Chapter 6

Washington county was not without it's running excitements and many of them we had. There were Mineral, Ruthburg, now called Heath, Seven Devils, Rapid River and later the "Blue Dog", the latter being so near at hand, a little ways up Monroe Creek, the people never went into spasms over it.

The first mineral location ever made in the territory afterwards carved into Washington county was the Peacock, now in Adams county, in the Seven Devils country. I have heard it said that a prospector in search of placer ground found the croppings of this claim as he was going through the Devils country. He carried a piece with him to Lewiston where he showed it to Levi Allen, another mountaineer and prospector, who recognized the ore as copper, and thought he would like to investigate it. The discoverer gave him directions as how to reach the place altho there was neither road or trail in that section. Mr. Allen found the place and made a location, but could not tell whether he was in Ada or Idaho county.

I. I. Lewis became interested with Allen in the discovery. It had laid undeveloped for years when two old Scotchmen from Ruthburg who were prospecting out in that section relocated it. Allen and Lewis brought suit to recover possession of the ground which was pending in Ada county at the time of the creation of this county and the suit was the first case ever docketed in court in Washington county. It was never tried, as a compromise was effected when Allen and Lewis sold their holdings to Albert Kleinschmidt and Governor Hauser and A.M. Hoiter of Helena, Montana; Kleinschmidt taking 9-16 and the other parties the remainder. Kleinschmidt organized the American Mining Co. under the laws of the state of Montana and conveyed his interest to the company:

Builds Steam Boat

In 1890 Albert Kleinschmidt, being so confident in the wealth that awaited development of his property, built a steam boat at the mouth of Burnt River on the Snake, and constructed a wagon road from the river to the mine, it being his intention to haul the ore by teams to the river and then transport it by boat up the river to the railroad. The scheme proved a failure, as the rocky rapids of the river, through which protruded great rocks, prevented successful navigation. It was possible to get down stream when the water was of average depth, but getting back at any stage of water was impossible.

When the water got at its highest stage the nest spring, the boat was taken down through the canyon and on down into the Columbia over the Celilo falls and Cascades and finally to Portland where it was sold and plied for several years on the waters of the Columbia and Willammette Rivers. Thus ended the vision of Albert Kleinschmidt to freight ores up the Snake River.

The Peacock was contracted and bonded for sale at figures running into millions, at several times, but none of the prospective purchasers was able to comply with the terms and the property always fell back to the owners. The last of such contracts was with a Boston company, operating under the name of the Boston and Seven Devils Copper Co.

Builds Smelter

This company began operations on a huge scale and built a smelter where the Weiser canyon emerges into the valley, and a railroad spur was constructed to the smelter for the delivery of machinery and ore. By the time the smelter was completed it was found that there was not ore sufficient to run a week without the prospect of getting out any more so, the smelter never made a run. The machinery was bought in Denver on credit, and as the company was not able to pay for it the outfit was attached and sold.

A great deal of money was expended in the erection of this smelter as there were splendid assay office with equipment and business offices built in connection, all of which were sold and the building moved away. By this time it was apparent that the Peacock mine consisted only in an immense deposit of copper ore on the surface with but little depth below. C.W. Whitecomb, a prominent Bostonian was general manager of the affairs of the company, and the writer was its local attorney.

Whitcomb told me some time before the crash came that he was discouraged; that if they made a success of their operation it would be a case of fool luck, as he had inspected reports of experts in Boston, New York and London and all were unfavorable, and these several reports were made by experts who had no connection, one with the other. Some years afterwards, diamond drills penetrated the mountain to great depths but nothing was discovered.

There were numerous other discoveries of rich copper ore in the district in the early eighties. Fame of the district scattered far and wide, bringing thousands of people into the district, not all at once but at different times, until miles of ground were staked off into claims. Many of the claims gave promise of becoming great mines and it was generally believed that the district would become the greatest copper producer in the world.

Upon development it was found that the deposits did not extend any distance below the surface. Where the ore was of sufficient value for transportation and working charges it was soon worked out. Yet altogether, many thousands of tons of copper ore were shipped away to smelters in Salt Lake and Tacoma for treatment, principally from the Peacock, Blue Jacket, Helena, Queen and Decorah claims, all of which are now and for a number of years have been lying idle.

Probably a hundred claims were patented and many of them in after years were sold to Adams county because of nonpayment of taxes. Several placer claims were patented, in which there was not a color of gold or any water to work them if there had been. These so-called placer claims were patented for a town-site. The city of Helena was surveyed out and two or three cabins built.

Establish Post Office

A post office was established and Charlie Walker, an old prospector of the district was appointed postmaster. Charlie kept the office in his cabin, which he locked up in day time while he followed his vocation of prospecting or doing development work on his claims. The postal department at Washington found a discrepancy in Charlies report to the amount of three cents, which the auditors insisted should be straightened out so the account would balance.

The postmaster was unable to do it, not being an expert bookkeeper, and the demands continued to pour in on him for the desired correction. Charlie, in desperation mailed them a dollar bill and told them to keep the change for their trouble. The bill was immediately returned with the information that it was not the amount involved they were interested in but unbalanced accounts didn't go in the postal department.

An inspector was sent out to get the matter straightened out. He could go by stage as far as Indian Valley and from there he had to travel by horseback. On his arrival at the Helena post office, no one was home so he was obliged to hunt the postmaster up so he could make the necessary investigation into the shortage. The inspector being an expert accountant went through all the papers and books connected with the office and finally located the error which Charlie settled and told the inspector to take the post office home with him, which he did and that ended the post office business at Helena.

Discover Gold Quartz

In 1886 or 1887 gold bearing quartz was discovered on a tributary of Rapid River, lying east of the copper belt. The first discovery was made by E.B. Lockwood and two other old fellows from Indian Valley who found a ledge from which they took some samples of ore that showed a liberal sprinkling of free gold, causing them to believe that they had struck a fortune.

They hauled in an old quartz mill from the Heath district by way of Salubria and up the Weiser River to Price Valley then over the mountains to their claim, where they set it up and went to work. As soon as they got started to work the pay ore quit and they never got enough returns to pay them wages for bringing in the mill. The claim was abandoned and anyone who wants a mining claim can have it for the trouble of relocating it.

In 1887, Jim Ruth and Jim Summer of Ruthsburg, went out there on a prospecting jaunt and found a ledge about two miles above the Lockwood discovery, out of which they took some ore plainly showing its value by the free gold on the surface. The next summer they went back and dug out a ton or two of the rock and packed it to Ruth's quartz mill on Brownlee where they got all the values there were in the ledge.

Charles Weston and his brothers Doug and Jim relocated the claim and put in a summers work on it but never got enough out of it to pay for one charge of power used, so they quit it and never went back again. Billy Shaw of Council has located the claim now and is doing some development work each summer, but I have never heard of any great strike being made, and if I did, I would not believe it.

Build Wagon Road

Several years later, in about 1898, E.D. Ford bought out some claims near Black Lake, on one of the branches of Rapid River, located a number of others, which they afterwards patented in two groups of five claims each. This company built a wagon road over a high ridge between Bear Creek and Rapid River to Black Lake and built a mill. The works seemed to be prospering when an incendiary who had a fancied grievance at the company burned it down. The company built another and resumed operations, but did not run long until the pay chutes of the claims from which they got their ore quit paying and operations ceased, never since have been resumed.

Another outfit from the east, either Ohio or Pennsylvania. came to the Rapid River and began operations by buying up a lot of "Wild Oats" they pretended to be developing. Their object not being to mine gold from the rocks, but from the pockets of would be stockholders back home.

The chief mover of this enterprise was an old preacher, whose name I do not recall. He put in a part of his time at the claims and a part of it in the east, preaching on Sundays and selling the worthless stock during the week. He was too pious to make a sale on Sunday, but be would break the day to the extent of making an appointment with a prospective purchaser for the meeting on the next day. He was the grandest liar I ever knew, and I have met many.

He could lay six old prospectors out in 15 minutes and they are reckoned good. One day I made the remark to a party at the Weiser hotel that I had read in a paper that their outfit had a ledge among its holdings that was 1500 feet wide and the ore would average 40 dollars per ton, and that is could be traced for four miles. One of the party was a mining man of many years experience. He said there never was such a body of ore in the world, which was true. The old preacher happened to be in the party without my knowledge. He immediately replied to the milling man with some show of heat and said that the report was strictly true and that he had just been over the ground and that it was even richer than the report indicated.

The pious fraud went east with this lie and a lot more and began to preach and peddle his fraudulent stock. I heard that he finally landed in the penitentiary, either in Ohio or Kentucky; at least he never came back here and the "wild cats are now subject to relocation.

A "wild cat" in prospectors parlance is a location with stakes at the corners and a small amount of digging at the alieged point of discovery located for the purpose of selling it to some tenderfoot who might be looking for a location. Arthur David, known as "Old Frenchy" was an expert "wild catter" and better than a raw hand at extoling their merits. He located and sold a number of them to the old preachers company and got enough money to buy a winters grub and have several good drunks.

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