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Dabel C. Olson
3uPerior, Iontna
Intervis with ilec erg, uperier, 1:lontana
TCPTC: moose City; interestint, Larly Day Characters
pose City was discovered in 1865 by Thomas O'Brien
and William 3hapard. The discover— brought a regular stam-
pede, so that in 1869 there was a population of 600. Nothing
remains to show that it W85 once a lively mining settle-
ment. 7t,rt of the old jail still stands; the upper portion
has been burned for rood. The forest service has withdrawn
from there, and it is just a tourist landmark. "jhen I first
cane out here, in 1900, the jail was intact, and there was
one prospector's cabin left. There are two cemeteries, one
to the north of the 'Loose City site, and one to the south.
I was told by old miners that one was for the aristocrats
and one for the poorer class. I've often wished that I kept
a diary of the stories I've picked up from these old miners;
they tell interesting tales.
Davy Graham was ama of them. He had claims on China
Gulch, from which he took out considerable gold.*
He told me he had chased the Chinamen off some of their
claims there, but they didn't turn out so well. (I under-
stand that the Chinamen could not make legal locations,
and were always unsure of their holdings.)
The Chinese left Loose City in 1873. When the first
discovery was made on Cedar Creek, they rushed to the new
mining grounds, leaving behind them their tools and belong-
ings. There must have been at least a hundred of them in
*Graham used to sing in a quavery voice the song beginning,:
"I danced with the girl with the hole in her stocking;
ie danced till our heels took to rocking,
ri.11 by the light of the moon."
:"-'-)01 C. Clsor
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China Gulch 3nd Lake Creek, which flows into Fish Creek, a
tributary of the north fork of the Clearwater Iliver.
Graham's nickname was "life -onion." He used to say, "I
thought you wa7 a good onion, but you're nothing but a
scallion."
He
cronie, John .Slowey, who owned 8 ranch at Ash-
more. Both. were,IL.I.Catholics. They were in Superior one
St. Patrick's Day celebrating the occasion, Slowey in Bill
Bonnet's saloon,, next to what is now the Ordean 7otel, and
Graham across the street in Joe Oharette's saloon. While
Slowey was drinking up, some practical joker pinned a yellow
ribbon on 3lowey's coat.
After the two woke up, they met out in the middle of the
street. Graham saw the yellow ribbon and began to fume and
curse. "Ahrr, you Orangeman," he yelled, *I'm goin' to whip
you now."
But Slowey whipped Graham. Then he took off his coat
and dragged it up and down the street, daring anybody to step
on it.
Slowey had a balky horse, which he used to drive to
Superior over the old hill road fror. Slowey Gulch. This
horse used to .stop short, just when Slowey was most anxious
to get going. But when his master was drunk, the old horse
used to look after him, taking him home without any guiding.
One day when Slowey was going home in that way, a wheel came
off the buggy, an' it rolled into the Missoula River, killing
him.
Mabel C. Olson
Superior, Montana
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Russian Bill (Micheal Forrest) was a Russian Finn. He
was.a short, "soggy" sort of fellow, rough and hard looking.
He had a claim on ydndfall Creek, a tributary of. Trout Creek,
above what they called the Holt ground. He died there. It
seems to me that he was caught in a cave-in; however, I'm
not sure of that. He was buried on Trout Creek, in what they
call the drain, put in by P. Johnston. They used to pump
water out of the drain about a mile and a half from its be-
ginning. The Holt's (John W. and Tom) got quite a lot of
gold out of Windfall.
Tom Keenan worked at the drain, digging it 1100 feet
underground. He worked 11 years for Johnston.
TTank (Henr-) Curran was about two years older than
Crahah. He rosnected in the hills quite a bit. Fe was shot
by Frank green with a 30.30 rifle, but was not killed.
npderie had a livery barn in Superior when I came
here, and carried mail from Iron 1:ountain to Superior and
Carter (Keystone). illford Connell ran the stable after Moderie.
The Superior school used to be on the west rise of, and
to the north of, the street. When the school was moved,
William Beardsley pot the building. ill LaCombe (now
rs. Irene Bundrick) inherited it from Beardsley, her uncle.
Will LaCombe wanted to tear it down, but the Li-coula County
Commissionerswouldn't lot him. So he built over the old log
cabin.
"Fatty" (Joseph; William's brother) LaCombe's cfbin was
haci d. Olson
Suerior, lkmtana
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just abo the Red ::en hail. There were twelve bachelors living
there at o e time; they called themselved the "Dirty Dzen,"
and the cabin "Ik)unt ',loyal." They made a compact that the
first of their number to marry should fall heir to it. So
it went to il1 LaCombe, when he married Rene Pelkey. He was
quit e young then, an something of a clown.
In 1906, there was a Fourth of July rodeo on. Iron 11eun-
tain flat, on what was then tho Wilkinson ranch. On the third,
11 inches or snow fell, with more on the Fourth. So the
broncho riders weren't afraid of being bucked off; they had
sort cu.71-..iori to fell onto.
The,-Lmador pavilion was built in 1907, next the :A_s7oula
Ri7er and across fror ohnstcn's ranch. It was used for dances
and Ticnics, lit ,'apaneso lanterns and gas torches.
th1nE reraains sf it now.
r ioterestin anecdotes center around the. old Thomas
'Totel (the an). .,..k, one time a 7er-on suicided in room
13, Fbod.., was srsr7titious a'out that room, refu_s
loon there. Lucia Lozeau J -rot drunk, and some of the bunch
lounging abrat the hotel carried hit_ into Number 13. Frank
7.
who was working there then fixed ill) a dummy, filling
it with straw and toninn it Ilth a felt hat. He strung it
on a wire and suseendel it ,th, transom.
They had quite a 'ime wukirn Lozeau, ar finally threw
some WO;.3-2 on hia from the tr nso. That did the trick.
DU h r,
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Lozeau was sunerstitious. Jh-n he lucicec1 u1 and sa,-.7 that
dummy
and to th stairs
cot te .14l j
..Ling out of bed, cleared the door,
leap. Ee didn't stop until
That was a logging camp run by the
,nacc,nda 3ompany about 1001 or so. '.(:)hn 7earson's
ne is tbire Lczeau never aFain pot drunk in the Thomas
1Dolphe Lozeau was.
SuPerior's
nlayed
fairly 7:oll for the first part of the dance, sitting there
with a ciFarette hanging out of one corner of his mouth. But
night on, he got a ,(Jw drinks too many and kept
to o e tune. I can't ramaber what that favorite of his was.
,ndy -cintyre ;.as another sunarstitious one. ye had been
fishinP just before he put up, at the Thomas, and had stuck a
fish hoot( in his V,:F. -ocket. It was fastened to the line, in
his pants rocket. He wont to bed with all his clothes save
the oants. ,;hen he ,'ot up, the hook pulled the line, and the
rants folio -led iIcIntvre about. y0 almost killed himself run-
nin away, dashing across the Iron Fountain trail to Frank
;areau's saloon, with his trousers nursuint7 him.
/-1nother time, 1:cIntyre was coming afoot down Trout Creak.
;iest had left a couple of Lis pack burros at the
drain Pump. They wc3r-3 loose, and when :cIntylre started to-
wards 3ucerior, they trailed after him, just far enouFh be-
hind so that all lie could see was their ears flarpin-. Fe
Su wior
tana
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ran, then
ackened. The burros did the same. They kept that
jn 3, miles, from the rump to town. ,LndY was sick for C. long
ti -o afterwards.
"Loc" Bowers oas the only doctor here then. He used
dope, and it finally cot him. His wife, "horn" Bowers we
celled her, did too. (1-Innie, a prostitute.) She died in a
sanitarium in .4arm Springs. She used snow mainly, but she'd
',eke anythin. One day I'd been to Carter (Keystone) with
the mail. She hailed 1;,e from her doorway: "Co down to Lac's
:-cBride) store and toll him I want la bottle of
laudanum."
So I aot an ounce bottle of it and handed it to her.
She uncooKed it with shaking, impatient hands, end downed
the whole bottleful before I could stop her. I was scared,
for I had no business getting it for her. I ran down to
Mac's and told him about it.
He just drawled: "That's all riaht. Bring her another
bottle. She'll oe ecning, down the street pretty soon, with
her hat hanging on three hairs. Sure enough, she did. A
bottle of whiskey was nothing to her.
She had a good education, and when sober was intelligent
an, interesting. She was cured at ',;arm Springs, and became
associate matron before she died there.
Two of the old miners were Tom and Krist (Christian 3.)
Lapp. Krist was Tom's father, though he looked the younger
of the two. They were big eaters. One day when they went
:abel Clson
:=)L7e7.7ior, -1.1cntana
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to the Cedars, where the ranger station is now, they killed
an -3'_k at a salt lick. It WRS about nine miles to their
cabin on Thstonian Creek. Tom asked, "Well, what'll we do
ith him?"
7,et a little flour," Krist answered, "and move
down to him. We'll eat up that fellow in no time."
Krist was called the "Clearwater ghost." He had a
long, full beard and hair to his shoulders.
AnFus 3111ith was one of the real early settlers. He drank
heavily, and used to tell stories on himself. One time
was
packing for Mrs. Lary Dill. I got out at four o'clock to
gather up the horses for an early start into the hills. I
saw some object lying on the m.mador flat, and rode over to
discover what it was. It was Anrus. He called:
"Come help de cut; my hair is froze in the mud and
ice." I had to cut his hair short before he could get up.
Another time he'd stolen a rooster to take to a feed
at "-cunt Royal." On the way, he had a few drinks and went
to sleep, still hanging onto the rooster. It crowed and woke
him u. That time, his feet were frozen to the ground.
In his time, Smith was much in demand as a camp cook.
He could handle 50 or 60 men the best of any cook I've seen,
though he never moved fast. 'hough he was rough looking (he
was hunch -backed and had one drooping eye), he was clean about
his cookin,g, and always wore white shirts and white caps and
aprons when he wan handling a crew.
T:abel C. Olson
3urior, 1:ontana
-8-
Alfred Lozeau's ranch east of Superior used to be an
hilarious place. They had a saloon there and a place to dance.
Venison used to be sold over the block here, just like
beef. Trrs. Dan (Diudonne) Lajellnesse ran the Thomas Hotel
for a time; she had venison on the bill of fare. I often
sold it to the hotel. I suppose there were game restrictions
then, but none paid any attention to them; deer were plentiful.
Nobody seemed to care much about bear meat. except Frank
qareau. I used to bring some to him occasionally. (Bear
meat was sometimes served to customers at hotel, in the
.7uise of pork, :ust for amusement's sake.)
In the early da-s, many of the miners were French Canadians.
I remember watching Norman Ouilette and Joe Charette talking
one day, uslaf-- their 'lands freely, as 7renchmen must. Finally,
Ouilette said, "Let's talk English awhile. Ny hands are get-
ting. cold."
I knew Bill 3each slightly. He was a sort of lone wolf
insofar as the common fry of miners were concerned, being
more after the aonied class.