׉?4ׁB!בCט(u׉׉ 7cassandra://TOYWTllR3AGQi0mlhMI24ibUf84uUXIutIt_sUdGpxwC`׉ 7cassandra://vd-7331mrRmDCRXuzjHyXACYgRrAXdL9gGwKi2HbvBM͎`s׉ 7cassandra://UB130p224TQxW5ZC-OyFjyevQWyrxyYKR1Jo9JeKq7w,`׉ 7cassandra://f8bI8SfD2uJWFSDHqH_tyTY5SDT2HYAgSSMgkAYBQnY8͠]`1Ι~<-ט(u׈ŭJHנ`1Ι~<-̙9׉H http://www.montananewspapers.orgGׁ ׁ rנ`1Κ~<-̒ 9ׁH http://www.montananewspapers.orgׁ ׁ Ј׈E`1Ι~<-׉E+Ghost Towns and History Feb. 20, 2021 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter Q U A R T Z H I L L / V I P O N D , M O N T A N A The Quartz Hill Mining District is located on the northeastern portion of the Pioneer Mountains. Its history is intertwined with that of the Vipond District. John Vipond made the first mining claim in this location in 1868. John’s brother, William would stake another claim the next year. To solve the hindering problem of transportation of ores, a third Vipond brother, Joseph, and local miners built a road from the mines to the newly developed town of Dewey in 1872. Colonel Washington Black made the first claim in the Quartz Hill District. The most important mine in the district would be the Lone Pine located in the late 1870s and claimed in 1880. A 25-stamp mill was erected at the mine and produced $33,000 in silver each month. The town of Ponsonby soon existed to house the workers from Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz From The Choteau Acantha April 2, 1925 Accessed at www.montananewspapers.org Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz ׉ 7cassandra://UB130p224TQxW5ZC-OyFjyevQWyrxyYKR1Jo9JeKq7w,``1Ι~<-`1Ι~<-(בCט(u׉׉ 7cassandra://WEe1yHVJ1VWTtpEVh-qDJnbjWSYiQXtcW7StkG8hFck'L`׉ 7cassandra://RTDHIFgCf90M6imFDq9n4rwXZVPWK2aRaZLU1xloNQ0͗`s׉ 7cassandra://wIMo9zEHZfkEMYi9CvMsVqEqZKsqYAomKt5USPHbkzA,`׉ 7cassandra://KOUWZ-3OCZtRvzaVPCkVzByQzAPyeviJjw0APvU5dpA d͠]`1Κ~<-ט(u׉׉ 7cassandra://wmb6Czuy2PRo9l1AVEXXSnRFXzwTEPrywwXRNHHSDnM`׉ 7cassandra://Be8mnb7k_-o3aCJzxTl4jAkp5FDWpXP3bBQp7oD3rEMz`s׉ 7cassandra://WqqPK3p9jAZ54fsRsi_IEzGppfaRRs4cdRRq4pWDlNk&8`׉ 7cassandra://tVztDEynJ2o4LdIa-RP9DtC6P-tl9XD7OcQ_HUzi2-QyL͠]`1Κ~<-נ`1Κ~<-~$9ׁH$mailto:ghosttownsofmontana@gmail.comׁ ׁ Ј׉EP a g e 2 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y the mine. The operation closed in 1895 but made a comeback in 1928. A new ore body prompted the West Lone Pine operations which would become a steady silver producer up until 1950. Other prominent mines included the Aurora, Burgierosa, Monte Cristo and the Quartz Hill. Total combined recorded production for the Quartz Hill/ Vipond Park Districts from 1902-1965 was 57,261 tons of ore divided up in gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc. To Get There: From Dewey, take MT-43 west to Quartz Hill Road and take a left. Follow the road up into the Quartz Hill District ending with Vipond at the top. Unionville, Montana Helena owes its existence to gold-bearing quartz lodes in the hills south of town. The gold washed Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz out of the hills into Last Chance Gulch where the "Four Georgians" discovered it in 1864. The fabulously rich strike drew hundreds of men and women to this area, including James Whitlatch, the discoverer of Helena's "mother lode". His Whitlatch-Union Mine spawned Unionville. The camp included stores, saloons, a Chinese laundry, boarding houses, and a school, as well as an extensive complex of stamp mills and warehouses. The largest producer of gold bullion in the United States by the early 1870s, the Unionville District was well on its way to prominence when several events reversed its fortunes. In 1897, the goldbearing lode in the Whitlatch-Union Mine disappeared under a fault. Efforts to relocate it failed and the company abandoned the mine. Other mines in the district survived for a time before they also closed down. By the early 20th century, fewer than 100 peoPhoto by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz ple remained in the area. Unionville's proximity to Helena has saved it from obscurity. Today, it thrives as a bedroom community with its mining heritage still everywhere evident. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz ׉ 7cassandra://wIMo9zEHZfkEMYi9CvMsVqEqZKsqYAomKt5USPHbkzA,``1Ι~<-׉EG h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y P a g e 3 Ingomar, Montana Founded in 1908, Ingomar became a hub of commerce when the Milwaukee Road Railroad completed its line across Montana. The community had no source of water and relied on the railroad to provide 22,000 gallon water tank cars each week for the town folk. From Ingomar, horses and wagons carried supplies to the settlers and brought produce back to the community. The railroad promoted the growth of the area by encouraging settlers to use the 1909 Enlarged Homestead Act to stake 320 acre claims. There were an average of 2,500 homestead filings per year in this area between 1911 and 1917. Ingomar claimed the title of “Sheep Shearing Capital of North America.” Shearing at Ingomar was advantageous because of its vital location on the route between the winter pasPhoto by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz tures and the free summer grass. From Ingomar, the wool was located directly onto the railroad cars without the risk of weather damage or delayed delivery to the buyers. Two million pounds of wool a year were shipped from Ingomar during the peak years of the 1910s. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Please be sure to share this newsletter with a friend! A devastating fire in 1923, drought and depression have taken their toll on the area but the original frame school building, Bookman’s Store and the Jersey Lilly Saloon are recognized by The National Register of Historic Places. Today Ingomar is one of Montana’s most remote communities. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Would you like to receive our digital quarterly magazine for free? Just send an email with MAGAZINE in the subject to ghosttownsofmontana@gmail.com ׉ 7cassandra://WqqPK3p9jAZ54fsRsi_IEzGppfaRRs4cdRRq4pWDlNk&8``1Ι~<-`1Ι~<-(בCט(u׉׉ 7cassandra://uMybRHuy6Hk1ht-kP6j5FgBz-4DUZyZukv3315F8SQYQ`׉ 7cassandra://zAkhRnnVgl-OalAuue5-bXYx1uAyBJQvjcGP0NV4rc8͙`s׉ 7cassandra://xB4tRmgexc63Dj3lZ78ClbeHCc0rBpgHKZOh8XsaS8A*`׉ 7cassandra://p_xyFVM98zcWGoCJdZhjsufq_pYpWQNy9ATggjiK_XE&͠]`1Κ~<-׉E =P a g e 4 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y GEORGE IVES JAIL While hunting for grouse, William Palmer, a Nevada City saloon keeper, came across a frozen corpse. Palmer had shot a grouse and was running to find where it had fallen and located it on top of Nicholas Tiebalt’s body. The man’s body had a gunshot wound above the left eye and marks around his throat from rope used to drag him away from the road behind some sagebrush. Tiebalt had clumps of sagebrush in his hands indicating he was alive when he was being dragged away. Palmer loaded the body onto his wagon and brought him to Nevada City. The citizens could not believe the brutality of this and a group of men rode back to where the body was found. They went to Long John Franck’s wikiup and interrogated him about the robbery and murder. Long John pleaded that he did not commit the crime but rather George Ives, who had been staying in the wikiup, was the culprit. The men found Ives and took him to Nevada City and he was put on trial on December 19, 1863. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Ives was convicted before Judge Don D. Byam by a 24-man jury in the outdoors makeshift courtroom of wagons in Nevada City. Ives pleaded with Prosecutor Col. Wilbur F. Sanders to put the execution off until the following day. Sanders felt the impact from the crowd after his plea but did not want to put it off a day with the chance of remission of the sentence. Luckily at that moment, X Beidler, who volunteered as a guard during the trial, shouted to Sanders from the Richard’s Cabin rooftop, “Ask him how long he gave the Dutchman!”1 This outburst gave Sanders time to remember how cruel Ives was in killing Tiebalt, so he only allowed Ives paper and pencil before he was brought to be hanged. Sanders also announced that Ives’ property would be seized to pay for the trial expenses and anything left over would go to his mother. Ives last words before the hanging were: “I am innocent of this crime. Aleck Carter killed the Dutchman.” He was then hanged on December 21, 1863, with hundreds of witnesses in Nevada City, Montana. George Homer Ives (1836-1863) was the first man to be tried by jury and hanged in Montana. Wilbur Sanders is owed a lot of credit for going forward with the trial and pushing to convict a criminal. This trial led to the start of the Vigilantes and the hanging of many more road agents. This building is where George Ives was held before he was hanged. It is assumed that although the building has been called a “jail” throughout history, Ives was likely its only prisoner. Archaeology was done around the building in 2011 and yielded that there were charcoal inclusions in the soils and samples of slag and clinker were collected. With these discoveries, it is believed that the building was used as a blacksmith shop with a forge still inside it today. 1 Sanders, Helen Fitzgerald, and William H. Bertsche, Jr., eds. X. Beidler: Vigilante. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz -Interpretive Sign on site, Courtesy of The Montana Heritage Commission and The Montana History Foundation. ׉ 7cassandra://xB4tRmgexc63Dj3lZ78ClbeHCc0rBpgHKZOh8XsaS8A*``1Ι~<-׈E`1Ι~<-`1Ι~<-(, Ghost Towns & History of MT- #21EJoin us for stories and photos on Ghost Towns and History of Montana!`1ΔŭJHy