Trapper City
Shortly
after the discoveries in the Trapper District, a community quickly
sprang up around these new mines.
Trapper City, the earliest settlement of the Bryant Mining District
would derive it’s name from the group of men who were in the area
“trapping” as legend dictates. This group of men who found the Trapper
Lode and formed the Trapper Company would lend the name to the community
that was short lived. The community was situated on “Trapper Creek”.
“Burnt Pine”, another name for Trapper City, had a
post office which was established June 22, 1874 with Daniel Parker as
the first postmaster, James L. Hamilton would follow. John Cannovan,
owner of the Trapper City Hotel and Livery Stable would become
postmaster following Hamilton.
The Madisonian
Reported; Aug. 7, 1875;
"There are three stores in Trapper City, kept by L. S. Taylor, Tom Lowe
and the Bissinette Bros. They are all doing a good trade, and are well
filled with stocks of miners’ supplies and goods of every description.
Four saloons in the town give the boys "a chance" to quench their thirst
to an unlimited extent. They do it daily. A fight each day is nothing
unusual, and often two or three makes things lively. Taylor & Co., John
Fall, Harry Neely, and Moses Morrison, are the proprietors of the
saloons and they are conducted in the best of style.
Hotel accommodations
are furnished by the Trapper City Hotel kept by John Connovan, and the
LaMarche Hotel, run by A. LaMarche. Both are good houses, and the
traveler will be well fed and cared for who stops at either of them.
Hamilton operates a shoe shop where cobbling and the new work is turned
out to order - cheap for cash or approved jay-bone. Animals are killed
by Ledeaux & Hamilton, and the blocks of their meat-shop are filled with
the double-concentrated quintessence of Montana bunch-grass. In other
words, fat beef. Thos. Lowe presented Father Kelleher with a town lot
valued at $300, to build a church on and the building of a Catholic
Church, will meet with encouragement in the camp."
The mining camp
of Trapper City included a hotel, several saloons, a whore house,
general store, butcher shop, livery stable, and cabins which lined both
sides of Trapper Creek being bridged to form the main street of town.
Quite a" flutterment" went on in camp when the first cook stove made its
appearance. The stove was brought in on pack mules by Noah Armstrong and
John Longley. The town boasted a population of nearly 200 people. A
newspaper account dated April 7, 1875, mentions that town lots were
going from $50 to $400 and that snow was seven feet deep on the level
and that sleighing was good. Also mentioned was distance of six miles
from town down to the saw mill, and from that point to the river was ten
miles. As the attention shifted to Lion Mountain, the town of Trapper
City would quickly go silent and everyone would move closer to the
mines. Mose Morrison, being the last remaining citizen of Trapper City,
packed up and headed on to the new camp. Trapper City was dead, and all
that was left were empty cabins and
buried hopes, the year was 1878.
(Glendale Home)
