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History - Chapter 6
First
Appropriation Made in 1903
 In 1903, M. K. Rodgers, who had
successfully opened up the Nickel Plate mine in the Kootenays, and was then
developing the copper deposits on Observation Inlet, later the Anoyx mines,
paid a visit to the district and after investigating the Mountain Boy claims
on American Creek, he endeavored to acquire them, but the large down payment
asked prevented a deal being made. Rodgers was impressed with the property and
the mineral possibilities of the country generally, and engaged J. Stark, a
colored prospector, to prospect and locate vacant ground in the neighborhood
of the Mountain Boy, and then to continue prospecting in other parts of the
territory. Stark was a good prospector and worked alone.
He set out to
systematically traverse the area with a view of finding out the trend of the
mineralization, and in his travels he covered a large amount of ground and
made many locations. His agreement with Rodgers was that all locations made
would have a certain amount of development work done on them, and although
considerable work was done on some of the claims, others received little
attention and Stark claimed that had more work been done, properties of merit
might have been opened up. He was probably right in this, as several claims
staked were afterwards relocated by others and developed with good results.
The only property still retained by the Rodgers interests is the Silver Bow on
Glacier Creek.
At that time the main obstacle to transportation was the Bear River, which
could only be crossed at dangerous fords. Stark strung a cable across the
river where the railway now stands and for several years it formed the only
means of crossing the river, until the first bridge was built in 1907. The
bridge occupied the site of the present one and was built without spans and
suffered several washouts before it was replaced by the present structure
about ten years ago.
With the exception of a trail to and up Bitter Creek, built by the former
owners of what is now the Roosevelt property, the district was without roads.
The trail was extended to the Mountain Boy in 1903 for which an appropriation
of $1,000 was made. This was the first expenditure for the district, and
materially assisted the opening up of a large area of mineral territory.
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