Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Lost Mine of the Yellowstone

A golden secret lies in the shadow of Emigrant Peak south of Livingston. Somewhere along the trail to Yellowstone Park, among the gulches where countless winter snows and spring floods have scoured the landscape, lies the fountain of gold, the mother lode, the source of the golden veins that brought miners by the hundreds  to Yellowstone City and Emigrant Gulch.

Courtesy  RootsWeb
David Weaver panned the first gold in Emigrant Gulch—Montana’s fifth great gold discovery—in 1864. He, David Shorthill, Frank Garrett, and others from the States named Emigrant peak, creek, and gulch. These early miners found Jim Bridger’s calling card: twenty elk antlers stuck in a lone pine tree. They assumed that these meant Bridger had been there at some time in the past. Two years later, with a party of other miners, Weaver made an incredibly rich find in the mountains near Emigrant Peak. But the danger of Indian attack made the miners’ work extremely hazardous, and so when the first snow began to fall, the miners were forced to abandon their diggings. Two years later, two of the men returned to find their discovery, but two winters and springs had erased all familiar traces. The miners frantically searched and searched, but the mine was not to be found. Weaver had taken samples of the ore and had them assayed. They proved to be worth $5,000 to the ton, a spectacular amount. Over the years, members of Weaver’s party returned to search the area, but the mine was never found. It is remembered today as the “Lost Mine of the Yellowstone.”

6 comments:

  1. Thank you for writing about my great great grandfather!

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    1. I still hike those mountains every year looking for the lost mine, and have been for 14 years. I love being up there whether we ever find gold or not. I did find an old log cabin that is 1800's vintage, because of the square nails, and believe it was the 2nd Weaver cabin. I believe the original cabin is around 200 to 300 feet south and covered by a few feet of rocks. Pretty exciting and a great vacation each year! Mark Milne

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    2. Cool. In Billings.

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  2. Is this the David Weaver from Huntington/Saxton, PA?

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    1. Yes, it is. My great great grandfather. From there he went to Mt Diablo, Contra Costa CA (near SF) as a coal mining engineer then returned to PA to resume farming & raise 6 kids. Also lived in FL a while trying orange groves and phosphate mining (seabird guano) for fertilizer. Not as lucky with those ventures, freeze wiped out the oranges & phosphates very explosive

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    2. PS it's Saxon PA in Huntingdon County

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