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nun 01 it.A story of the Curry boys and their exploits involve Powell (Pike) Lan-dusky, James Winters, Abram GUI and Jew Jake. *Pike Landusky, notorious rancher and miner, came to the Little Rockies with Bob Orman in 1884 and was the first to discover gold there, which he mined until the spring of 1886, when he entered the employ of Granville Stuart and rode the range for the Pioneer Cattle Co. during the summerand that never-to-be-forgotten winter of 1886-87, which almost destroyed the cattle industry in Montana, but made C. M. Russell famous with his picture, “Waiting for a Chinook/’ or “The Last of Five Thousand.” In the spring of; 1887 Landusky returned to the Little Rockies and built a mining camp, named Landusky, after himself. This camp was located in a deep the mountains, then in Chouteau county, which then contained about 17 000 square miles with Fort Benton, 250 miles distant, the county seat. At that time mining towns had saloons and Landusky secured “Jew Jake, a notorious character, to run th# saloon in the camp. Jake had had an encounter with the sheriff at the depot in Great Falls where the latter had been shot in the leg and it had to be amputated so close to his body, he was unable to have an artificial limbRICHARD IEarly-Day Resident of Montana Who Ovlt;fitted on. He used a crutch to get...... ~Tn-about and it is related that a W Chester rifle formed his crutch most of the time. Mining activities brought many lawless men to the Little Rockies and Landusky became a rendezvous for a number of them. Pike was ap-pointed deputy sheriff for that district or area, which extended as far as Fort Benton. J—afterward Mrs. Jim Thornhill, (Thornhill was a pal of the Currys) to have this land and were angry because Winters had located on it.Johnny Curry had lost his right arm in a gunplay with a bad man. As soon as he was able to be out and to travel, he rode a cayuse to the Winters’ cabin. Finding Winters outside the door, he said, “You get out of here. We don’t want you here,” and commenced firing at Winters with a gun in his left hand. Winters reached inside his door, grabbed his rifle, fired at Johnny and killed him. Gill and Winters had been honorablemen of excellent standing in the east and John Burroughs, world renowned naturalist, came west and visited them. Nevertheless, though Winters shot Johnny Curry In self-defense, the affair created great bitterness with the Currys and their friends. • IPike Landusky did not like Kid Curry and when the latter did something Pike considered “contrary to law and order,” as sheriff he arrested the ”Kid,” treated him ruthlessly andhad him taken to Fort Benton and! lodged in Jail. When Curry was released, he was boiling 6ver with threats of revenge against Pike. He rode the 250 miles to Landusky as fast as his} horse could carry him. He went to the shack of Jim Thornhill and asked: —“Is Pike in town, Jimt””1 think he’s up at Jew Jake’s with the crowd, now, Kid. This is payday,sIVrcerrts
Newspaper Details
Thompson Falls Sanders County Independent Ledger
Thompson Falls, Montana, US
Wed, Feb 05, 1941
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 17 Jul 2020
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