecting. In the fall of 1883, he found an ore lead in limestone around the edge of a ridge and named it the Gilt Edge. Further work disclosed a good-sized ore body. The public would not believe there was ore to be found, and Wilson was unable to raise the money to develop it. Wilson later entered into a period of ten years of hard work as he was finally able to acquire money from different partners for his mining development. Several who skipped the country and left Wilson with debts to settle. He was snowed in one winter in the Judith Mountains for two months with nothing but his dog and guitar for company. Wilson’s work continued to be ridiculed while some people even went so far as to call him crazy. During those discouraging but hopeful years he laid the
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