Remember When?

OVER 120 YEARS AGO

JOTTINGS ABOUT TOWN

Excerpt from the Belknap Sun, first newspaper in this area printed in the late 1880s

Saddle horses from here to the mines have been reduced to $10.

The Windsor House sets a fine table. Mr. Mott is an excellent caterer.

Ed Thompson will cut hay on his Hay Creek ranch next week. He expects to gather in about 60 tons.

J.J. Verckler has 60 acres of about as fine meadow land as lies out of doors on Mosquito Creek, a mile from Belknap.

Western papers have reports of bunko outrages at Belknap and Heron. As far as they relate to this town they are untrue.

New potatoes, turnips, radishes, lettuce, etc., raised in the valley near Belknap, have made their appearance in market, and are very fine.

Big strings of brook trout are being brought in daily from the small streams adjacent. The river is still too high for the sport, but in another month, it will afford profitable pastime.

The snow has entirely disappeared from the mountains around town, excepting a little patch on the peak to the north. As far south as Utah and Nevada it remains as late as the latter part of July.

A large silver tip bear paid the Verckler park on the west side a friendly call about ten days ago, but after looking around in bewilderment for some time retired to the solitude of the pineries. Mr. Verckler has since secured a magazine Winchester and will astonish the ursa major on his next visit.

C.W. Godfrey has purchased the interest of Robert McKee in the station known as McKee’s Camp, on the Belknap trail. Mr. Godfrey will during the coming week reduce the price of meals and lodging to 50 cents each and give his personal attention to affairs of the station and on the road. Mr. Godfrey reports the trail is in excellent shape.

Dr. J.H. Thurston, who recently brought thirty jacks (mules) from Colorado, to carry on a packing business between Belknap and the mines, sold the entire outfit at Curry the early part of the week. The venture was not a success. Some of the animals are too young and others too old for heavy and profitable packing, besides they exhibit a spirit of intractability that even a club will not beat out of them. They will do better in the mines packing provisions along the various gulches.

There are too many conflicting interests between the people of this town, who have invested their hard cash, and a few adventurers who have come to bleed or milk the country. We caution these men. There are ominous, meaning murmurs. The people have been fooled, robbed and spat upon. They will submit no longer. A quieter and more peaceful community never came together in the Northwest, but self-preservation is the first law. The editor of the Sun has counseled moderation personally. He will now allow public feeling to take its own course.’

PRICES CURRENT IN CURRY

The Pioneer of June 14 gives the following report of prices in Curry: Flour, per barrel, $14; brown sugar, 25 cents per lb.; white sugar, the same; potatoes, 10 cents per lb.; tobacco, $1 per lb.; tea, 75 cents per lb.; coffee, 35 cents; fresh meat, 20 cents per lb.; eggs, 50 cents per dozen; beans, 20 cents per lb.; rice, 25 cents per lb.; bacon, 22 cents per lb.; hams, 25 cents per lb.; butter, 50 cents per lb.; salt, 15 cents per lb.; oats, 10 cents per lb.; hay, 10 cents per lb.

Sent to Missoula

Jack Sparks, a saloon keeper, was arrested last Sunday for trying to put a bullet through a former partner, but he was so deeply steeped in liquor that his aim was unsteady. He was brought before Justice Dynan on Monday who held him to appear before the Grand Jury. His bond was fixed at $1,000, which he could not procure, and therefore went up the road to the county bastille.

These excerpts from The Belknap Sun were from its last issue. Adam Aulbach, the editor, had come to Belknap to go over to the Idaho gold fields. He arrived after too much snow had fallen and the trails to Idaho were closed. He unpacked his printing press and published 13 issues of The Belknap Sun. It made its next appearance as The Idaho Sun, published at Murray, Idaho. The following year he changed the name to the Coeur d’Alene Sun. The Sun ceased publication for good in 1912.

To my knowledge this is the only surviving issue of The Belknap Sun. If anyone knows of another issue that has survived these past 138 years, please contact the Sanders County Historical Society, P.O. Box 774, Thompson Falls, MT 59873