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 The miners' laws of Diamond City and the other Montana camps were based on the eternal principles of equity. One of the most important points to be decided in any new district was the time allowed a miner or a mining company to "lay over" without being jumped. This was a matter regulated by water, snow, frozen ground, etc. No man was required to work his claim if it could not be worked; it was universally understood that a claim could not be jumped while its owner was absent fighting Indians or kept from work by sickness or for want of grub at hand. Claims worth millions were held by no other tenure than a brief code of miners' laws like the following: "We, most of the miners of this district, resolve, first, that this district shall be called Confederate Gulch, and that a claim shall be 100 feet long in the creek, 200 feet long in a gulch and 50 feet front on the bank, and that a man may hold one of each. "Resolved, secondly, that no more Chinamen shall take up claims. "Resolved, thirdly, that a white man must stick up a notice at each end of his claim when he takes it up. "Resolved, fourthly, that a man may lay over his claim a month by posting a notice and paying the receiver one dollar. "Resolved, fifthly, that all disputes about claims shall be settled by a miners' meeting and no lawyers." With the miners’ courts and the citizens’ criminal courts began the judicial history of Montana. With the organization of the territory and the establishment of the capital at Bannack a territorial code of laws was drawn up and these laws were soon in force at Diamond City, which shortly after became the county seat of Meagher county. –From The Circle Banner Newspaper, June 11, 1920, Accessed via: https:// chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ Watch next month’s issue for the story of a huge gold dust shipment out of Diamond City… Laura Duchesnay was one of few women who lived at Reeder’s Alley. Her husband, George, owned the Stonehouse, then divided it into four small flats. The Duchesnays lived in one and rented out the others. Laura, well-known as local bird doctor, raised hundreds of canaries in their tiny apartment. Throughout the 1920s she advertised her songbirds as “excellent singers.” They sang so sweetly that some claim their songs now and then still echo through the building. During conversion of the Stonehouse to office space in 2008, workers removed a section of flooring to install computer wiring. They discovered two underground rooms. Legend has it that the Duchesnays sold bootleg whiskey during Prohibition. Buyers lined up and down the alley. They feared the revenue officer would come around with questions, so Laura lined the alley with cages full of songbirds. If anyone asked, customers would say they were just in line to buy canaries. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
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