Old Missoula

“Top o’ Deep” Gold and the “year of our – snow – 1870”

The ‘latest prospects’ from The New Northwest newspaper – Deer Lodge, Mt. Feb. 18, 1870.

[A little introduction – Elk Creek, in the Blackfoot drainage, is found near what is now Greenough, Mt. Top o’ Deep is located east of Elk Creek – a short distance east of Garnet. Beartown, or Bear, was located a little to the south. These can be accessed from Elk Creek near Greenough, or from the Garnet Road near there. Also, there is access from the south using the Bearmouth Road off of U.S. Highway 90, or from the Douglas Creek Road near Drummond. Get back there far enough, you better have a reliable vehicle – at least the last time I was there.]

Elk Creek. – Our neighbors down the range are well provided with snow, there being over three feet on the mountains along the head of Bear, Deep, Elk and vicinity before the last snow fall. Elk is going to yield abundant treasure this year. The ground is principally owned by six bed-rock flume companies. The following will give an idea of what they do.

No. 1. A Highland & Co., 200 feet of 16 in. flume, now on bedrock, own 26 claims; pays $12 to $20 to the hand per day; have been sluicing nearly all winter.

No. 2. Stone & McKivet; 600 feet of 20 in. flume, now on bed rock; own 1200 ft. of ground paying $12 to $20.

No. 3. John Martin & Co., short flume, own 700 or 800 feet of ground, paying from $12 to $20; are working now and have been nearly all the winter.

No. 4. Winger, Dugan & Co., 2000 feet of 20 in. flume, and own about 3000 feet of ground, paying $12 to $20.

No. 5. Wm. Kennedy & Co., 2000 feet of 20 in. flume; own 4000 feet of ground, paying $10 to $15.

No. 6. Jones & Middaugh, 1200 feet of 20 in. flume; own 10,000 feet of ground; struck bed-rock last fall; have good ground.

The Elk diggings are from 10 to 18 feet deep, all of which is gravel, and run through the flumes. About 150 inches of water is now running, and the ordinary spring head is from 300 to 400 inches. They will employ 60 or 70 miners, and maintain a population of 150 men. Reynold’s City is now almost deserted, only J. Roberts and partner who are working a tributary – Day’s Gulch – now living there. The old town will fill up, though, within two months, as most of the flumes will be started shortly. Mr. Middaugh informs us he will put No. 6 in active operation within a fortnight. Elk will yield about $1,000 per day of good gold as soon as the season opens.

Deep. – From Mr. James Middaugh, we have these items, of the camp known as “Top o’ Deep”, as prolific of good boys as Pandora’s casket was of infirmities. The camp will employ 200 men, the ground being principally worked by a half dozen big companies; Walter, Eddy & Co; McGee, Hayden & Co; Israel Gibbs & Co., and Owen, Kelly & Co., are the principal owners. McGee, Hayden & Co. own the famous “No. 5” property, probably the richest claim in Montana. They have 800 feet of ground, 500 of which yet remains to work. The books show that in 1867, the first season it was opened, $120,000 were taken out and the ground is paying as big yet. There are some twenty owners in it, and the fortunes for all of them at that rate. Gibbs & Co., a year ago, paid $10,000 for their 600 feet. They now have 40 feet of pay dirt, yielding from $25 to $50 per day to the man and but a small proportion of the ground worked. The boys have a prospect of making board, we think. The other companies are taking out good pay. “Top o’ Deep” contains some thirty-five houses, a good hotel, of which D. H. McFarland is the worthy host; and two stores owned respectively by Wm. Ferguson and Jones & Middaugh; a Billiard saloon, owned by Palmer & Co., besides divers and sundry other institutions that pay license. Across the range from Deep are Bilk and Billy Weasel gulches, very rich but scarce of water. The ground has been bought up until they are now owned almost entirely by Col. Morris with W. Simmons. They pay $40 or $50 per day to the man, and 150 men will be employed in them while water lasts. An idea of their wealth can be had from the fact that last season they did not have over fifteen minutes of water per day, and still have “dust.” From the facts we have given of Elk and Deep, rarely heard of outside of Deer Lodge county, and among the smallest of its fifty or sixty mined gulches, some idea may be formed of the tributaries that swell the bullion yield of the great Placer county of Montana in the year of our -snow – 1870.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/171618831/?terms=owen%2Bkelly

Former Missoula mayor and author John H. Toole spent some time in the “Top o’ Deep” area and wrote about it in his book “The Baron, The Logger, The Miner and Me.”

It should be noted that there was more than one Top o’ Deep in Western Montana. Another one was located at the rich gold strike at Cedar Creek west of Missoula. A. L. Stone wrote about this Top o’ Deep in his book, ‘Following Old Trails’ – see link below:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081812632;view=1up;seq=54