Pa g e 10 Gho s t Hell Gate, Montana The little settlement of Hell Gate had been established as a trading stop for travelers heading east or west along the Mullan Road. The wagon train led by James Liberty Fisk stopped there on the way from Minnesota to the Salmon River (Idaho) gold fields. Captain John Mullan’s bright idea, linking the Missouri and Columbia Rivers by a wagon road, paid off for settlers in (then) Washington Territory. Hell Gate never had much of a population. Historians number only 14 permanent residents, but it was important in early Montana history, because some notable names at one time or another during its brief life stayed there for varying periods. Hell Gate, Montana, May 10, 1909. Photographer unidenfied. MHS Photo Archives #PAc 75-78.14. T o w n s a n d Hi st o r y o f Mo n t a n a N e w s l e t t er Typical of Montana settlements, it had a saloon (owned by Peter J. Botte), a blacksmith shop, and Worden & Co.’s general store, owned by Christopher P. Higgins and Frank L. Worden. Atypically, however, it also had a church. Father DeSmet founded St. Mary’s in 1861. You can see the log church, the oldest building in Montana, at Old Fort Missoula, where it was moved to prevent it from rotting away or being demolished by the growth of population spreading out from modern Missoula. A gas station now stands on the site of Hell Gate. The names “Hell Gate” and “Missoula” come from the same Native word meaning an opening to a mountain pass or canyon and implying to a place of dread or darkness. With the nearest post office at Walla Walla (450 miles west), and the seat of government for Washington Territory at Olympia, nearly 800 miles away (as roads went in 1862), people in the Hell Gate region were pretty well left on their own to administer justice if conflicts arose. Conflicts did arise. One resulted in the first trial in what would be Montana. Adolphe Dubreuil, aka “Tin Cup Joe,” accused Cornelius C. “Baron” O’Keefe of malicious destruction of property and animal cruelty for shooting his horse. Two versions of the case differ in what the horse did, but they agree that the animal ate grain or hay that O’Keeffe needed for his own use. One version says that O’Keeffe, an Irishman of uncertain, quick temper, drove the horse out of his barn with the result that the panicked animal fell into a partly dug root cellar and died of its injuries before it could be hauled out. The second version has O’Keeffe blasting away at the frightened creature. A jury of 12 men was empaneled in Botte’s saloon, the only space large enough to hold a trial. O’Keeffe defended himself, saying that he shot the horse in self-defense. Frank Woody represented Tin Cup Joe, and
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