Interesting Mining and desires of Rock Creek

Numerous mining claims were staked around the Rock Creek and Basin Gulch area with newspaper references made to claims such as in the August 21, 1896, Mail: “The report of another rich placer section in Granite County reaches the Mail. It is located near the famous Quartz Gulch and the Miller brothers of Parkerville are the lucky discoverers. (It is) called Montgomery Gulch and runs at right angles with Quartz gulch, in which the famous Eureka and other rich placer properties are located. The two gulches almost meet at the top of the mountain and have their termination in Rock Creek… There is no use of anyone stampeding there, however, as we are informed the ground of the entire gulch is already staked. 

Always believing that the next claim would be the big one, news was upbeat, such as The Mail, July 1, 1898: “Work has been commenced on the Antelope road which will be put into shape by the county as rapidly as possible. James McGeeney hauled four men and the necessary camp outfit out there Tuesday and reports say there will be a large number of men put to work on the road and also constructing the branch road up to the properties recently purchased by James A. Murray, the Butte Millionaire and Frank D. Brown, the Philipsburg mining man. Mr. Brown states that as soon as the road is built work will begin on the stamp and leaching process which it is contemplated to erect on the property. The road as it has been was in such a condition to make it impossible to haul machinery over it except at a big expense and Mr. Brown stated that the plant would never be built until the road was constructed. County surveyor Cralle now has the matter in hand and it may be depended upon that when finished it will be a credit to the county.” How does a millionaire and a newsman/politician got a county road developed on a promise of plants that I found no evidence of ever being completed? 

In the Mail, March 25, 1904, claims owned by James and William Schoonover and William Smith were bonded for $15,000. The bond covered the Tornado, Yellow Jacket, Cabin Home and Amended Iowa Boys Claims, situated on Rock Creek between Antelope Gulch and Sluice Gulch. Considerable development work had been done on several of the claims. Messrs. Hughes and Crowley, recently employed at the Henderson mines were experienced, practical miners. J.B. Hand a millwright from Ann Arbor, Michigan was supervising the erection of a twenty-stamp quartz mill for the Crescent Gold Mining Company on Stony Creek. The article in the Mail on November 5, 1909 stated Mr. Hand hoped to get the mill construction ready before winter weather set in so the workers could continue processing during the winter months. At the time of the article several teams were still busy hauling machinery into Stony Creek. The Company owned a group of eleven claims which they had been developing for the past ten years. An air compressor was installed some years prior and power drills had advanced the ability to drill tunnels. A large crosscut tunnel had been developed but so far had not reached the ore shown in the upper workings of the claim. The news article stated that according to F. Wagner: “…the ore occurs in a large porphyry dyke. The country rock east of the dyke is slate. The vein is a true fissure five feet wide and carries average values at $14 per ton in gold. The ore is free milling. Some of the ore in the upper digging runs as high as $100 per ton, in the Red Top claim near the top of the mountain and a road would need to be built to get the ore down to the mill. 

By July 10, 1914 the tunnels were being replaced by placer mining. David T. Conkling had moved his drilling equipment to Stony creek where they were drilling to bedrock for the purpose of prospecting for placer gold. Richard Stingle mined this area for several seasons but had never mined the bedrock. Herman Kaiser also mined about forty claims along the course of the creek. The project was to tunnel north of the Wyman place and cut through the hogback extending down into the Wyman place and into the channel of Stony Creek. “The project was abandoned, principally on account of the shortage of funds.” If this dream had came to fruition the Stony Creek gulch would look a lot different in this day and age. The fishing certainly would not be as it is, let alone the beautiful hillsides of wild flowers.

Because water was a valuable asset Rock Creek was eyed by more than just Granite county as shown by the following headlines in the Mail on May 27, 1904: “TO CONSTRUCT BIG DITCH. Water from Rock Creek to be utilized in operating Bitter Root Placer Mines. The Stevensville Correspondent of the Butte Miner says that it is stated on good authority that a big ditch will be built this season from Rock Creek to the Three Mile Placer mines near Stevensville in the Bitter Root valley. The ditch will be a long one and will cost many thousands of dollars. Much lumber will be required in building flumes along the mountain side and across ravines. It is the intention of the promoters of the enterprise to have a portable sawmill accompany the construction crew and to saw the lumber near the point where needed. It is expected that the ditch will be used as fast as completed in floating the lumber to the point of operations.” Obviously this was another dream that fortunately never transpired. The issue of water rights had to have been quickly brought up when the news was published. I found no other articles pertaining to this item. 

I know from reading “The Bitterroot Trails”, that cattle were brought over the Bitter Root Pass (also known as the Bitterroot Direct Trail) to pasture during the summer in Stony Creek. The route started in the valley at Burnt Fork over the Sapphire Mountains and along the Alder Ridge then zigzagged down to Rock Creek. This, plus the fact numerous families who homesteaded in the Bitter Root were originally from Philipsburg probably created an idea that they were of one people, rather than two different counties. 

As late as 1917 the 25 mile trek was being used by newly weds Clarence and Thelma Hamm to transport their belongings to a new home. Dr. Prince from Stevensville followed that same trail to deliver their son that November. the story goes that the father was known for his sense of humor and told the Doctor that since his son was born in a tent he should have an Indian name. years later when “Snook” went into the military he found out his birth certificate had his name as Hiawatha. it was then legally changed to Clarence H. Hamm Jr. 

On August 21, 1908 in the Mail there was even talk of a railroad cut off going down Rock Creek. “During the past several weeks rumors have been frequent that the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad is again considering the Rock Creek cut-off between Butte and Missoula. The route has been surveyed several times and is said to be 26 miles shorter than by way of Deer Lodge and Drummond, but the grade is considerably heavier. Possibilities of electric power along Rock Creek, however, is a factor which the railroad people have not lost sight of. It is the purpose of the Milwaukee Road to use this natural power where ever available and along the St. Joe River in Idaho work has been in progress for some time for a series of dams and power stations which are to supply the power for moving the trains over the Idaho division through the tunnel at Taft into Montana….that Rock creek is capable of developing all the electric power the railroad would ever need over this cut-off is a well known fact. Between Eagle Canyon and Bonita any number of power stations might be installed without even inconveniencing anyone. The long canyon for approximately forty miles is practically without a settler and no damage would result by damming the stream. Electricity is the power of the immediate future and wherever nature’s forces can be made to supply it the problem of cheap power is solved…. “ 

A similar conversation was discussed in 1937 when the East Fork Dam was being explored and people felt that Eagle Canyon would be the natural spot to place a dam. My visualization of this would be my brother “Corky” ice fishing this winter over a spot where East Fork and Middle Fork originally merged and the Spud Mountains and the west side of Mungas Hill being little knobs sticking out like Piney Point does at Georgetown Lake. Maybe the (unknown name) Lake would be so large that it enveloped Moose Lake also. Granite County is so fortunate that Rock Creek was preserved and none of these idea’s materialized.