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 manufacturing factory, two restaurants, a Chinese tailor, two saloons, one bakery, an auto dealer, a hat shop, a sausage factory, a liquor store, and a cleaner. Sources: The Story of Butte, Butte Bystander, April 15, 1897 (source of main photo), in Gibson’s collection; The History of Montana, by Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, Volume 3, 1913; Congressional Record, Montana Senatorial Election Hearings, Feb. 5, 1900; Anaconda Standard, May 21-22, 1914; August 12, 1912; June 30, 1907; March 24, 1901; Sept. 21, 1963; Advertisement from Souvenir History of the Butte Fire Dept., 1901, Butte Public Library scan; Invoice, dated Dec. 30, 1900, to The Butte General Electric Co., purchased 45¢ worth of tubing and paid the bill 1/17/1901, via Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History (Ft Missoula); City Directories; Sanborn maps. Richard Gibson is a geologist. His career has ranged from analyzing kidney stones to 35 years in oil exploration. Butte's history, architecture, and people captured his interest like he thought nothing could, and have expanded his life significantly. He’s still passionate about geology, but now he’s passionate about Butte, too. His book "What Things Are Made Of" came out in March 2011; his writing blog focuses on it. The Butte History blog contains interesting stories discovered in Butte, Montana, which are documented in "Lost Butte, Montana," from The History Press. Check out more great stories from Richard by visiting his sites: http://buttehistory.blogspot.com/ http://butte-anacondanhld.blogspot.com/ https://www.verdigrisproject.org/butte-americas-story Flint Creek Falls and Georgetown Dam The fertile meadows would not be in this valley if it wasn’t for the creeks that flowed into Flint Creek and part of that water source is from the Georgetown area. First known as Georgetown Flats and then known as the mining camp of Georgetown, the area was flooded when the Flint Creek Dam was built by The Montana Water, Electric Power and Mining Company. The company was owned by Paul Fusz et al, at the time the dam was completed. They bought out the previous owners and incorporated in May of 1899 with principal stockholders being: Paul A. Fusz, M. Rumsey, C. Jagels and L.M. Rumsey. These same persons were large stockholders in the Granite Bi-Metallic Consolidated Mining Company. The work of utilizing the water of Flint Creek was originally commenced in 1891. The expected outcome was to form a reservoir that would hold millions of cubic feet of water. At that time a crew of over 200 men were employed on the ditch and flume. The dam was built of solid masonry and was started at bedrock then extended from rim to rim of the canyon. A crew of fifty carpenters was hired at the town of Bonner in October 1899 to frame timbers for the Power House. The October 13, 1899 Mail, detailed the following: “The company is confident that it can depend upon about 3,000 inches of water for use from the Georgetown flats to the falls. To utilize this a covered plank flume nearly 6,600 feet long has been constructed. The flume is three and one-half by four feet in the clear and there are two tunnels, one 350 feet long and the other 700 feet. At the end of the flume is a penstock or tank with a capacity of 35,000
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