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 LEGEND OF BUMMER DAN’S DISCOVERY ONE OF THE MOST FANTASTIC IN LOCAL HISTORY Of all the legends of the early days of Virginia City, none is more fantastic than that of Bummer Dan's bar, a patch of sidehill ground a few acres in extent, where a shiftless miner made one of the easiest fortunes that was ever made in the gold fields. The patch of ground is straight across Alder Gulch from Virginia City, where the hillside has been washed down to a miniature Grand Canyon. An estimated $5,000,000 in gold was taken from that site. According to legend, “Bummer Dan” McFadden was a sort of a “hanger-on,” an individual without much ambition who made his ing [sic] a new claim. His old one would be “jumped” about every Monday morning. Sometimes he would try to “jump” someone else's claim and the rightful owner would have to chase him away with a shovel. At that time, the only rich claims that had been found were in the bottom of the gulch and one day someone suggested to Bummer Dan that he stake a claim up on the side hill, where no one would jump it. Bummer Dan thought it was a good idea; he went up on the hillside and started digging and everyone laughed at him. But scarcely had Bummer Dan gotten under the grass roots when he started digging out nuggets, picking them up by the dozens! A new stampede was started— living visiting the campfires of other miners about chow time and inviting himself to eat of their fare. Some people say that he was half-witted. Others say that he was just lazy. That was in 1863, right after the discovery, and it was the rule, adopted by the miners in those days, that a claim had to be worked at least three days a week and that any time the claim wasn't worked, it was open to be reclaimed the next Monday morning. Bummer Dan was always hunting from the bottom of Alder Gulch to the sidehill above it. A short time later, Bummer Dan took a stage coach out of the country. However, Henry Plummer's gang of road agents heard that he was leaving and the stage was held up. The road agents took Bummer Dan's poke. Then one of them saw a leather string running over his shoulder and demanded that he remove it. It supported a larger bag which was concealed in McFadden's pants. Before they left him, the road agents had relieved “Bummer Dan” of three large leather bags filled with pure gold nuggets. - The Madisonian Newspaper, May 29, 1953, Accessed via: www.montananewspapers.org
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