MADISON COUNTY WOMEN TAKE STEPS TOWARD MARKING HISTORICAL SPOTS IN ALDER GULCH

(Published in the Hysham Echo September 24, 1925 &

again in the Hysham Echo July 12, 2013)

At a recent meeting of Madison County Federated Women’s Clubs, which convened at Virginia City, the old capital of Montana, the first effort was made on the part of the patriotic women of the county to perpetuate to posterity the deeds of the pioneers who first gave to the state of Montana ideals of integrity, justice and honor.
The department of local history is a new one recently listed in the Montana Federation of Women’s Clubs and still more recently added to the Madison County clubs’ activities. The hostess club of Virginia City selected local history as the nucleus of their program and secured as speakers of the day the two men of all Montana probably best fitted to talk on the subject of Montana history - Chief Justice of Montana’s Supreme Court Lew L. Callaway and Prof. F. H. Garver of the Montana State Normal college. Unfortunately, Professor Garver was stricken desperately ill a few days before the meeting and was unable to deliver his address, which was to have been on “The Importance of Preservation and Marking of Historical Sites.”
Delegations and visitors from all parts of Madison county went to Virginia City early in the day, and assembled at the city hall, where the first session was held.

Davis to Bear Expense

The committee on marking reported that the deed to the point of discovery had been secured and that A. J. Davis of Butte had communicated that he would be glad to bear the expense of a monument or marker to be erected on the site of the first gold panned in Alder Gulch May 26, 1863.
A most delectable luncheon was served to all comers in the spacious Elks Lodge rooms. After the social hour the convention assembled on the lawn of the county library building, where the unveiling ceremonies took place.
The perfect calm of the late August day was itself a benediction as a few of the pioneers, more of their sons and daughters and many interested visitors gathered about the big boulder draped with the nation’s flag.
It was a moment tense and fraught with deepest emotions harking back to the stirring days when Montana’s dramatic inception was played over the golden sands of Alder Gulch, when Mrs Martha Vickers, one of few remaining pioneer women stepped to the boulder’s side and, removing the American flag, revealed the copper plate inset:

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1863 - Virginia City - 1925
Fairweather and Party Discovered World’s Richest Placer Ground,
May 26, 1863
Most Important Center of Notorious Road Agent Activities, 1863-1864
Center of Most Important Vigilante Organization, 1863-1864
Home of Montana’s First Newspaper, 1864
Montana’s First Postoffice Established Here, 1864
Montana’s First Supreme Court Session Held Here, 1865
Seal of Montana Adopted Here, 1866
Marked by Madison County Federated Women’s Clubs
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Perhaps no town in the entire Northwest has in its immediate vicinity so many points of historic romantic interest as Virginia City, Montana.

This picture shows Wallace Street of Virginia City,

much as it appeared in the balmy placer gold prospecting days of the early [18]sixties.

Callaway Speaks

Then Chief Justice Callaway - himself one of the pioneer children of Alder Gulch, whose father was Montana’s secretary and acting governor in territorial days - with his hand on the huge boulder gave reminiscences of what the big rock had seen of Montana’s progress. It was brought from near the scene of Fairweather’s discovery, significantly found and suggested as a marker by Ed Hart, perhaps the oldest miner now living in Alder Gulch. It had seen the seething masses of humanity made with the prospect of treasure, swarming like ants in the gulch, and the subsequent 62 years had seen a steady accomplishment of order and law resulting in the security Montana’s children enjoy today. It was the first of the markers to be placed by the club Women of Madison County in their project of historical marking.
The assemblage then returned to the city hall, where Judge Callaway continued his reminiscences in an able address.
For two hours the audience drank in those elusive facts and stories of pioneer history which all crave to know and few can give. Some of the significant points in Judge Callaway’s talk were:
“I regret that Professor Garver could not have spoken to you on the significance of historical marking. It is a duty which many of our best citizens are neglecting. We profit by our mistakes, and succeeding generations would be no more advanced than past ones did they not ‘be guided by the lamp of experience and judge the future by the past.’ The sum total of preceding generations finds us at this most marvelous period of history, when there is so much searching for the beginnings of history. Our big universities the world over are busily engaged in looking for the sources of truth, which can never elude the real scholar.

Communism No Specter

“Mark these places where great deeds have been done. They inspire us. Do not fear but that America is here to endure; do not fear communism or any other “ism” when you watch the thrill, the response that comes when visitors pass by such places as Bunker Hill monument, Old South church, Washington Monument and the corridors of congress. Just so have many of the great deeds in the history of the northwest taken place in this county. Mark on these sites the legend of that history.
“Some of these places which should be marked are: The real Beaverhead rock, which Lewis and Clark have in their journals located in degrees and miles - that pole-star of early Indian tribes which gave Sacajawea her bearings - the firehole or Madison river, discovered by John Colter, whose escape from the Crows was the most remarkable in all western history - the point of discovery by Fairweather’s party in Alder gulch - the spot where George Ives’ unique trial, the most remarkable trial in all history, was held at Nevada City, where the Vigilantes organized and met - the sites of the first public school and the first newspapers - Dempsey’s Crossing on the Ruby near Sheridan - historic trails into the territory such as the Salt Lake road, the Bozeman trail, Benton road - Elephant corral, where Slade was hanged - Bummer Dan’s Bar, the richest placer in the Northwest, the scene of the flour riot, where the boys were willing to pay $100 for a sack of flour, but couldn’t go $150 - Content corner, where mass meetings were held - the oldest bank building in Montana - the old Sisters’ hospital on Jackson street - the old arsenal - the Francis Meager residence - the place of execution of five road agents in Virginia City - the oldest school building in Montana at Adobetown - the first store and the fist farm in Madison valley - Red Bluff, Silver Star and Iron Rod - and the trail of Lewis and Clark. Use two kinds of makers - permanent and temporary ones - mark them soon with the legend of the site. Hundreds of people will beat the old trails who now are bewailing the need of a guide. It will pay from a material standpoint, bringing in hundreds of tourists who are now traveling other tails.

ROBBERS’ ROOST - One time notorious hangout of highwaymen. The building sill remains in tact as here pictured and is situated in the Ruby Valley near Sheridan, Montana not far from Virginia City.

Pioneers Were Dauntless

“The roll of the pioneers in Alder Gulch is largely the roll of honor in Montana; they made our laws, called our constitutional convention and kept Montana in the right path. The boys and girls of the old pioneers have kept up the standard. Let those of us left convey to posterity their dauntless integrity. In this we can do no better than to preserve history. It will prove a beacon star ahead of our youth.
“Mark the Robbers’ Roost as a well-known roadhouse of early days, where over the bar some of the most terrible old forty-rod was dispensed. But this place is not entitled to the notoriety it has received; it does not merit its bad eminence. It was not the center of road agent activities as was the Cottonwood ranch at Dempsey’s Crossing.
“It was at the Pfouts house in Virginia City where the Vigilantes took their oath. In a week 2,500 men had enrolled. The treasurer’s book, which was once one of my possessions, shows how liberally the miners contributed to Vigilante expenses. After 102 men had been killed by the robber gang in the first six months, and nearly 40 road agents had met death at the hands of the Vigilantes, Judge Hosmer came to take charge of judicial matters, and it was naively proposed to him that he handle civil matters but allow criminal justice to repose in the hands of the Vigilantes.
“The Senate saloon was proclaimed the most aristocratic and best equipped gambling house in the northwest. Only the best of whisky was sold, and at 50 cents a drink. Ivory chips were used and only gentlemen played.
“What a story is Slade’s! What an executive genius was Plummer! What a pity Ives missed his connections with the Discovery Party! If ever a man was sent by providence it was Wilbur F. Sanders at the trial of Ives. As he dominated the big crowd on that December evening as the fires were kindled by the lumber wagons in which sat lawyers, judge and miners’ jury, his was a masterpiece to rank with Demosthenes or Cicero. The tense, dramatic occurrences of the Ives trial make it the best of all pioneer stories.
“If you can, put into your county library Cecil Auger’s book, “Jim Bridger,” in which he quotes from 100 different authors. Jim Bridger piloted an emigrant train into Virginia City in 1865, coming over Wind River route to avoid the dangerous Sioux on the Bozeman trail. Bridger was the greatest trapper, the best scout, the best Indian authority west of the Mississippi. He could, with a piece of chalk, delineate with absolute fidelity any part of the country from Mexico to Canada, from the Mississippi to the Pacific.
“Madison county has a right to the real banner in bringing civilization to our state. With no civil or military authority within thousands of miles, her early citizens perfected the foundations of the Treasure state in those mad, seething times when even before the appointed governor came with all the state papers in his pocket, buses ran night and day between the placer mines of the gulch and the amusement places of the town, where men were made to spend their money, where the vicious characters of the west gathered to prey upon the miners and where out of this chaos was soon wrought respect for the laws of mankind.”

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