MAY 2023 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter From The Whitefish Pilot, April 20, 1911 A THRIVING CAMP ROCHESTER IS ENJOYING AN UNPRECENDENTED ERA OF PROSPERITY Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov From The Madisonian, June 4, 1903: 300 Miners are Employed. District was discovered in 1865, but attracted little attention until recent years– Now one of the greatest camps of the Northwest. The Anaconda Standard, in its Sunday Edition, published a very interesting and truthful account of Rochester, a mining camp on the northern border of Madison county. It is as follows: The Rochester gold mining district was discovered in 1865. It was then a dry placer camp, the gold being coarse and evidently washed from the goldbearing ledges of the surrounding mountains. In those early days many a prospector grub-staked himself when hard-up from the placers, the total production being about $100,000. In 1868 gold bearing quartz was discovered and two ten-stamp mills of a crude pattern were erected by Messrs. Woodruff, Hendry, and Vaughn, who for several years worked the surface ores from the Watseka ledge which was leased in sections to the miners of that region. It was in 1870 that F. R. Merk visited the district, purchased the Watseka and patented the property. Much of the surface ores assayed $200 to $300 per ton, but all was not sayed. Then ensued a long period of dullness and the camp was practically abandoned. In 1891, Dave Bricker of Butte bonded the property, but lacking capital to sink, he quit and was succeeded by the Colorado company of Butte, represented by C.W. Goodale, who made a favorable report on the mine and did some sinking until driven out by the water, though he strongly urged continuance of work and final Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
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