Old Missoula

Search For Gold – 1897

Party to Penetrate the Bitter Roots to Find Placers of Untold Richness

Again an effort will be made to locate the rich placer mines in the Bitter Root mountains of which the Nez Perce Indians have told so many tales. The Spokane Spokesman-Review in announcing the proposed trip into that wild and almost impassable country, which has furnished a grave for more than one white prospector says.

The proposed trip of A. McLeod, his Nez Perce wife, and an old Indian, Norman of Kamiah, into the Bitter Roots to find the wonderful placer mines from which it is said certain members of the Nez Perce tribe annually take gold nuggets of marvelous size recalls the former unsuccessful ventures of white men into the wilds of these mountains in search of the gold fields. That a placer district – marvelously rich and probably similar to old Florence and Pierce – exists somewhere not far from the Lo Lo trail is believed by those who have investigated the matter. It cannot be altogether a wild tale, it is said, since old Norman has in his possession large nuggets which came from the mine, while other Nez Perce Indians of the older generation are known annually to make pilgrimages into the Bitter Roots, ostensibly to hunt the big game abounding in the wilds, but in reality to bring gold from the mine. One old Indian at Kimiah has $30,000 in the bank – less than what he lost in the Moscow failure – which he has accumulated by a series of visits to the Bitter Roots.

As above stated many unsuccessful trips have been made by white men to locate this mineral wonderland. Several years ago the George Anderson party attempted to penetrate the district, through the St. Marias country, from Rosalia, Whitman county, Wash. Later a party under the leadership of Frederick Saunders left Farmington, Wash., to enter the Bitter Roots by way of St. Marias, but the country was too rugged. Another party from Colfax, Wash., attempted to go southeast from Florence, Idaho, but the undertaking was finally abandoned. Again, at a later date, “Old Buckskin,” an old squawman of Spokane, was closely followed while making his annual visit to the placer district by a white party, but the latter was given the slip in the mountains and lost the trail. “Old Buckskin” is a well known character, and it is firmly believed that the rich placer which he yearly visits is the same that old Norman has agreed to pilot McLeod and his Indian wife to.

It has leaked out here that a party has been organized to secretly follow the McLeod party. Mr. McLeod says that in case his party was followed, old Norman, who is very suspicious, will lead them a merry chase through the mountains and at the proper time and place elude them. Mrs. McLeod is a relative of old Norman, and in return for care which she is to give to his children he pilots the McLeods to the mine.

The above article appeared in The Ravalli Republican on July 21, 1897.

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