Resuming his westward journey at Livingston, the traveler finds himself
ascending the first of the two great mountain barriers that had to be
surmounted by the engineers of the Northern Pacific Railroad. By a grade
of 116 feet to the mile, the line reaches, twelve miles from Livingston,
an elevation of 5,565 feet above sea-level. Here it is carried under the
crest of the range by a tunnel 3,610 feet in length, from which it
emerges into a fine, rocky canon, at the western portal of which is the
military post of Fort Ellis. A few minutes more, and the train runs into
Bozeman, a beautifully situated and flourishing little city of twenty
years' growth. Few cities can boast of more magnificent scenery,
majestic snow-capped ranges standing out against the sky on every side.
Westward for thirty miles extends the rich and fertile Gallatin valley.
It is no uncommon thing to get forty bushels of hard spring wheat, or
sixty bushels of fall wheat, to the acre in this valley, and its barley
is of such superior excellence as to be in great demand for malting
purposes at Milwaukee and other Eastern cities.
Twenty-nine miles west of Bozeman, are Gallatin City, and the bright
little town of Three Forks, commanding the valleys of the Madison and
Jefferson, the agricultural lands of which, now being brought under
cultivation, are not inferior to those of the older settled valley of
the Gallatin.
Four miles more, and the tourist comes upon a point of considerable
geographical interest, the three mountain streams just mentioned pouring
their waters into a common channel, to form the Missouri river. It is
through a rocky canon, abounding in wild and magnificent scenery, that
the greatest river on the continent enters upon its long course of 4,450
miles. For nearly fifty miles, the line follows its various windings,
until finally the river runs away northward through that profound chasm
known as the Grand Canon of the Missouri, or the Gates of the Rocky
Mountains. Visitors to Helena will find an excursion to the Grand Canon,
occupying not necessarily more than two days' time, one of the most
delightful experiences of their transcontinental journey.
The most important town between Bozeman and Helena, is Townsend, the
shipping and distributing point for no inconsiderable portion of one of
the best counties in Montana. It has daily communication by coach with
White Sulphur Springs, a health resort of great local repute. This
coming rival of older and hitherto more famous spas, lies in a beautiful
valley, 5,070 feet above sea-level, and surrounded by the grandest of
Rocky Mountain scenery. Its accommodations for visitors of all classes
are most excellent, including, as they do, one of the best hotels in the
Territory. Six miles distant are Castle Mountain and Crystal Cave, the
latter a cavern of great extent, having twenty-three separate chambers,
full of curious and beautiful stalactitic and stalagmitic formations.
The town, mountain and cavern were all fully described and admirably
illustrated in the _West Shore Magazine_ for July, 1885.
Not so much by way of tribute, either to its own beauty or that of its
situation, as in recognition of its wealth, its commercial importance
and the commanding position it has so long occupied in the mining world,
Helena, the capital of the Territory, is called the Queen of the
Mountains. Situated on the eastern slope of the continental divide,
1,155 miles from St. Paul, it became a great distributing point and
financial centre, even when hundreds of miles of mountain and prairie
separated it from the nearest railroad. Dependent upon the Missouri
river for its commercial intercourse with the world, it was in a state
of well-nigh complete isolation during the greater part of every year.
Under other conditions, this comparative isolation would have stunted
its growth and cramped the energies of its people. But with the assured
product of their labor such a commodity as gold, with its universality
of demand and stability of value, the sturdy settlers in Last Chance
Gulch had always the most powerful of incentives to restless energy.
With the steadily increasing production of the precious metals, if not
in its own immediate vicinity, at least in the country it dominated,
Helena grew rich, until now it claims to be the wealthiest city of its
size in the United States.
It was on the afternoon of the 15th of July, 1864, that a party of four
miners, weary and sick at heart, pitched their tents in that
desolate-looking gulch where now stands this flourishing city.
Disappointed at not being able to secure claims in the then prosperous
camp of Virginia City, and reduced to great extremity, they regarded the
little gulch on the Prickly Pear as their "last chance." Finding gold in
paying quantities, they resolved to settle down; and it is said, that,
before two years had elapsed, each of them was worth $50,000.
In the meantime, the little camp in what was thenceforward known as Last
Chance Gulch had attracted miners from all parts of the Rocky Mountains.
It is stated, in a recent official publication of the Territory, that
the gulch yielded $30,000,000 during the first three seasons it was
worked; but these figures so far exceed the popular estimate, that they
are repeated only under reserve. The present annual production is said
to be about $50,000. It would seem to the visitor as though every square
foot of ground had been dug up, and, if it be his first experience of a
placer mining district, its appearance will strike him as singularly
novel.
The romance of mining is well illustrated by the story of the citizen of
Helena who was digging out a cellar to his house, when a passing
stranger offered to remove the pile of earth that was being heaped up in
the roadway, and promised to return with one-half of whatever dust he
might obtain by the washing to which he proposed to submit it.
Permission granted and the earth removed, the citizen thought no more of
the matter. Great, therefore, was his astonishment when, a few days
later, the half-forgotten face of the stranger appeared at the door, and
he was handed, as his share of the yield of that unpromising dirt, the
equivalent of $650.
Possibly, however, a story involving only a paltry sum of three figures,
may not answer to the reader's conception of the romantic. It does not
excite his imagination. He expects to read of millions. If so, let us
turn to the story of the miner, who, confident that he was the possessor
of a valuable claim, held on to it in spite of the most adverse
circumstances, hiring himself out in winter that he might have a little
money wherewith to work upon his claim in summer, until, at last, after
eight years of indomitable perseverance and patient toil, he was able to
sell his property for $2,250,000; or that of the weary and penniless
wanderer, who, having tramped all the way from Nevada, began a toilsome
search, to be continued through much suffering and privation for several
years, but destined to be rewarded at last by the discovery of one of
the richest veins of gold in the Territory, a vein that has yielded, up
to the present time, $4,000,000 worth of gold.
The tourist will find an hour's chat with an old-timer an interesting
and not altogether unprofitable exercise, albeit he may find it hard to
discriminate between statements that he may venture to repeat and those
made for his especial benefit as a tenderfoot.
He need not, however, discredit such stories as that a four-mule team
once hauled to Fort Benton, for transportation down the Missouri river,
two and one-half tons of gold, valued at $1,500,000; nor yet, that in
the early days potatoes were worth fifty cents per pound, and flour one
dollar, or that oranges were sold at a dollar each, and small pineapples
at seven dollars. These are facts not more startling than many others
that might be quoted. In the mining world, at least, truth is positively
stranger than fiction.
[Illustration: YELLOWSTONE RIVER, NATIONAL PARK.]
The annual production of the precious metals in Montana has increased
enormously within recent years, doubling itself between 1880 and 1882,
and trebling between 1882 and 1884. The annual output now approaches
$30,000,000, and the Territory stands at the head of the gold-producing
regions of the world, notwithstanding that upward of $200,000,000 worth
has been extracted from its soil.
Among the many famous mines on the eastern slope of the mountains are
the Drum Lumon, shipping $80,000 worth of bullion per month, of which
fully one-half may be set down as profit; the Gloster, shipping $50,000
worth per month; the Whitlach Union, long the most celebrated gold mine
in the Territory; those of Red Mountain, said to be the most important
undeveloped mineral field in the United States; the Clark's Fork,
bordering on the National Park, and now yielding, and with no railroad
facilities, 855 tons of ore per day; those of the Helena Mining and
Reduction Company at Wickes, reached by a branch of the Northern Pacific
Railroad from Prickly Pear Junction, and known to have shipped as much
as $125,000 worth of ore in a single month; and the Lexington, which has
produced silver ore averaging in assay value from $15,000 to $20,000 per
ton. Visitors to the New Orleans Exposition of 1884-85 will remember the
magnificent exhibits from the last-mentioned mine, as also those from
the Cable and Drum Lumon mines, the latter including one solid chunk of
high-grade ore weighing 1,715 pounds.
The most valuable gold nugget ever found in Montana is said to have been
worth about $3,200. There is a nugget in the vault of the First National
Bank at Helena, weighing 47.7 ounces, and valued at $945.80. But the
most interesting sight in the city is, undoubtedly, the process of
assaying at the United States Assay Office, where may also be seen those
marvelously adjusted and delicately graduated scales, by which the
weight of even an eye-lash can be exactly determined.
The next stage of the traveler's journey westward from Helena lies
across