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    Virginia City
    Virginia City
    Virginia City
    Ebook184 pages1 hour

    Virginia City

    By Thompson-Hickman County Library

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Tucked between the Tobacco Root Mountains and Mount Baldy in southwestern Montana, Virginia City began in May 1863, when gold was discovered in Alder Gulch. Some 10,000 fortune seekers arrived, and the days of whiskey, revolvers, road agents, and vigilantes began. Boot Hill, overlooking the town, is a constant reminder of its rough, tough, and unruly past. A great number of mining towns have become ghost towns, but not Virginia City, thanks to the men and women who gave of themselves to establish a permanent town where families, schools, churches, businesses, and organizations would thrive.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439640685
    Virginia City
    Author

    Thompson-Hickman County Library

    Compiled by the Thompson-Hickman Museum�s Evalyn Batten Johnson and Joanne Erdall, this compendium of imagery provides a look into Virginia City�s past, with photographs from the Dick Pace Archives, the Montana Historical Society, and the Thompson-Hickman Museum, as well as private collections. Virginia City�s wild and unruly past comes alive in these pages, as the glowing promise of gold still stirs the imagination in this small town in southwest Montana.

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      Book preview

      Virginia City - Thompson-Hickman County Library

      Society.)

      One

      TOBACCO MONEY DISCOVERY OF GOLD

      The leaves of the alder were greening on the trees. Cottonwoods and quaking aspen lined the gulch above the Stinking Water River in the southwest part of Idaho Territory. Six weary prospectors—Bill Fairweather, Henry Edgar, Barney Hughes, Thomas W. Cover, Mike Sweeney, and Harry Rodgers—made their camp. To the south was Mount Baldy and to the north the Tobacco Root Mountains. Bill Fairweather decided to pan for gold at an outcropping a short distance above the camp. The gold riches of the gulch were about to be born in this backwash of the expanding western frontier. The date was May 28, 1863.

      A few days later, the group headed for Bannack to file their claims. They named the place Alder Gulch and called the mining district Fairweather. Though the men had every hope of keeping the strike secret, it was to no avail. And when they returned to the gulch, great numbers followed with their own big dreams of pokes filled with nuggets and gold dust. The Gold Rush was truly on, and within a few months 10,000 fortune seekers crowded into the area along a 12-mile stretch. From above Virginia City, there were Pine Grove, Highland, Summit, and Union City; below were Central City, Nevada, and Adobe Town. Claims were staked in every nook and cranny from the mouth of the gulch to Bald Mountain. A great stampede was on. The conditions were rough, and the men were thrown together in a matter of forms: tents, shacks, crude log cabins, brush wickiups, and even under trees, these men camped and worked their claims. Traders, gamblers, a few women, saloons, and hurdy-gurdy dance houses now lined the dirty, dusty main street. Life in the new city was wild, violent, and loud. But gold was plentiful.

      Bill Fairweather was the leader of the famous six who discovered gold in Alder Gulch in 1863. He was born in St. John, New Brunswick, and after the boom in the gulch, he went to San Francisco in search of more riches. Fairweather lost most of his money and moved on to Peace River, where he lost the rest. In 1875, he came back to Montana, where he died in August of that year. He is buried in Hillside Cemetery in Virginia City. In the Montana Standard on December 20, 1903, Henry Edgar stated, He was the noblest of friends and as true as steel. My chief wish is that when I die I’ll be buried along side him. (Dick Pace Archives, Thompson/Hickman Library.)

      Henry Edgar was another member of the Fairweather party. Edgar never left the state. He did, however, lose his Alder Gulch money in the butchering business by trusting too many people for meat supplies and loaning when he failed to secure a return. Edgar later lost more in a quartz-mining venture. (Dick Pace Archives, Thompson County/Hickman

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