In the spring of 1863, the discovery of placer gold by Bill Fairweather and Henry Edgar in Alder Gulch began one of Montana’s greatest placer gold rushes in history. Between the years of 1863 and 1866, $30 million in gold bullion was mined from Alder Gulch, a lode that would eventually yield $100 million. By late spring of ’63, ten thousand miners crowded the surrounding hillside near the Tobacco Root Mountains. There were so many settlements that the area was touted as the “Fourteen Mile City.”
But along with the bustling population of 30,000 by late fall, nefarious characters moved in. And without any established law in Montana Territory, road agents, as they were called, went about robbing and pilfering and causing havoc until the citizens of Virginia City and Bannock formed the Montana Vigilantes—a highly secretive vigilance committee that systematically hunted down and hanged road agents based on the testimony of other men facing execution. My story is loosely based on John Beidler, Vigilante X, who participated in numerous hangings, though people sometimes did actually survive hangings. One of Jedediah’s guns, the Winchester, is on display at the Montana Homeland Gallery in Helena.
Frank Finney and his wife, Mary, were real historical characters and the last holdouts to keep buildings in Nevada City. He hauled wood from Granite and freighted merchandise. They kept horses and cows, which provided dairy goods, a commodity much in demand.
The Criterion Saloon, which I write about in my story, is a real structure and is still standing today. An interesting fact I found—the movies Lonesome Dove, The Missouri Breaks, and Thousand Pieces of Gold filmed scenes in the Criterion Saloon.
The Star Bakery, another original structure, was purchased in 1864 by Patrick McGovern, who lived in Nevada City with his family, but when the bakery closed in 1865, it became their home. I took the liberty to base his daughter, Hannah, as the character who owned the bakery. Wallace Street is still the main street of Nevada City.
My boardinghouse is purely fictional. I named the Creekside Inn after Shirley and Lloyd Reed’s Creekside B&B in Nebraska, which recently closed its doors.
Switchel was a real drink and a thirst quencher. Ladies would take this drink out to the field workers. It’s made of water, apple cider vinegar, molasses or honey, and ginger if available.
The ponderosa pine in the story has a lot of meaning for me. Montana’s state tree, where Jedediah and Patience had their picnic, is a beautiful, grand tree as noted by its massive size. Its strong, tall trunk has a nice fragrant vanilla scent from the bark. These pines can grow up to 165 feet, a process that can take 300 to 400 years. I wanted to mention the ponderosa since a grove of them was planted in my brother’s memory in Glacier National Park after his untimely death while a deputy superintendent there. It was my honor to go to Glacier Park with park ranger officials and with my brother’s widow and daughter to collect the tiny seeds needed from the pine cones for them to plant. I hope to go back soon and see how tall they’ve grown. The ponderosa pine plays an important role in Montana’s ecology and wildlife habitat, providing valuable grazing for wildlife and livestock, as the forests are usually open, park-like areas. Native Americans ate the pine seed, and the Cheyenne Indians used the pine pitch inside whistles and flutes to improve the instruments’ sound.
The meadowlark singing at the wedding is Montana’s state bird.