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 Parker Homestead– A Kingdom of Hope Like the cottonwoods that shelter this cabin, the Parker family who built it dug their roots deep, weathered many seasons of hardship, and drank what sustenance they could from the soil. The Parkers were among the thousands of Americans who took advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862 to stake their dreams on the arid Montana plains. Like so many other families, they notched out Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz a living with sweat and optimism, and enjoyed little in the way of material comfort. In the 1890’s, newlyweds Nelson and Rosa Ellen (Harwood) Parker refurbished a miner’s shack on nearby Antelope Creek. A few years later they built a cabin for their growing family on the Jefferson River, but a spring flood washed that home away. The Parkers escaped in a rowboat, Rosa clutching the youngest of her three children between her knees. They vowed to move to dry ground. In 1910, Nelson filed a patent to homestead 160 acres here. They built this sod-roofed cabin, and hauled water from creeks and ditches for years before they could afford to dig a well. Eventually the Parkers built a larger home near Three Forks, and abandoned this cabin. In 1939, Orville and Josephine Jewett bought the place for their family of four children. The Jewetts farmed, hunted, trapped, and sheared sheep through the Depression and World War II. When they lived here, the cabin had three rooms, all painted with calcimine or white-wash. Bright linoleum covered wideplank floors, curtains softened the windows, and the laughter of the Jewett’s four children rang across the fields. The Parker Homestead lies along the Jefferson River southwest of Three Forks. It was formerly a state park but now lies on private property owned by a local family. Garnet Mining District In the usual version told of the discovery of the great placer mines of the Garnet Range, gold was discovered in the area then known as Bear. The mouth of Bear Gulch is located about eleven miles west of Drummond and the first discovery is credited to the Jack Reynolds party, in October of 1865 in Elk Creek Gulch. Reynolds' discoveries led to a rush of miners into Bear Gulch (the upper part of which is called First Chance gulch), Elk Creek Gulch, Deep Creek Gulch and Bilk Gulch. It is known because of Leeson (1885) and the Morse Family descendants that Colonel George W. Morse and partners took about $250,000 worth of Gold out of Bilk Gulch. But perhaps the role of John Lannan in these events has been overlooked. The Society of Montana Pioneers (1899) states that Edward Lannan, John's son was born in New
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