Wallace came into being on a river plain where four streams and five canyons converge onto the course of the South Fork. The earliest known white interest in the area was the construction of the Mullan Road, which followed the South Fork from near Cataldo almost to the pass that crossed into Montana. John Mullan did observe promising quartz outcroppings along their route when he passed through in late 1859. However, he later frankly stated that he downplayed the possibility of gold to his building crews because he "feared that any rich discovery would lead to a general stampede" to search for it.
A long hiatus followed until Andrew J. Prichard entered the country in search of gold. After several years of searching, he finally found pay-dirt on a stream about twelve miles north of the future Wallace in the spring of 1882. That set off a "general stampede" into the region, especially during the following year. Eagle City, Prichard, Murrayville (quickly shortened to Murray) and other mining camps sprang into existence and claims proliferated. It did not take long for knowledgeable miners to discover that the value of the placer gold in the region would be dwarfed by the riches in silver, buried in vast silver-lead lodes. Naturally, prospectors spread further and further afield.
14 окт 2024
