City Without Night

Upper Left: Miner's Union Hall; Lower Left: Granite Mining Co. Hoist; Center: Main Street June 9, 1891; Upper Right: The Moore House, H.T. Cumming Prop.; Lower Right: Bi-Metallic Mine. ( Views of Granite, Philipsburg and Vicinity, Chas. Weitfle)

In my personal library is a bright orange seven page booklet titled “City Without Night: nothing ever closed; nothing ever stopped in Granite, Montana.” Authored by T.J. Kerttula and available only at “Doe’s Rexall Drug”, the publisher James G. Paul Pharmacist-Owner of Doe’s gives credit to Mr.Kertula (sic), Mary Sanders Editor of True West Magazine and Virginia Hansen of Philipsburg on the back page. This page has a map of the area and tourist attractions such as the Sapphire Mines, East Fork Dam, Seven Gables and Georgetown Lake. 

The booklet contains a number of black and white pictures and etchings of the area and details the beginning of Granite with a few stories describing the residents. Unfortunately there is no publication date, although the author does state he first visited Granite in 1938. The internet gives the publication date as 1988. 

Kerrtula, began with this opening: 

They called Granite the Silver queen but to me she is the City in the Sky. Perched high on an out-jutting ridge of Granite Mountain, she overlooked the broad upper reaches of Flint Creek valley and literally down the chimneys of her sister town, Philipsburg, at the foot of the mountain, some 1500 feet (in elevation) below. At the approach to Philipsburg’s main street one can look up, way way up, and pick out a tan scar high on the mountain. That is the dump of Montana’s fabulous Granite Mountain Mine. Less frequently she was also called the City without Night. The mines operated around the clock and business houses stayed open to accommodate the miners. You could buy a hat as easily at 3am as 3pm. Granite was rich, fabulously rich, as attested by McLure’s records. From 1882 to 1893 she produced some $45 millions in silver before the panic of ’93 reduced her almost to a ghost town…Granite was one of the most pleasant mining camps in which to live. The first workers were lodged in huge boarding houses. Then the Company began leasing building lots for $2.50 and log cabins, frame houses, and business buildings soon spilled down both sides of the ridge. The first business house constructed was a three-story hotel, The Moore House, by H.T. Cumming. It’s first two floors were elaborately finished in hand-carved black walnut. It was as proud of being the first three-story building in the area as it was of its tables, topped with Tennessee marble.

 Excerpts from H.T. Cumming’s Diary show that Hugh leased the already built Moore Hotel some time after he arrived in March of 1889 and did not try buying the Hotel until “9/11/1891 “Bargaining for the Moore Hotel; it costs a lot of money.” 

 Kerrtula continues on describing 

wages were $4.00 a day for the mill-men and $3.00 for the miners. For a dollar a month either could enjoy the company operated bath—reading room located at the Granite Mine. The bath-house contained a 16 x 16’ steam heated plunge and adjoining it was a reading room well stocked with current newspapers and periodicals, some of which were in foreign languages. The Company also operated a small hospital directly downhill from the Mine in what was known as the Sunnyside district. It was probably so named because facing west it received the late afternoon sun for hours after Main Street was in shadow. Five doctors-Dickson, Hall, Schley, Pleasant and Power—practiced in Granite and at times were very busy, but not from the most common disease of boom camps—lead poisoning. In spite of the eighteen saloons, old timers insist that Granite wasn’t any wilder than a town of the same size today. They do hedge a bit with the story of the man who, exhilarated by firewater, ground out the marshal’s eye with his boot heel. Hardly had the town started, in 1884, when black diphtheria struck hard. At least thirty-five children and a large but unknown number of adults, died. Typical, perhaps, is the story of Mrs. John Hickey who came to Granite to live in the first family house constructed there. Of her four children only one survived and during the time her hair turned white. But after the death of her children, Mammo, as Granite affectionately called her, became a familiar sight as she went from home to home helping nurse other sick children.

 Jane O’Neil Hickey is the paternal great-great grandmother of my children. The children who died were Sadie May 17, 1885; Liddie on May 21 and Alice on May 28. Anna Armina (Minnie) age eight months survived when great grandma (Margaret) in desperation stuck her finger down the babies throat and pulled out the diphtheria membrane. 

Granite was run on steam engines which created more jobs for cutting and hauling wood than working in the mines. Because of the terrain the use of wagons was impossible so the wood was cut into lengths of four feet and packed into town by mules. These long mule trains were observed at all hours bringing wood into the camp. This endeavor was individually operated but the town water was a company business. Brought from Fred Burr Lake, the water traveled a wooden flume and was then stored in a large wooden tank near Granite Mine. Water wagons then hauled this water to people who subscribed for service. The daily ration was twenty gallons and on wash and bath days they were given an extra allowance. Often a fish from the lake arrived in the delivery barrel. 

Popular entertainment sites in Granite included the roller-skating rink between the Bi-Metallic and the hospital. This was often the scene of costume parties and sporting events such as boxing matches. In 1889 the match featured “Big Fish” Dan McLeod (U.S. Deputy Marshall in Granite) versus Frank Freeman of Butte. Butte bet Freeman would beat the Marshall in six rounds. Unfortunately Big Fish “got it” in the third round and “that night Granite was a silver-less silver camp. It all went to Butte the copper camp.” In the winter the entertainment was skating parties on the ice pond and fast bobsled rides down the hill to Philipsburg. Considering the road, “the rate of speed was terrific.” Arriving at the bottom they hooked onto the first passing freighter and were pulled back up the mountain. Many county elders remember the Miner’s Union Hall still standing when they were youngsters.

One of the highlights of celebration in Granite was the Miners Union Day celebrated on June 13. Kerttula in “City Without Night” describes it thusly: “ The celebration started early and ended with an all night dance in the open air pavilion at the ball park a mile or so out of town. Ball games, foot races, beauty contests, tug of war and drilling contests were some of the main events. To the drilling contest some of the other camps often sent teams. The outcome frequently resulted in swinging that had nothing to do with drilling. 

One irked Butte team accused the Granite blacksmith of dulling their steel instead of sharpening it, which Granite resented to the man, and that Miners Union day went down in history as one of the most exciting. On the basis of skill, stamina and coordination a drilling contest was something to watch. A team usually consisted of two men—one who held the steel and the other who swung the hammer. The drill was round or octagon steel, about an inch in diameter, flattened and sharpened on one end. One man knelt beside the rock, holding the drill while the other drove it with a heavy sledge hammer. He put all of his power into these blows and they had to be precisely placed or he would crush his partner’s hands. Timing was equally important, but between the blows the holder had to turn the steel and periodically pour water into the hole to cool the drill and wash out the dust and chips. They started with a short steel and as the hole progressed the holder kept changing to longer ones in between blows without interfering with his partner’s timing. As one man tired they would change places so fast there was never a pause in the rhythmic clang of steel on steel. 

Next in interest was the tug of war between teams from the Granite and Bi-Metallic Mines. One such contest in 1892 lasted two and one-half hours and would have continued but the Granite anchorman fainted from the heat, and Bi-Metallic won. That match caused so much bitterness between the two mines that a rematch was scheduled for the fourth of July celebration. This time Granite had a new anchorman, who plopped himself into a saddle and dallied the rope around the saddle horn and dug his heels into the dirt of the ball park. That contest ended in a draw and the feud was over. Presumably the two teams split the $500 prize money. Many claim the new anchorman was Strangler Lewis of wrestling fame. Others contend it wasn’t Strangler; just his kid brother. 

The main foot race was a man killing dash up the steep rocky face of Granite Mountain to the top and back, a distance of about a mile and a half each way. The prizes were $50, $25, and $15 for the first three. The winner of the beauty or popularity contest got a gold-cased watch set with diamonds and properly inscribed.”