Chapter 2: The Gold at Barton Gulch

The Gold at Barton Gulch.

For the next few years I went to school during the day in the fall and spring, worked weekends at the Adult Store and spent my summers on the digs. As I gained excavation experience, I moved up in position, finally attaining the premier Pit Boss and Organizer position.

In the early 70's, a prospector, checking the tailing piles from a previous early dredge mining episode, discovered a seam of charcoal in the wall of the mining pit. A bit of poking and prodding with a prospectors tool dislodged a finely crafted projectile point. Further exploration presented the man with several similar points laid on the tops of boulders left from the previous mining. These were pocketed and forgotten until a chance meeting at the local watering hole. An amateur collector said, "I've never seen points like those, they're not in the books. You should show those to Professor Davis at the University." The result of that showing:

"Barton Gulch is located in Madison County, Montana on a tributary of the Ruby River southwest of Indian Creek in the Greenhorn range, [2] and is calculated to be as big as 827,640 square feet (76,890 m2), or 19 acres (77,000 m2). Dr. L.B. Davis excavated Barton Gulch from 1987 through 1993, and found 37 features that were each arranged into four distinct aggregations. Each of these aggregations contains a central oxidized pit that is 30-centimeters deep and surrounds each basin. A string of small features, representing a living floor site, form a circle around each oxidized basin." Wikipedia.

Due to the intense hydraulic mining in the Gulch, Dr. Davis mentioned to the crew that all we got was the dregs. Heavy examination of the tailings produced many points and similar artifacts ... a valuable resource lost to the greed of gold miners.

That was then and this is now. The attitude common in the west? If it's in the way of progress ... pitch it. Progress means money in my pocket and I'm not having a bunch of dead Indian leavings mess with my money. After discussions with the land owner an agreement was reached and we moved in like locusts after honey.

Well, what the hell? It seems the landowner had also reached an agreement with a local mining operation and they were in full swing re-mining the tailing piles. Eventually, tempers were cooled, lawyers were paid and we got to work ... as long as we stayed away from the miners.

The original dredge mining operation used a barge mounted steam shovel and a series of fairly heavy bars that the dredge shovel dumped dirt, rocks, boulders and gold on to be washed. The boulders were slid off the bars back in the water and the rocks, dirt and gold were sifted through meshes that progressed from two inch heavy screen all the way down to 1/2 inch. Gold was twelve dollars an ounce and the small stuff wasn't worth the added expense to recover. Black sand, gold dust, flakes and small nuggets under a half inch were allowed to fall back into the dredge pond. Common practice all over the west dictated the quick recovery of the big stuff. When the gold played out the miners moved on ... usually leaving the dredge behind. It's easier to build a new one on the next discovery than to waste money removing the old one.