That was
before the day of modern ammunition. The six-shooter of the
placer days was of the old cap-and-ball type, heavy,
long-barreled, and usually wooden-handled. It was the general
ownership of these deadly weapons which caused so much bloodshed
in the camps. The revolver in the hands of a tyro is not
especially serviceable, but it attained great deadliness in the
hands of an expert user. Such a man, naturally of quick nerve
reflexes, skillful and accurate in the use of the weapon through
long practice, became a dangerous, and for a time an
unconquerable, antagonist.
It is a curious fact that the great Montana fields were doubly
discovered, in part by men coming east from California, and in
part by men passing west in search of new gold-fields. The first
discovery of gold in Montana was made on Gold Creek by a
half-breed trapper named Francois, better known as Be-net-see.
This was in 1852, but the news seems to have lain dormant for a
time--naturally enough, for there was small ingress or egress for
that wild and unknown country. In 1857, however, a party of
miners who had wandered down the Big Hole River on their way back
east from California decided to look into the Gold Creek
discovery, of which they had heard.
Pages:
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80