Gold was first discovered in what is now known as Montana by Francois Findlay, better known as Be-net-see, a French half-breed, in 1852. He had been one of the early miners in California, having gone there from his home in the Red River country soon after Marshall’s discovery. At this time, however, he was engaged in trapping for furs and trading with the Indians. While travelling along the border of Gold Creek he was induced by certain indications to search for gold, which he found in the gravelly bed of the stream.

Intelligence of this discovery was given to a party of miners who were on their return from California to the States in 1857, and they immediately resolved to visit the creek and spend a winter there in prospecting. James and Granville Stuart and Resin Anderson, since known as prominent citizens of Montana, were of this party, and I insert here as an interesting bit of early history the narrative which Granville Stuart has since furnished of the discovery then made by them:

“We accordingly wintered on the Big Hole River just above what is known as the Backbone, in company with Robert Dempsey, Jake Meeks, Robert Hereford, Thomas Adams, John W. Powell, John M. Jacobs, and a few others. In the Spring of 1858 we went over into the Hell Gate valley, and prospected a little on Benetsee’s or Gold Creek. We got gold everywhere, in some instances as high as ten cents to the pan, but, having nothing to eat save what our rifles furnished us, and no tools to work with (Salt Lake City, nearly six hundred miles distant, being the nearest point at which they could be obtained), and as the accursed Blackfeet Indians were continually stealing our horses, we soon quit prospecting in disgust without having found anything very rich, or done anything to enable us to form a reliable estimate of the richness of the mines.

“We then went out on the road near Fort Bridger, Utah Territory, where we remained until the Fall of 1860. In the Summer of that year a solitary individual named Henry Thomas, better known to the pioneers of Montana, however, as ‘Gold Tom’ or ‘Tom Gold Digger,’ who had been sluicing on the Pend d’Oreille River, came up to Gold Creek and commenced prospecting. He finally hewed out two or three small sluice boxes and commenced work on the creek up near the mountains. He made from one to two dollars a day in rather rough, coarse gold, some of the pieces weighing as high as two dollars.

“After spending a few weeks there, he concluded that he could find better diggings, and about the time that we returned to Deer Lodge (in 1860), he quit sluicing and went to prospecting all over the country. His favorite camping ground was about the Hot Springs, near where Helena now stands. He always maintained that that was a good mining region, saying that he had got better prospects there than on Gold Creek. He told me after ‘Last Chance,’ ‘Grizzly,’ ‘Oro Fino,’ and the other rich gulches of that vicinity had been struck, that he had prospected all about there, but it was not his luck to strike any of those big things.

“About the twenty-ninth of April, 1862, P. W. McAdow, who, in company with A. S. Blake and Dr. Atkinson (both citizens of Montana), had been prospecting with but limited success in a small ravine which empties into Pioneer Creek, moved up to Gold Creek and commenced prospecting about there. About the tenth of May they found diggings in what we afterwards called Pioneer Creek. They got as high as twenty cents to the pan, and immediately began to prepare for extensive operations. At this time ‘Tom Gold Digger’ was prospecting on Cottonwood Creek, a short distance above where the flourishing burgh of Deer Lodge City now stands, but finding nothing satisfactory, he soon moved down and opened a claim above those of McAdow & Co. In the meantime we had set twelve joints of 12 × 14 sluices, this being the first string of regular sluices ever set in the Rocky Mountains north of Colorado.

“On the twenty-fifth of June, 1862, news reached us that four steamboats had arrived at Fort Benton loaded with emigrants, provisions, and mining tools, and on the twenty-ninth Samuel T. Hauser, Frank Louthen, Jake Monthe, and a man named Ault, who were the advance guard of the pilgrims to report upon the country from personal observation, came into our camp. After prospecting on Gold Creek for a few days, Hauser, Louthen, and Ault started for the Salmon River mines by way of the Bitter Root Valley. Jake Monthe, that harum-scarum Dutchman who wore the hat that General Lyon had on when he was killed in the battle of Wilson’s Creek, continued prospecting along Gold Creek.

“Walter B. Dance and Colonel Hunkins arrived on the tenth of July, and on the fourteenth we had the first election ever held in the country. It was marked by great excitement, but nobody was hurt—except by whiskey.

“On the fifteenth, Jack Mendenhall, with several companions, arrived at Gold Creek from Salt Lake City. They set out for the Salmon River mines, but having reached Lemhi, the site of a Mormon fort and the most northern settlement of the ‘Saints,’ they could proceed no farther in the direction of Florence owing to the impassable condition of the roads, so they cached their wagons, packed their goods on the best conditioned of their oxen, and turned off for Gold Creek. They lost their way and wandered about until nearly starved, when they fortunately found an Indian guide, who piloted them through to the diggings. On the twenty-fifth Hauser and his party, having failed to reach Florence, also returned nearly starved to death.”

The leading men among this little band of pioneers were admirably qualified to grapple with the varied difficulties and dangers incident to their exposed situation. The brothers Stuart, Samuel T. Hauser, and Walter B. Dance were among the most enterprising and intelligent citizens of Montana, and to the direction which they, by their prudence and counsel, gave to public sentiment, when with twenty or thirty others, they organized the first mining camp in what is now Montana, was the Territory afterwards indebted for the predominance of those principles which saved the people from the bloody rule of assassins, robbers, and wholesale murderers. They were men bred in the hard school of labor. They brought their business habits and maxims with them, and put them rigidly into practice. Having heard of the lawlessness which characterized the Salmon River camps, and of the expulsions which had taken place there, they were on the alert for every suspicious arrival from that direction.

On the twenty-fifth of August, William Arnett, C. W. Spillman, and B. F. Jernigan arrived at Gold Creek from Elk City. They opened the first gambling establishment in Montana and satisfied the good people of Gold Creek before the close of their first day’s residence that they were the advance guard of the outcasts of Salmon River. Victims flocked around them in encouraging numbers. The highway of villainy seemed to stretch out before them with flattering promise. Four days had elapsed since their arrival. The little society was fearfully demoralized, and whiskey and dice ruled the hour, when the Nemesis appeared. Two men, Fox and Bull, came in pursuit of the gamblers for horse-stealing. Creeping upon them while busy at play, the first notice the poor wretches had of their approach was to find themselves covered with double-barrelled guns which were instantly discharged. Arnett fell, riddled with bullets. Fox’s gun missed fire. Jernigan threw up his hands, and he and Spillman were arrested without resistance. Arnett died with a death clutch of his cards in one hand and revolver in the other, and was so buried.

The next day Jernigan and Spillman were fairly tried by a jury of twenty-four miners. The former was acquitted, the latter sentenced to be hung, which sentence was executed in the afternoon of the following day. This was the first expression of Vigilante justice in that portion of the Northwest which afterwards became Montana. Mr. Stuart says, “Spillman was either a man of a lion heart or a hardened villain, for he died absolutely fearless. After receiving his sentence, he wrote a letter to his father with a firm, bold hand that never trembled, and walked to his death as unto a bridal.”

The news of the discovery of the Oro Fino and Florence mines was received at Denver in the Winter of 1861–62, and caused a perfect fever of excitement. Colonel McLean, Washington Stapleton, Dr. Glick, Dr. Leavitt, Major Brookie, H. P. A. Smith, Judge Clancy, Edward Bissell, Columbus Post, Mark Post, and others, all left early in the Spring, taking the route by the overland road, from which they intended to diverge into the northern wilderness at some point near Fort Bridger. Another party under the leadership of Captain Jack Russell left soon after, going by the way of the Sweetwater trail, South Pass, and the Bridger cut-off.

My readers who have never seen the plains, rivers, caÑons, rocks, and mountains of the portion of our country travelled by these companies, can form but a faint idea from any description given by them of the innumerable and formidable difficulties with which every mile of this weary march was encumbered. History has assigned a foremost place among its glorified deeds to the passage of the Alps by Napoleon, and to the long and discouraging march of the French army under the same great conqueror to Russia. If it be not invidious to compare small things with great, we may assuredly claim for these early pioneers greater conquests over nature on their journey through the northwestern wilderness than were made by either of the great military expeditions of Napoleon. In addition to natural obstacles equally formidable and of continual occurrence for more than a thousand miles, their route lay through an unexplored region, beset by hostile Indians, bristling with mountain peaks, pierced with large streams, and unmarked with a single line of civilization. Their cattle and horses were obliged to subsist upon the scanty herbage which put forth in early spring. Swollen by the melting snows of the mountains, the streams, fordable in midsummer, could now be crossed only by boats, and frequently the passage of a single creek consumed a week of time. Seeking for passes around and through the ranges, ascending them when no such conveniences could be found, passing through caÑons, and clambering rocks, filled the path of empire through western America with discouragement and disaster.

Several of these companies were obliged to wait the subsidence of the waters at the crossing of Smith’s fork of Bear River. While thus delayed, more than a hundred teams, comprising three or four trains, all bound for the new gold regions, arrived. Some of the companies were composed entirely of “pilgrims,” a designation given by mountain people to newcomers from the States. Michaud Le Clair, a French fur-trader and mountaineer of forty years’ experience, had, in company with two others, built a toll bridge across the fork in anticipation of a large spring emigration; but a party arriving in advance of this present crowd, exasperated at the depth of the mud at the end of the bridge, burned it. Russell proposed to build another, but the pilgrims, having no faith in his skill, refused to assist. Russell completed the job on his own account, and charged the pilgrims one dollar each for crossing, and then offered to release his interest in the bridge for twenty-five dollars. Le Clair, thinking that Russell would go on with his company, refused the offer. Russell, Brown, and Warner sent their train ahead, remaining at the bridge to receive tolls. Several trains passed during the two succeeding days, greatly to the annoyance of Le Clair and his comrades. They attempted to retaliate by cutting the lariats of the horses while tethered for the night; and when they found that the animals did not stray far from camp, they sent the savages down to frighten Russell and his men. But they were old mountaineers, and felt no alarm. On the third day a much larger number of wagons crossed than on both the preceding days. The Frenchman, tired of expedients and satisfied that money could be made by paying Russell the price he demanded for the bridge, sent for him, and, after considerable negotiation, gave him the twenty-five dollars and a silver watch. The bridge temporarily erected by Russell was used as a toll bridge the following year, but it required very careful usage to prevent it from falling to pieces. The proprietors, fearful of accident, finally posted up the following placard, as a warning to travellers that heavily laden wagons would not be permitted to meet upon the bridge:

Le Clair also advised Russell against a prosecution of his journey to the Salmon River region, assuring him that from long familiarity with the country, he knew he could not complete it in safety. The season was too far advanced and the streams were higher than usual. He then told him as a secret that there was gold at Deer Lodge and on the Beaverhead. The Indians had often found it there, and if gold was his object, he could find no better country than either of these localities for prospecting.

“I have been,” said he, “boy and man, forty years in this region, and there is no part of it that I have not often visited. You will find my advice correct.”

Russell placed great confidence in what Le Clair said. Hastening on, he overtook his companions, and they proceeded to Snake River near Fort Hall, an old post of the Northwestern Fur Company. Here they fell in with McLean’s train, which, as we have seen, left Denver a few days before they did, and travelled by another route. One of this latter company, Columbus Post, was drowned while attempting to cross the river in a poorly constructed boat, made out of a wagon-box. Russell found an old ferry-boat near the fort, which the men repaired to answer the purpose of crossing their trains, and they proceeded on through the dreary desert of mountains and rock in the direction of the Salmon River. Superadded to the difficulties of travelling over a rough volcanic region, they were now, for successive days, until they left the valley of the Snake, attacked by the Bannack Indians, and their horses were nightly exposed to capture by them. After many days of adventurous travel, the whole party, with a great number of pilgrims, arrived in safety at Fort Lemhi. Here they found themselves hemmed in by the Salmon River range, a lofty escarpment of ridges and rocks presenting an insurmountable barrier to further progress with wagons. They had yet to go several hundred miles before reaching the gold regions. A large number, more than a thousand in all, were now congregated in this desolate basin. They at once set to work to manufacture pack-saddles and other gear necessary to the completion of their journey. As time wore on, the prospect of being able to do so before cold weather set in became daily more discouraging. At length a meeting was called to consider the situation of affairs, and if possible, to devise and adopt measures of relief.

Russell repeated to the assemblage the information he had received from Le Clair, expressing his belief that it was true, and recommended as a choice of evils that they should turn aside, and go to Deer Lodge and Beaverhead, rather than attempt a journey down the Salmon to the Florence mines, through a country of which their best information was disheartening in the extreme. Several members of the Colorado companies spoke of having seen letters from James and Granville Stuart in which the discovery of promising gold placers in Deer Lodge was mentioned; but the pilgrims thought the information too indefinite, and concluded to risk the journey down the river. The Colorado men, most of whom were experienced miners, determined at once to retrace their way to Deer Lodge and Beaverhead, and risk the chance of making new discoveries, if the information given by the Stuarts and Le Clair should not prove true. At the crossing of the Beaverhead, Russell found five cents in gold to the pan, and picked up pieces of quartz containing free gold.

In the meantime, John White and a small party of prospectors had discovered the gold placer in the caÑon of Grasshopper Creek which afterwards became Bannack. When the companies of McLean and Russell arrived there, their stock of provisions was nearly exhausted. They went to Deer Lodge, hoping to find a more promising field, and some of them visited the placers on Gold Creek, Pioneer, and at Pike’s Peak Gulch, none of which were equal in richness and extent to the one they had left behind them. They returned to Grasshopper. No provisions having arrived in the country, most of them decided to attempt a return to Salt Lake City. The chance of making a journey of four hundred miles to the nearest Mormon settlements was preferable to starvation in this desolate region. They could but die in the effort, and might succeed. After they had started on this Utopian journey, Russell mounted his horse, followed them, and persuaded them to return. They then set to work in good earnest and found gold in abundance; but, with the fortune of Midas, as their scanty supply of food lessened daily, they feared soon to share his fate also, and have nothing but gold to eat. Just at this crisis, however, their Pactolus appeared in the shape of a large train of provisions belonging to Mr. Woodmansee, and all fear of starvation vanished. The step between the extremes of misery and happiness was, in this case, very short. The camp was hilarious with joy and mirth.

Upon the opening of Spring, Russell left Grasshopper on his return to Colorado, where he arrived in safety after encountering dangers enough to fill a moderate volume. For two days, while passing through Marsh Valley, he was pursued by Indians, barely escaping being shot and scalped. His courage was often put to the strongest tests. At Wood River, twenty miles from Fort Lemhi, the Bannack Indians offered him money in large amounts for fire-arms and ammunition. They stole a pistol from him. Accompanied by one Gibson, he went to their camp and recovered it. Some of them were dressed in the apparel of women whom they had murdered, and whose bodies they had concealed in the fissures of the lava beds on Snake River. More than two hundred emigrants had been killed by these wretches the preceding Summer.

Russell exhibited specimens of the gold taken from the “Grasshopper diggings,” to his friends in Colorado. The excitement it occasioned was intense, and when the Spring of 1863 opened, large numbers left for the new and promising El Dorado.

In the Fall of 1862 there stood, on the bank at the confluence of Rattlesnake Creek and the Beaverhead River, a sign-post with a rough-hewn board nailed across the top, with the following intelligence daubed with wagon-tar thereon:

On the other side of the board was the following:

The “grass Hop Per digins” are at the town of Bannack; and the city of Deer Lodge is built on “jonni grants” ranche.