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Cedar Creek Gold Rush

Marlene Affeld — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:00:36 +0000

Cedar Creek Mining District

The Cedar Creek Mining District is located in Mineral County, Montana on the east slope of the Bitterroot Mountains, southwest of what is now the town of Superior. The district encompasses Cedar, Quartz and Trout Creeks and their tributaries, which originate near the crest of the northwestward extension of the Bitterroot Range. The creeks flow northeastward to the Clark Fork River.

Mineral County is bound by Missoula and Sanders counties and shares a border with the State of Idaho. Mineral County encompasses 1,223 square miles. Its land is 82% National Forest and is managed by the US Forest Service. 3% of the land is owned by the State of Montana and 15% is privately owned. The county’s rich mining history lends its name.

Most of the county topography is quite rugged with elevations ranging from 2500 to 8000 feet above sea level. There are 87 miles of river, 650 miles of streams and over 50 high mountain lakes to compliment the innumerable alpine meadows, waterfalls and jaw dropping vistas.

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Beavers In Montana

Marlene Affeld — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:00:36 +0000

Have you ever seen a 100 pound wet rat? The first time I spotted a large male beaver on Cedar Creek, (Mineral County, Montana) that’s exactly what I thought it was. I looked again, perhaps the gangly creature waddling down the bank was a bear cub. My next thought was, where is Mama Bear?

Meeting the beaver was a unique and rather unsettling experience. Movies and cartoons have often portrayed beavers as industrious, cheeky and tenacious. Beavers are all of that, however; in the wild they are also just plain ugly.

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1910 Forest Fire – A Glimpse Within The Gates Of Hades

Marlene Affeld — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:00:05 +0000

The 1910 Fire was the largest forest fire in American history, perhaps in the history of the world. Now, almost one hundred years later, the blackened ghosts of giant cedars stand in silent witness to the devastation and death that rode the wild winds of August.

In just over 48 horrific hours, starting in the late afternoon of Saturday, August 20th, the raging inferno devoured more than 8 billion board feet of virgin timber on 3 million acres in western Montana and northern Idaho, caused the deaths of 78 firefighters and 8 civilians and decimated 13.5 million dollars of personal property. Other forest fires have been more deadly, but none moved as savagely or swiftly across such a vast timbered wilderness as did the massive fire of 1910.

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