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 "The next night we camped at the Dearborn. Had no trouble till we got to Bull's Head, 12 miles this side of Benton. While riding on a walk my horse broke his right forward leg just below the knee, through no ap parent cause—no holes, rocks or anything else to cause it, and how it was done none of us could find out. It just snapped off. We shot him right there and I rode on in the wagon to Benton. "While we were there we fixed the safes ready for shipping them down the river in mackinaw boats, no steamers being there. We fastened ten-gallon casks with long ropes to each safe in case the boats might upset, when the casks would act as buoys and the safes could be located. They got through to the states all right. I got eleven ounces for my trip." –From The Circle Banner Newspaper, June 11, 1920, Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ The GARRISON district has produced little if any metallic ore. However, the district has been a prolific producer of phosphate. Deposits containing 60 percent tricalcium phosphate are located six to ten miles from the town of Garrison. Outcrops can be traced from Avon west to Drummond. It has been estimated that 100 million long tons of material have been removed from the district for the manufacture of fertilizer (Montana Bureau of Mines). Anderson - Brock: The Anderson mine is located on the east fork of Brock Creek. Throughout its history the mine has been owned by the Montana Phosphate Products Co. It is the largest underground producer of phosphate rock in the "Western field" and the deepest such operation in the United States. Development on the Anderson sector of the mine began in 1929; the Brock sector began development in 1955. At one point the operations employed 180 men in two shifts and produced 1,200 tons of rock per day. Total production of the Anderson mine since 1929 was estimated to be over 4,500,000 long tons with the majority of production after 1945. The mine was developed for more than 9,000 feet on the strike and for a vertical distance of 1,500 feet. Ore was hoisted from the Anderson mine via a 3-compartment vertical shaft while that of the Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Brock was brought out by a tram through the main adit. Ore was extracted by a modified room and pillar method with overhead open stopes (Popoff and Service 1965). Luke: The Luke (Mineral Hill) mine is located six miles southeast of the Anderson mine. Prior to the Montana Phosphate Products Co. purchase of the mine in 1943, the mine had produced an estimated 25,000 tons of phosphate rock (Popoff and Service 1965).- Courtesy of Montana DEQ Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
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