Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 



took to prospecting in various parts of the moun- 

 tains. On the south side of the Little Rocky Moun- 

 tains he struck some prospects believed to be very 

 good. A result of this find was that some years later 

 the United States Government sent out a commission 

 to purchase a portion of the Little Rocky Mountains 

 from the Belknap Indians Assiniboines of Siouan 

 stock, and Gros Ventres of the Prairie, of Algonquian 

 stock. Not far from the site of these prospects was 

 built the town of Landusky. It is said that of late 

 years the mines have been very productive. 



Pike Landusky was born in Pike County, Missouri, 

 in 1847. He came to Montana in 1866, perhaps as 

 a part of that migration formerly spoken of in jocular 

 fashion as "the left wing of Price's Army." For 

 several years after reaching the territory he mined 

 at Pioneer Gulch with varying success, but at length 

 moved to the Missouri River near Rocky Point and 

 became a "wood-hawk." 



The following notes on his career are furnished by 

 an old friend, Colonel Healy, of Montana: 



"In the autumn of 1877, Landusky and a man 

 known as 'Flopping Bill/ a more or less notorious 

 character, went down the river on a hunting and trap- 

 ping trip. Near the mouth of the Musselshell River 

 the soldiers arrested them for having in their pos- 

 session a Government mule. They were taken to 

 Miles City, tried and acquitted. After an absence of 

 twenty-seven days, they returned to their camp on 

 Squaw Creek and found the mule still alive. He had 

 been left there tied to a log. This log had been nearly 

 eaten up by the animal. 



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