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 Grizzly Gulch Lime Kilns- Helena, Montana. Lime manufacture was an essential industry for building in brick and stone in the nineteenth century. The Grizzly Gulch outcrops and the kilns below them supplied the entire region with lime of the highest quality. Joseph O'neill built the first of these kilns in the late 1860s. Hewn timbers, hand-forged metal braces, and finely laid fire brick shipped from the East illustrate the kilns' sturdy construction. Workers blasted or quarried the limestone out of the hills behind, conveyed the rocks on handcars to the kilns or tumbled them down the embankment, and dumped them into the tops of the chimneys. Pine fires in the furnace beneath burned constantly. After several days, workers shoveled the powdered lime into the cooling shed adjacent to the kiln and teamsters hauled it to the building site. Each kiln could produce some twenty tons of lime every eight hours. Irish-born James McKelvey later leased and then owned the kilns, supplying the mortar for the construction of the state capitol. Lack of railroad access eventually forced closure circa 1910 although one kiln operated again briefly in the 1930s. -National Register of Historic Places Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz DIAMOND CITY Diamond City c. 1870 June 2, 1932: Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Mueller and sons Glenn and George came from Lewistown for the two-day holiday and spent Sunday going over old workings at Diamond City being accompanied from here by Miss Luella Watson. Mr. Mueller is compiling data on the early day history of the old mining camp. Mrs. Mueller’s father, the late C. W. Cook of White Sulphur Springs, she states used to have charge of the “Ditch Office” in Diamond in the early 70’s and one time an old Dutchman who operated a placer on Montana Bar asked him to “clean up” his sluice boxes for him, which Mr. Cook did and got a bushel of gold dust. The old man did not have any idea of the value of the clean-up and when he got ready to quit the camp, so little was he effected by the vast amount of gold he had, he sold all of his tools such as picks, shovels, axes, etc., which netted him something like $25.00. During the sojourn of the Mueller family in Diamond Sunday, John Smith, who now resides there panned a pan of dirt for them and got several nice colors. He then gave the boys a gold -pan and told them to pan some for themselves which they did taking the dirt from a place close beside the road in the location that was approximately in front of the G. A. Hampton hotel. Several nice colors were panned much to the surprise and delight of the boys and there will no doubt be a “gold rush” among the Boy Scouts of Lewistown upon the arrival of the boys with their gold securely corked in a small glass vial. - The Townsend Star, Accessed via: www.montananewspapers.org Abandoned cabin in the gulch by Jolene EwertHintz
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