P a g e 3 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 MINES AND MINING IN PARK COUNTY-continued From The Livingston Enterprise, January 1, 1900: Since then the flume has been enlarged, and as it stands today it has not an equal throughout the world. While it is without a peer, it is interesting to notice that at the time of its proposal leading engineers and men of supposed good judgment had deemed it an impossibility. At the present time the mining town of Horr and its coal works are undergoing a general over-hauling, remodeling and enlarging, all under the supervision of Ware B. Gay, of New Jersey, whose ability is not questioned throughout the east as to being an expert mining promoter. It is evident from the present outlook that the town of Horr in a very years will be one of the leading commercial centers of Park county. TRAIL CREEK MINES Of the numerous valuable deposits of coal in Park county, none deserve more favorable attention than those embraced within the Trail Creek district. These measures are situated in the Belt range of mountains about midway between the Cokedale and Horr mines, and distant from Livingston about twenty miles in a southwestern direction. These lands cover an area of over 12,000 acres, including the properties of individuals and the odd numbered sections reserved for the Northern Pacific Railway company under its grant. Coal was first discovered in the Trail Creek District some time during the seventies, by M. M. Black and a few others; but no effort to develop them was made until 1884, when Byam Brothers opened a mine by driving a tunnel one hundred and eighty feet upon the coal vein. Since that time, development work has been going on continually, and the facilities for coal production have been doubled by the recent advent of the Trail Creek railway. MOUNTAIN HOUSE COAL MINES According to the graphic description of these mines by G. C. Swallow, mining engineer of England, we find them located seventeen miles southeast of Bozeman and at the termini of the Trail Creek railway, which is about eight miles in length. These mines extend a distance of one and three-quarters miles from northwest to southeast in the high ridge on the northeast side of Trail creek, containing about three hundred acres. The coal is of the lignite formation, which has a vast development in this part of Montana. Seven beds of coal are observed in this property throughout a formation not more than 300 feet in depth. It is so exposed as to be easily mined, while the strata of rocks, once covering these coal beds, are tipped up to an angle of some 40 degrees by the Earth’s upheaval, thus enabling the easy drainage and operation of the same. Natural Bridge on the Boulder
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