Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 63 ree of the hostages were soon released. Among them was H. W. Child, general manager of the mine. Child would go on to become the founder and president of the Yellow- stone Park Company. Only Seligman's son was held for security. He telegraphed his father in New York that if the company did not pay the men he would not answer for the consequences or for the protection of the property or himself. e miners gave him the freedom of the camp on his promise not to attempt to escape. His father soon telegraphed the payment (through a Helena bank) and he was released. Time and success gave Child more and more credit in the resolution of the crisis. By the turn of the century he was credited with obtaining $250,000 in back pay for the workers and returned with it from Helena, foiling robbery attempts on the way. In a final bit of irony, Joseph Seligman ultimately had to sue his three business partners to be reimbursed for their share of the payment. Had the men been regularly paid in scrip, they might have ended up with nothing but scraps of paper to pad their socks. Many early records of the Gregory mine were lost in a fire, but it is estimated that the mine produced 1,381 ounces of gold, 66,655 ounces of silver, 38,470 pounds of copper, 862,370 pounds of lead, and 132,563 pounds of zinc. e best way to "see" Gregory today is through the archives at the Montana Historical Society. e abandoned mine site has been cleaned up, and trees have begun to hide the tailings. A drive southeast from Jefferson City near Helena passes by a photogenic kiln and then, as the road becomes rougher, arrives at the Wickes tunnel. After that point, the road varies between rough and ridiculous. NEIHART: A TOWN UNITED "Oro y Plata"—gold and silver—is the Montana State Motto, and while gold drew thousands of miners to the terri- tory, silver drew many others, especially when the placer mining days were waning and hard rock mining came into prominence. Roughly halfway between Great Falls and White Sulphur Springs on Highway 89 is Neihart. e mines surrounding it were so rich that for two years in the early 1880s, ore was shipped by wagon to Fort Benton and then sent to Swansea, Wales for processing. The Wickes mining tunnel is one mile long. Old Niehart Mine LYNDEL MEIKLE STEVE AKRE F.J. HAYNES, MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY The smelter looms over the mining camp of Gregory. CONTINUED

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