GRANVILLE STUART
Who set the first sluices in Montana
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:
NOTIS
No Vehacle draWn by moaR than one anamile is alloud to croS this BRidg in oPposit direxions at the sam Time
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.