Archives West Finding Aid

James H. Morley's daily dairy accounts from 1862-1865 begin with his trip to Montana from St. Louis, Missouri, onboard a steamer up the Missouri River. It continues with his group's two week journey from Fort Benton to their camp and mining site on Gold Creek, between what is now Drummond and Deer Lodge, Montana, with supply loaded wagons. From that point his diary entries describe the day's shaft or sluice mining efforts, reports from group members who had traveled to other possible mining sites, and descriptions of his own travels around Hellgate Canyon and into Rock Creek, then on to Beaverhead, Flint Creek, Wisdom River, the Big Hole prairie, and back up to Deer Lodge Creek. By January 1863 Morley and his team had ranged as far east in Montana as the Gallatin and Three Forks areas. Also in January Morley noted the results of a trial of Plummer, probably the infamous Harry Plummer, one year before that man was hung by vigilantes without a trial. Morley briefly describes his own contact with justice as a juror in a trial of accused murderer Bill Mitchell.

Over the next two years Morley sometimes described the daily drudgery of mining work but also mining claim disputes, planning and charting a plat map for Centreville, wildlife and geological features, scouting for and staking new claims, difficulties of sending and receiving mail, and the mining towns of Bannack and Virginia City, Montana. His daily entries end with his return to St. Louis in August, 1865.