How “Coeur D’Alene Jack” baby went to Eagle City – 1884
How “Coeur D’Alene Jack” Was Taken To Eagle City
Story of Gold-Stampede Baby; Mining Rushes of Another Day Called Men of Western Montana
Death of McLin Arouses Memories of Long Ago; Will Cave Tells Tales.
By Will Cave.
Contemplating stampedes whose active principles have been the reports of discovery of gold, that one which was most far-reaching in its effect upon the entire world to this time, was the extraordinary rush across the American continent to California in 1849. Subsequent gold rushes to whatever country or district have been but after-products of that gigantic migration. The discovery of gold in Australia resulted from one man’s having discerned the placer clay of California as being practically identical with that of the former country.
The call of gold – the possibility of accumulating wealth in a brief length of time – ever has appealed most vividly to the imagination of the human animal and will continue so to do while yet man and the yellow metal continue on the globe, no matter the hazard attending the latter.
Besides which there is an unwonted attraction to the quest itself, whether successful or otherwise. Listen in to the harkings-back of some old prospector or miner, and you will find his most oft-told tales are those relative to the thrilling incidents of the trail.
The very word “Gold” seems to awaken at least a spark of ecstasy in the most phlegmatic mind. The report of a gold strike, multiplied as to volume by constant repetition is well calculated to excite.
Montana has seen many such. Let us consider one or two.
During the summer of 1883 a couple of old-time miners, W. Pritchard and M. Gillette, while prospecting among the Coeur d’Alene mountains, discovered gold in apparently paying quantities along a branch of the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene river, since known as Pritchard creek. It was several months before the discovery was noised about to any great extent, yet, drifting in quietly by early fall quite a number of miners and prospectors had assembled and a town, named Eagle City, in the center of activities, was the result. It was near the beginning of winter when real excitement sprung up and the great stampede began which continued throughout the winter and wellnigh the following year. The day of Coeur d’Alene placer production was rather short, but resulting from the stampede came eventually the discovery and development of the great quartz properties of the district.
The stampede being practically coincidental with completion of the Northern Pacific railroad, the trails leading into Pritchard creek were blazed from a number of different points along that road – Thompson Falls, Belknap, White Pine, Trout Creek, Noxon and Heron in Montana, and Rathdrum in Idaho. In a twinkling each of these stations became alive with men on their way to the new mines. There were some numbers of the earlier stampeders who reached Eagle City before the winter actually set in, though most encountered snow on the summit of the divide between the Clark’s Fork river and the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene river.
Eagle City! The very name seemed to carry with it suggestion of the mysterious lure of gold. Early the snow began piling up in earnest all through the mountains, then covered with dense forests of cedar, fir, white and yellow pine, hemlock and tamarack. That winter snow fell to a depth rarely equaled; from 10 to 30 feet in the mountains, while it was from seven to eight feet deep alongside the railroad through the Clark’s Fork valley. From the first, few pack animals were available. Those few were utilized before the snow became too deep, and even then on some of the trails which were tramped solid by continuous usage, but the great proportion of supplies reaching the district during many months was drawn on toboggans or sled by man power or packed on the backs of the stampeders themselves. And each took supplies according to individual caprice; some took practically nothing, others took provisions sufficient for months for their own use, while in some cases supplies were taken in for sale.
A Missoula Man’s Story.
It was about the first of November, 1882, when Elie Ritchott, now a resident of Missoula, caught the fever. He had been mining for years in Cedar and Quartz creeks, but that fall was working on the Deschamps ranch in Grass Valley. He packed his blankets and bought a railroad ticket to Heron Siding, as it was then called. Reaching that station he discovered he had company to the number of about a hundred men, all bound for the “Coeur d’Alenes.” Amongst these he found Pete Grandschamps and Sam Morris, both of whom he had known well in Cedar creek. With three others these formed a party. The others took along some little provisions, but Ritchott, Morris and Grandschamps, understanding it to be but two days’ travel to Eagle City, besides their blankets believed it not wise to burden themselves unnecessarily and provided for themselves lunches sufficient only for two days. The party walking, went directly up the mountains west of Heron and the first night camped a little below the summit on the Montana side. Snow began falling and by morning there were several inches on the ground. The atmosphere was filled with fog or clouds. Starting to climb to the top of the divide, old mountaineers though they were, they became bewildered, followed a spur up to the summit of the highest peak in the region, upon which the snow was nearly three feet in depth. From this peak they went down on the Idaho side, but when night came they were in a locality totally unknown to them and they camped by a river which turned out to be the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene, many miles from Eagle City, everyone with the realization that he was pretty considerable lost. In the morning the weather continued rainy and foggy so that it was impossible to determine directions, none of the party being possessed of a compass. The only course to pursue was to follow down the river.
Ritchott, Morris and Grandschamps had eaten their lunches; the supplies carried by the other three were exceedingly meager. Traveling down river, it often became necessary to wade from one side to the other. Sam Morris was a very small man and in extremely poor health; in fact he survived the trip but a couple of months. Whenever they crossed the river, Ritchott carried Morris on his back. Progress was slow. It continued rainy and gloomy, with everyone wet to the skin. While those who had provisions gave some portion to those who had none, yet rosebuds soon became the principal bill of fare.
For several days they followed the North Fork, finally reaching the mouth of what they rightly guessed to be Prichard creek. Growing weaker hour by hour from lack of proper nourishment, their progress was attended with increasing difficulty. One day they came to a deep pool in the creek, and from a ledge of rock just over it Ritchott noticed there were numbers of fish. It just then occurred to him that in his pocketbook was a fishline and hook. Finding some worms, he soon caught a half dozen large trout. A fire was built, the fish were cooked and the party had a feast. Strengthened and heartened they then pushed on up the creek, finally reaching Eagle City after nine days of arduous mountain travel instead of the two they had anticipated.
Stampedes Were Numerous.
You have observed that Ritchott noted about a hundred men who had arrived at Heron in a single day. As a point of entry into the mining district, Heron was by no means the one most patronized. One may gather then something of the numbers of stampeders who were striving to reach the new land of gold. Here at Missoula we heard mostly of Trout Creek and Rathdrum. At Belknap, five miles below Thompson Falls, enthusiastic, expectant dealers in dirt had surveyed and platted a site for a city, counting that there would be located the chief outlet to the mines. Considering the deep snow of that winter as well as the extremely heavy growth of timber all about, one might wonder how the site could have been accurately platted. If anyone ever made any money out of Belknap townsite it was the surveyor; certainly no one else. With the passing of the snow in the spring and summer of 1884, the old Mullan road, the route up Prospect creek via Thompson Falls and that from Rathdrum became the principal highways into the mining district until after the building of the Coeur d’Alene branch of the Northern Pacific railroad into Wallace in 1891.
Story of “Coeur d’Alene Jack.”
At Spokane a few days ago there passed a man who as an infant in arms involuntarily filled the role of the first baby to start across the trail from the railroad to Eagle and from which incident he grew to be known as “Coeur d’Alene Jack.” John F. Mclin, railroad bridgeman whose home has been in Missoula for the most part during more than 30 years, only going from here to Spokane on March 1st to take up employment with a bridge crew on the Inland Empire railroad, of which road his brother-in-law, C. E. Barlow, is superintendent. And thereby hangs a tale of stampede days.
For some time prior to the Coeur d’Alene excitement, J. F. McLin, Sr. had been a carpenter of Butte. With his wife Christine and “Little Jack,” on January 4th, 1884, he started form Butte, taking the Utah and Northern “narrow gauge” railroad to Garrison, from there the Northern Pacific to Trout Creek, now in Sanders county, arriving on January 7th following. On account of the snow, McLin concluded to remain at Trout Creek until conditions were more favorable for crossing the divide. He cleared a plot and built a house. An exact measurement gave the depth of snow as seven feet and one inch. Up and down the Clark’s Fork valley about 500 men were employed in the endeavor to keep the railroad open to traffic. At that there were days at a time when trains were unable to pass through the snow belt. McLin worked more or less at snow-shoveling, then made one trip “light” into Eagle. There he rented a “shack” and put in a small supply of wood preparatory for the day when he would return with Mrs. McLin and “Jack.” Back to Trout Creek, he procured eight toboggans, which he loaded with supplies, hired eight men to haul them, and, on March 4th, with “Jack” bolstered with pillows in a boot box, in which were two heated flatirons to insure warmth, the whole on one of the toboggans, the McLins began their trip over the hill.
On the Coeur d’Alene Trail.
The trail was lined with stampeders. At a crossing of Trout creek a man had built a bridge and collected toll from those using it. The amount collected from McLin was $3.50, paid to the man in charge. Some miles farther along the trail the party met Peter Tone, operator of the toll bridge. When he spied the baby in the box, he asked how much toll the man at the bridge had collected. Being informed, he refunded the $3.50 “on account of the baby.” It took the party two days to travel the 18 miles to the “Foot of the Summit,” two miles below the top. A man named Emerson had a tent stopping place there. A severe storm came up, lasting three days. Mrs. McLin and the baby remained in camp, while the men utilized the time, making two trips each day, moving the toboggans and provisions to the summit. In the meantime a party of some 16 people, including a man named Stoddard, his wife, a baby but three or four months old and another little one of about two years, all traveling light, came up and passed the McLin party. In order assist Mrs. Stoddard up the last two miles above Emerson’s, a rope was tied around her waist, the men preceding her carrying the loose end to prevent the woman from meeting with serious accident.
The storm clearing, with their supplies already there, the McLin party went on to the summit, where they camped their sixth night on the trail. It being downhill from that point, they reached Eagle on the seventh day. Including the hired men’s wages, the trip totaled up a cost of $250. While the Stoddard family had gotten into Eagle before the McLins, yet it was known that “Little Jack” had been the first baby on the trail and after his arrival in town the miners made up a purse of $90 which was presented to him, besides which Archie Smith gave him several small nuggets of gold and William Stillman one nugget which weighed $11.
At Eagle City.
At Eagle, McLin’s services as a carpenter were in demand from the first. The family occupied the “shack” before mentioned for some weeks. Then they bought a large tent, built a frame, walled the frame with “shakes” and from then had comfortable quarters. To give some idea of the difficulties attending the crossing of the divide, the trail from Emerson’s to the summit was that steep a considerable portion of it was but steps cut in the snow, so worn and slippery that those climbing had to tie pieces of rope about their feet and in addition had to carry poles which they thrust in the snow in order to maintain their footings. It might be mentioned here that it was McLin, Sr., and not “Little Jack,” who some years later at Trout Creek became involved in a difficulty which resulted in the shooting and serious wounding of Andrew Garcia.
This Stampede Was Wild.
Comparing mining stampedes in general, it is doubtful if the west ever staged a wilder one than the Cedar Creek stampede of 1869-70. In the fall of ’69 gold had been discovered in Cedar by Louis A. Barrette and B. Lanthier, who, after several weeks, came out to Lozeau’s ranch on Mullan road and sent Lozeau to Frenchtown for provisions. Lozeau was admonished by all that was good and holy to give out no information which might create a suspicion that “diggings” had been struck. However, having imbibed a few drinks of Frenchtown’s best whiskey, Lozeau’s tongue loosened, and “the cat was out of the bag.” It so happened that upon that particular day J. R. Latimer, today a time-honored resident of Missoula, and his partner, Hank Froach, returning from a trip to Moose Creek, Idaho, passed through Frenchtown just as the news leaked out. They came on to Grass Valley and Tyler Woodward’s ranch; turned around, went back to Frenchtown from where at 7 o’clock that evening a party consisting of T. J. Demers, Harry Meyers, Theodore Bedard, Edmund Hamel, Hank Froach. J. R. Latimer and seven others started on horseback, carrying with them no provisions whatever. Riding without a stop until 4 o’clock in the morning, they reached Lozeau’s, where they expected to be able to procure their breakfast. There they joined an excited horde of men, so many that there was standing room only in Lozeau’s house. Hastily a breakfast of boiled beans straight was gulped down and before daylight the ranch was deserted by the hundred men or more off for their “New El Dorado.”
The Missoula river was forded a short distance below Lozeau’s; about five miles above the mouth of Cedar. Up the creek rode the excited stampeders, until those in the lead at the mouth of “Oregon” gulch concluded the going from that point was too rough for the practical use of their horses and each tied his mount securely to a tree, continuing the remaining distance up the creek on foot. Old “Louis Brown No. 2” took the lead for a time, but Latimer, being younger, eventually passed Brown and was the first one to reach the ground where Barrette and Lanthier had found their gold. By evening, one by one, all the stampeders had come up and a meeting was called by Joseph E. Marion, who made a brief talk in which he declared that the proper procedure would be to start at the “Discovery,” then to survey and record 200 foot claims running each way, up and down the creek. Marion’s suggestion met with unanimous approval, he being elected recorder of the district. By night of the following day almost the entire gulch had been staked off in claims.
Latimer at first posted a notice on No. 33 below Discovery, but changed his mind and took No. 34. With his name posted on two claims he held both for a little while until a new stampeder, a packer named William Combest, came along. Latimer, knowing Combest, directed him to No. 33, Combest thus securing a claim where otherwise he would have been too late.
The Stampeders Are Hungry.
By morning of the third day, the miners began to realize quite vividly that it was an absolute necessity that each and everyone must soon find some means of appeasing a rapidly growing hunger for food. Nearly everyone then went back to where for two days and nights his horse had been left tied, saddled and began a return ride, each with the very definite idea in mind to first connect up with a square meal somewhere, then to procure provisions for a winter on his mining claim.
Though the greater part of the gulch was located by these first miners, yet the real stampede was only begun. News of the strike was broadcast the length and breadth of the land. Parties from every mining camp or other point where men were living in Montana, and beyond our border, especially from Salt Lake City, Utah, set out and traveled day and night, each individual urged on by the dream of sudden wealth as well as by the deadly fear that someone else might reach the mines before he would himself. On foot, on horseback, muleback; by wagon, cart and stage coach; with provisions; without; any way to get there, they came. Three thousand miners from all quarters wintered in the gulch, while hundreds went in, remained but a day or two and went away. Over 10,000 men visited the creek before a year had passed from the date of discovery.
The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on April 5, 1925.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/348658651
My great grandfather, Owen Kelley, participated in the Cedar Creek stampede, as well as some others in California, Idaho and Montana. He was profiled in Miller’s History of Montana – see link below:
https://archive.org/stream/illustratedhisto00mill#page/608/mode/2up