CHAPTER VI.

T m expansion of the gold 6elda in the appm

- Columbia basin and the revived rumor of disco~eriem
by emigrant parties, tended early to direct the atten-
tion of prospectors to Idaho, then included in Wash-
ington and Oregon. In the autumn of 1860 the
Clearwater region disclosed ita t r w u m , and drew
an immigration which speedily overran its different
tributaries, as well as those of the Salmon river. me
latter proved, in fact, the chief magnet, and the '

civil war swelled the hflm with refugees from the

soutilern states.
Few reached thia Beld from the mast in 1862; save
those who followed the Mullan mad from Montana.
I n the autumn of,tbe same year the BoisB mines were
discovered by a party under the leadership of George
Grimes, aRer whcrn i~ named the creek which runs
through this district. Driven back by Indians, with
loss, the party soon afternard returned in force, fol-
lowed before the close of the year by fully t w o thou-
sand persons.
- The n e w district proved t o be an extraordinary
- gold field. Average earnings mere r~otless than $18 a
e (15; 1
 day, and $100 tq the pan was not nncommon on
C&-imes creek. Even the dry gulches yielded from
$16 t o $10 to the p n , and dikhea were rapily con-
structed to facilitate the exploitation, timber biug
abundant for flumes and other purposes Several
men m d e $1,500 daily for a considemtle time. A
well digger in Idaho city struck a deposit under a
house which is said to have yielded $300,000. On
South Boid placers were also found which paid as
muclt as $60 per day to the man.
In 1863 a discovery on Jordon creek, running into
the Owyhee started a rush of nearlr 3.000 wen for
thah region, but most of them mere disappointed.
The favorite ground for pmapcctom continued, -
neverthcleas, to be in thin southern regioo, ant1 the
predilection was cot~firmedby discoveries early i ~ 1864,
a
on the north Bnid, marked by the rise of still
another group of mining towns ; and, dso, on 1\IalaJe
river, under the guidance of J. Z . Miller. The interest
in the northern districts wag not aItogether lust, how-
ever, for Kmtenai confirn~edEn 1863 the indications
observed ten >-earsbefore by members of the S t e ~ e i ~ s
expedition. Xontana was exercising MI overshadow-
ing influence, however.
By the sprin3 of 1863 the imrniptim had sufficed
to raise ten minmg to\vns. with a population of nbiut
20,000, besides an outside sprinkling, and to o~ga~kize
four counties. MTithin a year great chatigtbs tool;
place. >fan14 among tllc increased .nuuil>crof dis-
tricts were sliimmd of their s ~ r r ricl~cs
~ c and a'ilan-
doned to Chinamen, who were gmotcd ~wrulissintlto
. remain on payment of a monthly tax nt' sis dr~llara

Florence, lately the m n t d nttrnctirln uf t l ~ ecountry,

m a almost depopu1att.d. Never did such a flrruria11-
iug camp so speedily coIlape.
The amount of gold p d u c e d in ant- prtim?ardis-
'trict w ~ u l dbe dificult to m~nlmte,and ran o111yI*
estimated from mint and t d a returna The yrrn tcr
pdrtion of the $3,000,000brought to Portland during
the summer and autumn of 1862 must be aserihd to
Idaho, The Nez Pen6 mines are believed to have
yielded between $7,000,000 and $ r o,ooo,oao iu two
yearn. Ross Browne assigns to it $6,000,000 for
1866, but double that amount to Montana, and only
one half to Oregon and Washington combined. Other
accuunh insist that for 1866 the production was nut
less than $8,000,000,and fur 1869, $7,000,000.while
the t o d dr~anto I B 8 1 should not be less than ninety
million d o l l m .
The greakr proportion of this yield was derived
fmm quartz mining, which early offvet the decline in
the placers. Several companies hipped t b o m d s of
tons of ore to San Francisw and to eastern cities, in
order to rouse the interest of capitalists and secure
their c~peration.
After 1 8 6 i prospecting was much interfered with
by Indian hostilities, and the first two great excite-
ments, caused by discovery of the placers and gold
and silver quartz ledges, having subsided, the fame of
the Idaho inines became somewhat overshadomed by
ncm disroverics in other quafters. Other causes,
ml~ich operated against home enterprise and also
invwtrnent from abroad, mere the expense of intro-
ducing milling machinery which greatly lessened
profit& the defalcations of the secretaries of three of
tlie riclmst mining companies i n the Owyhee wgion,
and the suspension of the bank of California. A
~~eriotlcf depresrion followd, which succeeded bj- t l ~ e
Indian disturbances of 1877 and 1878, bmtqbt di-
ter upor1 nuns mining operators. The secretaries of
several coinpanies absconded with the funds, and
l~arnssed by litigation they suspended work, which
bye dthe closing of every other iucor-
act was f o l l ~ ~ ~ rn

prated mine in the Owyhee region In lP80-I: !

I~owet-er,capital g a i n began to seek inrsstment in
the neglected quartz districts, and thus creaed a
revival.
 160 AND -0-JDAEO A ? ?MOLTATA-

The B& great excibment in q m mining took

place in the southern part of Idaho, on the dimvery
of rich ledges on Granite and Bear creeks, about the
middle of 1863, the Ida Elmore being d i m e r e d in
June, on the latter creek, one of t h e headwaters of
the South Bois6. Near this lode fie fDwn of Fred-
exicksburg was laid out. By September thirty-three
gold and silver bearing cIaima had been located on
the south Boid, among which mention may be made
of the Idaho, the rock from which a-jed $2,744 in
guld and $94.86 in silver ; the 0 hir $1,844 in gold
!
and $34.72 in silver, and the Go den Eagle $1,240
gold and $27 silver. The discoveria on Granite
creek equalled tl~osein the muth Boise district, the
Pioneer being the first mine. It waa discovered by
two prospectors named Minear and Lynch,its poorest
rock yielding over $62 to the ton, and tbc richest .1

from $6,000 to $20,000.- The Rocky Bar ledge was

disclosed in 1863, but the town was not laid out until ,
April of the following year. One of the pioneers
was H. Cowstock, famous in oonaedion with the Eode
y h i c h bears his name.
In the Boid basin the principal towns were Ida110
City# called Bannack until 1864, and containinv
6,000 inhabitante, 250 places of busines~,with a
proportion ofbrilliantly furnished gambling saloons, a
hospital, protestant and catholic chnrcbes, and b the
f
end of the pear four theatres. Then followed P acer-
ville with a population of 5,000 and Centelvine with
3,000. Pioneer city had 2 , F O inhabihnta, chiefly
Irish, from which fact it was' someti~nescalled New
Dublin.
Discoveries were extended durin 1864 in various .
directions. On the north &id Beaver C* and
Summit City sprung into existence, and in Silver hill
distrirt the mining towns of Banner and Eureka.
The fimt q u w h miH in the %id basin was erected by
W.W. Raymond, on Granite creek, near Placerville,
and went hto operation with ten stsmps in September
 QUABTZ 161
.*-
-
1864. Qua& mining, indeed, waa retarded by the
ditticulty and expense of bringing mills from tbe far
distant paink where they were obtainable; conae-
quentiy the old f ~ h i e n e darastra was used, of which
there wer.e eighty-four at south Boid, each d i n g
about a tbn a day. The first mill in that district waa
a f i v e h m p one, owned by Carhe, Gatm, and c o n
pny. The m k fmm the Ida Elmore and the Con-
edemte Star was cmahed at this mill, that of the
former yielding $100 a ton, and of the latter $150.
Two enterprising pioneera, Andrewa and Tudor, pur-
*
chaeed in Chicago a twelve-stampmill fobthe Idaho,
which was ready for work la December 1863 ; and
R. B.Farnham, takiig a ton of ore to New York,
formed, on its merits, an m i a t i o n d w j the New
. York and Idaho Gold and SiIver Mining company,
which shipped a thirtygtamp mill to south hid,and .
in 1864 it went into operation.
The ore from some of the Elmha mmpan$s mines
assayed as high aa 6,000ounce4 and averaged seventy
ounces. The Gold Hill, belonging fo ,another oam-
pany, has p d u c e d nearly $3,OQ0,000..
The " lost diggings" of an i m m i p t p t y in 1865,
which lured so many prospectors to the Snake river
hasin, brought a party from PEacerviIle in 1863.
Their explorations resulted in the discovery of t\e .
Owyhee placer $dds, and silver bearing ledges of
marvellou~richness on the lateral streams flowing
into Jordan creek, whither a ruah was made in the
autumn. The first town laid off on Jordan creek wae
RoonviIle ; then followed Ruby City, and Silver City,
the latter being founded in December.
b o n g the several districte in Owyhee, C a m
extended from the summit of War Eagle mountain
westwad; French district waa on the eastern s l o p
of the -me ran , and adjoined by S h l e and Flint
C
districts, while ammoth and Wagontown d istricta
lay west of Silver City. A common yield waa $50
per ton, with frequent rich sttsaka In 188 1the pro-
-*
C. a-xv. u
 18e WXM azPn m a - I D o AND MONTANA

dadon waa or& $300,000, h f t h i ~+on ha red

with othm in the revival then bqnning.
In 1864 the Oro Fino company prepmd to cut a
b e 1 t h r o h Om Fino mountains,-whichwas later
called ~ a r % a g l emountain, Emm the mine a l that
name. Hem was ereded the 6mt quartz mill of the
U w ~ h ~ eregion,
e and here in 1865 the Poormen miue
was dlnco-eered, whose name belied ib re utation, for
!i
t h e ore was the richest known, md capa l e of being
-
lcnt like lead. It was a chloride of ailver, richly
impregnated- wZth gold, and brought fuur d o h an
ounce as it -me from the mine. The &d discovery
was made about 1,000 feet fmm the rich chimney,
which contained the d wealth of the mine, and was
found by C. 8 Beck who kept the matter ~ e c r e tand
,
endeavored ta buy the mine of Hays and Ray, the
ownem. Finding the price iioa high, Peck absented
hirnaeIf,in the hope that his offer would be accepted. '
Meantime another party of prospecbra di~covered,
the rich chimney, located ik, and called it the Poor-
man, k u a a they. were without capital. A oontest
now arose for p m i o n . The Poorman cvmpany
gl.ected a fort at the month of their sbfk,and mount-
ing Borne ordnanm, took oat a q-itity of the rich-
est ore and sent it b Portland, where it caused a
great muation. The pmpeet of p m t m t d litig-
tion in&& the twocompaniea to aell their con tested
claim to P.Bradford and G. C. Robbins, both of
Portland, who worked the mine 'ointly, and gold it ta
a N ~ W~ o company
t a ~ e rtaking out nearly h o
million dollam
P. Callahan, 5
In 1864 1.
-. - pmspector,
to Montana, came e p n large edgea of galenathe
ores 03
W d river, eleven milea above the crosei of the
Boise and Salmon City mad. Eight yean??&= he
returned and 1-bd s claim ; but Indian troubles
interfered d t h operations until 1879,when a m ~ h
set-
in. More than 2,000 claims were then hkm up in
an area of 60 mila quare, and several towns sprang
 up. The ore waa sent b Salt Lake City, where it
yielded from $100 to $500 in silver the duction
works. Rock from the bullionminssasaa ed $ l l , O O o
%
r ton, a d the entire district from elleme t o
Eetcham, a distanee of 18 miles, retorned ~o high an
average yield as to make this belt one of the most
famous in the world. Though only partially worked,
the Bullion p d n c e d in 1883, $250,000. The geolog-
ical formation w m qua&ik, slate, and porphyry. The
ores were galena and carbonates, with antiluony and
copper. Southwest of it lay the Ornamental EilI
district, with the on1 free milling ore in the entire
' silver rogiae The &ayffmer obtained more than
$500.000 from 3,600 tons of ore. On the ea& side of
the W d rive,x mountains was a belt in calcareous
shale, assaying2abonf$75 per ton. The upper W d
river district embmed a valuable p u p of mines with
assays ranging up to $200 per ton, and the Sam Tooth
'
district on tbe ridge dividing thia baain from Salmon =.
river, contained high grade but refractmy ore, --
which cunld only be redaced by roasting. The latter -
was dieeovered in 1 8 7 Y by L.Smiley.
The ~ u c t i o nof the Wood river region 'atesdfiy
increased from $1,250,000 in I881 to $4,000,00I) in
1884, and with a still larger outtnm since then, of
which nearly $1,000,000 came from the Mountain
King and Vienna within .two yeam The Minnie
Moore.waa sold to ao English ~yndicatafar $500,000;
the Mayfiower for two thirds of that spm ; the Mal-'
doon for $125,000;and so on. The smelters number
more than a dozen, with a total capacity af over 500
tons. The concenhting works rather exceed this
capacity The Philadelphia Smelting works, with 9
furnaces and 20 charcoal kilns, are the largest in the

te'?k%&et3 fork district, north of Sslrnoo river,

meived ita im 'tug from the l a t i o n in 1875 of a
vein by W. A Gortoo, which yielded $2,000 per too.
- A number of minea, including the Cnster, were now
z
 opened, which muldbe worked by eaed ~usrrying
meth& Of nearly $1,000,000 worth o b lion writ
h market in 1881, balf was net prdt. Some of the
ore from the Montana netbed $1,300 per ton. The
Ram's Horn vein, the longest known in modern min-
ing, had twentg-four c k 1 q each 1,500 feet in length,
and it aa9ayed 800 ounces of silver per ton. North-
w e a t w ~ r dthe Middle fork district on the Salmon
waa opened in 1881.
On the hdwatens of Snake river was a number
ofdistricm notably the C a r i b , h t diacapsred in
1870 by Babcock and McCoy, and worked as gold ,
placers, from which $251),000 WM annually obbined
' for a decade. Bilk gulch was the centre of opera-
tions, In 1874 Griffitha and Thompson d h v e r e d
qua& which proved very valuable. Adjoining it
were several gold bearing porphyry betta, with fre-
quent outcrops, and amaying as high as $1,200 per
ton.
The I=aau* d' Alhe excitement in 1883 waa a%
- tended by t h e ~ l i & u x o f a d v e n t n r e r s , a n d the
rim of a towrl, -1e City, but, dtbou h a conaidera-
ble amount of coarse .gold was f o u $
eTtation
have not been realized. It baa had the e ect, how-
ever, of giving fresh impulse h aluici operations,
aided by hgdraoIic.apparatue, with w h x fields aoee
abandoned as' exhausted were made to yield further
returns. On Grinrea creek one man known as the
"plawr king" used fifty miles of ditches.
For 1890 the btpl bullion pmducts of 41
ing dietrick was estimated at their coinage value at
the mis-

$1 1,000,000, of which $8,000,000 was in &her, and

$3,CIOO,OOO in gold, together with $7,000,000worth .
'
of ores and b e b~llioh.
Apart from the precione met&, the h&ry ham
an.abundance of iron, c o p p , lead, cod, salt, and sd-
phnr. In Bear lake district copper ores assaying
from 60 to 80 per cent, and galena ores with 78 per
cent of lesd are found ; Litulninous 4 also exista in
 THE HCME OF GOLD. 165

abnndsnce. Near Rmky bar in Altunra and

Challis in Cnster county, imn veins yield from 50 to
60 per cent of pare metal; while in Owyhee county
is the Narmgansett iron mine, the ore la so nearly
pme as to admit of bein cast into dies for
!?
stampmfla T h e Oneida aa t work8 in 1880 p m
duced 1,500,000pounds of a superior quality of salt,
obtained by simply boiling the water of the springs in
galvanized iron p o k On Beer river, st Soda springa,
is a mountain of sulphur, 85 per cent pure ; while in
northern Idaho mica, marble, beautiful p u i t e , and
. sandstone have been d i s c o v e d Idaho ia indeed
extremely rich in minerals, and aa development pro-
gresses, with i n c w facilities of commzmication,
her many resources will be found adequate to the sup-
port of a den= population.
~ o n ' t s baa
n ~ been aptly termed the home o€ gold,
and nodere else ia it found in so grest a diversity of
eological condhiona. It meme to h a ~ ebein manu-
fatwed by nature r e g ~ d e p sof the msterta~at
o f pducts.
in which t o depmit the most p r e c i ~ ~ her
In igueous and metamorphic rwks mimceoue dates,
alluvial drifb, and beds of ferruginaus conglomerates;
in quartz, granite, hornblende, lead, h n , and clay the
precious metal is present. Iron and copper are often
a matrix for it, and a mlution of gold is not nnfre-
quently found in water. Its shape also is aa n i i e d
aa the recepkles which contain it. It is found in
flakes and scalee, and mnnded gt.ains, in nuggete and
i; crystslline and arborewent forma The cube, oda.
hedron, and dodecahedron are not uncummon hrms,
while h u t i f u l filaments of the metal occur in quarh .
lodes. Exemplifying the prodigality. and eccentricity
of natare are found side by aide with it cubes of
_ - - strung on w k of gold, and even t h e rare
gdena
tellurium.
Silver, a h , ia abundant in Montans in dphides,
chlorides of ~arioascolom, and aa antimonial, ruby,
and polybasite. Gems a& frequently found in fha
auriferous dches; the beryl, aquamarine, garnet,
P
c h r p b ey , white top% amethyst, opal. agate, and
mow agate king conkmoa. Of these the amethyd
and moss agate are the m& prfwt, with white, red,
black, and green varieties of the latter.
The d k v e r y of the Alder creek p l a m atha@.d
a multitude of prospectors, who soon overran the
count^ on both aides of the upper Miasouri and ea&
and west of the Rocky mounbina Next in i m p a h
ance to that discoverg was one made in the valley- of
Little Prickly Pear river by John Cow an, a tall, dark
eyed, gray haired Georgian, whose previous ill luck
induced him to name the laat elam which he staked
out the h t Chnnce. In the autumn of 1864 Gown
tonk out of the ground near the site of Helena some
few thoumnda of dollad worth of gold, a n d then r s
turned to his natiia data But hundreds of miners
flocked h Last Chance gulch, and in October of the
same ear Helena, the future capital of the -tory,
P
wm omded.
Other discoveries followed rapidly# and for a db
tance of 150 miles north and south of Helene, and
100 miles east and west, mines of great richn.ms were
-
discovered in 1865-66. In the autumn of the latter
year a four-mule team drew two and s half tons of
gold h m Helena to Fort 13arten, d u d at $1,500,-
OW. The tmin was escorkd by J. X Beidles and
his aida
John It Beidler waa deputy United States mar-
Bhal, as well as coII&r of customs, for the district of
Montana and Idaho, and waa also colonel in the hr-
ribrial miIitia. He was an oEcer whose wtivity,
endumncs q a c i t y , and quicknem with the pistol
made him the terror of evil doera In other respects
be was a man of infinite j e d , and waa a favorite with
all except law breakem. When not d r e d and w-
coutred for the r o d , eithcr as emmd to a train or in
purauit of some malefactor, he waa somewhat foppieh
 in hia attire. Ee h d a sobripvet which was imply
-the- letter X,and the l d newspapers n o t i d the
rrlovementa of X ea frequently in connection with the
arresta of criminal8 aa to cause the journal^ of other
Iwlities 6,take it for pnted that the-letter was a
cabal istie ' for a viplance commihhe. Tbere is na -
doubt t h a t x d e x was at times in the memip6f that
lwgue, but for all that he waa an officer of the r e p
lar courts. By his e~ertionsmrne thirty of the most
lawless men the continent could produce were b u g l i t
t o the pllows, -snd the a m t e which he made could
be counted by hundreds.
Quartz ledges were dimvemd in the Eannaek dis-
" trict, as were its p1acei.a in 1862, and the first one
worked wae the Dakota, the m e m of which. Arnold
and-Allen, f ~ h i o n e daix stamp weighin 400 pounds
f
on a common blacksmith's forge out o old wagon
tirea The mill was run by water power. The firat
s b m quartra mill was erected in Bannack in 1863 by
a man named Him ICrlL. '

But what led to the q d z p-ing excitement,

w y the discovery of tbe h m o u Wbalatcb mine.
In September IF64, Jamea W.Whitlatch of Penn-
sylvania, went to Prickly Pear valley in search of a
.
quartz mine. He had learned the pmesa of milling
ores in - N e d ,and h d already p m p t e d in several
districts without sncceas. After failing in an sttempt
to smelt ailver-besrin d e n a , he bekwk himwlf, with
eight companions, to k t CChnnce gulch, there to pasa
t h e winter. He wm'a man of little h k laming,
but of great ehrewdnesa and indomitable will. The
placers were paying enormoudy, and he began seamh-
ing for the veins. His cbrnpnions having little faith '

in his theary that qua* wes the mother of placer

gold, bound him to an agreement that if no diseovey
were made by a certain day, he would sbawbn his
-8~arch. The pppoinhd day wwas already drawing ta
a rlme; and hls co~uradeshad returned to amp.when
Whitlakh picked up a fragment of q&, whiih, orr.
188 M l l m 3 AND MININLIDAHO AND MONTANA.

being broken,. show$ free gold. With beating heart

he drove his pick into the earth, and uncovered the
long-sought lode. A+mpany was formed, called t l ~ e
Whitlatcb Union Mining company, and before the
close of 1867 about 32,000 tons of ore w6re milled,
yielding over $1,000,000 ;but on account of the. great
cost of mining and millin ores in Montana at that
time, the profits were sma? I.
After this discovery quartz prospecting was prose-
cuted in all parts of the territory, and many rich mines
were developed, both of gold and silver. The first
'experiments in silver mining were conducted iu the
Blue Wing and Rattlesnake districts, east and north-
east of Bannack. The or& .which carried galena,
could only be reduced by the smelting process, and
furnaces were built in 1866 by several companies, the
first smelter beiig erected a t Marysville. Such was.
the beginniu 9f silver mining, and then followed '
f
prospecting or silver lodes 'which were found in
abundance, notably in the county about the three '
forks of the M i s s 0 6 and for one hundred miles on
both sides of that river. By January 1868 there
were forty ,quartz mills in the territoq, all in full
operation.
everth he less it began to be observed that Montana .
was not advabcin in wealth proportionately to' her
resources, 1pdee8, her condition from 1869 to 1873
was one of comparative poverty. Nor is it difficult to
account for thb anomaly. For years a contjnuous
.stream of gold was leaving the country, borne tllerc-
from by those who had gathered it, and who now bid '
farewell to %he land where they bad rnada their for-
tunes, never for the most part to return. Thus pop
ulatipn rapidly decreased, and while each year it ' '

bedme more dScult to dig up fortunes in the gulches

and creek-bede, the discoveries of new mining districts
in Nevada, Colorado, and Wyomin drew away a
7
further nurnber, so that by 1875 on y about 18,000
were left of the.30,000 or 40,000 peaple who flocked
 CHARA- OF ORE. 169

into M-&tarn in earlier yeara Bat this period of

depression did not discourage those who remained.
Some engaged in agriculture, others who owned quartz
mines which were unremunerative by reason of inex-
perience or defective machinery, took time to correct
their errors ; while those who had placer claims set
about constructing ditches and flumes, in order, t o
work+thedry creek-beds and gulches. Thus an era
. - of comparative poverty opened the door to permanent
improvements, and the fierce, spasmodic activity of
earlier days gave place to steady and permanent
development.
During the period 1870-77, there was an enormoua
decrease in the production of the precious metals, the 4
cause of which has just been explained, the total yield
being $45,550,000, against $101,600,000 in the eight
preceding'yeara Tn 1878, however, a reaction set
in, and a steady increase in the yield is observable,
that of silver being largely in excess of gold. For
1890 the product of both metals .was valued a t nearly
$20,000,000, of which more than three-fourths was in
silver. w e the territory contains all that is
needed for a large production of the precious metals,
rich, varied, and plentiful deposits of ore, with abund-
ance of fuel, mainly thfou h lack of capital and facili-
ties for transportation, % ontana has not as yet
attained to the rank to which she is destined 'as a .
mining region. Not least among the sources of
wealth, are her gravel deposits, the output of which
for the year ending, with May 1880, was estimated a t
$1,162,000.
A s a rule the ores of Montana are easily.wbrked, the
presence of lead or copper siulplifying the process of
reduction. I n general, her galena ores do not differ
. much in charader from those of Utah, Colorado,
e a e r n Nevada, and Idahg. Copper lodes are abun-
dant, and are found near Butte, a t White Sulphur
springs, in the Musselshell country, and elsewhere.
Iron occurs in a great number of places, and in Deer . .
Lodge county there is an iron mountain four times
larger than the well known deposita in Miesouri.
Fine marbles, excellent building stone, h c l a y , zinc,
and coal are grouped together in-Montsnii in a
remarkable manner ; nor are there lacking, after the'
precious met& shall have been exhausted, any of the
- -
requisites 'for a more permanent and progrespive civil- ,
ization. . .
An m y office was opeked by the United. Statee
at Helena in 1879. Congress having enacted that
the secretary of the t r w u r y might appoint the
assayer, an assistant-treasurer, with permission 'to
receive gold coin and bullion on deposit, the establisli-
ruent of thie office in Montana was a rest relief'to
f
the mineis, who had previously been o liged to send
the& bullion &st a t exorbitant charges.
For the decade ending with 1890 the output of
Montana in gold, silver, copper, and lead was &ti-
mated a t $250,000,000, of which about $l70,000,00'o
was in the precious metals and $80,000,000 in base
metals, nearly one-third of the,total being disbursed
in dividends. Butte county took the yield in volume
2f production, representing nearly one-hdf of the en-
entire yield. I n 1890 Mmhna could boast of the
largest copper mine, the largest gold miue, and the
largest silver mine in the United Statea These were
the Anaconda, the Drum-Lummon, and the Granite
Mountain,-the last paying $200,000 a month to its
stockholdera