Louisville
The Montana Ghost Town Preservation Society
A view from 1939: LOUISVILLE,
(4,100 alt.), was a ghost town that was a roaring gold camp
in the 1870's.
In 1869 a French Canadian named Barrette, drawn by the lure
of gold, was traveling overland from California to St. Joe,
Idaho. Pickings were poor there, however, and he swung over
the Bitterroot Divide and struck the Mullan Road. In the fall
he reached the rocky defile of a creek and noted a basin that
appealed to him as a good place to prospect. He went to Frenchtown
for supplies, and returned to the basin with a partner, B.
Lanthier. They camped on a small tributary of Cedar Creek,
15 miles upstream from the confluence of the latter with the
Clark Fork. Barrette named the small stream Cayuse Creek. While
Lanthier cooked supper, Barrette panned $4 in gold.
The pair immediately staked claims. Short rations compelled
them to return to Lozeau's Ranch on the Clark Fork, where they
intended to spend the winter. Lanthier went into Frenchtown
to arrange for supplies, and the news of the discovery leaked
out. Although it was mid-January, a stampede broke for Cayuse
Creek. Within 2 days the frantic gold seekers staked more than
200 claims, and started panning the stream despite bitter cold
weather. Few heeded the practical need of supplies; even after
scurvy struck the camp, the next load of freight to come in
on pack mules was whiskey. Ten thousand people were drawn to
the camp in the first year, but the boom continued only until
1871. Interest then shifted upstream and a new camp, Forest
City, was made. By the winter of 1872 Forest City was deserted
in favor of Mayville, still farther up Cedar Creek. In two
years Mayville also played out; but this time, because of the
difficulty of moving equipment by pack train, the residents
simply walked away, leaving tools, stoves, billiard tables,
pianos, bar fixtures, and all the other things that they could
not conveniently carry. After they had deserted Cedar Creek,
Chinese miners drifted in to live in the crumbling shacks of
Louisville, content to glean what the white men had passed
by.
Source: Montana: A State Guide Book; Compiled and Written
by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration
for the State of Montana; September, 1939. |
